‘Reacher’ Becomes First Amazon TV Series to Top Nielsen SVOD Rankings

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Bridgerton” Season 2 was viewed for 193 million hours over its debut weekend, per Netflix’s newly released Top 10 rankings for the week of March 21-27. That impressive three-day viewership is a record-breaker, as “Bridgerton” Season 2 is now the most-watched Netflix English-language TV title in its premiere weekend in the streamer’s history.Naturally, the second season of “Bridgerton” landed in the No.

Oscars history, becoming the first openly queer woman of colour to win one of the prestigious trophies.The actor took home the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at tonight’s (March 27) ceremony for playing Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.DeBose paid tribute to the Oscar-winning Rita Moreno, who also won for the same role in 1962, during her speech, crediting her with “paving the way for tons of Anitas like me”. The star continued to acknowledge her identity as both a queer woman and her Afro-Latina heritage.“Imagine this little girl in the back seat of a white Ford Focus.

SAG Award for Best Ensemble and the PGA Award for Best Picture, both signifiers of potential Oscar glory to come.Awards aside, “CODA” from writer-director Sian Heder, resonates as a loving depiction of a deaf family and their hearing daughter (“CODA” stands for “child of deaf adults”), Ruby (Emilia Jones), who must navigate between her family duties and her desire to strike out on her own. Unlike “La Famille Bélier,” the 2014 film on which it’s based, all of “CODA”s deaf characters are portrayed by deaf actors.

Billie Eilish has set a number of records in scoring a Best Original Song Oscar for “No Time to Die,” including being the first person born in the 21st century to win an Academy Award.At age 20, she’s not the youngest-ever songwriting winner, however. Czech-Icelandic singer-songwriter Markéta Irglová, who co-wrote “Falling Slowly” with Glen Hansard for the film “Once,” was four days away from turning 20 at the February 2008 ceremony.

There’s a new Best Supporting Actor in town. During Sunday’s 94th Academy Awards, Troy Kotsurtook home the statuette for his role as Frank Rossiin Coda.

Oscar, taking home Best Actor in a Supporting Role at tonight’s (March 27) ceremony.The annual Hollywood awards show is currently underway at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre, celebrating the best in cinema from the last 12 months.Kotsur played Frank Rossi in Sian Heder’s CODA, a comedy-drama about a young girl called Ruby, the only hearing person in a deaf family. He is now the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar, after his CODA co-star Marlee Matlin became the first deaf female actor to win one of the prestigious trophies back in 1987.After being presented the award by Minari star and 2021 Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung, Kotsur delivered his speech in sign language, with a translator sharing his words with the audience. “This is amazing to be here on this journey, I cannot believe I’m here,” he said.

interview with TheWrap in the wake of his nomination, Kotsur explained that despite being from Arizona and never setting foot on a fishing boat, as well as hardly being as profane as his character generally is, the personality that goes into Frank Rossi is all his own. “If someone else created the signs, it would be their personality, not mine,” he said.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterFor the second time in Oscars history, the Academy has recognized an actress for playing Anita in “West Side Story.”Ariana DeBose took home the best supporting actress Oscar for her version of Anita — the close confidant of Maria and girlfriend of Bernardo — in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical. It’s the same show-stopping role that won Rita Moreno an Academy Award for best supporting actress 60 years ago in 1962.On stage, DeBose paid tribute to her “West Side Story” predecessor Moreno — who was in the audience — for breaking ground for Latinos in Hollywood.“You’re staring at me right now and I’m so grateful.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix’s “A Madea Homecoming” and Disney’s “Free Guy” both made their debuts on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings with more than 1 billion minutes watched in the titles’ first few days of availability.Tyler Perry’s “A Madea Homecoming” was No. 4 on the list of overall streaming programs for the week of Feb. 21-27, with 1.04 billion minutes viewed in the two days following its Feb.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTop stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco surprised fans at his shows in the New York area by giving away free commemorative NFTs to all ticketholders — the first comedian to launch such an offering using the next-gen digital collectible technology.The observational comedian’s complimentary NFTs (nonfungible tokens), designed by his wife, Lana Gomez, are uniquely designed for each show. The gold-shaded NFTs, minted by Ticketmaster, feature each ticketholder’s individual section, row and seat.

Naman Ramachandran Sophie Turner Laing, former CEO of Endemol Shine and MD of Sky, has been appointed chair of the U.K. National Film and Television School’s (NFTS) board of governors. She will become the NFTS’ first female chair when she succeeds Ingenious founder Patrick McKenna, who will step down at the end of his term in August.During McKenna’s tenure, which began in 2013, the NFTS became the film school to win a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education and the first educational institution to be awarded a BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.Turner Laing was in charge of Endemol Shine from 2014-2020, overseeing a network of more than 120 creative production companies in 28 markets.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDocuseries “Bad Vegan” debuted on Netflix’s Top 10 list of English-language TV series at No. 5, with 27 million hours of the show viewed in the first five days after its March 16 launch. On the film side, “The Adam Project” maintained its hold as the No.

2018’s “A Very English Scandal,” based on the 2016 book of the same name by John Preston, ended up a critical darling for BBC with lots of overseas appeal. Now, Blueprint Pictures is back for a new iteration of the miniseries, “A Very British Scandal,” with an all-new serial ripped straight from the British tabloids.

K.J. Yossman The Production Guild of Great Britain (PGGB) has found its first ever royal patron in Prince Edward, also known as the Earl of Wessex.To mark the appointment, Prince Edward met with some of the production crew at Twickenham Film Studios in West London, where films including “The Italian Job” and “Blade Runner” have been shot.Among those Prince Edward met were Oscar-winning sound editor Tim Cavagin (“Bohemian Rhapsody”).Prince Edward has always taken an interest in the arts and before becoming a full-time working royal in 2002 worked in both theater and television, even running his own television production company, Ardent Productions, which made films including “Edward on Edward.” The PGGB represents professionals in film and television drama production including accounting, locations, assistant directing, post-production and VFX.

EXCLUSIVE: Call My Agent! and Marianne writer Quoc Dang Tran has struck a first-look deal with Universal International Studios, becoming the first French writer to sign such a deal with a major studio.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterChristina Ricci, the actress who played Wednesday in the iconic ’90s franchise “The Addams Family,” is returning to the universe by joining Netflix’s “Wednesday” series in a mystery role, Variety has learned.The live-action series from Tim Burton stars “You” and “Jane the Virgin” alum Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. “Yellowjackets” star Ricci will not be playing an older version of the character for “Wednesday,” but further details about her character are being kept under wraps.The eight-episode series is described as a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix’s “Inventing Anna” jumped to No. 1 on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings in its second week after launching on Netflix, almost tripling its audience to 3.3 billion minutes watched during the week of Feb.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAmazon has closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM first announced last May, the companies said Thursday.Per Amazon, “The storied, nearly century-old studio—with more than 4,000 film titles, 17,000 TV episodes, 180 Academy Awards, and 100 Emmy Awards—will complement Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ work in delivering a diverse offering of entertainment choices to customers.”The completion of the transaction comes two days after the Amazon-MGM deal received clearance from the European Union’s antitrust regulator, which “unconditionally” approved Amazon’s proposed acquisition of MGM, in part because “MGM’s content cannot be considered as must-have.” The European Commission, in its antitrust review, found that the overlaps between the Amazon and MGM businesses are “limited.” At that time, the deal was still pending approval by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which had been given a mid-March deadline by Amazon to issue a decision on approval of the transaction, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“The Adam Project” and “Pieces of Her” topped Netflix’s lists of English-language film and TV series for the week of March 7, when the fifth and final season of “The Last Kingdom” was viewed for 63.5 million hours in its first five days after launch.Debuting March 11, the Ryan Reynolds-led flick drew 92.43 million hours viewed in just its first two days on the platform. Meanwhile, “Pieces of Her,” which premiered Season 1 March 4, was the No.

The biggest draw of the massive 11-night Netflix Is a Joke festival which begins next month in Los Angeles is not Kevin Hart, not Dave Chappelle and not Pete Davidson, but Southern California’s own Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, at least in terms of seats filled in one night.