ESPN sports hub / "Last of Us" hits 1B minutes / The Weeknd responds to RS / "Star Trek: Discovery" to end

Plus the weekend calendar, Pizzolatto Western series to Amazon, Netflix's Korean cult exposé, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network March 03, 2023

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According to CNBC, ESPN plans to rebrand itself as a unified hub for all live sports streaming. This could include linking directly to live sporting events on rival platforms and services. More: According to multiple inside sources, ESPN has already started conversations with major sports leagues and media partners about plans for the new, free ESPN app. The service would apparently highlight significant games and events on rival services including Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, along with regional sports networks and services like Bally Sports+ or the newly-announced MSG+. Disney apparently also hopes to take a cut of any subscription revenue from customers who sign up for a third-party service through ESPN.com or the ESPN app. The service could also theoretically feature information on games airing on linear broadcast TV. CNBC

"Wakanda Forever," "The Last of Us" According to Nielsen's latest charts, HBO's "The Last of Us" was viewed for 1.2 billion minutes between January 30 and February 5, good enough for fourth place overall. This marked the first week that the post-apocalytpic drama series broke the billion-minutes-viewed milestone. More: Nielsen also noted that, demographcially, the audience for "The Last of Us" strongly resembles AMC's similarly-themed zombie drama "The Walking Dead," skewing younger and more male. The Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" debuted at #1 on the US streaming chart, with 2.3 billion minutes viewed. "Wakanda Forever" is now the third most-streamed movie in a single week since Nielsen started taking these measurements in 2020; it's behind only "Hocus Pocus 2" and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." Rian Johnson's "Poker Face" continued to perform well on Peacock, coming in second among streaming originals for the week with 641 million minutes viewed across five episodes; the only original streaming series to score more viewers was Netflix's "Ginny & Georgia." DEADLINE

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WEEKEND CALENDAR FRIDAY, MARCH 3 DAISY JONES & THE SIX: 10-episode limited drama series, based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, following the rise and fall of a fictional Fleetwood Mac-esque rock band in the 1970s. Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, Camila Morrone, and Suki Waterhouse co-star. "The Fault in Our Stars" vets Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber created the series and wrote the adaptation; Reese Witherspoon executive produced. [Amazon] TRIANGLE OF SADNESS: 2022 satirical dark comedy feature from writer/director Ruben Östlund ("Force Majeure"), in his English-language debut. It follows the passengers and crew on an ill-fated luxury cruise aboard a super-yacht. Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, and Woody Harrelson co-star. The film is nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture. [Hulu] GULMOHAR: 2023 drama feature from India chronicling the Batra family's last few days in their long-time New Dehli home before they pack up and move away. Suraj Sharma, Amol Palekar, Manoj Bajpayee, and Sharmila Tagore co-star; Rahul Chittella co-wrote and directed. [Hulu] NEXT IN FASHION: The reality competition series features 12 designers facing off for an opportunity to showcase their looks for a global audience. It's back for a second season. Tan France and Gigi Hadid co-host. [Netflix] IN THE NAME OF GOD: A HOLY BETRAYAL: True-crime docuseries from Korea examining the stories of four leaders who claimed to be prophets and the inherent dangers of unquestioning belief. [Netflix] LOVE AT FIRST KISS (ERES TÚ): Romantic fantasy-comedy from Spain starring Álvaro Cervantes as Javier, who can see the entire future of a romantic relationship when he kisses a woman for the first time. Alauda Ruiz de Azúa ("Lullaby") directed. [Netflix] TAURUS: 2022 drama tracking the final days of a troubled, problematic musician who's on a destructive downward spiral. Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) stars and co-wrote the film along with director Tim Sutton ("The Last Son"); Maddie Hasson, Demetrius "Lil Meech" Flenory, Jr., Megan Fox, Ruby Rose, and Scoot McNairy co-star. [AMC+] SATURDAY, MARCH 4 CHRIS ROCK: SELECTIVE OUTRAGE: Comedian Chris Rock performs from Baltimore, Maryland, in this all-new special, Netflix's first-ever experiment with livestreaming. The show starts at 7 pm PT/10 pm ET on Saturday, after a 30-minute pre-show from LA's The Comedy Store. [Netflix] DIVORCE ATTORNEY SHIN: Debut legal drama series from Korea, based on the comics by Kang Tae-kyung. Cho Seung-woo stars as a former music professor who switches careers and becomes a divorce lawyer after receiving some shocking personal news. [Netflix] GRAND CREW: The NBC sitcom about a group of young Black professionals in Los Angeles who regularly meet up for gossip, laughs, and wine is back for a second season. Echo Kellum, Nicole Byer, Aaron Jennings, Justin Cunningham, Carl Tart, and Grasie Mercedes co-star. New episodes air Friday nights and hit Peacock on Saturdays. [Peacock]

"The Idol" R&B star the Weeknd responded to a Rolling Stone exposé about his upcoming HBO series "The Idol" with a snarky tweet, featuring a clip from the show. In the video, Weeknd's character Tedros advises his protégé, Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), not to appear in Rolling Stone, as she has already has a larger social media following than the magazine. More: According to Rolling Stone, "The Idol" has faced a number of creative and production challenges, including major reshoots and rewrites after the Weeknd complained that it had an overly "female perspective." The magazine reported that, once original director Amy Seimetz departed and co-creator Sam Levinson took over, the show went in a drastically different creative direction, becoming a "rape fantasy" and "torture porn" that many found offensive. The social media response from The Weeknd (whose real name is Abel Tesfaye) was widely criticized for apparently not taking the report more seriously. LA TIMES

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"Star Trek: Discovery" will wrap up its run on Paramount+ after its upcoming fifth season. The final episodes are now scheduled for release in early 2024. More: "Discovery" debuted in 2017 on what was then known as CBS All Access, and helped to usher in the current generation of "Star Trek" TV shows. Sonequa Martin-Green stars as Michael Burnham, the first Black female Starfleet captain to lead a "Trek" series. Another current "Trek" series, "Picard," wraps up its run as well this year after three seasons. Remaining "Trek" shows on Paramount+ include the "Discovery" spinoff "Starnge New Worlds," and the animated series "Lower Decks" and "Prodigy"; another potential spinoff, set at Starfleet Academy, has been teased by franchise mastermind Alex Kurtzman. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

According to Variety, "True Detective" creator Nic Pizzolatto is developing a Western drama series for Amazon Prime Video. The series apparently centers on a former outlaw who retired and started a family, but returns to action to face down a threat from his past. More: Pizzolatto remains an executive producer on "True Detective," but passed along writing and directing duties to Issa López for the upcoming fourth season, subtitled "Night Country." Pizzolatto had previously set up a series with Matthew McConaughey at FX called "Redeemer," but McConaughey exited the project in 2021, sending it into turnaround. VARIETY

Netflix and Korean public broadcaster MBC defeated a legal injunction that had attempted to block the release of the 8-part documentary "In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal." The series debuted on Friday, March 3, in Korea and around the world on Netflix. More: The series examines a variety of allegations against four Korean leaders who claim to be prophets. One of the series' subjects, Jeong Myeong-seok (also known as "Jesus Morning Star"), claimed the documentary undermines religious freedom, and has referred to it as a work of fiction. Jeong has served time in Korean prison on rape charges after attempting to flee the country to China; he also faces a number of newer allegations reported between 2018 and 2021. VARIETY

QUICK HITS Get Gusto, the #1 payroll software according to PCMag. Set up your free account and get 25% off for the first 6 months when you run payroll by May 31, 2023. Terms apply.* The hip-hop comedy series "Dave" -- based on the life of star and creator Dave "Lil' Dicky" Burd -- returns to FX for a third season on April 5; the show streams on Hulu in the US. Disney+ announced a new Miley Cyrus music special which will feature the singer performing songs from her latest album, "Endless Summer Vacation," in an outdoor setting; the special hits Disney+ on March 10, the same day the album will pop up on streaming services. "Star Wars" vet Daisy Ridley signed on for her first major TV role in Amazon's series adaptation of "The Better Liar," based on the novel by Tanen Jones; the book centers on a woman who hires a lookalike to pose as her late sister, hoping to secure a shared inheritance. According to new research from the nonprofit group Females in Motorsport, women only speak for six minutes and seven seconds out of the entire fifth season of Netflix's "Drive to Survive," which has a total runtime of over 6.5 hours; across the entire series to date, women have been featured speaking for less than one out of the show's 32 hours. AMC Networks acquired a new collection of anime programming from Japan's Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) for its HIDIVE streaming service. Hallmark Channel renewed the multigenerational family drama series "The Way Home" -- the network's first original series in nearly seven years -- for a second season; Andie MacDowell and Chyler Leigh co-star. Nickelodeon Studios greenlit "The Thundermans Return," a feature-length movie spun off from the superhero comedy series; the original show's cast is set to reprise their roles for the movie. Don’t waste weeks or months on the typical hiring process. Hire carefully vetted talent on demand with Toptal. Start your no-risk trial today.* *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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