Apple TV+ viewership record / CNN June ratings / "Reservation Dogs" ending / Netflix casts Menendez Bros.

Plus the weekend calendar, Amazon's "The Bondsman," "Sweet Magnolias" returns, RIP Alan Arkin, and more

Inside Streaming For June 30, 2023

It's Friday!!! Sad to report the news about FX's "Reservation Dogs" -- one of my favorite TV shows of the moment -- wrapping up, but glad the creators are getting to go out on their own timeline. I can't say enough positive things about this series, which is poignant, and very funny, and so sharply written; one of the most honest and realistic portrayals of adolescence that I can recall on TV. Also... am I crazy... or does this new Kevin Bacon Amazon show sound a lot like the premise of Ghost Rider? And Constantine? And Spawn? And like 500 other shows. A bounty hunter who's tasked by Hell to use his skills at rounding up demons? Alright, Blumhouse, whatever you say. Enjoy today's issue and have a great weekend! Lon p/lon-harris

1 The Season 3 finale of "Ted Lasso" helped to set a new Apple TV+ viewership record. According to figures from Nielsen, subscribers watched around 1.24 billion minutes of Apple TV+ -- including the "Lasso" finale -- during the week of May 29 through June 4, the first time the TV+ platform has ever topped the 1 billion minutes viewed milestone. More: "Ted Lasso" accounted for around 529 million of those minutes of viewership, 42.5% of the total. That's the highest weekly total for a single episode of "Ted Lasso"; the Season 2 finale is still the most-viewed episode of all time, overall, at 960 million minutes. "Ted Lasso" was the third most-viewed streaming series overall for the week, behind only "FUBAR" on Netflix and "S.W.A.T.," which streams on Netflix, Hulu, and Paramount+. It's currently unknown whether or not "Ted Lasso" will return for a fourth season.

2 CNN on Max: This week, we got word that Warner Bros. Discovery is looking for ways to integrate CNN into its Max streaming service. Of course, this comes a bit more than a year after the failed launch of the cable news network's self-branded, bespoke streamer -- CNN+ -- under previous CNN chief Jeff Zucker, which was scrapped within weeks following the Discovery takeover of WarnerMedia. The new plan will apparently involve working out new non-exclusive deals with pay-TV companies, and moving CNN live broadcasts directly over to streaming. More Recent Struggles: CNN has struggled throughout 2023, both behind-the-scenes with the arrival and ouster of divisive new CEO Chris Licht, and in terms of Nielsen's ratings data. In June, CNN's ratings actually ticked up, in part just because it was a busy month filled with big news stories, from the indictment of former President Trump to the short-lived Russian rebellion to the loss of the Titan submersible en route to the wreckage of the Titanic. CNN averaged 635,000 total primetime viewers and 493,000 total day viewers in June, making it the 4th most-watched cable network, up one spot from May. Fox News Still Champ: While MSNBC is nipping at its heels these days, Fox News remains America's most popular cable network for current and breaking news events. In fact, MSNBC got closer to catching Fox in June than it has at any point over the last two years, falling just a few thousand viewers short in the key 24-54 demo during primetime. Though Fox remains the champion, it's ratings are nonetheless also majorly down from last year. Fox News saw a 21% dip in total day viewers and a 31% loss of primetime viewers vs. June 2022.

3 WEEKEND CALENDAR FRIDAY, JUNE 30 TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN: The spy thriller series -- based on author Tom Clancy's iconic CIA analyst character -- returns to Prime Video this weekend for a fourth and final season. Ryan (John Krasinski) is now Acting Deputy Director, tasked with investigating corruption within the agency. Wendell Pierce, Michael Kelly, and Betty Gabriel co-star; Michael Peña joins the cast this season as popular Clancy character Domingo "Ding" Chavez. [Amazon] THE BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen reunite for this 2023 comedy sequel, which finds the four lifelong friends taking their book club on the road to Italy. Bill Holderman returns as director. [Peacock] NIMONA: Animated sci-fi fantasy comedy film from "Ice Age" and "Spies in Disguise" vets Blue Sky Studios, based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson. Chloë Grace Moretz stars as a shapeshifting teen who joins forces with the knight (Riz Ahmed) who was sent to assassinate her, after he's accused of regicide. Eugene Lee Yang, Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussaint, Beck Bennett, and RuPaul co-star. [Netflix] IS IT CAKE, TOO?! The reality competition series returns for a second season, challenging a new line-up of expert bakers to prepare hyper-realistic cakes that resemble all manner of unlikely real-world objects, from baseball gloves to toilets to the Mona Lisa. Mikey Day hosts. [Netflix] ALONE: The History Channel reality competition series challenges 10 survivalists to outlast one another after being dropped in harsh, remote locations with just a few basic tools and supplies for a shot at a $500,000 grand prize. Season 9 aired in 2022 on cable and hits Netflix today. [Netflix] CELEBRITY: Debut drama series from Korea, starring Park Gyu-young as an everyday woman who achieves social media stardom overnight, and finds herself thrust into the glamorous world of celebrity influencers. [Netflix] TAYO THE LITTLE BUS: Animated series for young kids -- co-produced by the government of Seoul, Korea -- following the daily adventures of four city buses. (The show is dubbed into English for US audiences.) Season 5 hits Netflix in the US today. [Netflix] HAMILTON SING-ALONG: A sing-along version of the hit Broadway musical, which features the lyrics on-screen throughout the production. This week marks the third anniversary of "Hamilton's" debut on Disney+. [Disney+] ESSENCE FEST: Hulu's primetime coverage of the ESSENCE Festival of Culture kicks off today from New Orleans, Louisiana at 7 pm CT and continues throughout the weekend. The streams will feature performances from headliners Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, and Megan Thee Stallion along with highlights from daytime installations and Hulu-exclusive content. Rocsi, Ed Lover, Big Tigger, and Pretty Vee co-host. [Hulu] GENERATION GAP: The ABC comedy game show returned on Thursday night for a second season; new episodes hit Hulu on Fridays. On the show, young contestants work alongside significantly older family members to answer questions about pop culture, past and present. Kelly Ripa hosts. [Hulu] PRESS YOUR LUCK: ABC's new revival of the classic game show -- in which contestants answer trivia questions and advance around a game board while avoiding "Whammys" -- is back this week for its fifth season. Elizabeth Banks hosts. [Hulu] LINOLEUM: Indie sci-fi comedy-drama feature starring Jim Gaffigan as the host of an educational children's show who decides to build a homemade rocket in his backyard, leading his a string of surreal setbacks in his personal life. Rhea Seehorn, Katelyn Nacon, and Tony Shalhoub co-star; Colin West ("Double Walker") wrote and directed. [Hulu] BURIAL: 2022 war film from writer/director Ben Parker ("The Chamber") about a group of Russian soldiers at the close of WWII who are tasked with carrying Hitler's remains to Moscow. Charlotte Vega, Tom Felton, and Harriet Walter co-star. [Hulu] THE NIGHT MANAGER INDIA: The Indian adaptation of John le Carré's classic spy novel returns for "Part 2" this week to the Hotstar platform internationally, and Hulu in the US. Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur co-star. BBC and Prime Video are currently developing a new season for the UK version of the series as well. [Hulu] CHILDREN OF THE CORN: The third film adaptation of Stephen King's classic short story was originally produced in 2020, and picked up by Shudder in 2023. It centers on a psychopathic 12-year-old girl who recruits other local children to join her for a bloody killing spree, targeting their rural Nebraska town's corrupt adults. Elena Kampouris, Kate Moyer, Callan Mulvey, and Bruce Spence co-star; Kurt Wimmer ("Equilibrium") wrote and directed. [Shudder] BEACHFRONT BARGAIN HUNT: RENOVATION: The Magnolia Network reality series follows families as they search for a fixer-upper beach home and then transform it into the vacation getaway of their dreams. John Beach hosts. Season 7 aired earlier this year on cable and hits Max today. [Max] SATURDAY, JULY 1 HIGH HEAT: 2022 direct-to-VOD action film starring Don Johnson as a dedicated husband who's in debt to the Mafia, and Olga Kurylenko as his former KGB agent wife who fends off the goons coming to their restaurant looking to collect. Kaitlin Doubleday, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Dallas Page co-star. [Hulu] RIDE ON TIME: The Japanese reality series goes behind-the-scenes with one of the country's most popular boy bands, Johnny's. Season 5 debuts this weekend on Netflix in the US. [Netflix] SUNDAY, JULY 2 SHARKFEST: It's time for the annual "SharkFest" event on National Geographic, so a full line-up of shark-themed nature series and specials are headed to both Hulu and Disney+ starting on Sunday. The 2023 slate includes "Bull Shark Bandits," "Shark Eat Shark," "Saved from a Shark," "When Sharks Attack 360," "Return of the White Shark," "Bull Shark vs. Hammerhead," "Shark Below Zero" and many more shows and films. [Hulu and Disney+] TOUGH AS NAILS: The CBS reality competition series finds competitors with difficult, labor-intensive jobs facing off in a series of strenuous challenges at real-world job sites. Phil Keoghan hosts. It's back this weekend for a fifth season. [Paramount+] LOVE IS BLIND: BRAZIL: The cast of "Love is Blind: Brazil" Season 3 returns on Sunday for this reunion special. Camila Queiroz and Klebber Toledo return as hosts. As of this point, all five Season 3 couples are still together. [Netflix]

4 FX and Hulu's "Reservation Dogs" will come to an end after its upcoming third season. The choice to wrap up the story was made by co-creator Sterlin Harjo, who called it the "correct decision creatively for the show." More: The acclaimed series -- from Harjo and co-creator Taika Waititi -- centers on a group of teenagers living on a Native reservation in Oklahoma. All the show's lead actors, writers, and directors are Indigenous. The series has earned an AFI Award and a Peabody Award, but not yet any Emmys. The third and final season of "Reservation Dogs" arrives on August 2.

5 Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez will co-star in Season 2 of Netflix's "Monster" anthology as convicted killers Erik and Lyle Menendez. The scripted true-crime series from creator Ryan Murphy debuted last year with a season about Jeffrey Dahmer, that ranks among Netflix's most popular English-language originals. More: The Menendez brothers were convicted in 1996 for the murder of their parents, José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menendez. The pair confessed to the killings, but claimed they were a response to years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Questions about the crime remain ongoing to this day; a former member of the boy band Menudo, Roy Rosselló, now claims to have been molested by José Menendez when he was just 14. Netflix is also developing a documentary about the case.

6 Kevin Bacon signed on to star in the action drama series "The Bondsman" for Amazon Prime Video. Blumhouse TV will produce the series, which was created by filmmaker Grainger David. More: "Carnival Row" vet Erik Oleson will serve as showrunner for the half-hour, eight-episode series. Bacon stars as a dead bounty hunter who's given a second shot at life -- and at a potential music career -- but with a demonic catch involved. Production will begin on the show once Hollywood's labor negotiations are resolved. Blumhouse's next Amazon series -- "The Horror of Dolores Roach" -- debuts on July 7.

7 QUICK HITS Protect your code with help from Docker. Read our white paper to learn how to stay ahead of security threats and build a resilient tech stack.* Iconic character actor Alan Arkin died in his home in San Marcos, California, on Thursday at age 89. Netflix released a trailer for the third season of the drama series "Sweet Magnolias," arriving on July 20. The sci-fi drama "Invasion" -- which views an alien invasion of Earth from a variety of perspectives -- returns to Apple TV+ for a second season on October 25. Showtime canceled plans for a number of previously-greenlit original series, including a drama based on the '90s sci-fi drama "Gattaca" and an autobiographical comedy from husband-and-wife duo Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody. Hulu acquired the US rights to "Self Reliance," the feature directorial debut of actor Jake Johnson, who also stars alongside Anna Kendrick, Natalie Morales, and Andy Samberg; the film hits Hulu on September 8. A number of actors joined the cast of Tyler Perry's Amazon feature "Divorce in the Black," including Meagan Good, Cory Hardrict, and Joseph Lee Anderson; the film will be the second Perry original for Prime Video, after "Black, White & Blue." "Sly," Netflix's documentary profile of actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone -- featuring his own insights on his life and career -- debuts this November. "The Idol" co-star Da'Vine Joy Randolph addressed criticisms of the series with Variety, saying that HBO retooled the series prior to its debut because "Abel [Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd] had a vision for it and wanted to see it through," adding "this happens all the time." HBO's "Succession" and FX/Hulu's "The Bear" are the most-nominated series at this year's TV Critics Association awards; HBO and Max were the most nominated network and streamer, with 20 nods. The free FilmRise streaming channel added 480 TV episodes from BBC Studios, including "Wallander," "Silent Witness," "Ripper Street," and "Primeval"; FilmRise is available via Roku, Samsung TV Plus, Fire TV, and other platforms. It's never been easier for your sales organization to accelerate growth. Learn how AI, and more, can help you sell in a whole new way.* *This is sponsored content

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Knowledge Hub Term of the Day Cross-selling: Cross-selling refers to recommending similar or supplementary products to the ones a customer just purchased, or is about to purchase. Read More Question of the Week How do you feel about the phrase "The customer is always right"? Join the conversation

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Lon Harris Writer 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." This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia

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