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Chuck Lorre explains why he had an ‘initial reluctance’ to hire Anna Faris for ‘Mom’

‘Mom’ showrunner Chuck Lorre explained in his new memoir, ‘Sitcom,’ why he was apprehensive to hire Anna Faris as the show’s lead.

Oct 13 • 10:32 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Blade Runner 2099 Is About a Future Where Replicants Hunt Humans

The new series wants to be the “dawn of a new era” for the landmark sci-fi saga.

Oct 12 • 11:46 AM EDT • Entertainment • esquire.com

Healthy Kids Running Series returns to Tyler for fall event

Youth runners are on the move again as Healthy Kids Running Series hosts its fall event at Noble E. Young Park in Tyler.

Oct 11 • 6:52 PM EDT • Health • kltv.com

'Blade Runner 2099' trailer: Amazon unveils its latest Prime TV vehicle at NYCC

The hype couldn't be any higher.

Oct 11 • 10:43 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

The economic impact of the Chicago Marathon

Runners aren’t the only ones going the distance on Sunday. For local businesses, the marathon crowds offer a chance to put their best foot forward.

Oct 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • chicagotribune.com

Hartford businesses prepare for marathon, Wolf Pack weekend

Thousands of runners and hockey fans are expected in Hartford this weekend for the Eversource Hartford Marathon and the Wolf Pack’s first home game of the season.

Oct 9 • 11:12 PM EDT • Business • wfsb.com

“Newlyweds” showrunner fired before series premiere, calls series ‘the most joyous TV experience of my life’

Gail Lerner co-created the NBC sitcom, which stars Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, with Jamie Lee Curtis.

Oct 9 • 6:27 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

‘Newlyweds’ showrunner fired before series premiere, calls series ‘the most joyous TV experience of my life’

The co-creator of the new comedy ‘Newlyweds,’ which stars Téa Leoni, Tim Daly, and Jamie Lee Curtis, says she’s been fired ahead of its premiere.

Oct 9 • 6:27 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Caitlin Clark finishes behind surprising rookie in WNBA MVP voting

Thje Fever guard was not the runner-up in WNBA MVP voting.

Oct 9 • 7:15 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

South Korean 'robot dog' became first to run a marathon on a single battery charge

A quadruped robot scampered more than 26.2 miles of uneven, hilly terrain alongside human runners without needing to be recharged.

Oct 9 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com

“Boston Blue ”showrunners reveal what it would take to get Tom Selleck on “Blue Bloods” spinoff

“It’s a long, never-ending conversation,” co-showrunner Brandon Margolis said.

Oct 8 • 4:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Clásico Referee Decision Still Pending After Conflicting Reports

Hernández Hernández was reported to be the frontrunner to referee Barcelona and Real Madrid at Camp Nou on October 25, but the appointment had not been officially confirmed. Radio MARCA’s report, ...

Oct 8 • 4:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Who Won August and September: Original Films or Franchises?

(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) I just heard someone say that if you’re reading a pundit or data analyst, and they don’t tell you that they got anything wrong, they’re not a pundit but an “influencer”. I agree with that. You have to tell your audience when you get things wrong, or they won’t (or shouldn’t) trust you as much. Today, we’ve got another edition of “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong”. In general, I’m patting myself on the back (and patting very hard) about a few things like IP at the box office, LIV golf, horror films, crowdfunding movies, superheroes, and old people going to the theaters. That said, I also made a couple of data mistakes on the streaming bubble popping and HBO’s datecdotes, so I’m not perfect. But first, I need your feedback... Subscribe Follow-Ups: What Should We Call Mid-Budget Movies Which Aren’t Cinematic Enough for Theaters But Are Too Expensive to Make Money on Streaming? After I asked for feedback on what we should call straight-to-streaming films that are too big to pencil out on streaming but not really big enough to resonate in theaters, I got some great suggestions from you all, including... “Moldilocks” from John Aboud “Little Big Indie” from Travis Frick1 “Midflicks” from Jonathan Funke. “Extra-Medium” from Jona Nwuke. (Read the explanation in the footnote.) Between these and Brandon Katz—who suggested “Bermuda Budget Triangle”, “The Platform Gap” and “The Distribution Deadzone”—we’ve got some excellent suggestions. And they’re better than my suggestion, the “Streaming Budget Dead Zone”, so let’s take a poll! The winning entry becomes the new term. Loading... RIGHT: LIV Golf is Fully Bankrupt…Is Anyone Else Next? A few years ago, I was always a bit perplexed at all the articles I’d read praising LIV Golf and their strategy to disrupt the PGA. LIV Golf, a brand new professional golf league, offered PGA stars ten times what they made on the PGA Tour to join their new league. And folks praised this strategy for its initial “success” in that a lot of big names did indeed leave the PGA. Yeah, of course the players came over. LIV Golf paid them so, so, so much more! But LIV Golf hadn’t discovered a way to increase potential revenue. So think about this in basic business terms… They paid much more in costs… …but had no real way to increase revenue. That’s not a strategy! That’s deficit financing. It won’t work unless you bankrupt the competition (and then turn around and pay those same golfers much, much less). It’s not a sustainable strategy and only lasts as long as the company/person/nation backing it decides they’re cool with losing money. For LIV Golf, that meant Middle East oil wealth, in particular Saudi Arabian money. Clearly, the current Iran War has hurt Middle East finances, so they need to trim their more exorbitant spending. And LIV Golf was part of that trimming. This should be a major warning for others. TGL’s parent company, TMRW Sports, just got a $1 billion valuation, despite TGL’s (the indoor golf league) horrible TV viewership of less than half a million viewers per match. Unrivaled, the women’s basketball league, just secured a $650 valuation, despite its horrible TV viewership and a new rival (Project B) entering the scene next year. To relate this to streaming, Hollywood should ask which streamers may have wealthy patrons funding their losses. (Let’s be clear: Google, Amazon and Apple.) Could those patrons lose their appetite? For Amazon, probably not. But Apple has a new boss, so maybe! WRONG: My Analysis of the Streaming Bubble Was Missing a Week I’m going to be congratulating myself a lot today, but I make mistakes too, like this data goof. When I last compiled the data on the decline in TV shows, I was missing one week at the end of June. If you look at the first image, you can see that one week was mislabelled as “July”. Mainly, this image got updated to show a 27% decline, not 29%: This change doesn’t really impact the overall analysis, but it is two percent better. By the way, through the third quarter, the decline increased and it’s now a 30% decrease since 2022. (I’ll write/visualize this in an upcoming article.) But I want you to trust me and my data. Especially these days, when many people are using LLMs that I know are inserting faulty data into their charts, I want to keep earning my audience’s faith. So that’s the accurate data. RIGHT: IP Remains Very, Very Popular In July, I wrote a giant (and I mean giant) article on Backrooms, Obsession, and the box office, going over what we know, what we don’t know about what works in theaters, looking at YouTubers, IP, the horror genre, comic book movies, and a whole lot more. The month of August really tested a lot of my theses and, being honest, mostly supported my arguments. Let’s start with IP. Looking at 8-Aug (the weekend after Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out) to 18-Sep (the weekend that Resident Evil came out, which I think provides a nice bookend to this time period), there were seven films based on pre-existing IP: Resident Evil (2026) ($126 million) Practical Magic 2 ($65 million) _Insidious: Out of the Furthe_r ($65 million) Coyote Vs. Acme ($59 million) Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie ($53 million) Tony ($15 million) Super Troopers 3 ($7 million) Compare those to the notable original films from the past month—I actually could have included more movies, but here are just thirteen, bringing us to an even twenty films—including.... The End of Oak Street ($54 million) Buddy ($26 million) Mutiny ($15 million) By Any Means ($15 million) The Dog Stars ($14 million) Runner ($14 million) One Night Only ($11 million) Hope ($8 million) Spa Weekend ($7 million) The Uprising ($6 million) Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma ($6 million) Onslaught ($3 million) Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man ($2.8 million) Here’s that in chart form: Five of the top six films in this time period were all based on IP. I made a big chart of films that grossed over $200 million at the box office before Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey hit theaters. Let’s update that chart! By the way, if you want to see how I categorized each film—so another bar chart—here it is: I know that many of my fellow critics/pundits/analysts dislike films based on IP and how Hollywood is making so many of them. And I’m sympathetic to this point of view. As I’ve written many, many times before, you need a balance between existing franchises, new IP, and original films. And Hollywood clearly needs to make more films like Resident Evil (a well-made film from a visionary director) and fewer Practical Magic 2’s (which didn’t get critical or customer buzz). But at some point, critics and pundits need to contend with what audiences are telling them: Movie-goers aren’t showing up to original films. Audiences are speaking with their dollars, telling you they want more IP and franchises. You can try to convince studio heads to make fewer IP-based films and franchises, but the data and numbers aren’t there. Instead, critics need to work harder to convince audiences to show up for original films. Aim your ire/concern at the average person, not studio heads.2 Because they’re just making the films that audiences are telling them to make. WRONG: Original Horror Films Didn’t Break Out I’ll be honest, even though I wrote an article casting some skepticism on the horror genre in July, if you asked me to make a prediction, I would have predicted that, in August, a new, original horror film would have blown up. No, seriously, I just assumed that Obsession and Backrooms presaged a change in audience behavior. But none of the buzzy new original horror films from August—Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Onslaught (not an action film in spite of the ads), The End of Oak Street, Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man, or _Buddy—_broke out. To be clear, exactly one of those films (Buddy) had good “ROI”, but again—I try to be specific in my language—none were “popular” in any broad sense of the word. None of them will be “saving” movies theaters like Backrooms or _Obsession_helped save the summer. The new Insidious film and Resident Evil, both based on IP, were far and away the biggest horror films since July. (We’ll see if this changes in October/Halloween season.) RIGHT: Stay Skeptical about Crowdfunding... I’ve long been skeptical about crowd-investing platforms as one of Hollywood’s saviors, mainly because there’s so much hype/buzz. People need to stay more skeptical about more things, explaining both the potential upside but also the downsides. In particular, the media often hypes crowdfunding at the start and never checks in on the actual results after they’ve come in later. And August gave us our first update! _Ice Cream Man—_directed by Eli Roth—grossed $6 million off of a $5.5 million budget. This is a production of The Horror Section, which was one of the first “crowd investing” studios with 2,400 investors, which means that 2,400 investors probably lost money. They certainly aren’t getting as great of returns as if they had just invested their dollars in the stock market. Hopefully Stiletto (Tagline: “Someone’s Going to Make it Rain Blood!”) does better next month. WRONG: Another Data Goof Here’s another data error. When the first episode of House of the Dragon came out, HBO put out that it had 21.5 million viewers in the first three days, and I read that to mean in the US…but no, it was global. So my US-only datecdotes charts shouldn’t have included it. We never got US-only numbers for the first episode, but for the final episode, HBO put out that it had 11 million US viewers. (And that global dropped to 21 million viewers.) Here’s the updated chart (which I’ve since used in the Streaming Ratings Report): Still, this show is absolutely huge. RIGHT: Superhero Films Remain Very, Very Popular After Supergirl flopped, I read a few takes that “comic book movies are going the way of the Western”. Post-Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that take didn’t age well. To be fair, I have a very nuanced take on the superhero genre right now; it’s down right now, for a lot of reasons. But it’s not “dead”. Maybe _Spider-_Man is just a really popular character? I saw that take, and it’s a fair counter-argument. (But pundits arguing that superhero movies were dead should have mentioned this $1.5 billion counter-argument…) But is it just Spider-Man? The next Avengers film already has $50 million in pre-sales (and I was skeptical that that film would do well) and the Avengers: End Game re-release topped the box office two weekends ago (over three original films). And I wouldn’t bet against Batman or Superman. So maybe it’s just Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the Avengers. Oh, and Deadpool, of course. And Black Panther. And Wolverine. And probably the X-Men. Plus a well-made Wonder Woman or the Hulk film could break out. But that’s it! It’s just those ten characters/teams. Oh, what’s that? Lanterns is also doing well on HBO? (See previous section…) To be fair, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to the argument that more popular characters—like Spider-Man and Batman—anchor more popular films. In fact, I made that exact argument three years ago when I first wrote about the “Marvel-cession”. In many ways, you can blame The Guardians of the Galaxy for fooling Marvel Studios (and the rest of us) into believing that any character could pop. It turns out, the list of iconic characters is probably smaller than most people think. But it’s probably too early to say that superhero films and comic book movies are dead unless “death” means a slight decline over a longtime. RIGHT: Who Killed Theaters? Old People I get frustrated whenever I see headlines or analysis about how young people are “returning” to theaters. As I’ve detailed(for years), young people have always powered the US box office, despite narratives about “kids these days” and their “phones”. Really, what’s changed post-2020/pandemic is that old people aren’t going to the movies nearly as much. This summer, I saw a movie (from an older director) in a theater near a retirement community, and multiple older people at the theater were talking about how this was their first time seeing a movie in years. I dislike personal anecdotes, so YouGov can fill in the data, best summarized by this headline: “Who killed movie theaters? Not the youths”. According to them, 64% of people aged 18-29 have seen a movie in the last year, but only 30% of 65-and-older. 20% of 18-29 have seen a movie in theaters in the last week and 42% in the last month. Here’s the polling data: Most concerning? Many Americans (17%) think theaters are a worse or much worse experience than watching films at home. Slight WRONG: Hadestown Opens Big A live theater capture of the Broadway musical, Hadestown, made $20 million at the US box office, which begs the question: was I wrong to be skeptical about musicals a few years ago? Yes and no. On the one hand, $20 million is a far cry from being “popular”, so yeah, the genre isn’t that popular overall and Hadestown is one of the more popular musicals from recent years (i.e. the “Taylor Swift Data Fallacy” in action). On the other, I doubt filming this cost all that much, and I don’t think that they spent much on marketing, so this is a good source of ancillary revenue. Smaller Updates WRONG: As I mentioned in a Streaming Ratings Report, I underestimated the budget for Enola Holmes 3. It probably cost more like $50 million, if not more. But... I’m not sure that it really matters? At sub-10 million hours, prices have to come down to make this work. WRONG: Netflix is giving Ink a 27-day in theaters! To quote the kids/YouTubers these days, let’s go! Now I might actually have a chance to see Danny Boyle’s latest in theaters. I’d complained about this in a “Coming Soon” section, but I was heartened to read that Netflix is giving multiple films longer theatrical windows this year. RIGHT: Netflix is sending 4-5 films per year to theaters. Netflix is slowly but surely sending more and more films to theaters, as I cautiously predicted earlier this year. For now, it’s just three big films and a number of awards contenders, but still, this is great news. And they’ll be releasing box office grosses! Just this week, Ted Sarandos confirmed that KPop Demon Hunters 2 will come to theaters (and my guess is it performs in the box office top ten at a minimum). WRONG: Angel has 3 million subscribers! How do I know this? Well, they told Deadline, who reported it. I marked this as “wrong”, since they’ve doubled their subscribers in one year but, you know, they don’t really have a hit film to speak of and they’re still losing money. WRONG: Furious was only renewed for one more season. I accidentally wrote “two more seasons” in my latest “Renewals, Cancellations, Un-Orders and Removals Update”. RIGHT: House of David is ending with its third season. In July, Prime Video renewed House of David for a third season, as I just wrote in my latest “Renewals and Cancellations” report. Well, now it’s ending after that third season. Why? As I’ve been writing, its viewership wasn’t great. I got feedback that this show didn’t cost very much, but it cost enough that its limited viewership didn’t save it. WRONG: Adults was a Hulu original! So I missed Adults when it first came out last year; I saw that it aired on FX and just assumed that it was a linear-first program. Turns out, it aired three episodes on FX, but binge-released the rest of its episodes the next day on Hulu. Huh. So I should have covered it last year! But I just wrote about it. 1 “When I was a kid in the 90s, if you wore a t-shirt to school that wasn’t too big and also wasn’t too small, but somehow didn’t quite fit, we’d say you were wearing an “extra-medium” shirt.” 2 As always, a huge exception is Disney, which barely makes anything original anymore.

Oct 7 • 6:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • entertainment.substack.com

Hunter Schafer on transforming into a bona fide action star for ‘Blade Runner 2099’

Hunter Schafer discusses her transformation into a bona fide action star for ‘Blade Runner 2099’ — including mentorship from none other than Michelle Yeoh.

Oct 7 • 10:15 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

“NCIS” showrunner unpacks Michael Weatherly’s surprising season 24 return

We’ve never seen Tony like this before.

Oct 6 • 9:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Ted Cruz Says JD Vance’s ‘Political Bomb-Throwing’ Shows He’s ‘Insecure’ Ahead of 2028 Election

While Vice President JD Vance might have been floated as a potential frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2028 election, Senator Ted Cruz is doing his part to keep the party’s...

Oct 5 • 4:10 PM EDT • Politics • yahoo.com

Florida's Jadan Baugh Has Another Tough Challenge Against South Carolina

After Missouri stifled the Heisman frontrunner, the Gators must revive their ground game against a relentless Gamecocks front to avoid a devastating mid-season collapse in Columbia.

Oct 5 • 10:40 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

MH WellFest Cambodia 2026 Marks a New Chapter in ASEAN Healthcare Connectivity

Maybank (Cambodia) Plc. and the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) have concluded MH WellFest Cambodia 2026 at Borey Peng Huoth Eco Park in Phnom Penh. With Peng Huoth as venue partner, the two-day event brought together Cambodian families, 14 participating Malaysian hospitals, healthcare specialists and ecosystem partners. Endorsed by the Embassy of Malaysia in Phnom Penh, MH WellFest Cambodia 2026 welcomed around 2,000 visitors and almost 800 runners.

Oct 4 • 11:19 PM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com

Training for Your First Marathon? Avoid These Common Injuries

As fall gets underway, runners, across the country begin mapping out training schedules for upcoming long-distance events. For new distance runners, however, increasing mileage can introduce an unwelcome training partner: injury.

Oct 4 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • baptisthealth.net

Fox Sports announcers can’t believe controversial finish to Padres-Brewers Game 1

The Milwaukee Brewers hung on to beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, and the Brewers got a home-field assist from the roof at American Family Field during a crucial moment in the ninth inning. Trailing 3-2 with a runner on first base and…

Oct 4 • 11:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Jeremiah Smith is The Best Player in College Football

Jeremiah Smith showed why he is the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy in a big road win over Iowa. Jeremiah […]

Oct 4 • 12:56 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

HSSPX: West De Pere FRCC-North Frontrunners

(WFRV) – In this week’s episode of High School Sports Xtra, we featured a thriller in our Game of the Week between West De Pere and Bayport. We also put the spotlight on our Xceptional Athlete from Bonduel, Carter Moesch, and recapped the best matchups from week 7 of the high school football season.

Oct 4 • 12:23 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Zombie Run takes place in Poland

POLAND, Ohio (WKBN)- Runners laced their shoes for the annual Zombie Run in Poland Township. Participants took part in a 2k run and walk through Poland Township Park. Awards were given to the top three men and women in each age group. It’s been taking place for nearly two decades, bringing the community together. “One […]

Oct 4 • 12:02 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Thousands run in 2026 Nike XC Twilight Invitational

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Thousands of runners from across the country participated in the 2026 Nike XC Twilight Invitational at Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course. Terre Haute North’s Addyson Bautista took fourth place in the girls race. Terre Haute South’s Landon Crawn finished 17th in the boys race.

Oct 3 • 11:42 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Local girl overcomes health challenges, chosen to encourage runners at Columbus Marathon

The 7-year-old and former patient at Nationwide Children's Hospital was selected as a Mile Champion to inspire runners as the run over 26 miles through Columbus.

Oct 2 • 4:13 PM EDT • Health • whio.com

American Conference Front Runners Make Stand on Tulane Bye Week

The Tulane Green Wave are on their bye week ahead of conference play, which also means that the American Conference teams who headed straight into that slate are already making a splash in those standings.

Oct 2 • 2:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Austin-East football off to best start since 2017

The Austin-East Roadrunners, currently tied for first place in Class 3A, Region 2, are scheduled to face the Sweetwater Wildcats this Friday at 7 p.m.

Oct 1 • 6:15 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

UTSA-Rice football: How to watch Roadrunners' American Conference opener

UTSA returns to the site of one of coach Jeff Traylor's most disappointing losses for a matchup against Rice at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Oct 1 • 5:59 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

HSS and New York Road Runners Hold Second Annual Runner Health Symposium

Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), the world's leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health and the official hospital of the TCS New York City Marathon, will host the 2nd Annual HSS/NYRR Runner Health and Performance Symposium on October 3 in collaboration with New York Road Runners (NYRR), the nonprofit that “runs” NYC...

Sep 29 • 2:00 PM EDT • Health • news.hss.edu

MLB playoffs extra-innings rules: Is there a ghost runner?

Sep 29 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Meet the Minnesota legend in everything from ‘Chinatown’ to ‘Seinfeld’

MINNESOTA — James Hong isn’t ready to retire. The 97-year-old Minnesota native may not look as spry as he did in memorable moments from “Chinatown” and “Blade Runner,” but he

Sep 29 • 4:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • thederrick.com

7-9- years-old

7-9- years-old – from left, Laken Tyler Thomas received the award for prettiest hair and people’s choice. She is the nine year-old daughter of Nathan and Steffanie Thomas; second runner-up

Sep 28 • 4:49 PM EDT • Entertainment • herald-citizen.com

4-6 years-old

4-6 years-old – from left, second runner-up Kennedy Shanks, the five year-old daughter of Ethan Shanks and Victoria Stanley, winner, Tinley Mae Brooks, the six year-old daughter of Justin and

Sep 28 • 4:48 PM EDT • Entertainment • herald-citizen.com

U20 Elite League: Germany vs. Italy

Hannes Wolf’s Germany U20 squad will face Italy in Spain in the second matchday of the U20 Elite League. Last season's runner-up started their campaign with a narrow win over France, while Italy los...

Sep 28 • 12:46 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

FORT4FITNESS: Running for health and connection

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Thousands of people run in the Fort4Fitness Fall Festival each year. Each runner or walker has a fitness journey and reasons why they run. Molly McGuire shares how y…

Sep 26 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • wane.com

Dodgers notes: Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, first-round bye

Shohei Ohtani is back in the lineup and the Dodgers saved their best starting lineup for the final five games of the regular season. So far, the team has gone 2-18 with runners in scoring position while scoring just three runs over their two consecutive losses to the San Diego Padres. Ohtani was one of […]

Sep 25 • 8:04 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

I Tested the Apple Watch's New Heart Rate Sensor to See If It's Really Better Than Garmin's

I pitted the Apple Watch Series 12 against the Garmin Forerunner 570—the two most accurate wrist-based heart rate sensors out there. Here are my results.

Sep 24 • 5:20 PM EDT • Technology • lifehacker.com

Pascal Groß Tipped Favourite To Win Premier League Star Award

The German veteran’s red-hot scoring streak and vital leadership at Brighton make him a frontrunner for Player of the Month honors against a stacked field of nominees.

Sep 24 • 8:49 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Controversial head-chop celebration has consequences! German talent banned

While Paris Brunner is currently preparing for Saturday’s match against Latvia with Germany’s U21 national team, he received news of a suspension in Ligue 1.The 20-year-old forward has been handed...

Sep 24 • 1:58 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

What We Learned About College Football in Week 3

Trinidad Chambliss Vaults Up the Heisman List Chambliss finished eighth in Heisman votes in 2025, but if voting took place following the playoffs the odds are that Chambliss would have been second after Fernando Mendoza. Chambliss has picked up right where he left off, and should be the current frontrunner after another incredible display to […]

Sep 23 • 11:02 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Garmin is bringing crucial life-saving and health features to several smartwatches

Garmin is rolling out a new software update that adds fall detection, hands-free voice control, and running features to several smartwatches.

Sep 23 • 4:49 AM EDT • Technology • androidauthority.com

Florida Chamber gives JB Pritzker 'runner-up' for 'Economic Developer of the Year' award on Chicago billboards

Florida Chamber of Commerce billboards along Chicago's Stevenson Expressway dub Gov. JB Pritzker the runner-up "Florida Economic Developer of the Year."

Sep 22 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com

MLB awards check-in: Front-runners for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Reliever of the Year

Sep 21 • 7:22 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

‘Daredevil: Born Again’ ending with season 3 amid showrunner departure

‘Daredevil: Born Again’ will end with the upcoming season 3 as Marvel parts ways with showrunner Dario Scardapane.

Sep 21 • 4:49 PM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

Science In Sport partners with Nike for its After Dark Tour

Science In Sport becomes Nike After Dark Tour's fuel and hydration partner, with race packs and a co-branded nutrition range for runners.

Sep 21 • 7:27 AM EDT • Science • stack3d.com

Med Center Health 10K runners pounded the pavement Saturday

The Med Center Health 10K Classic, in its 47th year, was run Saturday , Sept. 19, 2026, at the Bowling Green Ballpark. The event featured a 10K wheelchair race, 10K race, 5K race and the Children’s Classic Run. Titus Winders won the men’s overall title with Corbin Harris coming in second and Wayne Blas third. Purity Sanga won the women’s overall title with Daisy Jepkosgei second and Rachel Tinius third. Matthew Porterfield won the wheelchair race with Matt Davis coming in second. Aerelle Jones won with 10K female wheelchair race. The top three male 5K winners were, in order, Lucas Page, Jay Beckner and Logan Rose. The top three female 5K winners were, in order, Sarah-Emily Woodward, Anna Cline and Autumn Tandy. (Joe Imel/Daily News)

Sep 21 • 1:00 AM EDT • Health • bgdailynews.com

Hundreds run Mental Health Matters 5K in support of counseling center

Hundreds of runners gathered Saturday at UNC Asheville for the fourth annual Mental Health Matters 5K.

Sep 19 • 8:40 PM EDT • Health • wlos.com

‘Sweet Magnolias’ Creator Reacts to Netflix Cancellation: ‘I Hope Serenity Will Always Have a Place in Your Heart’

Following the news that “Sweet Magnolias” has been canceled at Netflix, creator and showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson is looking back on the romantic drama’s 5 Season run. “Living in Serenity for five sea...

Sep 19 • 5:19 PM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Exclusive: Liverpool continue to scout striker, he's scored again

Liverpool are continuing to scout and watch one of the best young strikers in Europe. He's only gone and scored again.Anfield Watch understands that Liverpool are carefully watching Paris Brunner. The...

Sep 19 • 5:10 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Override Series: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Cup Zero Build in Europe: Session 1

Keep running on the edge. Chase the win. Team up as a trio and compete for a chance to earn Cyberpunk: Edgerunners cosmetic rewards. Good luck and have fun!

Sep 19 • 1:00 PM EDT • Technology • fortnitetracker.com

The Big Holes in Wearable Heart Rate Variability And Readiness Scores

On September 9th, Apple announced it was revamping its Apple Watch Health Sensing System, rolling out a Readiness score (0 to 10), and increasing the frequency of heart rate variability (HRV) outputs 24-fold. This can be viewed as upping its competition with various other consumer wearable sensors. These “readiness scores” as a composite of multiple metrics, with heart rate variability (HRV) being front and center for most. The majority of Americans are now using wearable sensors, which equates to well over 100 million adults. HRV and Readiness scores are increasingly being marketed as a measurement of autonomic nervous system health, a digital marker for future disease, a clock for biological age, and a holistic metric to promote healthspan and even longevity. (Apple also introduced a new longevity tab and “Health Age”.) None of this has been proven. In this edition of Ground Truths I am going to review what we know about heart rate variability and readiness scores. Heart Rate Variability HRV is the variation in normal heart cycle timing. The variability of the heart rate, the barely perceptible millisecond changes in time between consecutive heart beats (see R-R intervals in the Figure below, left panel), is due to interplay between the sympathetic and parasympathetic (vagal nerve) inputs. Distinct from heart rate, individuals with the same heart rate can have very different HRVs. It is a rough reflection of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, inadequate to say whether a person’s ANS function is abnormal. For more than three decades, heart rate variability (HRV) has been measured and several studies have found an association of low HRV and clinical outcomes, particularly a link with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. There have also been less well established links of low HRV to risk of early cognitive impairment, dementia, mental illness, Type 2 diabetes and substance abuse. An important reminder is that HRV is a surrogate marker without any established cause-and-effect relationship. If you increase your HRV, that doesn’t mean it will improve health outcomes. In fact, there is no hard evidence for that. All that work linking to health outcomes was done with electrocardiogram (ECG) derived HRV. Now, in the era of consumer wearables, this is getting assessed differently, by optical pulse (yes, the lights you see) plethysmography (PPG) or what is called pulse rate variability (PRV). They are not the same, as shown below (right panel) and only concordant when the delay between the ECG and pulse is kept constant, which basically means at rest. I should mention there’s also what I will call MPV, a mattress mechanical movement sensor, a derived heart rate variability, that companies like Eight Sleep use, even further away from directly measuring HRV. HRV has not one uniform measurement but many different types of quantification, such as RMSSD, the magnitude of difference between successive R-R intervals of normal sinus beats (N-N) or SDNN, the standard deviation of NN intervals, both in milliseconds. SDNN is one of the so-called frequency domain HRVs (others are LF, HF, LF/HF). Different wearable sensors use different metics; Apple has relied on SDNN and nearly all of the others use RMSSD, which is generally considered the more accurate metric. There’s also the different length of time measured, such as for a matter of minutes, all day, or an overnight’s sleep. Short measurements are especially problematic since they don’t capture enough of respiratory modulation and other factors that influence HRV. Share Ground Truths How well does HRV correlate with PRV? There are very limited studies, especially independently done. One that is commonly cited was conducted by Air Force researchers in only 13 healthy adults assessing Oura ring 3 and 4, Whoop 4.0, and Garmin Fenix 6 and showed a correlation coefficient of 0.88 to 0.97 and a mean absolute percentage error from 6 to 10%. The correlation is not a perfect 1.0, but there’s at least a fairly high level of correlation. HRV is supposed to increase during the night due to takeover of the parasympathetic nervous system, and higher during deep sleep. A recent example of my 1 week, all day “HRV,” and one during sleep is shown below. As you can see, the N of 1 data are inconsistent for the same days from different sensors (Oura, AppleWatch, Fitbit Air, and Eight Sleep) by patterns, absolute numbers, and comparison with prior days and weeks. The largest study in over 8 million Fitbit users (the old version, not Google Fitbit Air, introduced in May 2026) gives you a sense of the effect of age, sex, and the 2 different main HRV (here PRV) metrics, with RMSSD on the left and SDRR (=SDNN) on the right below. That study, from data collected in 2018, is a major outlier, since all the more recent ones are tiny with respect to sample size. Many of the companies have not had independent evaluation of their HRV, such as Eight Sleep, but have published a low standard error on their website. There are some other published studies on the correlation between HRV and PRV, but they are all small and only in healthy adults. A scoping review emphasized the lack of study in underrepresented individuals, including the aged, people of color (which affects the PPG signal), and individuals who are underweight or obese. Add the typical adult age 60 plus with one or more chronic diseases. For example, one study in over 900 adults found poor correlation of HRV and PRV, non-uniformly underestimated across many chronic diseases (cardiovascular, endocrine, neurological, respiratory, and others), concluding PRV is “an invalid surrogate for HRV.” A recent systematic review of 43 studies comparing HRV and PRV found reasonable pooled absolute standardized error (HRV as gold standard) but only 10 of the studies provided quantitative synthesis in ideal conditions. Their main conclusion was similarly cautious: “PPG-derived HRV [PRV] should not be regarded as universally interchangeable with ECG-derived HRV across all devices, populations, and recording contexts.” Factors Affecting HRV and PRV That gets me to the long list of factors that affect HRV (and PRV) besides the device, the type of measurement (RMSSD, SDNN or others), the person’s signal, the sensor site, the duration of data capture, if weighting by sleep stage is used, how artifact is processed and corrected. And this list is not complete!: Oura puts out data from their community of users (who input data) on what affects their overnight HRV. The factors currently provided are: no alcohol (increase 8%), melatonin (increase 2%, float tank (increase 2%), wine (decrease 4%), and party (decrease 14%) in overnight HRV. Must be some big parties! Subscribe What is a PRV measurement good for? It has been falsely characterized as an index of “autonomic balance” and a specific indicator of stress. A 2018 review of the studies available for HRV and its relationship to stress, not using any of the current wearables, found that stress can lower HRV. But so can many other factors. The non-specificity of the signal, indexed to the table above, is striking. Evidence from a UK Biobank study of over 46,000 participants with actual HRV looked at genetically predicted HRV, a genetic risk score, that failed to show the expected HRV-mortality link, indicating that _HRV is likely not causa_l, but rather a reflection of person’s physiologic state. A review of consumer wearable HRV data from 5 longitudinal studies showed that nighttime PRV was not associated with perceived stress, and surprisingly higher HRV, in the largest cohort (N=717 participants), was correlated with higher stress. An Oura ring cohort of 525 first-year college students found a link between overnight PRV and perceived stress, but that was also seen with resting heart rate, sleep, and respiratory rate. Several very small studies have examined the relationship of HRV and athletic injuries or guiding training with mixed, and predominantly negative results. HRV biofeedback training with paced breathing had no significant effect on reducing stress or raising HRV, as demonstrated with sham controlled trials. When HRV for multiple days showed a decline in conjunction with body temperature, the Oura ring published data for prediction of Covid. The WHOOP company sponsored an observational study, published in 2026, of 30,000 users for 72 weeks, without a control group, that reported reduced alcohol intake (5.8 % points) by self-report. That doesn’t tell us much, and particularly about the merits of HRV for behavioral change. If you use the same device and conditions as longitudinal trends for multiple (at least 2-3) weeks that may be the one way to get something useful from the measurements. Data for overnight sleep with minimal motion and using RMSSD is the best proxy for real HRV. The reason to look at trends rather than any given night is that it more likely represents something, even though you won’t know with certainty what the “it” is. Keep in mind there are no data, no peer-reviewed evidence, to show that HRV fluctuation in-person has any correlation with health outcomes. Share Readiness Scores These are proprietary scores that integrate different metrics for each of the wearables: no algorithms have been disclosed. They are unvalidated against health outcomes. In a review of 14 composite health scores of readiness and recovery, HRV contributed 86% to the scores, followed by reading heart rate (79%), physical activity and sleep duration (both at 71%). That review noted the substantial variability in measurement protools and lack of standardization. Sleep staging is notoriously inconsistent and inaccurate by these sensors, which adds further to the HRV uncertainties for what the scores, which use sleep stage data, mean. Only resting heart rate has been shown consistently across devices to be extremely accurate. I’ve made a Table to summarize what we know about which metrics are included, the scores, any peer-reviewed studies that compared the readiness score with health outcomes, and the corresponding (if any, NA-not available) citation. You will note that some companies do not use the term “readiness," such as WHOOP for recovery, and Garmin, which has 2 different scores, one of which is Body Battery. Eight Sleep uses the term “Fitness Score.” They all include HRV; Apple includes a new metric they call “Recovery HRV” which among other components uses 7-days of sleep, but it is unclear what this means or how it is differentiated from other scores (there are clearly no data for outcomes). We have no knowledge of how the different components are weighted or whether any of these scores are better than resting heart rate, HRV alone, physical activity, or any other single metric. Since none of these are standardized, they are not interchangeable, so if you get a 90 for Oura that has no relationship to a 90 on a Google Fitbit Air. Notably, the company can update its algorithm for readiness score at any point without notification to device users. Without any useful evidence of actionability for these scores or established relationship with health outcomes, it is hard to make a case for their value. At the Apple recent announcement they showed their Readiness score (0-10) on the watch (Figure below) but there are no published data on this score, not even on their website. It’s available only on their new Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 [of course, ;-)]. That exemplifies the problems with these scores, lack of data and evidence for being meaningful to promote health. Perhaps the best study (which isn’t saying much) is the WHOOP Recovery for golfer performance, because it did correlate with an objective outcome, even though there was no control group and the authors were all from the company. Among the 389 pro golfers, an absolute 10-per cent point increase in Recovery score was associated with about 0.5 fewer strokes per round. But that’s hardly a health outcome! WHOOP is also conducting a study in over 2,700 runners to see if their recovery score will be linked to less injuries and improved performance, but that is not yet published and has no control group or randomization. Putting This in Context For two decades I’ve been enthusiastic about the potential for digital health and particularly wearable biosensors. Over the years, we’ve seen some great progress for their ability to promote physical activity and accurately detect atrial fibrillation (the first FDA cleared deep learning AI for consumers). That work was the subject of rigorous research. But there are holes in the data and evidence for other metrics. One notable one is the “VO2 max” story that I wrote about earlier this year. At that time many subscribers asked me to cover heart rate variability, which I finally got to here. When I dived into the research and publication for HRV and readiness scores, I expected to find at least some that were of high quality and demonstrated their utility by linkage to health outcomes. To my surprise, I found none. The wearable sensor measurements for HRV (PRV) are, for the most part, accurate, but that validation work has only been done in small studies of healthy adults and does not take into account the long list of factors, from the device, software side, and the user side, that affect HRV measurements. Moreover, this metric chiefly relies on optical sensing and, as we have learned for heart rate PPG sensing, may be less accurate in people of color. Keep in mind that all of the health outcome association evidence comes from ECG-derived HRV; none are from wearable sensor data. I will repeat the key point: there's no peer-reviewed evidence to show that in-person HRV fluctuation—or efforts to raise your HRV— has any correlation with health outcomes. For those of you who look at your HRV on awakening, or even 2+ week trends of it being low, I hope this context helps to relieve any anxiety. Yes, low HRV (not PRV) has been shown to increase risk of some diseases as summarized above. But efforts to raise your HRV—a surrogate metric— has not been established for improving any health outcomes. HRV does not have any evidence of causality (the genetic evidence actually goes against this possibility). In this summary, I have not included data for other wearable sensors such as Polar, Samsung, Withings, Suunto, Amazfit, Coros, Ultrahuman, or additional mattress sensors. These are beyond my first-hand experience, and as far as I know from my in-depth review none have any peer-reviewed published data that differ from the 6 sensors I’ve reviewed here. From the points I’ve gone over above, we’re not ready for readiness scores. Besides being proprietary, they are predominantly based on metrics that have their own issues. It’s compounding the problem, like building a house without a solid foundation that has never undergone a rigorous inspection, and then selling it. Like I mentioned for PRV, you can look at trends over weeks rather than any single day, to get a handle, but even that may not be helpful. There’s simply no evidence that these scores meaningfully relate to health outcomes. I’d emphasize they might, but that requires doing prospective or randomized studies to prove it. None exist. There’s great promise for HRV/PRV utility_. For example**,**_ Prof Maiken Nedergaard, who discovered the brain glymphatics that are essential in eliminating metabolic waste products from the brain during sleep, has posited that HRV could be a non-invasive marker for neuromodulator oscillations, brain-body regulatory circuits, and brain clearance. That would be extremely useful, but like everything else on HRV and readiness scores it requires solid research and validation. The lay media isn’t helping much to get the story straight. Earlier this year The Economist published a piece entitled “The most useful indicator of your overall health” which ordained HRV as an “accumulated stress score.” That’s akin to the false assertion about VO2max: “V02 max is the singular most powerful marker for longevity.” As I’ve summarized here, that is not established. The fact is that so many things can lower HRV, including physical exercise (especially an intense workout), reduced sleep quality, stress, the list above, no less the device, signal, and software. Whatever fluctuations observed have not been correlated with any health outcome. Sadly, “datamaxxers” are widely using HRV and readiness scores that have never been validated to mean anything. We already know that for some people using the sensors for sleep metrics, it can induce “orthosomnia,” an obsession to get high sleep quality, with associated high levels of anxiety. In an experiment done by a company to promote sleep quality for its employees, “For those employees who did use the trackers, many reported feeling perfectly rested until their tracker told them they had had a terrible night. Others were told that they had slept like a baby when they had actually been lying awake worrying about the quality of their sleep. “ The same problem can result from preoccupation with HRV or readiness scores, with anxiety that would lead to further reduction in both. It you are using a wearable like >100 million American adults, it’s OK to look at these data, but contextualized with the major caveats reviewed here. If you are one to require evidence that HRV or readiness scores are linked to health outcomes, you may not even want to look. The companies make it hard to turn them off! Let me end with the companies that make and sell wearables. Apple’s doubling down on HRV (24-fold more reporting and heart rate very 5 seconds) and introduction of a Readiness score tells us that consumers have bought into these metrics and they are joining the club. However, all of this is occurring with a backdrop of tens millions of users, claims about the data that are not backed up by adequate evidence, marketing way out in front of whatever limited data exists, and not being transparent about their readiness score algorithms. The companies can well afford to do the research that is needed to connect these metrics with health outcomes show, once and for all, that increasing HRV or using readiness scores promotes our health. If they believed and invested in the products they are selling, we’d not be in this position of not knowing. That’s essentially where we are with HRV and readiness scores. Perhaps someday this will change and we’ll have good reason to embrace them. NB: I wrote this post. No AI. I have no conflicts of interest with any of its content. Loading... Ground Truths has 215,000 subscribers from every US state and 214 countries. There are over 300,000 followers of Ground Truths so more than 90,000 folks who can easily convert to be free subscribers. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. If you’re not a subscriber, please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths The proceeds from all voluntary paid subscriptions go to support our summer internship program. It enabled us to accept and support a record number of 62 summer interns that joined us in 2026! These are high school, college and medical students selected from thousands of applicants. We couldn’t do this expanded program without the funds coming in through Ground Truths. Thank you!

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Will Netflix’s Latest Horror Film Save Its Summer? And Introducing a New Data Source...

(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) All month, I’ve been polling you, my readers, on how we think the summer’s biggest blockbusters will do when they eventually land on streaming, and I wanted to share the results. First up, how readers think The Odyssey will perform when it comes to Peacock... People are pretty bullish that The Odyssey will smash it for Peacock. I don’t know that it will have as much rewatchability as Wicked did for kids, but we’ll see. It is now Universal’s highest-grossing film of all time. One note: almost half of Christopher Nolan’s films weren’t available for streaming the week The Odyssey came to theaters, including some of his biggest films like Inception, Dunkirk, Tenet, Oppenheimer and Insomnia. If you did want to watch the others, Prime Video had Memento and The Dark Knight trilogy, HBO Max only had The Dark Knight trilogy (even though Warner Bros. produced most of Nolan’s films), Hulu had The Prestige and Interstellar, and Paramount+ had Interstellar. So you needed at least two streaming subscriptions to catch the rest. Warner Bros. whiffed right here. I know they have long term licensing deals, but they should have tried to get as many Nolan films on HBO Max for launch as possible. Here are the results for Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The audience is a bit more mixed on this one, with everyone agreeing Spider-Man will swing to a big opening, but not necessarily elite or best all time. On to this week’s issue. Netflix continues searching for a hit straight-to-streaming summer film and Lioness and Ted Lasso allow me to look at the difference between a “hit” and a ‘hit for them”. All that, plus new YA/teen melodramas on Prime Video and Netflix, the House of the Dragon finale, USA Network claims a big opening, more big NFL ratings, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. But we start with a fun new data announcement. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of August 3rd to August 9th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe A New Data Source: Reelgood’s Data on Content Libraries Here’s a fun new treat for you. Reelgood—an online service and app that lets users track where shows or films are streaming—is providing data every month for the Streaming Ratings Report on the size of each streamer’s catalogue, along with the new shows and films for each streamer. Yay! Previously, I had pulled “new shows on streamers premiering on the first of the month”: While I liked that data cut, it was a big wonky since it didn’t show all of the new shows or movies that came to a streamer each month. Instead, I would have preferred something like this from Reelgood’s annual report: And now we have it! I’m going to feature Reelgood’s data monthly, showing both total catalogue size and new shows and films appearing on the charts. That’s going to make these two cool new charts. First, here’s the size of various streamers’ film catalogues… (By the way, Reelgood offered to make the charts for me, but I like doing that task by hand to understand the data better.) They also provided data back to last year. Here’s the number of films timeline: And here are the new films on each streamer for the month prior to Aug: As I get used to this data, I plan to keep tinkering with how I display it, but I’m excited to feature it monthly. Today, I’m sharing the film charts; next issue, I’m going to feature TV shows by streamer. Now, in full disclosure, Reelgood is a sponsor of this little-newsletter-that-could. But in my constant quest to figure out what streamer various shows and films are on, I was already a Reelgood user before this sponsorship. I go to their website all the time, and their data is very accurate on where shows are (or have been). Plus, I’ve been sharing their weekly top ten lists for years now, pre-sponsorship. For me, this is a great win-win, since I get to amplify a service I love, and I get a cool new data source to play with. Now, normally folks don’t usually mention their sponsors directly, but as I wrote before, as I start featuring ads in my newsletter, I plan to be extremely open about who is sponsoring my writing so you can trust what I write. Television - Two Big Returning Shows Look Set to Take Over The Charts One key question when it comes to judging streaming shows is whether a show is a “hit” or a “hit for them”. To be clear, the former means a show that’s one of the top shows on streaming, no questions asked. The latter means a show is one of the biggest, for a given streamer. That distinction makes a big difference! It’s really good to be one of the biggest shows on a streamer; it’s much better to be the biggest on streaming, despite the size of a streamer. Because, as we’ve seen now, nearly every streamer—while lacking the number of subscribers or usage of Netflix—can make hit TV shows: Paramount released Landman, whose first and second seasons were among the top two TV shows the year they came out. HBO Max’s The Pitt’s second season is the biggest show of the year so far. Love Island USA was the top show in 2025 for Peacock. And, crucially for today’s discussion: Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy back in 2023, Ted Lasso was actually the top streaming show of the year according to Nielsen! So even Apple TV (formerly +) can make hit shows. It just doesn’t make them that often. And looking at the Nielsen charts this week, we have two prime candidates for this discussion: That’s right: Ted Lasso returned to Apple TV for its fourth season. Did it return in all its expected glory? Sure, though right now it’s still just a “hit for Apple TV”, but we’ll see how long it lasts on the charts. Its ten episodes are coming out weekly. (Smart choice, Apple!) Ted Lasso started out strong, actually making the Nielsen charts the week before new episodes dropped, which is a rare feat. (Shows like Stranger Things or Bridgerton have pulled that off. That’s terrific company to join!) On Nielsen, it opened to 14.4 million hours in its first week, and 16.6 million the week of 10-Aug. Here’s how that compares to previous seasons: Apple put out that this is their biggest TV launch through two days ever, and looking at the chart and Apple TV’s viewership history, I’d believe it. Here’s Apple’s top shows for season two and beyond: Other data tells a (mostly) similar story. Ted Lasso made Samba TV and it has elite IMDb scores, an insane 8.7 on 465K reviews. The only outlier is Luminate, where the latest season only had 7.4 million hours, and no other seasons made the top ten. As you’ll see below, that’s well below some other solid, but not spectacular shows like Sterling Point, Ride or Die or Furious. I’d be surprised if Ted Lasso isn’t bigger than those other shows, but it’s fine for different data sources to occasionally disagree. And while it’s sucky to bring this up, given that Warner Bros. produced this show, I do wonder how the streaming wars may have been different if Ted Lasso landed on HBO Max initially instead of Apple. I don’t think one show can make or break a streamer, but given HBO’s brand, it could have helped bring people to that streamer much earlier in its lifespan. (Though yeah, I don’t love calling out executives for passing on hit shows, since that’s just the nature of the job. Even the absolute best execs will pass on lots of successful shows. The key is not greenlighting the under-performers/misses.) The other show I’m thinking about in the “hit or hit for them” category is Lioness from Paramount+. Like Ted Lasso, its first season missed the charts, but it’s grown its audience since then. Here’s how season three opened: We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… How Lioness did on streaming... Two new melodramas for Netflix and Prime Video... Whether Netflix’s latest horror film saved its summer... Hulu’s Furious and Prime Video’s Ride or Die continuing their strong runs... The latest high profile showrunner to flop on streaming... All the flops, bombs and misses... And a whole lot more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Next week, we’ve got a double issue—since the week of 17-Aug had very few notable new shows or films—so I’ll look at HBO’s Lanterns, Prime Video’s Reacher, Netflix’s Tires, Outer Banks (which posted up huge numbers four years ago), an Aussie romance, and another baseball event (that didn’t resonate). And a bunch of movies like the latest dramedy from an Adam Sandler daughter, Don’t Say Good Luck, Camp Rock 3 on Disney Channel and Disney+, Michael on Starz, and more. Later this month, we’ve got a ton of shows and films to analyze! Movies will be the big story, featuring a box office bomb (Supergirl on HBO Max) and an “underperformer” (The Mandalorian and Grogu on Disney+) contending with a bunch of star-studded straight-to-streaming films like Netflix’s The Whisper Man (Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan and De Niro!), Mayday on Apple TV+ (Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh!), The Runner (Gal Gadot) and The Last Sunrise (Eva Longoria and Maia Reficco) on Prime Video. Plus, a ton of TV shows have sophomore seasons coming out. Will The Gentleman put up big numbers on Netflix or suffer from a sophomore slump? Leanne and Beauty in Black on Netflix seem small, but they both might be bigger than you think. Hulu has a bunch of shows: a new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (the first after all the controversy last year) and the second season of Chad Powers (from Peyton Manning’s production company and starring Glen Powell). This one flopped last year; can it score a touchdown this year? Same goes for FX’s Adults, which I didn’t track last year; will it hit this year? Peacock’s The Office spinoff, The Paper and Apple TV’s Dark Matter also return for second seasons. And Netflix has more Untold specials featuring Vince Young, Raygun (that horrible breakdancer) and Mr. T. Long term, Paramount+ is rebooting yet another franchise, Clueless, and I’m somewhat bullish on this new show. The talent attached (Alicia Silverstone) and creative Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (of The O.C. and Gossip Girl) also feel solid...if they make it funny like the original.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (CANARIES) — Facing elimination Friday night, Nicholai Arbach tossed six strong innings and Michael Curialle knocked in a pair of runs to help the Sioux Falls Canaries top Kansas City 3-1 at Legends Field. The Birds left two runners in scoring position in the top of the first inning and the Monarchs […]

Sep 12 • 12:03 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Vance? Rubio? DeSantis? Cruz? Republicans at Dallas convention ponder options for post-Trump leader

The vice president's speech solidified his status as a potential frontrunner, and President Donald Trump talked him up afterwards as a “very talented guy” who “did a very good job."

Sep 11 • 10:03 AM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Burgess Article on Joints Reflects Growing Recognition of Design

A journal committed to scientific materialism publishes an article explicitly challenging evolution and promoting design.

Sep 10 • 9:21 AM EDT • Science • scienceandculture.com

Special interests spend millions boosting Becerra in governor's race

Companies and special interest groups with some of the diciest issues expected to land on California's next governor's desk are among the top financial backers of Democrat Xavier Becerra, the gubernatorial front runner.

Sep 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Business • latimes.com

Spurs should be awarded 2016-17 title

Mauricio Pochettino believes Chelsea should be stripped of the Premier League title for 2016-17, when his Tottenham team finished runners-up.

Sep 10 • 4:15 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Prep sports recap for Sept. 9, 2026

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — Dunlap senior Nolan Eccles shot a 67 to lead the Eagles to the title at the IVC Golf Invitational at Arrowhead Country Club on Wednesday. The defending state champ finished two shots ahead of Morton’s Carson Price, who’s 69 was good enough to be runner-up. Richwoods finished second while Notre Dame […]

Sep 10 • 12:24 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Unfinished business: Women’s soccer sets sights on national championship

After a runner-up finish in the 2025 NCAA Division III national championship, the Eagles return, debuting an all-new back line and familiar offensive firepower, hoping to go one step further this season.

Sep 9 • 10:00 AM EDT • Business • emorywheel.com

Louisiana contestant wins first runner-up in Miss America, 'Words that will never seem real.'

After reaching the final five, the current Miss Louisiana came up just shy of the win, but grateful for the experience nonetheless.

Sep 8 • 1:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • nola.com

Dan Stevens and Gabriel Luna are the new killers on the block in season 2 of “Dexter: Resurrection” (exclusive)

Showrunner Clyde Phillips previews the emergence of the two new serial killers, as well as the shocking return of Krysten Ritter.

Sep 8 • 10:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

Pac-12 football power rankings: Boise State clearly No. 1, but then what?

After nearly taking down Oregon, Boise State is the clear frontrunner in the Pac-12 and favorite for the College Football Playoff.

Sep 8 • 4:17 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Bottas Wins Gun Runner For Second Straight Stakes Triumph

Miguel Clement-trained Vekoma colt drove between horses and collared pacesetter Conducted in the final sixteenth at Kentucky Downs to get the victory

Sep 7 • 9:31 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Josh Allen Has No Words for Wife Hailee Steinfeld’s Announcement

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen enters the 2026 NFL season with high expectations, earning the No. 2 overall spot on the NFL’s Top 100 Players list — a list voted on by players themselves.After winning the MVP award in 2024 and finishing as the third runner-up in 2025, the dual-threat quarterback, who totaled 39 touchdowns […] The post Josh Allen Has No Words for Wife Hailee Steinfeld’s Announcement appeared first on HEAVY.

Sep 7 • 5:05 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?

California's Democratic governor has barely begun to address what may be his biggest political liability as he stakes a claim as an early front-runner in the Democratic Party's 2028 shadow primary.

Sep 6 • 12:52 PM EDT • Politics • pbs.org

Far-right AfD clear frontrunner as polls open in German east

Colourful alliance may be needed to keep Alternative for Germany out of government

Sep 6 • 4:05 AM EDT • Politics • euractiv.com

Lens lose again ahead of Champions League date

Lens's difficult start to the new season continued on Saturday as Mamadou Kone scored his first Ligue 1 goal to give Lorient a 1-0 win at last season's runners-up.Kone pounced on a loose ball on 54 minutes to score the only goal of the game.

Sep 5 • 2:13 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Potapova upsets 2025 US Open runner-up Anisimova

Amanda Anisimova, runner-up at the 2025 US Open, fell Saturday in the third round to Anastasia Potapova, who capitalized on a flood of unforced errors from the American.Potapova took full advantage of 46 unforced errors from Anisimova, who had already been pushed hard in her second-round win over another Austrian, Lilli Tagger.

Sep 5 • 1:21 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

US Open: Amanda Anismova upset by Anastasia Potapovia in third-round play

Last year's US Open runner-up, Anisimova failed to advance past the third round in her return to Queens.

Sep 5 • 12:58 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Marathoners are making big sacrifices to chase medals around the world

Marathon runners are spending and sacrificing big for 'runcations' as they chase international medals like those from the World Marathon Majors.

Sep 5 • 5:22 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

New movies to watch this weekend: See 'Onslaught' in theaters, rent 'I Want Your Sex,' stream 'The Runner' on Prime Video

Adria Arjona's action horror flick "Onslaught" is the week's big movie release, while Mark Wahlberg and Gal Gadot helm new films of their own.

Sep 4 • 8:38 AM EDT • Entertainment • yahoo.com

What Bluebird has taught us about compassion

The Bluebird Run in Tallahassee offers a space for community healing and mental health support this Labor Day.

Sep 4 • 5:03 AM EDT • Health • tallahassee.com

California tire rules opposed by most Business Journal readers

More than 80% of Business Journal poll respondents oppose California's new replacement tire efficiency rules, citing concerns about consumer costs.

Sep 3 • 6:24 PM EDT • Business • thebusinessjournal.com

Compete Across Entrepreneurial Endeavors in the GTA Online Business Rivalries Event

Put your criminal enterprises to work all throughout September during the GTA Online Business Rivalries Event, steering the invisible hand of the free market in your favor with profitable bonuses for Executives, Bikers, Gunrunners, and Nightclub Owners.

Sep 3 • 10:07 AM EDT • Business • rockstargames.com

Coming to XBOX Game Pass: RuneScape: Dragonwilds, SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed, The Royal Writ, and More

Coming to XBOX Game Pass: RuneScape: Dragonwilds, SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed, The Royal Writ, and more!

Sep 1 • 12:00 PM EDT • Technology • news.xbox.com

JD Vance confronts Jewish GOP skeptics ahead of a 2028 run

Vice President JD Vance has in recent months given voice to a rising skepticism in America toward Israel, leaving some Jewish Republicans uncomfortable, if not openly concerned, about the expected GOP frontrunner in the next presidential election.

Sep 1 • 9:21 AM EDT • Politics • cnn.com

“1000% A Catch”; “Absolutely Ridiculous” – Red Sox Fans Furious After Ceddanne Rafaela’s No-Catch Call in 16-1 Loss Vs Yankees

Red Sox CF Ceddanne Rafaela was left perplexed after a no-catch call in the outfield during Sunday’s series finale against the Yankees. In the fifth inning, with a runner on base, Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Aug 31 • 5:32 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

15 movies that flopped at the box office but became classics

Some of cinema’s most beloved classics started out as box-office duds. We’re looking back at 15 movies you may be surprised to learn flopped upon release.

Aug 28 • 8:35 AM EDT • Entertainment • ew.com

'Silo' showrunner Graham Yost breaks down episode 9's bombshell ending and surprise Peter Gabriel cameo

Explosions! Conspiracies! Peter Gabriel!

Aug 28 • 3:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • mashable.com

Yankees, Dodgers viewed as 'frontrunners' for Japanese pitching prospect

The Yankees and Dodgers could battle it out for the right-hander.

Aug 26 • 2:03 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com