It’s a deal that would have been unimaginable a decade ago — maybe even two years ago. But last month, motivational speaker and On Purpose host Jay Shetty signed a reported $100 million agreement to move his video podcast exclusively to Netflix and Spotify. In the era of Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan and the Kelce brothers, streamers are battling for podcast talent as the once audio-only medium morphs into the next Hollywood battleground — with Netflix, naturally, upping the ante. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty dive into the rise of podcasting post-Covid and post-strikes, Netflix and Spotify’s pod strategy as a bulwark against YouTube and why streamers are betting that video podcasts are really just the next generation of low-cost talk shows.

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“I would not be feeling good right now if I was sitting in my corner office over at Disney after this weekend,” one source tells Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey about the box office success of Backrooms and Obsession — two movies from popular YouTube creators-turned-filmmakers Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, respectively. Both low-budget breakouts leapfrogged over Star Wars’ The Mandalorian and Grogu last weekend, raising questions about what this unprecedented success says about moviegoing’s future and Gen Z taste. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie dive into the YouTube revolution, then examine the growing disconnect between what Hollywood is saying about AI in public vs. how it’s using it — and how even cinema giants like Martin Scorsese are coming around. (For an inside look at the next gen of horror, listen toNatalie’s conversation at NAB Show with Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear, Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier, and M3GAN writer Akela Cooper.)

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Angelenos are on the clock. The Los Angeles mayoral election is set for June 2, and even those who don’t live in SoCal should pay close attention to the outcome. Hollywood is taking center stage in a way it rarely has before as local production plummets, jobs shrink and frustration ripples through the city. Has Mayor Karen Bass done enough? Could City Councilmember Nithya Raman or former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt (and his surprising donor list) shake things up? Richard Rushfield joins Elaine Low and Natalie Jarvey to break down what each major candidate has said about the film and TV industry and whether anyone at City Hall can save L.A. production. Come for the voters’ guide, stay for Richard’s tale about interning for Mayor Tom Bradley.

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The summer box office is already popping, with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael raking in millions before Memorial Day — and with new movies coming from Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Marvel, Pixar and A24’s youngest director ever, it feels like the industry might have its best summer since 2019. (Even if The Mandalorian and Grogu fails to launch.) Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey make their picks for the season’s biggest hits in Ankler Agenda‘s first-ever summer box office draft (fantasy football-style), as they predict the next top performers of the summer.

Plus: With President Trump voicing support for The Hills alum Spencer Pratt in his run for mayor of Los Angeles — “I’d like to see him do well” — and Pratt gaining ground among the Hollywood elite, the town gets closer to seeing the reality show president push the reality show mayoral candidate to the top (or is it bottom?) of the food chain.

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People still want to be scared out of their minds together, and Atomic Monster president Michael Clear, M3GAN writer Akela Cooper and YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Mark Fischbach (aka Markiplier) are all in the business of giving audiences those thrills. Their conversation, which was moderated by Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey on the Ankler’s Business of Media and Entertainment Stage at NAB Show in April, also highlights how horror is opening new doors into Hollywood. Fischbach details how fan demand helped boost his self-distributed film, Iron Lung, to $50 million at the global box office, while Clear points to more YouTube creators like Backrooms filmmaker Kane Parsons disrupting Hollywood's horror pipeline.

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It’s the end of Upfronts week, better known as Hollywood’s annual pilgrimage to woo Madison Ave. Formerly about broadcast TV schedules, Upfronts has become a showcase for a much stranger, fragmented TV future: creators, podcasts, live sports, live events, movies, dog shows and, yes, lots of AI, the cringe buzzword of the week (and jeez, sorry, scripted). Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the major themes from Disney, Netflix, WBD and others, including top living room streamer YouTube, whose competing Brandcast cast a long shadow over the festivities — and the choices highlighted on rivals’ stages. The gang also crowns the best and worst celeb cameos (Anne Hathaway, Mia Hamm and Matthew Stafford), musical performances (Olivia Rodrigo, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves) and, of course, ad pitches.

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Quarterly earnings season isn’t just MBA word salad. Earnings calls are where Hollywood’s biggest companies tell Wall Street what matters most — and where employees often learn what’s really happening inside their own studios. This week, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount reported earnings, and Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down what the companies are signaling about the future of Hollywood: Disney’s “super app” ambitions, the industry’s AI push, vertical video and what the looming Warner-Paramount merger could mean for the business. Plus: What did new Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro reveal in his first earnings call from the C-suite? And what does Warners have planned as it exits the stage?

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The agency formerly known as Wasserman — made infamous in recent months by founder Casey Wasserman’s flirtatious emails with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell — is up for sale. So who wants it? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Ashley Cullins break down the bidders, the stakes for the representation business and what the multibillion-dollar price tag reveals about the industry — and who has the juice. Plus, Kimmelgate 2.0: The FCC goes after Disney, and Paramount discloses just how foreign-funded a combined Paramount-WBD could be. (Hint: a lot!)

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The entertainment industry’s economic and existential tailspin is playing out on the political stage, as Los Angeles’ mayoral candidates curry favor with the Hollywood set before the June 2 primary. Incumbent Karen Bass, city council member Nithya Raman and former The Hills star Spencer Pratt aren’t wooing the A-list, but the rank-and-file of an industry being squeezed by runaway production. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Ashley Cullins break down the crisis and — finally! — the growing bidding war between California, New York, New Jersey and beyond as states fight to keep film and TV projects in the U.S. Plus, Natalie Jarvey gives us the NAB Show recap, and the crew contemplates what comes next for WarnerMount.

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Everyone talks about taking big swings again, but few Hollywood execs feel like they’re actually in a position to do it — without fearing for their jobs. But former Showtime head Jana Winograde and ex-Warner Bros. Television pres Susan Rovner are greenlighting shows from the backseats of cars and searching for new talent right out of film school, after making the leap from legacy TV to microdramas with aTwist (nee MicroCo), a vertical series app backed by Chris McGurk-led Cineverse and former WME chair Lloyd Braun. 

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During Warner Bros.’ supersized CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas, the studio’s sale to Paramount went unmentioned — even as it touted a theatrical slate stretching into 2028. But the contentious merger was impossible to ignore, dominating chatter across the convention floor and even inadvertently pulling The Ankler into the mix thanks to what’s now being dubbed “pin-gate.” Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the drama, along with the biggest takeaways from this year’s theatrical showcase.

Plus, the trio is joined by special guest John August — Big Fish and Corpse Bride screenwriter and co-chair of the WGA West negotiating committee — to go inside the guild’s surprisingly swift deal with the studios. He unpacks the WGA’s divisive bargaining agreement now up for a vote, including major changes to the healthcare plan, and addresses the criticism head-on.

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