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I am frequently asked how I am able to write so much every day. Part of the answer is just that I spent years working at journalism jobs where I was expected to turn stories around quickly. And once you build up that muscle, writing fast and hopefully effectively is much easier.
But a major component of my success is my family. My wife and son put up with a lot in order for me to get this daily newsletter done, as well as the other things I work on every day.
I am well aware of how lucky I am, so I try and thank them when I can.
Stephanie and I danced to Lonestar’s song “Amazed” at our wedding. Although in our defense, it was before the song became a massive hit. The band had a massive string of pop-country hits in the late 90s and early aughts - including ten #1 country hits. But we’ve never seen them live, so I bought front row seats to their show on Friday.
The band sounded great, they played a bunch of familiar tunes, we danced together in the front aisle during “Amazed” and she even grabbed a guitar pick. Just a perfect evening and a reminder that as much as I enjoy writing these everyday, it’s essential not to lose sight of what is important.
On the other hand, we both now have the flu. So no plan is perfect in its execution.
Stop Conflating The Theatrical Business With Netflix’s Business Model
Back in the 1980s, I was just out of college and my first steady freelance work was writing entertainment piece for the Chicago Tribune. Which included going into the newspaper’s massive newsroom in order to type my story into a very early CMS. I typically was doing it in between my day job and when I would head-off to do stand-up. Which meant that the newsroom was mostly deserted. Except for a few die-hard journalists, including Gene Siskel.
I was lucky enough to speak with Siskel on a number of occasions, which was a big deal for a fledgling journalist/critic. At one point, he told be that one of his guiding principles was not to review the movie the filmmakers didn’t make. “It’s easy to spend all of your time arguing about what you wish they would have done,” he told me. “But readers care about the movie they can actually see and whether or not that is worth watching.”
That is a principle that I wish more business and media reporters would follow. There have been a ton of think pieces over the past several weeks about Netflix’s problems and what the reporter believes Netflix should be doing to fix it. Instead of focusing on what the company might actually be planning and why.
For instance, the hiring of Peter Rice last week sparked a huge number of think pieces arguing that Netflix had decided to ramp up its theatrical ambitions and give more of its original films a full theatrical run as a way of turning the company around.
That’s despite the fact the streamer has already announced a roster of at least six films over the next year that are receiving a full theatrical release. And all of these arguments also overlook the uncomfortable fact that Netflix promised to increase it theatrical release schedule and keep the Warner Brothers theatrical release schedule in place and no one in Hollywood believed the company.
But Hollywood creatives and the Hollywood trades are obsessed with Netflix’s theatrical ambitions, because they care about the theatrical movie business. And like a hammer that sees everything as a nail, Hollywood is going to keep whacking away at this story. Even though it has nothing to do with Netflix’s core problems.
Are more theatrical movies going to help Netflix’s engagement? Even the biggest theatrical proponents will answer “Maybe a little bit?” Will more theatrical releases convince some producers and directors to pitch a movie to Netflix? Maybe, but that’s more of an image accomplishment than a business one.
The truth is that releasing more original films into theaters first will only end up costing Netflix more money in the short and medium term. And while it might make movie-loving Hollywood creatives and critics happy, those plans will be followed by complaints that the window to streaming is too short or that Netflix is leaving money on the table by not creating a licensing window to send the films to other streamers.
Let’s be clear. Whether or not Netflix increases its theatrical output will have no substantive bearing on the future health of its business. I expect to hear some announcements about this during tomorrow’s earnings call. But whatever is announced has more to do with changing the public narrative than it does making the moves that will actually improve the company’s engagement and bottom line.
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The One Bigfoot Documentary You Are Going To Want To See
On October 20th, 1967, Roger Patterson captured 59 seconds of film showing a creature walking through the Northern California woods—footage that became the most analyzed and debated in history. That footage of the so-called “Bigfoot” has been used by supporters as the definitive proof that Bigfoot exists. And despite all the attention that has been focused on the footage, it has never been proven to be a fraud.
Fifty-nine years later, a reel of 16mm film discovered in a safe changes everything. And that story is the basis of the documentary Capturing Bigfoot, which premieres in select theaters and on Prime Video Tuesday, October 20th.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with director & producer Marq Evans about the film, how it came together and the impact its release has had on the Bigfoot community.
You can read the entire interview at this link, but here is an excerpt worth highlighting:
Q: I think holding the footage until the end works because, by then, you've introduced the audience to the people involved. The footage resonated with me more strongly than I expected. For some of these people, the Bigfoot footage and the entire idea of Bigfoot have defined their lives. They've spent 40, 50 or 60 years obsessed with it, and now they're getting an answer that may not be what they expected. Watching their reactions on camera was powerful.
A: In those moments, sitting in the room, you feel that it's heartbreaking, but we're also getting closer to the truth. I think that's more important than anything else.
The film is also helping people in the opposite way. Clint Patterson and his family are finally getting out from under the weight of a story they've lived with for so long.
It's heartbreaking in some ways, and different people react differently. But ultimately, you want to get to the truth and find some resolution. I think that's what people want.
Take Larry Lund, the Sasquatch sleuth. He's tearing up as he realizes the impact of what's happening. But that doesn't erase the 60 years of fun he's had, the people he's met or the friendships he's made. I think he reached a healthy understanding of what this all meant to him.
Q: One unexpected aspect of the film is that you'd expect the resolution to have a devastating impact on the Patterson family. Instead, it offers a measure of redemption and gives the family a chance to come back together in a way I wouldn't have predicted.
A: That's probably my favorite part of the whole process: knowing that they're back together. We were able to use the film as a reunion after decades of pain resulting from this story.
Before the film premiered at South by Southwest, we held a screening for friends and family in Yakima because most of them wouldn't be able to travel to the festival. We wanted them to see the film before anyone else.
Clint's mother, Patricia Patterson, was there. We were wondering what she would think of the film, and afterward, she took our hands and said, “I'm proud of you. You guys did an amazing job. I love the film.”
At a small after-party, she was sitting with Bob Heironimus. They had gone to grade school together, but they'd been at odds for decades because of the story. They talked for the first time in years.
That literally brought a tear to my eye. I thought, “Look at what we've been able to do by making a documentary like this.”
I am not at all someone who believes in Bigfoot. But Chasing Bigfoot was a surprising engaging documentary and it treated the people and the controversial film in a very even-handed way.
Tweet Of The Day
Odds & Sods
Christiane Amanpour, one of the biggest names at CNN, today announced plans to scale back her schedule at the end of this year before exiting CNN in June 2027.
Samsung TV Plus is adding a Trevor Noah channel to its FAST platform on Samsung Smart TVs but South Africans won't be able to access it since Samsung has so far failed to launch Samsung TV Plus in the country.
What’s on Netflix is reporting that the latest episode of Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal’s hugely popular business podcast, is now streaming on Netflix. Acquired: The History of Seinfeld arrived within hours of the episode going out on Acquired’s own feeds and comes exclusively with video, something that was left out on the YouTube feed.
Great Performances is bringing The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park’s exciting new staging of Romeo & Juliet to PBS on Friday, November 13th.
The stand-up special Janelle James: How Romantic premieres Tuesday, November 10th on Netflix.
O.J. Simpson said he didn’t do it. Then he authored a book titled “If I Did It,” in which he said he had help. He outlined a “hypothetical” in those pages, and it went like this: A friend was with him on the summer evening in 1994 when he murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. That person disposed of the knife and Simpson’s bloody clothes. But what if it wasn’t hypothetical? New reporting by The NY Times suggests that the assist may have actually happened — and identifies a possible accomplice.
For Latenighter, Mike Thomas tells the improbable story of Kwik Witz, the peculiar mid-’90s late-night improv show that lasted three seasons and featured a roster of future stars.
Channel 4 has commissioned its first vertical video micro-drama series. The Guest List is produced in partnership with beauty brand Sol de Janeiro.
The Complicated Value Of IP
In Friday’s newsletter, I mentioned in passing that I continue to think David Ellison’s deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery was a huge miscalculation. And I received a few emails from readers who pushed back on that claim. Their argument was that the combined companies control a lot of IP and that despite the debt load, owning that IP is worth whatever it costs.
It’s a complicated discussion and I am going to tackle it at length in an upcoming episode. But I did want to make a couple of points in the meantime.
Skydance’s debt is by far the highest ever taken on by a media company. And more than a few Wall Street analysts have argued it is high enough to endanger the survival of the company if the economy has a financial downturn.
And I will note that Paramount owned plenty of great IP and the company both before and after Skydance acquired it and the track record hasn’t been great. Although to be fair, Amazon’s record when it comes to monetizing MGM’s IP has been spotty.
Because while owning a bunch of IP is great, not intellectual property is created equal. Some of the IP is dated or problematic in some way. Some IP is incredibly valuable, but only for licensing purposes. For instance episodes of Friends are worth their digital weight in gold. But aside from the episodes themselves, the show doesn’t have much auxiliary value. Warner Brothers doesn’t have likeness deal with the cast, so it can’t flood the market with cast merchandise. And the show doesn’t lend itself very well to any spin-off or reboot opportunities.
That’s not the case with Harry Potter or Star Trek, although the latter is a textbook example of how difficult it can be to creatively please a fickle (and often vocal) fanbase.
Don’t get me wrong, IP is valuable and it certainly is worth paying for. And that IP fits in with what I wrote about last week about Hollywood needing true believers.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the Paramount/WBD deal is a massive, mostly unnecessary gamble. David Ellison is betting that he can somehow stay solvent long enough to pay down some of the debt. Maybe he’s right. I continue to think it’s more likely the combined company will implode and pieces of its valuable IP will be scattered across multiple companies as Skydance scrambles to survive in some smaller form.
What’s Coming Tonight And Tomorrow
MONDAY, OCTOBER 19TH:
Love In Disguise Series Premiere (Prime Video)
The Stepback with Blake Griffin Series Premiere (Prime Video/YouTube)
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20TH, 2026:
Capturing Bigfoot (Prime Video)
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners II (Netflix)
Frontline: H
My Father’s Prison (PBS)
Phony Series Premiere (Hulu)
Nick Cannon @ Night Series Premiere (BET)
The Golden Life Series Premiere (E!)
Theo Von: I’m Doing Fine (Netflix)
The Stepback With Blake Griffin Series Premiere (Prime Video/YouTube)
Vanderpump Rules: Lisa Las Vegas (Bravo)