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Morgan Freeman once said, “The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit.” If anyone’s taken this advice to heart, it’s the actor himself. Over the decades, he has worked tirelessly, proving time and again that quitting isn’t in his vocabulary.

From that unmistakable voice that could calm a wild bear to performances that tug at the heartstrings like a pro, this Tennessee-born actor, now 87, has made a career out of not playing by the rules. And who can blame him? When you’ve been in the game as long as he has, you get to do whatever the heck you want.

Morgan Freeman in Solos (2021)

Morgan Freeman didn’t exactly storm onto the Hollywood scene as a fresh-faced teen, but, boy, when he did, he made one heck of an entrance. Known for his role in the educational show The Electric Company, he’s since...

The pairing of famous directors with famous subjects proved an unbeatable combo in the documentary categories at the Creative Arts Emmys.

Ron Howard’s Jim Henson Idea Man, about the late Muppets creator, won Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, one of the marquee doc categories. And the winning didn’t stop there for the Disney+ film. It claimed a total of four trophies on the night, including Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (original dramatic score), and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program.

L-r Actors Jude Law, Daniel Brühl, Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Kirby and director Ron Howard of “Eden” at the Deadline Studio held at the Bisha Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival 2024 on September 7, 2024 in Toronto, Canada.

It’s been a major weekend for Oscar winner Howard, who unveiled his latest narrative...

The Primetime Emmys air on Sunday night, September 15, on ABC, but that’s not where most of the awards will actually be handed out. The vast majority will go out at the Creative Arts Awards over two nights this weekend on September 7 and September 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. So who will win? Gold Derby users have placed their bets in 31 categories here in our predictions center. Those predictions have been combined to generate our official racetrack odds. Scroll down to see those odds, with our projected winners highlighted in gold.

There will be 50 awards presented on Saturday’s show focusing on animation, reality, variety, and nonfiction programming. Another 49 trophies go out during the Sunday festivities focused primarily on craft achievements in dramas, comedies, TV movies and limited series. The final 25 awards will be bestowed on September 15 during the telecast hosted by father-and-son Emmy winners Eugene Levy and Dan Levy.

Why does Morgan Freeman, our beloved cinematic sage, sport those iconic gold hoop earrings? While some might think it’s merely a quirky fashion choice, there’s a fascinating, slightly morbid reason behind them that leaves us both admiring & chuckling in the same breath.

Morgan Freeman in Hard Rain | Credit: Paramount Pictures

As the man who’s delivered breathtaking performances in Glory, Se7en, Unforgiven, and The Dark Knight trilogy, Freeman has clearly ascended to the pinnacle of A-list stardom. But back to the gold hoops—these aren’t just bling for the bling’s sake. Freeman revealed in a 2019 Instagram post that these gleaming accessories are worth just enough for someone “to buy me a coffin if I die in a strange place”.

Just like the brave sailors and roguish pirates of yesteryear, Freeman’s got his bases covered, ensuring he can rest in peace wherever his life adventures might lead him.

A total of 36 individuals earned their first Primetime Emmy acting nominations in 2024, including “Feud” stars Naomi Watts and Tom Hollander and recent Oscar also-rans Lily Gladstone (“Under the Bridge”) and Ryan Gosling (“Saturday Night Live”). A standout among these newbies is Paul Rudd, who is the only one in the group with shots at two performance wins: Best Comedy Supporting Actor (“Only Murders in the Building”) and Best Narrator (“Secrets of the Octopus”).

Rudd could now make Emmys history as the eighth doubly-nominated first-timer to triumph on at least one of his bids. The first to do so was Robert Cummings, who simultaneously won for “12 Angry Men” and lost for “My Hero” in 1955. He was followed by Jack Albertson, Eileen Brennan, Jane Lynch, Riz Ahmed, Ann Dowd, and Ali Wong.

Twenty-six acting Emmy newcomers (13 male and 13 female) preceded Rudd in being concurrently nominated for more than one performance. Aside from Ahmed,...

Some of the biggest stars in Hollywood can call themselves Emmy nominees this year, including Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr., Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone, four-time 2024 nominee Maya Rudolph, television icon Carol Burnett, and many, many others – particularly those actors fortunate enough to star on “The Morning Show,” “The Bear,” and “Only Murders in the Building.”

But a deep dive into the entire list of 2024 Emmy Award nominees reveals some surprising names, some of whom are first-time nominees after long and successful careers. Ahead, some stars you didn’t know were Emmy nominees this year.

Eric Andre, The Eric Andre Show (Oustanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series)

Sterling K. Brown, Invincible (Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance)

Mena Suvari, Rzr (Outstanding Performer in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series)

Hannah Waddingham, Krapopolis (Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance)

Octavia Spencer, Lost Women of Highway 20 (Outstanding Narrator)

Angela Bassett,...

Shōgun, The Bear and Only Murders in the Building lead the way at the 2024 Emmy nominations, which were revealed this morning.

Below is a list of the programs with five or more noms, following by a full list of nominees and the number they received.

Related: Emmy Winners For Best Drama Since 1960: A Photo Gallery

Related: Here Are The Actors Who Have Won The Most Emmys: Photo Gallery

Related: Emmy Winners For Best Comedy Since 1952

Here is the full list of 2024 Emmy nominations by program:

25 Nominations

Shogun

23 Nominations

The Bear

21 Nominations

Only Murders In The Building

19 Nominations

True Detective: Night Country

18 Nominations

The Crown

17 Nominations

Saturday Night Live

16 Nominations

Fallout

Hacks

The Morning Show

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

15 Nominations

Fargo

13 Nominations

Ripley

11 Nominations

Baby Reindeer

Palm Royale

10 Nominations

Feud: Capote vs. The Swans

Lessons In Chemistry

9 Nominations

Abbott Elementary

Slow Horses

8 Nominations

Jim Henson Idea Man

RuPaul’s Drag Race...

Morgan Freeman is the latest star to speak publicly about alleged attempts to replicate celebrities’ voices using AI.

The Oscar-winning actor, who is known for his voiceover work, took to social media Friday to express his appreciation for fans who have notified him about AI-generated imitations of his voice.

“Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.I. voice imitating me,” Freeman posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday. “Your dedication helps authenticity and integrity remain paramount. Grateful.” Hashtags on his post included “scam” and “IdentityProtection.”

According to media reports, a TikTok user describing herself as Freeman’s niece had recently posted videos to the platform that allegedly feature narration from an AI-generated version of the actor’s voice.

Thank you to my incredible fans for your vigilance and support in calling out the unauthorized use of an A.

Steven Spielberg is diving back into the world of “Jaws” for an upcoming National Geographic documentary.

Spielberg, who helmed the iconic 1975 film adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestselling book, will produce documentary “Jaws @ 50” (working title) through his Amblin Documentaries banner. The film celebrates the 50th anniversary of the book; the feature “Jaws” recently marked its 49th anniversary on June 18, 2024.

Nedland Media’s Laurent Bouzereau will direct the documentary that includes footage and photography from the Benchley and Spielberg archives, plus all-new interviews from the worlds of film, literature, pop culture, and ocean conservation.

Author Benchley’s legacy further lives on with ocean conservation and marine policy advocate Wendy Benchley, who will be featured in the film along with branding and communications specialist Laura A. Bowling.

“Jaws” changed the theatrical blockbusters forever, and also inspired various spinoffs including a Broadway play. The behind-the-scenes stories of the book’s writing and the...

The Traitors was the top winner at the 2024 Critics Choice Real TV Awards, with the Peacock series taking home four awards, including best competition series, best ensemble cast in an unscripted series, best show host and male star of the year, the latter two won by Traitors emcee Alan Cumming.

Apple TV+’s The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy won two awards, including best unstructured series and best travel/adventure show, the only other multiple award-winning program on Saturday night.

Though RuPaul’s Drag Race went into the evening tied with The Traitors for the most nominations this year (five each), Drag Race only won one award, for best lifestyle show: fashion/beauty. Best structured show went to HBO’s We’re Here. Vanderpump Rules‘ Ariana Madix was named female star of the year.

In addition to the competitive awards, the Critics Choice Association honored Tom Bergeron with the first ever Sam Rubin Award,...

“Baby Reindeer” was among the winners at the first-ever Gotham TV Awards on Tuesday evening, taking home the prize for breakthrough limited series.

“I never thought in a million years that this dark, weird, messed up show would have brought in this universal love that it’s received,” said Richard Gadd, the show’s creator and star, in his acceptance speech. He also thanked Netflix, his team and his mom and dad for “messing [him] up enough to make [him] an artist.”

Gadd went on to say, “It’s kind of weird also that a show as messed up as this has gone on to strike a chord with so many people. I think it speaks to the fact that a lot of people in the world are struggling right now. And I don’t know much in the way of advice, but I do know that nothing lasts forever. So if you are in a rut,...

After decades of honoring the best in independent film, the Gotham Awards have formally branched out into television. In recent years the Gothams have included a handful of TV awards alongside their film races, but 2024 marks the first time the Gothams have dedicated an awards show specifically to television. Held on June 4 at 7:00pm Eastern in New York City, the awards celebrated the best new comedies, dramas, limited series and nonfiction programs of the season. So how did the inaugural event go? Who were the big winners? And what were the biggest surprises at these juried awards? The complete list of winners is below, updated throughout the night.

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Breakthrough Comedy Series

“Bodkin”

Jez Scharf, creator; Tonia Davis, Nne Ebong, David Flynn, Paul Lee, Alex Metcalf, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Jez Scharf, executive producers; (Netflix)

X — “Colin from Accounts”

Patrick Brammall,...

Freeman's favorite, The Magic of Belle Isle, was panned by critics but resonates with deeply human connections. Despite the film's poor reception, Freeman's affinity for it is rooted in his love of westerns and his bond with Rob Reiner. The film's powerful ending centers on Monte's transformation through emotional healing and inspiration.

One of the most revered actors of a generation, Morgan Freeman is an Oscar-winner best known for his iconic roles in such all-time great movies as Glory, Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Million Dollar Baby, The Dark Knight, The Bucket List, and many others. Yet, despite starring in some of the most popular films ever, it's always fascinating to hear what talented A-list actors view as their favorite movie starring themselves. Often, an actor will favor a film that fans have rarely heard of, much less seen, proving how an artist's tastes drastically differ from the public perception.

Exclusive: Netflix has given the green light to what it calls the “next iteration” of its Emmy-contending documentary series Life on Our Planet, with Morgan Freeman set to return as narrator and Steven Spielberg as executive producer.

The as-yet-untitled show from Silverback Films and Amblin Documentaries will “tell the story of the rise and fall of the dinosaurs – where they came from, why they mattered, how they evolved and how they met their ultimate fate.”

Season 1 of Life on Our Planet examined not only the dinosaurs, but the rise of invertebrates, mammals, plants, and other life forms across billions of years of evolution up until the present. Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm) returns to craft the visual effects and animation; Grammy Award-winner Lorne Balfe is back as composer.

‘Life on Our Planet’

“It is an extraordinary privilege to bring the most iconic creatures in Earth’s history to the screen,” said Dan Tapster,...

For Netflix’s Life on Our Planet, cinematographer Jamie McPherson had to capture action that simply wasn’t there.

In the eighth episode, titled “Age of Ice and Fire,” McPherson framed this shot of cave lions facing off against woolly mammoths. Some creatures from the series went extinct millions or even hundreds of years ago, but not the woolly mammoth — they went extinct 12,000 years ago.

“They’re essentially elephants and lions, so we have a sense of how they move,” explains the Dp, who notes that VFX supervisor Jonathan Privett of Industrial Light & Magic supplied him with early mockups of how these long-gone creatures would interact. “We do walk and run cycles, so you can get a feel for how fast a mammoth walks,” notes Privett, who used studies of the animals’ modern evolutionary descendants to understand these ancient beasts.

Since all that remains are their bones, Privett’s team...

The numbers are in and Beckham and Squid Game: The Challenge have topped the charts in terms of Netflix viewership when it comes to non-scripted titles.

The two series, a docuseries and reality competition, were the seventh and 15th most-watched non-scripted shows to debut in the second half of 2023, respectively.

But as Netflix continues to delve into the docuseries genre and ramp up its reality offerings, how do these shows compare to top shows from its previous data dump, in particular Love Is Blind.

Firstly, it’s complicated.

Beckham, which told the story of the former Manchester United legend’s career, debuted in October and scored 43.9M views. This was as a result of only being four parts.

Squid Game: The Challenge, the reality series based on the dystopian scripted series, secured 271M views across the period after its launch at the end of November. But that series, which was...

For decades, the Gotham Awards have honored the best in independent film as decided by select committees of industry insiders, festival programmers, and media experts. In recent years they have expanded into TV, but in 2024, for the first time, they are holding a separate awards show dedicated to the best new television programs of the year. Scroll down for the complete list of inaugural nominees. Winners will be presented on Tuesday, June 4, in New York City.

Jeffrey Sharp, The Gotham’s Executive Director, said in a statement, “In a historic moment for The Gotham, we’re thrilled to recognize an extraordinary collection of TV series and the brilliant creators responsible for bringing them to the screen. As an organization dedicated to celebrating and nurturing independent media, we know the inaugural 2024 Gotham TV Awards will honor many truly deserving creatives while widening our reach and expanding our impact. We are enormously...

RedBird Imi, the media and entertainment investment company headed by ex-CNN chief Jeff Zucker, announced the completion of its $1.45 billion takeover of All3Media, the U.K.’s largest independent TV production company.

With the deal closed, Zucker, CEO of RedBird Imi, has become the chairman of the All3Media board. All3Media CEO Jane Turton and COO Sara Geater will continue to lead the media company for RedBird Imi.

The All3Media acquisition, announced in February, is RedBird Imi’s largest completed transaction to date and its fifth since the investment company was formed in late 2022. RedBird Imi’s other holdings are L.A.-based scripted production company Media Res, the studio behind Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show”; unscripted production company EverWonder Studios; children’s entertainment company Hidden Pigeon Co., founded by author-illustrator Mo Willems; and digital news outlet Front Office Sports.

RedBird Imi acquired All3Media from its two owners,...

The Gotham Film & Media Institute announced today the nominations in seven competitive award categories for its inaugural Gotham TV Awards, recognizing a range of series, including Baby Reindeer, Ripley, The Curse, Shōgun, Bodkin, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Black Twitter: A People’s History as well as performances from Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder in The Curse, Andrew Scott in Ripley, Kristen Wiig in Palm Royale, Richard Gadd in Baby Reindeer, and Lily Gladstone in Under The Bridge, among others. The awards ceremony is set for June 4 in NYC.

“In a historic moment for The Gotham, we’re thrilled to recognize an extraordinary collection of TV series and the brilliant creators responsible for bringing them to the screen,” said Jeffrey Sharp, The Gotham’s Executive Director.

The longstanding Gotham Awards is focused on film but includes three television categories. From here on, they will migrate to the new event.

The sixth annual Critics Choice Real TV Awards nominations were unveiled, and MTV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race and Peacock’s The Traitors lead the pack.

Both competition series coincide in the Best Competition Series and Best Ensemble Cast in an Unscripted Series categories. RuPaul and Alan Cumming will vie for Best Show Host and Male Star of the Year for their respective shows.

Drag Race also scored a nod in the Best Lifestyle Show: Fashion/Beauty category, while The Traitors star Phaedra Parks picked up a Female Star of the Year nom.

“The historic strikes by the WGA and SAG/AFTRA necessitated a record amount of unscripted programming in all areas of television, from broadcast to cable to streaming, making the last 12 months a remarkable time for reality TV,” noted Critics Choice Association TV Branch Vice President Ed Martin. “The depth and diversity of our nominees for the sixth...

MTV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race and Peacock’s The Traitors lead the nominations for the sixth annual Critics Choice Real TV Awards, with five apiece.

Both series will vie for best competition series, best ensemble cast in an unscripted series, best show host (RuPaul and Alan Cumming) and male star of the year (RuPaul and Cumming, again). Drag Race also is up for best lifestyle show: fashion/beauty, while Traitors‘ Phaedra Parks earned a nom for female star of the year.

Also up for best show host are Will Arnett (Lego Masters), Terry Crews (America’s Got Talent), Kristen Kish (Top Chef) and Keke Palmer (Password).

Male star of the year nominees also include Jerrod Carmichael (Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show), Bertie Gregory (Animals Up Close With Bertie Gregory), Eugene Levy (The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy) and Gerry Turner (The Golden Bachelor).

Also vying for female star are the year...

Earth Day 2024 is fast approaching, and that means the entertainment industry has some big environmental-themed releases. Last year, Netflix debuted Life on Our Planet, and the platform's nature-docuseries fun doesn't stop there. Our Living World, narrated by the always superb Cate Blanchett, drops on Netflix today, April 17th, and explores the hidden interconnections on planet Earth, and how the actions of people and animals create astonishing effects that can ultimately be felt on a global scale.

The Academy Award-winning Blanchett once played a magical character in the renowned Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Now, she's telling a magical sort of real-life tale about the way our peculiar planet operates. And her soothing but firm voice is certainly aided by incredible wildlife photography in the new Netflix series, both above ground and underwater. The series producer behind it all is Ben Roy, who knows his way around the block when it comes to nature shows,...

Pope Francis, Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Un chief Ban Ki-Moon will be honored at the upcoming Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin on February 19.

The long-running gala run by the Cinema for Peace Foundation will be accompanied by the inaugural World Forum on the Future Of Democracy, Tech and Humankind.

The latter event will run from February 18 to 19 at the Allianz Forum next to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with the aim of promoting the renewal of democracy and freedom at a time when both are under threat.

The Cinema for Peace Foundation was created in 2008 as an international non-profit organization with the goal to foster change through film. Over the years it has worked with a host of stars including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.

Clinton and Ban will attend the February 19 gala in person while Pope Francis will be shown receiving his award in a recorded video.

Pictures: Netflix

Welcome to another look back at the biggest hits of 2023. Today, we’ll look through the documentaries and docu-series that picked up the most points in the Netflix top 10s throughout the year.

This list is compiled with data from FlixPatrol, which tracks the daily top 10s in over 90 countries globally. Their data provides a daily snapshot of what’s trending in the TV and movie list by providing points to each title that features. Although we love their data, it’s neither perfect nor an exact measurement of viewership. Netflix does provide its own data on this front, but it doesn’t allow us to paint a big picture of what was watched most in 2023 as it stands.

Because documentaries feature in the movie lists and docu-series feature in the TV list, we’ll split them separately. We’ll have a look at the documentaries and docu-series to do best globally first,...

Pictures: Netflix / Nickelodeon / Moonbug Entertainment

As the year winds down, it’s time to look back at Netflix’s biggest hits, and today, we begin by looking into what kids’ TV shows picked up the most points in the Netflix top 10s over the past 12 months.

This list is compiled using FlixPatrol data collected from the daily top 10s on Netflix from over 80 countries around the globe. They assign points and values to each title that gets featured on any day. Their data isn’t perfect as their method doesn’t quite fully capture the complexity of viewership data, such as total watch time, repeat viewings, or demographic details of the audience. Also worth noting is that Netflix changed up its top 10 metrics midway through the year to favor views over pure viewing hours. That said, their data provides a pretty accurate snapshot of what performed best over a long period.

The final season of The Crown got off to a slower start in Nielsen’s streaming rankings — which might have something to do with the fact that Netflix released only a part of the season.

The Emmy-winning drama was the most watched show on streaming for the week of Nov. 13-19, but its 943 million minutes of viewing was less than half of that for season five’s opening (2.13 billion minutes) a year ago. It’s worth noting that Netflix released just four of The Crown’s final 10 episodes on Nov. 16 rather than the full season; the remaining six debuted Dec. 14 (and, because of the four-week lag for Nielsen’s streaming charts, watch time figures for those episodes won’t be public until mid-January).

The Crown was the only original series in Nielsen’s overall top 10. David Fincher’s Netflix movie The Killer finished 10th with 557 million minutes of viewing, but...

Loki scored its biggest tune-in of season two for the week of its finale, rising by almost 200 million minutes over the prior week. That’s the good news.

The bad news for the Marvel/Disney+ series is that despite the jump, Loki still finished its second season well behind the first in terms of viewing time, according to Nielsen’s streaming ratings. Kids’ favorite Bluey led the overall rankings for the week of Nov. 6-12, and Friends continued to post higher than usual numbers two weeks after the death of star Matthew Perry.

Loki had 753 million minutes of viewing for the week (its finale debuted Nov. 9), a 34 percent jump from the previous week and its best showing of the season by a wide margin. The previous season two high was 588 million minutes for Oct. 9-15. Over the six weeks of season two, the series racked up about 3.39 billion minutes of...

With the release of its Season 2 finale, Disney+’s Loki ascended to the top of Nielsen’s U.S. ranking of streaming originals for the week of Nov. 6, amassing 753 million minutes viewed across 12 total episodes.

Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See dipped to a close second, with 744 million minutes viewed/four episodes, followed by Netflix’s Selling Sunset (rising four spots with 709 million minutes/67 episodes), The Great British Baking Show (436 million minutes/92 episodes) and Escaping Twin Flames (404 million minutes/three episodes).

More from TVLineRatings: GOP Debate Gives CW Its Largest Audience Since January 2018Ratings: DWTS Audience Grows With...

Amblin TV has built its reputation over the past three decades as one of the industry’s busiest boutiques, producing scripted series across all major platforms that range from popcorn to prestige.

But in recent years, there’s been a new storytelling target for Amblin TV chiefs Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey, who have headed Steven Spielberg’s TV production banner (previously DreamWorks TV) for more than 20 years. Amblin TV has moved aggressively into documentary feature and docu-series arena. It’s a development motivated by business necessity but also the desire to add more colors and canvases to the overall Amblin TV palette.

This year, the company fielded a surprise hit with a nature documentary for Netflix, “Life on Our Planet,” which topped the streamers’ domestic viewing charts for multiple weeks after its release in late October. Amblin also delivered the well-received feature “Good Night Oppy,” from director Ryan White...

No Hard Feelings” landed on Netflix on Oct. 22, four months after its theatrical debut, and immediately took hold of the Nielsen Streaming Top 10. The Jennifer Lawrence movie was the most-streamed title during the week of Oct. 23-29 with a healthy 1.1 billion minutes watched.

The second-most-streamed title of the week was “Suits.” The long-concluded USA Network drama had a historic run on the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 after its Netflix debut in June, racking up 15 first place finishes, 12 of which were consecutive as “Virgin River” topped the chart for a one-week stint before “Suits” returned. After three more wins, Netflix’s “Fall of the House of Usher” took first place for two weeks in a row, though “Suits” still managed to clock in at over 1 billion minutes watched.

But during the Oct. 23-29 viewing window, its 19th week streaming on Netflix, the procedural finally fell below that mark — barely, with 997 million minutes watched.

In the wake of Matthew Perry’s passing, the streaming of Friends on Max hit an all-time high, according to Nielsen’s latest U.S. ranking of streaming content.

Friends landed at No. 4 on Nielsen’s overall streaming chart for the week of Oct. 30 — trailing only Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Grey’s Anatomy and Suits — with 860 million viewing minutes, the largest viewing total for the NBC sitcom since it moved to Max from Netflix. (Friends‘ previous Nielsen chart high was 737 million minutes viewed, during the week of Dec. 5, 2022).

More from TVLineRatings: Golden Bachelor Finale Delivers 33-Month Audience High for FranchiseTVLine...

With the news of Matthew Perry’s death in late October, viewers seemingly turned to his best-known role as Chandler Bing on Friends to remember him.

The beloved comedy gathered 583 million minutes of viewing on Max for the week of Oct. 23-29 (Perry, 54, was found dead at his home on Oct. 28). That was a 31 percent gain over the previous week and the biggest total watch time for Friends since early February.

A pair of movies, No Hard Feelings and Five Nights at Freddy’s, also made strong showings on the Nielsen streaming charts for the week. The former, starring Jennifer Lawrence, led the rankings with 1.13 billion minutes of viewing on Netflix in the United States — the equivalent of about 10.97 full showings of the movie. That’s two thirds of the worldwide total Netflix reported in its own rankings for the week.

Five Nights at Freddy’s, meanwhile, drew 740 million minutes of viewing...

What happens when you combine a leading actor with two Oscar nominations, a director with four Oscar nods of his own, and a streaming debut following a very brief theatrical release? That killer combination makes for a big hit, which is what Netflix had this week with “The Killer,” starring Michael Fassbender and directed by David Fincher.

The action thriller tops the streaming chart in the Samba TV Weekly Wrap Report for the week of Nov. 6 to 12. Viewership among diverse audiences was strong, with Black households over-indexing by 6% and Hispanic households over-indexing by 5%.

In second this week is “All The Light We Cannot See,” Netflix’s limited series based on the popular novel. The series launched on Nov. 2, and the extra week of viewership helped propel the World War II drama up two spots from where it sat last week.

While Netflix has seven of the top 10 streaming spots this week,...

David Fincher’s “The Killer” scores a solid opening weekend win, debuting on the Netflix Top 10 during the Nov. 6-12 viewing window at No. 1 on the English Films list with 27.9 million total views following its Nov. 10 release date — a good starting performance which makes the film Netflix’s most-viewed title this week.

Starring Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, and Charles Parnell, the film follows an assassin who, after a fateful near-miss, “battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal,” reads the official logline.

Meanwhile on the English TV chart, Shawn Levy’s “All the Light We Cannot See” continued to stay at No. 1, hitting 10 million views in its first full week of availability. That’s a slight jump from its Netflix Top 10 debut figure of 9.8 million.

Moving up the chart to No. 2 is “Selling Sunset” Season 7 with 4.7 million total views following its first full week of availability.

National Geographic's Incredible Animal Crossings takes viewers on amazing and dangerous journeys undertaken by creatures worldwide. The narration for the series is provided by Jeremy Renner, who is known for his role as Hawkeye. Incredible Animal Journeys showcases the remarkable feats of animals across different biomes and continents, highlighting their survival instincts.

National Geographic’s Incredible Animal Crossings dives into the dangerous and amazing journeys taken by creatures all over the globe. The series explores the massive undertakings attempted by humpback whales, dung beetles, monarch butterflies, and more, across diverse biomes and even spanning continents. Part of what sets Incredible Animal Crossings apart from the best nature documentaries is the series’ narration, which was done by Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner. Incredible Animal Journeys marks Renner’s first time narrating a nature documentary series.

Of course, the natural world is a dangerous place, especially for creatures that aren’t at...

Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment are executive producers of the new paleontologic documentary "Life On Our Planet", with the latest CG-recreations of ancient earthly creatures, now streaming on Netflix:

"...to understand life we must go back to the beginning, in this new 8-part TV series, documenting the 'Mesozoic', 'Paleozoic' and 'Cenozoic' era, with Morgan Freeman narrating.

Click the images to enlarge...

While it’s no surprise to see a Spider-Man movie topping the streaming chart in the Samba TV Weekly Wrap Report for the week of Oct. 30 to Nov. 5, the uninitiated may be surprised to find that this number one film is on Netflix.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” climbed to the top of the streaming top 10 this week following its recent debut on Netflix. The animated theatrical release, which hit theaters back in June, recently debuted on the streamer because of an agreement with Sony, which technically still owns the film rights to the web crawler.

Regardless of where it’s currently available, “Spider-Verse” was a hit, with 1 million U.S. households streaming the movie between Halloween and Sunday. This animated film stars the Miles Morales version of Spidey, and that representation perhaps helped drive an over-index of 24% among Hispanic households.

“Spider-Verse” paced another dominant week for Netflix, as the platform...

French action-comedy “Wingwomen,” which premiered on Nov. 1, flew to the top of the Netflix Top 10 chart during the Oct. 30-Nov. 5 viewing window with 18.5 million views, making it the week’s most-viewed title and No. 1 on the Non-English Films list after five days of availability on the streamer. After also making its debut on Nov. 1, UK crime thriller, “Locked In,” followed closely behind as the second most-viewed title this week with 17.8 million views. Thus, taking down Bill Burr’s “Old Dads” for the top spot on the English Film chart.

The comedy moved to fifth place on the chart with 5 million views — a drop from the previous week’s recorded 16.3 million views. “Old Dads” originally opened to 13.3 million views.

Meanwhile, on the English-Language TV chart, Shawn Levy’s “All the Light We Cannot See” cracked the chart following its Nov. 2 premiere date with 9.8 million views, pushing it to No. 1 on the list.

French action comedy “Wingwomen” took home the title of most-watched Netflix program of the week with 18.5 million views, beating out the buzzy wartime limited series “All the Light We Cannot See.”

During the week of Oct. 30 to Nov. 5, Shawn Levy’s “All the Light We Cannot See” recorded 9.8 million views in the U.S., marking this week’s most-watched English TV series, and reached the Top 10 English TV list in 82 countries.

Limited series “Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom” similarly debuted as the second most-watched English series this week with 4.7 million views, before U.K. mystery series “Bodies” took third place on the list and Morgan Freeman-narrated nature series “Life on Our Planet” took fourth place with 4.3 million views. Whereas Mike Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and docuseries “Beckham” dominated the list in October, the series came in seventh and ninth place with 2.8 million views and 2.7 million views,...

The Netflix TV Top 10 was shaken up last week due to a few new offerings.

All The Light We Cannot See debuted on November 2, debuting at No. 1 on the English-language TV charts.

The World War II limited series based on Anthony Doerr’s novel tallied 9.8M viewing minutes and reached the Top 10 in 82 countries during the interval from October 30 to November 5. It took the top spot from Bodies (UK), which was nowhere to be found on the list this week.

In second place was Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom with 4.7M views. Bodies (UK), which was on top of the TV charts last week was relegated to third place during this window. Life on Our Planet, narrated by Morgan Freeman, landed in fourth place (down from third the week prior).

Elsewhere on the list, The Fall of the House of Usher lived to see another week with...

The weekend before Halloween, it would be easy to expect audiences to sit down for some spooky TV. But looking at the streaming and linear charts for the Samba TV Weekly Wrap Report for the week of Oct. 23 to 29, you’d be forgiven if you couldn’t guess the season.

Only two programs across both charts this week could be deemed Halloween-adjacent: the Netflix horror drama “The Fall of the House of Usher” in seventh on the streaming chart after several weeks in the top 10 and “Goosebumps,” on Hulu and Disney+, which lands at ninth on the streaming chart.

Beyond those, the familiar fare of movies and prestige TV content is dominating the streaming chart with reality and competition series accounting for most of the linear top 10. Case in point: “No Hard Feelings,” a summer theatrical release starring Jennifer Lawrence, tops the streaming chart. The comedy drew 2.4 million households during...

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​​Prehistoric creatures don’t come much more iconic than the Tyrannosaurus rex. There’s a reason why it’s called the “king”—the giant Cretaceous carnivore has been capturing people’s imaginations for over a century, cementing itself in pop culture in the early 1990s thanks to a scene-stealing performance in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. So, recreating the T-Rex for Life on Our Planet was no mean feat. “It’s possibly the most charismatic animal that’s ever lived,” says the series’ lead scientific researcher, Dr. Tom Fletcher. “And in many people’s eyes, it’s the most impressive animal that’s ever lived as well. So it’s some job to bring it up to date and to really do it justice.”

With 30 years of updated paleontological research to work from, the team behind Life on Our Planet set out to show a new,...

Bill Burr has taken over Netflix for the second week in a row.

His directorial debut Old Dads racked up 16.3M views from October 23 to 29, holding onto its No. 1 spot on the English-language Film Top 10. In 10 days, the film has tallied 29.6M views.

Meanwhile, Pain Hustlers made its way to audiences on October 27. In just two days of availability, the film took second place with 14.1M views.

Elsewhere on the film list, Jennifer Lawrence starrer No Hard Feelings took third place with 13.1M views. In its fifth week on the list, Grant Singer’s Reptile took seventh place with 3.5M views.

There were some big shifts on the TV side of things. The top three among English series was overhauled, with the limited drama mystery series Bodies (UK) taking first place at 7.7M views. Making their list debuts were the true crime documentary Get Gotti in second place with...

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Bill Burr’s “Old Dads” has extended its reign as the most-watched title currently on Netflix. For the second week in a row, the comedy topped the streamer’s English-language film list and scored more views than any other single title during the time period.

In its second week on the list, “Old Dads” brought in 16.3 million views, taking the movie’s total view count up to 29.6 million in only 10 days. It secured 13.3 million views last week.

On the English-language film list, “Old Dads” was followed by Emily Blunt and Chris Evans’ drama “Pain Hustlers” with 14.1 million views, Jennifer Lawrence’s sex comedy “No Hard Feelings” with 13.1 million views, Liam Neeson and Laura Dern’s 2019 action thriller “Cold Pursuit” with 6.7 million views and the 2011 family comedy “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked...

“Old Dads,” Bill Burr’s directorial debut, continues to remain in the top spot on the Netflix Top 10. During the Oct. 23-29 viewing window, the film raked in an additional 16.3 million views — a slight jump from the opening weekend’s 13.3 million views — pushing the total tally to 29.6 million views in its first 10 days of availability.

Coming in second place on the English-language films list is “Pain Hustlers.” Starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans, the film scored 14.1 million views in its debut weekend. Jennifer Lawrence’s “No Hard Feelings,” which arrived on the streamer on Oct. 22, followed just beneath it with 13.1 million views.

The UK mystery, “Bodies” opened atop of the English TV List with 7.7 million views, dethroning “Fall of the House of Usher” in just its second full week of availability. The Edgar Allen Poe-inspired limited series originally debuted in second place on the English-Language TV chart during the Oct.

Morgan Freeman is more than just an Oscar-winning actor. He’s also a diehard Kansas City Chiefs fan — which means his favorite football team has come under particular scrutiny thanks to a certain Taylor Swift dating its star tight end, Travis Kelce.

But ask the prolific performer what he thinks about this budding, A-lister romance, and he’ll tell you point blank: He doesn’t.

“You’re a big Kansas City Chiefs fan, is that true?” “CBS Mornings” anchor Gayle King asked Thursday while interviewing Freeman for his new narrating gig on Netflix, docuseries “Life on Our Planet.”

“Yes,” he responded.

“So how are you feeling about Taylor and Travis?” she pressed. “Is it keeping you up at night? Are you in favor?”

“Are you a Swiftie, Mr. Freeman?” chimed in cohost Vladimir Duthiers.

“Travis is playing better than ever,” added Nate Burleson.

“So what are you thinking, Morgan Freeman,...

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Life on Our Planet sees 65 prehistoric animals brought back from the dead. Each of them has their own amazing story to tell. Based on a combination of factors—from science to story to whether they’re cult classics or unsung heroes, here’s the team’s top 10.

1. Lystrosaurus

This curious, pig-sized proto-mammal was at one point destined to be a mere footnote in history. But then the Permian Extinction came and Lystrosaurus inherited the Earth. Skills that previously weren’t special suddenly became game-changers when the apocalypse ushered in a new era. Skills like being small, living in burrows, and enjoying a varied diet let Lystrosaurus thrive when others did not. So much so that in the years following the mass extinction, Lystrosaurs made up 75 percent of all vertebrate life on land—something no other animal has done before or since.

2. Plateosaurus

After the Carnian Pluvial Event 232 million years ago,...

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Life on Our Planet is an ambitious undertaking, breaking down the history of the world through stories of survival, extinction, catastrophe, and evolution. The documentation of the earth’s development is more than a mere visual representation of the journey from primordial ooze, however. Evolution has a sound. Its theme is a universal harmonic, but the passing tones are dissonant.

Life on the place we call home relentlessly grew over its four-billion-year history, and the series required a composer whose mission is sonic exploration: Step forward Scottish composer Lorne Balfe, who scored box office blockbusters including Top Gun: Maverick—on which he worked with Lady Gaga—and several Mission: Impossible films. The musical veteran found new ground with Life on Our Planet. “I’ve never done anything in this genre,” Balfe tells us. “I always tried different things. If I do an action movie, I...

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“Such a weird habit that I’ve got into today,” says Dan Tapster, the showrunner for Life on Our Planet. “I’ll say, ‘Yeah, we were there to film mammoths. Yeah, people, we’re here to film a T-Rex.’”

And yet, there isn’t really a better way to describe what the team of Life on Our Planet had to do for years to create the footage that makes up the documentary series. Of course, being CGI VFX, the prehistoric stars of the series are a good deal more compliant than the stars of your average nature documentary. But it also required much more planning.

“More so than with our normal series, there was a lot more pre-production,” says Sophie Lanfear, the producer-director and writer of episodes three and eight. “This had an extended phase of research and development before we even went into the field and shot stuff.

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Jeff Goldblum’s iconic assertion in 1993’s Jurassic Park is not just one of the most instantly quotable lines in cinema history; it also neatly sums up the four-billion-year history of life on Earth in four short words (five if you count the none-more-Goldblum “uh” in the middle). Of course, the reality is far from that simple.

Now, 30 years later, the makers of Netflix’s phenomenally successful nature doc Our Planet have joined forces with the technical wizards at Industrial Light & Magic for an ambitious fleshing-out of that gigayears-old story of evolution.

A series nearly five years in the making, Life on Our Planet blends groundbreaking visual effects with state-of-the-art nature photography to tell the epic tale of how life has, indeed, found a way.

Employing some Christopher Nolan-esque time-hopping and framing the action around five major mass extinction events, the series draws evolutionary...