A mutant killer baby. Lampshades and pickle jars that come alive. Sinister sewers. A demonic clown that preys on children.
HBO Max’s “It: Welcome to Derry,” the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s epic 1986 novel about a deadly clown named Pennywise, has already scared up a lot of buzz since its Oct. 26 premiere with its mix of evil events and nightmarish images.
The first episode featuring Robert Preston warning “Ya Got Trouble” via the classic musical “The Music Man” is an ominous introduction to the subsequent terrors. Gruesome sequences revolving around birth in the first two episodes will likely make several viewers cover their eyes. (The second episode drops Friday on HBO Max in time for Halloween, and it will air in its usual 9 p.m. PT Sunday slot on HBO.)
A prequel to 2017’s “It” and 2019’s “It: Chapter Two” — both directed by Andy Muschietti — the new drama is set in 1962 in the fictional small town of Derry, Maine. Bill Skarsgård, who played Pennywise in the films, will reprise his role during the season.
The large ensemble of child actors and adults features several Black characters, including Air Force Maj. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo); his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), a civil rights activist in a Jackie Kennedy pillbox hat; and son Will (Blake Cameron James). Also featured is Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider), the town’s theater projectionist, and his teen daughter Ronnie (Amanda Christine).
Developed by Muschietti, his sister Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs, the creators have prioritized increasing the intensity of the films. But the Muschietti siblings add that they are also incorporating certain messages into the mayhem. Many of the Black characters face bigotry and resistance in the predominantly white town that echo challenges that people of color currently face.
“Stephen is a master of weaving these issues into his stories, and it’s impossible to think of doing one of his stories without having that texture front and center,” Barbara Muschietti said.
The Muschiettis, in a video call, discussed diving deeper into the story of Pennywise, getting their young cast to act like kids from the 1960s, and what gives them nightmares. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Siblings Barbara Muschietti and Andy Muschietti on the set of HBO’s “It: Welcome to Derry.”
(Brooke Palmer / HBO)
How soon after the two “It” movies did the idea of a deeper dive into the world of Pennywise come about?
Andy Muschietti: The novel was the inspiration. There are all these enigmas still lingering, enigmas intentionally left unresolved in the book. Part of the greatness of the novel is that you finish 1,200 pages and at the end, you still have no idea what “It” is and what it wants. It’s all speculation. We had conversations with Bill about how great it would be to do an origin story of Bob Gray, this cryptic character, and give him the opportunity to play the human side, the man behind the clown. It’s about completing the puzzle and uniting the stories that lead one to another, creating a story with the final purpose of getting to this conclusive event, which is the creation of Pennywise, the incarnation of evil.
Barbara Muschietti: Once the idea start percolating, we got in touch with Mr. King and he loved the idea. At the beginning of the pandemic we went to (then-Warner Bros. TV chief) Peter Roth. He bought it in the room and we’ve been on it ever since. Not a day of rest.
“The Music Man” plays a prominent role in the first episode, and it gets dark pretty quickly. I’m a huge fan of that movie, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to look at that joyful musical the same way again.
Andy Muschietti: I actually wanted us to create a musical ourselves that would pretend to be a movie from 1962. But we would have spent so much money and energy. So we started a quest for the right musical. “The Music Man” was made by Warner Bros. in 1962, and it’s about someone coming to a small town not unlike Derry, talking about trouble, trouble. And it just seemed to fit.
Barbara Muschietti: We also hope a lot of younger people will be curious and go see “The Music Man.”
What is the superpower of “It” that makes it a story that keeps giving and giving?
Andy Muschietti: There are a lot of things people connect to. One of them is childhood. Most of us cherish those years as being full of magic and imagination. We’ve all been children and we’ve all been afraid of something. The novel is a testament to the virtues of childhood, and those virtues normally disappear when you become an adult. Arguably the adults are always the enemy in the world of ‘It.’”
Apart from the clown, there’s a whole mythology that has yet to be connected. My purpose in this series is to reveal the iceberg under the water.
Black characters, including Hank (Stephen Rider), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), Leroy (Jovan Adepo) and Charlotte (Taylour Paige) play central roles in HBO’s “It: Welcome to Derry.”(Brooke Palmer / HBO)
You could not have planned the timing of the show coming on, but it seems like the topical issues addressed in this show, like bigotry, have a relevance to what’s going on in the country today.
Andy Muschietti: What’s going on is not new. It’s just found a new expression. It has been going on and on in cycles. We have this illusion that things are good, but around the corner is another dictator trying to come. We came from Argentina, and we don’t have the kind of racial tension that America has had for hundreds of years. Most of Stephen’s books are a song to empathy in general, and denouncing injustice everywhere. It is important to show, especially in an era where some people in the country are trying to delete history.
Barbara Muschietti: Sadly, these horrors keep haunting us, and racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia is still sadly a human condition, needing to find someone below you that you can punch. Yes, our history makes us a little more sensitive. We live in the United States, it’s a country we love, but it is surprising …
Andy Muschietti: Alarming.
Barbara Muschietti: … that more people are not more concerned.
Andy Muschietti: It’s the fog that Stephen King was talking about. People, basically out of fear, look the other way, trying to suppress things they see, and forget. It’s all part of the same reflection.
It’s immediately obvious that some horrific things will be happening in this show, even more so than the films. The imagery is really nightmarish.
Andy Muschietti: Being a shape-shifter is the thing which keeps giving and giving, and there was a clear intention for us to raise the volume of intensity. You need to meet the expectations of the audience — they don’t want to see more of the same. And we are also dealing with a different time when the collective fears were different because of the social and political situation of that era — the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis — was just around the corner. Then there’s social unrest and segregation.
Barbara Muschietti: I’d like to say it’s all very cathartic. We’re very nice people. I swear.
A demon baby birthed in Episode 1 is among the monsters seen in “Welcome to Derry.”
(HBO)
The show also has a great feel and look to it when it comes to depicting the 1960s.
Andy Muschietti: There was a lot of instinctive respect and attention to accuracy, aesthetically and spiritually. It was the true work of a team in every department, the same folks who had worked on the movies. There was also the research from the writers.
Most of the cast members are kids who did not live in that era. How do you communicate that era and feel to a young cast?
Andy Muschietti: There is a lot of talking. Stephen King knows a lot about this because he was a kid in the 1950s. The book is so rich in detail. We have Ben Perkins, who is a child actor coach. And there is imagination. These kids like to play and at this age, they thrive when you don’t put a lot of restrictions on them. The only thing that went overboard was the cursing.
Barbara Muschietti: That’s one thing that Stephen came back to us with. “There’s too many f—.” We also send the kids with Ben who basically sets up a camp — a bicycle riding camp, a swimming camp, stuff like that which kids in 2024 did not have access to. We’ve been doing that since 2016 very successfully. Because of all of this, all these kids have an incredible bond. They’re friends for life. They get to say goodbye to adolescence on our sets in the most beautiful way.
How long will you keep expanding the ”It” universe?
Andy Muschietti: It’s Derry, Derry, Derry all day. “Welcome” is an arc that expands over three seasons. Why is “It’” Derry, and why is Derry “It”? We will eventually reveal a bigger story revolving around the existence of Pennywise.
I have to ask — what gives you two nightmares? What is scary to you?
Barbara Muschietti: Fascism. Guns.
Andy Muschietti: Violence in general. We’ve come so far as a civilization, and it seems like we haven’t learned anything. What happened to empathy, and seeing what makes us similar, instead of things that divide us?
Inside a historic aircraft hangar in Playa Vista, crowds of people gathered on Thursday to browse the latest fashions from handbags to clothing and shoes as they prepared for the holiday shopping season.
These weren’t shoppers or retailer buyers browsing for the latest products. Instead, they were YouTube video creators who were being courted by brands from Lowe’s to Shark Beauty to encourage online audiences to buy their products.
Aaron Ramirez, a 22-year-old influencer who focuses on men’s fashion and lifestyle, stood in front of racks of carefully curated shelves of backpacks as he decided which items he would endorse for his 234,000 YouTube subscribers.
“I can make a video about anything that improves my quality of life and add a link to it,” said Ramirez. “I only recommend products that I really use and really like.”
The San Diego resident was among about 300 creators participating in YouTube’s annual benefit for creators dubbed “Holiday House” that helps internet personalities get ready to sell goods during the busy holiday shopping season.
The event — held at the cavernous converted Google offices that once housed Howard Hughes’ famous Spruce Goose plane — underscores YouTube’s desire to be a bigger player in online shopping by leveraging its relationship with creators to promote products in much the same way that rival TikTok does.
In August, YouTube introduced new tools to help its creators better promote products they plug in their videos. One feature uses AI to identify the optimal place on the screen to put a shopping link when an influencer mentions a product. If a customer clicks on that link and makes a purchase, the creator gets a commission.
Brands that were once skeptical about influencers have embraced them over time as sales-tracking tools have improved and the fan base of video creators has mushroomed.
“It’s like the people that you saw on television and before that the people that you listened to on radio who became the trusted personalities in your life,” Earnest Pettie, a trends insight lead at YouTube, said in an interview. “Oprah’s Favorite Things was a phenomenon because of how trusted Oprah was, so it really is that same phenomenon, just diffused across the creator ecosystem.”
Despite economic uncertainty and tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, shoppers in the U.S. are expected to spend $253.4 billion online this holiday season, up 5.3% from a year ago, according to data firm Adobe Analytics.
Social media platforms have helped drive some of that growth. The market share of online revenue in purchases guided by social media affiliates and partners, including influencers, is expected to grow 14%, according to Adobe Analytics.
Cost-conscious consumers are doing more research on how they spend their money, including watching influencer recommendations. In fact, nearly 60% of 14- to 24-year-olds who go online say their personal style have been influenced by content they’ve seen on the internet, according to YouTube.
“It’s more about discovery, understanding where the best deals are, where the best options are,” said Vivek Pandya, director at Adobe Digital Insights. “Many of these users are getting that guidance from their influencers.”
YouTube is one of the top streaming platforms, harnessing 13.1% of viewing time in August on U.S. TV sets, more than rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, according to Nielsen. And shopping-related videos are especially popular among its viewers, with more than 35 billion hours watched each year, according to YouTube.
With YouTube’s shopping feature, viewers can see products, add them to a cart and make purchases directly from the video they’re watching.
Promoting and enabling one-click e-commerce from video has been huge in China, triggering a wave across Asia and the world of livestreaming and recorded shopping videos. Live commerce, also known as live shopping or livestreaming e-commerce, is a potent mix of streaming, chatting and shopping.
The temptation to shop is turbocharged with algorithms like that of TikTok Shop, enticing people to try more channels and products.
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1.YouTube content creators Diana Extein, left, and Candice Waltrip, right, film clothing try-ons during YouTube’s Holiday House shopping event at Google Spruce Goose on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025 in Playa Vista, CA.2.YouTube content creator Peja Anne, 15, makes a video with beauty products as her mom Kristin Roeder films during YouTube’s Holiday House shopping event at Google Spruce Goose on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025 in Playa Vista, CA.
A YouTube content creator who declined to give her name browses YouTube’s Holiday House shopping event at Google Spruce Goose on Thursday in Playa Vista, Calif.
YouTube content creator Cheraye Lewis’ channel focuses on lifestyle and fragrance, and a brand deal with Fenty Beauty helped launch her content to larger audiences.
More than 500,000 video creators as of July have signed up to be a part of YouTube Shopping, the company said.
Creators who promote products can make money through ads and brand deals, as well as commissions.
YouTube already shares advertising and subscription revenue with its creators and currently does not take a cut from its shopping tools, said Travis Katz, YouTube Shopping vice president.
“For us, it’s really about connecting the dots,” Katz said. “At YouTube we are first and foremost very focused on, how do we make sure that our creators are successful? This gives a new way for creators to monetize.”
Companies like Austin-based BK Beauty, which was founded by YouTube creator Lisa J, said YouTubers have helped drive sales for their products.
“They’ve built these long-term audiences,” said Sophia Monetti, BK Beauty’s senior manager of social commerce and influencer marketing. “A lot of these creators have established channels. They’ve been around for a decade and have just a really engaged community.”
To be sure, YouTube faces a formidable rival in TikTok, which is a leader in the live shopping space (its parent company, Byte Dance, is being sold to an American investor group so that the hugely popular app can keep operating in the U.S.).
Two years ago, the social video company launched TikTok Shop, working with creators and brands on live shopping shows that encourage viewers to buy products. TikTok had 8 million hours of live shopping sessions in 2024.
YouTube says its size and technology create advantages, along with the loyalty its creators build with fans when it comes to product recommendations.
Bridget Dolan, a director of YouTube Shopping Partnerships, said “shopping has been in YouTube’s DNA from Day One” and that the company has been integrating shopping features into its viewing experience.
YouTube content creators peruse products and film content during YouTube’s Holiday House shopping event at Google Spruce Goose on Thursday in Playa Vista, Calif.
Santa Clarita-based YouTube creator Cheraye Lewis said that YouTube Shopping helped her gain traction and earn a trusting audience through quality recommendations. Lewis, who has 109,000 subscribers on YouTube, makes videos about items such as fragrances and skincare products.
Lewis has been a video creator for eight years and has worked with such companies as Rihanna’s beauty brand Fenty.
“I try to inspire women and men to feel bold and confident through the fragrances that they’re wearing,” Lewis said at the event Thursday. “I give my audience real talk, real authenticity.”
Gavin & Stacey may have come to an emotional end on Christmas Day, but it seems James Corden and Ruth Jones aren’t quite done yet as they have reportedly signed a huge new deal
Ruth Jones and James Corden are said to be working on a new show together(Image: PA)
James Corden and Ruth Jones are reportedly set to reunite once again despite Gavin & Stacey coming to an emotional end last Christmas. The show creators and stars are said to be putting their brains together once again for a follow-up to the iconic BBC comedy.
They said they hoped to work together again after Gavin & Stacey ended, and it seems fans might not have long to wait. Just last month, Gavin actor Matthew Horne teased to the Mirror that something big is up their sleeves.
It has now been reported we can expect to see a brand new ten-part comedy drama from James and Ruth as they have reportedly signed a huge deal with AppleTV+. Their new show will be set in the UK with filming starting next year, according to reports.
James and Ruth are said to be working on a follow up together(Image: BBC/Toffee International Ltd./Tom Jackson)
It is expected to hit screens in 2027, with AppleTV+ winning against interest from the BBC, Netflix and Amazon Prime. “Naturally there was a lot of interest around the script and a major bidding war to land this production,” a source told the Sun.
“But James already had an excellent relationship with AppleTV+. It acquired the rights to his Carpool Karaoke, and it made sense to go in this direction.”
They explained how Ruth and James stayed “loyal” to the BBC for Gavin & Stacey’s finale as they turned down Netflix. However, it seems they may have branched out for the new series that’s set to include a “new format and new characters”.
Casting for the new show is yet to begin, but those involved are said to be “incredibly excited”. It comes at a busy time for both James and Ruth, who are working on their own projects.
James is starring in New York Broadway show Art, while Ruth has been writing her novels ahead of starring in Netflix thriller Run Away. In August, the Mirror revealed how Gavin & Stacey star Matthew plans to appear in the new show.
When asked on his future plans with the show’s creators, he said: “I would love to work with James and Ruth again. In fact James and I have been discussing doing a play because we are both going back into the theatre for a while – but not in the same play.
“James and I have been talking about doing a play, maybe next year or maybe the year after that. And as for Ruth, she is writing her novels at the moment.
“And she has written a new novel (By Your Side) and it is all set on a fictional island in Scotland and my heritage is Scottish, I am actually mostly Scottish by blood. So I am hoping to get into something because a lot of her novels are going to be turned into TV stuff so I’d like to work with her on that level.”
He then teased while at a talk: “And I know they are doing something with Apple at the moment, they are writing something for Apple. So I think my working relationship with both of them will continue but it may not be imminent but I think we definitely will come back together so that will be really exciting and I would jump at the chance to do that.”
Speaking in May at the BAFTAs, Ruth also said she wanted to make more TV with her friend and co-star. Ruth said: “I love working with James Corden, I really do, and I hope that we will carry on working together.”
A source close to James previously confirmed he was working on writing new projects with Ruth but said as well as Apple, a number of TV channels and streamers were keen to screen whatever they come up with.
This article contains spoilers from the first season of “The Paper.”
The journey to spin off the U.S. version of “The Office” has, until now, been long and slow. (That’s what she said.)
While the unconventional workplace comedy about a humdrum band of paper company employees, adapted from a beloved British series of the same name, famously got off to a sluggish start on NBC with a low-rated six-episode first season, it became a rare case study of how a risky gamble can become a pop culture phenomenon and one of the most popular sitcoms in TV history. Talks of expanding “The Office” universe began as early as Season 3, when another office branch was introduced. “Parks and Recreation” was initially conceived as a spinoff but morphed into a standalone series. Another centered on socially awkward Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) would get dropped. The series eventually ended its nine-season run in 2013 with no offshoot. But it still managed to have an afterlife without one, as fans obsessively continued to watch it in syndication or on streaming platforms.
Once “The Office” began making headlines in 2020 for the being the most streamed show in America, Greg Daniels, who captained the U.S. adaptation and was initially concerned about tarnishing its legacy with offshoots, was coming around to the idea that it was safely insulated enough to withstand any attempt to find a way to build out its kooky world.
Finally, more than a decade after “The Office” went off the air, Peacock is hoping the spinoff series “The Paper” can recycle some of that show’s success while finding its own path.
In “The Paper,” Domhnall Gleeson, left, stars as editor in chief Ned Sampson, and Tim Key plays executive Ken Davies.
(Aaron Epstein / Peacock)
This series shifts its focus to the staff at the Toledo Truth Teller, a struggling local newspaper in Ohio, which is being filmed by the same documentary crew that followed bumbling boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his Scranton, Pa.-based Dunder Mifflin employees. (It’s a believable documentary subject when you consider the U.S. has lost more than one-third of its newspapers since 2005.) Daniels created the series with Michael Koman (“Nathan For You,” “How to With John Wilson”).
All 10 episodes of the first season were released Thursday on Peacock, and the show has been picked up for a second season. Daniels and Koman visited The Times earlier this month — and spoke in follow-up video calls — to discuss the comedy potential of a beleaguered industry, why Oscar is the obvious choice to be the crossover character in the spinoff and whether they plan to reference the president’s comments about the press. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
The series was originally going to launch with four episodes, then switch to a weekly drop. But it was recently announced that the full season is dropping at once. What happened? And do you have strong feelings about release models?
Daniels: Every company is different. I do know that they’re [NBCUniversal] being incredibly supportive and there’s a giant team gaming out every move. I trust that they have the best of intentions and have a lot of good strategy. My inclination was always to sneak on the air without any fanfare whatsoever, and then maybe advertise after — that is very naive, apparently. One possible nice thing about it being handled this way is our superfans will be able to watch at their own convenience, and maybe before they’ve seen too many promos. I’ve always felt like the show was cut to be the introduction to the show itself. And the more you know jokes you see from later in the seasons, the more you’re coming at it with an unintended awareness of what’s to come. It may play better, just clean for all the superfans. Actually, I thought at first, the pace-out model would be good because that was how “The Office” was on NBC. But they did point out to me that probably the majority of “The Office” fans have watched it on streaming, where they could binge the whole thing.
Koman: It’s not really my area, but that’s how I like to watch things. I’m always happy when it’s up to me — I can make my own schedule, and I tend to watch things quickly.
The crisis facing local journalism doesn’t feel like an obvious backdrop for comedy — and if you’re in it, it’s more of a can’t-help-but-laugh–to-keep-from-crying vibe. How did you arrive at a newsroom as your backdrop and what was the pitch?
Daniels: You wouldn’t think that selling stationary was a particularly hilarious or glamorous place to set a show. I think that there are some intentional differences with this show, and in the sense that we didn’t want to repeat aspects of “The Office.” For me, I was incredibly protective of the original show and the cast. I just waited a long time to do something like this. The original “Office” cast was very supportive by the time it came about. Since it’s a documentary, if you’re going to really commit to that device, you have to think all the time about [how] there’s really camerapeople in the room; they’re trying to cover something; they wouldn’t be there to just cover what they thought was a funny workplace. They’re there to cover an actual story. And the hollowing out of local newspapers is an interesting story that you could imagine a documentary crew from PBS being like, “Oh, this is a good story.” Of course, since it’s a comedy show, the stuff that’s happening in the background is really the point of the show — all the funny interactions with people as they try to do stuff. Another way that we wanted it to be different was the whole interaction between Michael Scott and his staff — he was not a very inspirational boss, and Ned Sampson, played by Domhnall Gleeson, comes in and he does manage to inspire the people working there. And the question is more: Is he biting off way more than he can chew and his staff can chew? Or should they be right and believing in him?
Koman: I just think reality always makes the best backdrop. And it’s good if your characters are facing a challenge and you have something to root for.
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1.Clockwise from top left: Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly, John Krasinksi as Jim Halpert, BJ Novak as Ryan Howard and Steve Carell as Michael Scott in “The Office.”2.Carell, Krasinksi and Wilson in a scene from the NBC comedy.(Justin Lubin / NBC Universal)
How did you land on Toledo?
Daniels: That was really about the alliteration of the Toledo Truth Teller. There’s something about the Cleveland Plain Dealer that I think is a super interesting thing. The name of it, I thought, has always been very intriguing. It kind of reminds you of the independence of these big Midwestern newspapers, which is different from now. It really feels like the big newspapers are L.A., New York, Washington, Dallas. I know the Cleveland Plain Dealer is still quite healthy, which is great. But there is something about the Midwest that feels nostalgic.
Koman: If I think of the heyday of print journalism, Ohio is just a place that comes to mind. They had so many really important newspapers and great journalists that came out of there, so it just seemed like … if somebody was going to try to revive something, that’s a state, and Toledo itself, is a place where you can see it happening.
Daniels: Toledo also has a certain “Office-y,” Scranton thing to it. There was a time where we were looking at where the other locations that Dunder Mifflin has offices. And the list is very funny. It’s like Yonkers and Nashua, New Hampshire. It’s all these words that are just kind of fun to roll off your tongue.
Greg, you had been resistant to the idea of expanding “The Office” universe. “Parks and Recreation” was originally meant to be a spinoff, but it eventually evolved away from that. Why now? What changed?
Daniels: There’s two questions. One is, why now? And part of that is that “Upload” [Daniels’ Prime Video series] is wrapping up. When we first started discussing it, I didn’t know what was going to happen with “Upload.” I had sold it and I was committed to being the showrunner and it kept getting picked up, so I kept having to put off thinking about any kind of [“The Office”] spinoff. But [the final season of] “Upload” is dropping Aug. 25. The other part of your your question — over the years, since the finale, the show had this enormous blow-up on Netflix. It just felt like this show is pretty bulletproof at this point. Even if we did a s— job with a spinoff, it’s not going to go back in time and mess up “The Office,” which was my concern. “The Office” was such a beautiful and rare confluence of the cast and the time and the format and the writers and everything — it seemed very arrogant to think you could pull that off again. But then after a while, it’s like, “Well, you got to try.” You can’t be intimidated out of ever doing anything.
Greg Daniels says the staff of a struggling newspaper is as relatable as their Dunder Mifflin predecessors: “That quality of morale being low is very ‘Office’-like. The tone is intended to be similar without having the characters be similar.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
How did you arrive at former Dunder Mifflin accountant Oscar Martinez (Oscar Núñez) being the connecting character between the two shows?
Daniels: When you look at the finale of “The Office,” everybody was going off in their own direction that had a lot of, in my view, meaningful wrap-up of their story. Jim and Pam were moving to Boston with Darrell; Toby was in England. But Oscar didn’t really have a big arc. He was pretty much Oscar the whole way through, and it didn’t feel like it was going to undo anything with “The Office” to keep Oscar involved.
Koman: It made sense, just on a business level, that if one company was acquired by another, that some people would move over into that company. He was the one person who, I think, would have stayed.
Daniels: He was maybe the most self-possessed. He had the most dignity, I think, of most of the characters. The idea that the crew has found him again just seemed appropriate. He did run for elective office at the end of “The Office,” so I feel like he is susceptible to being inspired and do something for his community, so he seems like a person who could buy into what Ned is selling.
Koman: Also, he has kind of a cosmopolitan personality. The city is like a third larger than Scranton.
Greg, you gave us one of the great will–they/won’t–they relationships in TV history with Jim and Pam. There are a couple of office romances brewing on “The Paper.” The season ends with Ned and Mare (Chelsea Frei) kissing. Is there a specific challenge with crafting a slow burn in the streaming era? How did you want to approach things this time around?
Daniels: You need to have stakes in stories. If you’re going to be very realistic and relatable, the stakes in people’s stories are mostly romantic because most people don’t battle aliens to save the world or whatever. So, the highest stakes a normal person usually has is who they’re going to marry or who they’re seeing, or what drama they’re in in their personal lives. There’s a column the New York Times does about people who are getting married, how-they-met kind of thing, which I love, and you realize that there’s hundreds and hundreds of stories of how people meet. It’s not all Sam and Diane or Pam and Jim. My aim would be to not have the audience be like, “Who’s the next Pam and Jim? Is that Pam and Jim?” That’s their relationship. Those two actors were brilliant. You can’t replicate it, but it doesn’t mean that other characters aren’t going to be romantically interested in each other.
Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Kraskinski), the friends-to-lovers duo affectionately known as JAM, in a scene from “The Office.” (Paul Drinkwater/NBC)
“The Paper” features characters like interim managing editor Esmeralda (Sabrina Impacciatore), compositor turned reporter Mare (Chelsea Frei) and new boss Ned (Domhnall Gleeson). Mare and Ned have a will-they/won’t-they dynamic in the sitcom. (Aaron Epstein/Peacock)
We had a sense, at least through Kelly Kapoor and her pop culture references, that “The Office” took place in our shared reality, but it didn’t directly comment on real world matters. But considering the show’s setting and Ned’s idealism about the profession, with President Trump’s ongoing remarks about the press, can you see a day where those remarks or ideas are more directly referenced in some form? Or do you want to stay clear of that?
Daniels: I think there’s so many voices that [are] constantly talking about that, just from a comedy standpoint; I’m very tired of it. There’s also so many opinions that are so strong. My inclination is to do the fundamentals — it’s a character comedy. These are characters. They’re in a world of journalism [and it] has a lot of bumping between human beings and ethics, and to tell those stories is valuable. No matter what side you’re on, you can look at it and, hopefully, if there’s truth in what’s being presented, you can take something valuable away.
Koman: It’s important to think of this as a local paper. Their struggle is to credibly tell local stories, which is what I think the city needs, more than anything — a voice to just tell people what’s going on. Beyond that, I think the way that a culture will seep into a show like this — you should always have a sense of reality and that this is taking place in the present. I think of their minds as being focused on: How can we be a good news source for Toledo?
Michael Koman, who previously worked on docu-comedies “Nathan For You” and “How To With John Wilson,” on capturing the state of journalism realistically in “The Paper”: “What makes newspapers different than other businesses or other jobs is that people do arrive with a sense of enthusiasm for what they’re going to do. It seemed important that many of these people could have started their jobs like this, but now we’re meeting them at a point where that’s been tamped down enormously.”
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
The impulse when you hear about a spin-off or a reboot is to compare and to see who fits into what archetypes. Tell me about the types of characters you wanted to fill out in this newsroom.
Daniels: We tried to avoid that. What’s the point of doing something where everybody can go, “Oh, that’s the new Dwight”? They’re working in journalism and they have a very romantic, idealistic boss. He’s extremely interested in getting to the bottom of stories and being super rigorous and ethical, but he’s come in and replaced the temporary managing editor, Esmeralda, played by Sabrina Impacciatore, who has a very different view. She doesn’t really drill down that hard. She’s more about getting eyeballs.
Koman: What makes newspapers different than other businesses or other jobs is that people do arrive with a sense of enthusiasm for what they’re going to do. It seemed important that many of these people could have started their jobs like this, but now we’re meeting them at a point where that’s been tamped down enormously. Morale is low. In terms of who this group of people was, you could feel like that’s been dampened enormously and somebody new can come in who, either out of naivety or just optimism, thinks that he can revive it.
Daniels: That quality of morale being low is very “Office”-like. The tone is intended to be similar without having the characters be similar.
The title sequence is a montage of the various ways people make use of newspapers — rather than reading it. How would you describe your relationship to print journalism?
Daniels: When I first moved out here, I had a subscription to the L.A. Times, and the volume of papers was so gigantic, and it would come with these white ties to hold it all together. I built furniture in my apartment out of stacks of L.A. Times because they were so big. So it’d be like two weeks of them, I could make a stool and make a table with a full week’s worth stacked up.
Koman: Yes, I would say that digital media is all well and good until you need to pack glasses, then you hunt for a newspaper.
Daniels: One of my earliest memories is my parents trying to read the newspaper on their bed, and I wanted their attention, so I would roll onto the newspapers and look up at them, which would really irritate them. They were a big newspaper household.
Much like the news media, your industry is confronting budget constraints and technological disruption that is forcing changes to business models and programming strategies. What are your concerns about your industry right now?
Daniels: One of the big themes is the return to advertising. The streamers have all added ad tiers and that naturally is going to change the programming a bit. I don’t think, necessarily, [that] it’s bad. When you look at the heyday of Netflix, a lot of their biggest stuff had been developed under the old advertising model. I sometimes think about the French movie business, where it seems like they don’t care if something makes money or not. It’s just, if you’re in the club, you get to make movies over and over again. I’ve always felt like that there’s something more democratic about: You actually have to get people to watch your thing somehow.
Koman: The strangest thing about this industry is that it might change a lot, [but] the thing you’re making is a timeless product. You’re telling a story. There’s the part of it that is like, “Well, this will eventually be finished and will be presented somewhere” — and you have no control over how that’s going to change. But what you’re actually trying to make would have to hold up under any conditions.
The creators of Comedy Central’s “South Park” reached a breakthrough Monday in the tense negotiations over the streaming rights of the long-running satirical cartoon.
Paramount agreed to buy the global streaming rights for “South Park” to bring the show to the company’s digital service, Paramount+, for the first time in the U.S., according to three people close to the negotiations who were not authorized to comment.
The deal with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, through their Park County production company, values the global streaming rights at $300 million a year, according to two of the people close to the agreement, who could not discuss the matter publicly because the deal is not final.
The five-year deal means the show will fetch $1.5 billion for streaming alone.
The sum preserves the show’s status as one of the world’s most valuable TV franchises.
Both sides were motivated to reach a deal before Wednesday, when Paramount’s Comedy Central channel kicks off the 27th season of “South Park.”
Paramount also wanted to avoid any public relations fiascoes when Stone and Parker take the stage Thursday at fan-fest Comic-Con in San Diego.
Separately, the two sides have been negotiating an overall deal for Parker and Stone, to renew their previous $900-million pact that kept the show on Comedy Central with new episodes through 2027. Parker and Stone’s team are seeking a higher valuation in order to produce new seasons.
Michelle Khare has mastered taekwondo, muscled through police academy and conquered Houdini’s deadliest trick. But now comes a different kind of challenge for the popular daredevil: proving to the Hollywood establishment that Emmy-worthy content arises from YouTube.
The host, known for her online reality series “Challenge Accepted,” is part of a group of YouTube creators with massive followings, producing high-caliber content, who are vying for Primetime Emmy Awards this year.
Although she won’t need to enlist the help of an Olympian or train for months this time around, she’s taking the challenge head-on. But while she’s been on the awards campaign, Khare said her top priority is letting her videos speak for themselves.
To that end, she’s taken on some high-profile challenges lately, including surprising Tom Cruise at the premiere of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” She got in by donning a mask a la the spy franchise, whipping it off for the big reveal. And she teased the process of training to take on Cruise’s infamous stunt of hanging off a plane as it’s taking off.
The video has garnered more than 800,000 views.
“My primary concern constantly is, ‘Is the show we’re making worth a nomination?’ and it needs to be, always,” she said.
Having a creator win an Emmy would be yet another milestone in YouTube’s quest for global dominance.
People now spend more time watching YouTube on TV screens than viewing subscription-based streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video, according to data from Nielsen. On average, there are more than 20 million videos uploaded daily to YouTube, according to the company.
Google-owned YouTube’s revenue last year was estimated to be $54.2 billion, which would make it the second-largest media company behind Walt Disney Co., according to a recent report from research firm MoffettNathanson.
Creators self-submitted for the awards, and YouTube has been supporting their campaigns to bring awareness to their content and sway Emmy voters. The creators and YouTube are jointly contributing to the campaigns. No matter what happens when nominations are announced Tuesday, this year’s push is a long time coming.
Traditional studios and networks have substantial budgets dedicated to awards campaigns because the trophies and the glamour of awards season are not just superficial. A major nomination or award serves as a signal of high quality and legitimacy. That would be all the more meaningful for online creators, who have traditionally been seen as on the outskirts of Hollywood.
For the individual creators and their companies, the investment in the Emmys race could lead to new or more fruitful relationships with advertisers and sponsors. The prestige recognition could also open the door for different opportunities for creators, like Lilly Singh’s late-night stint or MrBeast’s competition series on Prime Video.
Khare said when she met with YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan shortly after he was appointed in 2023, he asked her what the company could do for her. Helping a creator earn an Emmy was her request, she said.
“If it’s not me on July 15, if it’s anybody else, if it’s this year, next year, 10 years from now, I can’t wait,” she said.
Khare, who is hoping for a nomination in the hosted nonfiction series category, is in good company with two other YouTube shows in the running for awards this year.
“Good Mythical Morning,” a daily show hosted by YouTube personalities Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, and Sean Evans’ talk show “Hot Ones,” where celebrity guests eat progressively spicier chicken wings, are also eligible for Emmys. Last year, “My Next Guest With David Letterman and John Mulaney,” an “Only Murders in the Building” aftershow and “The Daily Show” won in the respective categories these YouTubers are hoping for a spot in.
“There’s a reason traditional Hollywood cares about awards,” Khare said. “It attracts the crew who want to work on [the show]. It attracts the audience to bring viewership, and it also attracts advertisers to financially support and make the show continually sustainable, in addition to all of the other wonderful publicity things that it does to elevate us into this world against legacy television.”
Khare said she always wanted to work in television and gained experience at legacy studios before joining BuzzFeed, which she called “paid graduate school for content creation.”
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
In a 2024 guest column for the Hollywood Reporter, Mohan wrote that YouTube creators are not just vlogging from their bedrooms. They have writers’ rooms, production teams and business strategies. Mohan wrote that the Television Academy recognizing creators wouldn’t “detract from its storied history” but rather ensure the group is forward-looking.
“In order to maintain its relevance and emerge a leader in the digital age of entertainment, the Emmys should celebrate all kinds of content, especially the creators whose storytelling is pushing culture forward,” he wrote.
A 2025 report from the Television Academy released in February shows the members skew older. About 50% of the body reported their age, and of that group, roughly 68% are age 41 or older.
Much of the challenge in these creators’ quests to get nominated for or win an Emmy Award is making sure voters are familiar with their YouTube content. Although they each attract millions of viewers, Hollywood‘s more old-school folks might not have come across their videos before the awards push began.
Khare, who said she had always wanted to work in television, started off interning at legacy studios before she took on a role as a video producer for BuzzFeed in its heyday. She said her experience making YouTube videos for the media company was like going to “paid graduate school for content creation.” At the same time, she was “moonlighting” as a professional cyclist, she said.
Creating “Challenge Accepted,” where she often undertakes incredible physical tasks, was a marriage of her love for video content and athletics. And the extreme stunts she’s able to pull off make her particularly adept at getting attention online. Training like an Olympic boxer, for example. Or learning how to take hits like a superhero stunt performer.
Beyond what creators are doing and contributing to the campaigns themselves, YouTube is supporting the push for Emmys, most visibly by hosting its first formal For Your Consideration, or FYC, event in coordination with the Television Academy.
More than a decade ago, Bernie Su won an Emmy for a YouTube series he worked on. As far as he’s aware, his 2013 win marked the first time “the word YouTube has ever appeared on the trophy,” Su said. He went on to win two more Emmys, one for another YouTube series and one for a Twitch series.
The category for his YouTube wins, recognizing creative achievement in interactive media for an original interactive program, is judged by panels of industry professionals, rather than by popular vote.
But Su said his road to win the Emmys looked very different than the creators in the race today. YouTube wasn’t even aware he and his team were submitting their series for Emmy consideration in 2013, he said.
Still, Su said he’s rooting for Khare and the other creators in the running this year, especially since he’s seen firsthand how an Emmy Award helps to legitimize digital-native work.
“My parents are very much all about the three Emmy wins when they talk about their son,” he said. “Not about anything else. It starts there. That’s the nexus of the work that I do.”
YouTube declined to share how much money the company has spent to support the campaigns this year. Angela Courtin, a YouTube executive who’s helming the awards push, said the company is relying on “existing commitments” like billboard space and activations at film festivals to highlight the Emmy contenders.
“When they decided that they wanted to be seen among their peers equally, then it became our responsibility and our opportunity, as well as our privilege, to collaborate with them to do so,” Courtin said. “At the end of the day, the award sits on their mantle, not ours. It will never be in my office.”
Evans, left, Khare, McLaughlin and Neal each spoke to Television Academy members about their shows at YouTube’s For Your Consideration event in May.
(Araya Doheny / Getty Images for YouTube)
Offering this kind of support to creators serves YouTube too.
Beyond the benefits of recognition as a serious player in the traditional television world, and the potential boost in advertising dollars flowing to the company, YouTube putting both monetary and figurative weight behind creators is a worthwhile investment, said Jeremy Goldman, senior director of briefings at eMarketer. After all, YouTube doesn’t want to lose more of its talent roster to Instagram Reels and TikTok.
“YouTube creators can take their ideas elsewhere,” Goldman said. “The more you support them, the more likely they are to go to YouTube for future endeavors, which has been very valuable for YouTube, because it’s basically people creating [intellectual property].”
Brian Flanagan, the president of Mythical, the studio founded by YouTubers Rhett and Link, said seeking awards recognition is not about ego but about acknowledging the many people behind “Good Mythical Morning” and the other shows Mythical makes that draw audiences in the millions.
“GMM” is eligible in the category honoring short-form comedy, drama or variety series. Recent winners include “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” and “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson.”
Mythical is also acutely aware of the business implications of a major award nomination or win.
“If you want to seek premium advertising, top-flight guests and other trappings of the best of the best of Hollywood television, it could really be a distinguishing mark, and we’d be excited to have that stamp on us,” Flanagan said.
Evans, who is vying for recognition in the talk series category with the likes of Jon Stewart, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert, told The Times in June that he feels “Hot Ones” should be in the mix with these traditional television mainstays.
“I didn’t know that we’d be a part of the conversation, never dreamed of it,” he said. “But now that we are, I’ll say with my full chest that we belong.”
Khare would also be entering a storied category with legendary past winners like Anthony Bourdain and David Letterman. That prospect, perhaps unsurprisingly given her record of daunting feats, doesn’t intimidate her.
The list of past winners in this category and other television stars who have inspired Khare’s work are mostly men. “I would love to inspire young women to go out and be great too,” she said.
Despite the tough odds of securing not only a nomination but shooting for a win in a competitive field, Khare remains optimistic about her chances.
Channel 4 has added a gripping three-part drama to its roster of shows, which first aired on the BBC in 2018 and was created by the creator of Happy Valley
Channel 4 has added a gripping three-part drama to its roster of shows(Image: BBC/Red Productions Limited/Steffan Hill)
Happy Valley fans have been urged to watch ‘brilliant’ three-part drama that has recently been added to Channel 4’s line-up of Programmes.
Channel 4 has recently added a captivating three-part drama to its line-up of programmes. The series, titled Come Home, is the brainchild of Danny Brocklehurst, known for his work on Fool Me Once and Brassic.
Described as a “touching and intriguing” drama, it explores the aftermath when a mother abruptly leaves her family. Originally broadcasted on the BBC in 2018, the series is produced by the creators of Happy Valley.
Set and filmed in Northern Ireland, the plot revolves around Greg, a father of three, who is left stunned when his wife of 19 years decides to abandon her family.
The official synopsis reads: “Greg and Marie have been married for nineteen years, when, seemingly out of the blue, Marie walks out on him and her three children – the last taboo of parenting.
The series first aired in 2018 on BBC and has now been added to Channel 4(Image: BBC)
“This touching and intriguing drama will take audiences on a roller-coaster of ever-changing emotions and allegiances. Multiple time-frames, viewpoints and flashbacks tell Greg and Marie’s story and force viewers to confront their own truths. How can two people that loved each other become so opposed?
“Can a child learn to forgive their mother for leaving them? And why would Marie make such a shocking and significant decision to change their lives and divide their loyalties forever?”
In an interview with the BBC, creator Danny gave viewers a taste of what they could expect from the show, stating: “The first episode is told from the perspective of Greg (Christopher Eccleston) and the kids, nine months after Marie (Paula Malcomson) has walked out. They are trying to find a way to cope, but a new woman in Greg’s life brings problems rising to the surface.”
“The second instalment of the series spotlights Marie, while the third episode delves into themes of fierce protection and divided loyalties,” he added.
Christopher Eccleston leads the cast(Image: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO)
Christopher Eccleston, known for his roles in Doctor Who and True Detective, stars as Greg, with Paula Malcomson of Ray Donovan and Mayor of Kingstown fame portraying Marie.
The couple’s three offspring are portrayed by Anthony Boyle, seen in Shardlake and Say Nothing, as Liam; Lola Petticrew, known from Say Nothing and Bloodlands, as Laura; and Darcey McNeeley of Derry Girls as Molly.
The show has been met with acclaim upon its debut, with viewers describing it as “brilliant” and “gripping”. Social media users have praised the series, with one stating: “#ComeHome was brilliant.
“Christopher Eccleston is an amazing actor; whole cast were brilliant. Intriguing stuff,” and another commenting: “What brilliant short series, great acting & storyline.”
