As a 12th-year pro, Davante Adams knows the value of rest during a bye week. So before the Rams played the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Oct. 19, Adams looked forward to days off that awaited.
Then Adams, flashing his three-time All-Pro form, caught three touchdown passes.
Was there any part of him that did not want a break?
“Oh, hell yeah,” Adams said this week, noting that he told coach Sean McVay, “‘I wish we could keep rolling at this point.’”
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Gary Klein breaks down what to expect from the Rams on Sunday when they face the New Orleans Saints at SoFi Stadium.
So did McVay.
“He’s like, ‘Man, I don’t want to have a week off,’” McVay recalled. “I said, ‘Hey, just enjoy it.’”
Adams, rested and ready after spending part of last week in Mexico with family, intends to pick up where he left off two weeks ago when the Rams play host to the New Orleans Saints at SoFi Stadium.
But the Rams will be without speedy receiver Tutu Atwell, who will be sidelined for at least four games on injured reserve because of a hamstring injury.
McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford showed against the Jaguars that the Rams’ weapons go beyond Nacua and Adams. Four tight ends — Tyler Higbee, Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen and rookie Terrance Ferguson — were among the 10 players who caught passes in the 35-7 victory that improved the Rams record to 5-2.
“The more people we can get involved in the game, the better we are,” said Stafford, who has passed for 17 touchdowns, with only two interceptions. “We have a couple of extremely talented players, quite a few that are difference-makers in this league. When we can spread the ball around and make everybody defend all the guys, all the eligibles, every blade of grass, that’s when we’re at our best.”
The Rams signed Adams aiming to capitalize on his experience and playmaking, his elite separation skills and the threat he poses near the goal line.
Stafford, 37, and Adams, 32, combined for a few highlight-reel plays in the first six games. But they acknowledged in the week leading up to the game against the Jaguars that they were still working to get completely in sync.
They found their rhythm against the Jaguars.
Adams made dynamic catches from inside the two-yard line for all of his touchdowns.
Offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said the Rams “absolutely” envisioned those kinds of plays when they pursued Adams, who has 109 career touchdown catches, the most among active players.
“There’s a reason he has over a hundred touchdowns,” LaFleur said, adding, “It’s not shocking.”
Did the Rams find something they can build on?
“Yeah, we’ll see what the red-zone targets look like this week and then we’ll be able to fully tell you,” Adams said, chuckling. “But definitely it’s not a secret that I’ve been able to make plays in the red zone.
“I think a lot of it was just getting on the same page, us feeling each other out and coming up with a good plan. The coaches did that and we were able to connect.
“I think the more you make plays, the more you build that confidence and then you stop straining and pressing to make plays and you just be yourself and go out there and be natural.”
Adams has 31 catches for 431 yards and six touchdowns.
With Stafford and Adams continuing to solidify their connection, the offense is poised to remain productive as the Rams drive toward a playoff spot.
“Me being who I am and Matthew being who he is and just having the team that we do, my expectations are really high and standards are really high for what I should bring and what this team should be able to do,” Adams said. “I’m definitely not satisfied with what we’ve done, but happy with where we are.”
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — A young woman is desperate to raise $50,000 for her mom’s life-saving medical treatment. She will get the money, but only if she agrees to her stepsister’s unusual proposal: to marry her wayward fiance, who comes from a wealthy family but also has a rap sheet.
That’s the plot line for an episode of “The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband.”
That may sound like a telenovela. In fact, it’s a popular series that appears on ReelShort, an app where audiences can view on their smartphones over-the-top, dramatic tales reminiscent of soap operas called micro dramas.
Unlike a regular TV show, this drama unfolds over 60 episodes, each lasting one to three minutes. After six episodes, viewers hit the paywall, where they could continue watching ad-free with a $20 weekly subscription, watch ads or pay as they go.
Already, the series has garnered more than 494 million views since it launched in 2022 and ReelShort says it has made more than $4 million from the show.
With titles like “The Billionaire Sex Addict and His Therapist,” “How to Tame a Silver Fox” and “Pregnant by My Ex’s Dad,” micro dramas lean heavily into sensationalism and light on budgets, which are typically less than $300,000 per series. And many of them are filmed in Los Angeles.
Director and co-writer Cate Fogarty watches actor Diego Escobar on dual vertical monitors. The film, by platform DramaShorts, is shot vertically to be adapted for viewing on a phone screen.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Short serialized dramas first took off in China, where they are hugely popular and generated revenues of $6.9 billion last year, even surpassing domestic box office sales, according to DataEye, a Shenzhen-based digital research firm.
Now, Hollywood is starting to take note of the bite-sized format.
In August, the venture arm for Lloyd Braun — the former ABC executive and chairman of talent agency WME — and L.A.-based entertainment studio Cineverse formed a joint venture called MicroCo to build a platform for micro dramas.
“Traditional Hollywood moved away from a whole genre and storytelling that fans love, and I think micro dramas really took advantage of that and really leaned into that fandom,” said Susan Rovner, chief content officer of MicroCo.
Studio interest
Major studios are investing in micro dramas in an attempt to replicate China’s success and find new ways to appeal to younger audiences that are accustomed to watching short-form videos on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and other platforms while on the go.
Fox Entertainment recently announced an equity stake in Ukraine-based Holywater, a producer of micro dramas. Under the deal, Fox Entertainment Studios (a division of Fox Entertainment) will produce more than 200 vertical video titles over the next two years for Holywater.
And Walt Disney Co.’s accelerator program, which invests in startups, recently named micro drama business DramaBox, whose parent company is based in Singapore, as part of its 2025 class.
David Min, Walt Disney Co.’s vice president of innovation, said he believes micro dramas will continue to do well, especially with younger audiences accustomed to watching entertainment on their phones.
“We have to be where everyone is consuming their content, so that’s an opportunity for us,” Min said in an interview. “…This is just another new platform to experiment with and explore and see if it’s right for the company.”
First assistant director Chakameh Marandi, left, and actress Leah Eckardt wait during filming at Heritage Props last month in Burbank.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
This year, ReelShort, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., says it will produce more than 400 shows, up from 150 last year.
All of the productions are filmed in the U.S. and mostly in Los Angeles, said ReelShort CEO Joey Jia in an interview. The company plans to build a studio in Culver City that will adapt its most popular micro dramas into films.
“We offer a lot of opportunity,” Jia said.
Warsaw-based DramaShorts said in 2026 it aims to shoot 120 micro drama projects in the U.S., up from 45 to 50 this year. About 25% of those will be in the L.A. area.
DramaShorts co-founder Leo Ovdiienko says, “People are so used to consume content through social media, through TikTok, through Instagram, through Facebook and to share information.” .
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
“People are so used to consume content through social media, through TikTok, through Instagram, through Facebook and to share information,” said DramaShorts co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Leo Ovdiienko, 29, in an interview. “I believe it’s only a matter of time before the big players will also come to this stage.”
The company works with production partners in L.A. who employ actors, writers and crew members who work on the quick-turn projects, a bright spot in a struggling job market.
“The plus side of filming in L.A. is it is the epicenter of Hollywood,” said executive producer, writer and director Chrissie De Guzman, who has worked on DramaShorts projects. “We know how the state of our industry is doing right now, so a lot of talent have moved into the vertical space.”
Though vertical dramas are the length of a movie, they are spliced up into small chapters and produced quickly. A 100-page script might be shot in just one week as opposed to a month for a feature film.
Each chapter usually features a cliffhanger or dramatic moment — whether that’s a slap or a character in danger.
“It just hits every little emotional point,” said Caroline Ingeborn, chief operating officer at Palo Alto-based Luma AI, which provides micro drama companies with AI tools. “It hooks you in like this and because it’s so easy to press [Play]. You just need to see the next episode.”
The crew of vertical film “Sleeping Princess” break between scenes.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Labor tensions
With ultra-low budgets, many of the productions are non-union, prompting some writers and actors to work under pseudonyms to avoid facing sanctions from their unions, said several people who work on the shows.
In an effort to address the issue, performers union SAG-AFTRA recently announced it has created agreements that cover low-budget vertical dramas.
Writers Guild of America West President Michele Mulroney said in an interview the union is aware that “there are companies that are trying to do this work non-union, so the guild wants to help our members … in ways that they can work on verticals and make sure they get that work covered.”
Micro drama producers said they welcome talking with the unions, but questioned whether their business models could support union contracts.
“We’re not anti-union at all,” said Erik Heintz, executive producer at Snow Story Productions, which makes vertical dramas for platforms including DramaShorts.
Despite labor tensions, these short-form dramas have provided a key source of employment for Hollywood workers who’ve struggled to find jobs as production has moved out of California.
Corey Gibbons, 44, a director of photography, said vertical dramas kept him in the business when other work dried up.
“I have a feeling that we’re on the brink of something that’s really going to change,” Gibbons said. “I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
So was 27-year-old actor Sam Nejad, a former contestant on “The Bachelorette” who started acting in vertical dramas in January. He said he’s landed one or two lead roles a month since then and can earn $10,000 a week.
“It’s a new art,” Nejad said. “The new Tarantinos, the new Scorseses are all coming through this.”
ReelShort’s office in Sunnyvale looks more like a typical Silicon Valley startup than a Hollywood studio.
Jia, the chief executive, sits at a desk in an open floor seating area with his staff. Along the office walls are framed posters with titles like “Prince With Benefits,” “Never Divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress” and “All the Wrong Reasons.” Jia proudly points out why each program was notable on a recent tour of the space.
“I don’t have money to hire celebrities,” Jia said. “I have 100% rely on story.”
The 46-year-old entrepreneur, who has an electrical engineering background, launched his business in 2022. At the time, there wasn’t much interest from Hollywood studios.
The skepticism followed the high-profile collapse of Quibi, the startup led by studio mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and tech executive Meg Whitman, that worked with A-list movie stars on series that would appear on an app in short chapters. Quibi raised $1.75 billion, only to shut down roughly six months after launching.
Jia took a different approach. Rather than signing expensive deals with celebrities, he hired students or recent graduates from colleges like USC to work at his company.
Jia approves all of the micro drama stories at ReelShort, which he says is expected to generate $1 billion in revenue this year.
A ReelShort representative declined to disclose the company’s earnings but said the business is profitable.
Jia said ReelShort has 70 million monthly active users, with 10% of them paid users.
The churn — the rate at which customers drop weekly subscriptions — can be more than 50% at ReelShort, Jia said. That makes it paramount for the company to have a steady stream of content that entices customers to keep paying. Currently it has more than 400 in-house titles and roughly 1,000 licensed titles.
Like others in the genre, ReelShort and DramaShorts rely heavily on data metrics like customer retention and paid subscribers to make their content decisions.
“A lot of directors are thinking, when I shoot the film, ‘I don’t care how people think, this is my creation, it’s my story,’” Jia said. “No, it’s not your story. Your success… should be determined by the people.”
FAMILIES can now receive a cut of £56million in energy bill support from a ‘Big Six’ supplier.
From today, OVO Energy is handing out free electric blankets as one of its ways to help customers with rising energy bills.
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OVO Energy is offering free support to help combat soaring energy bills
The supplier runs the extra support service for users all year round, but is now increasing the amount of aid it’s giving out ahead of the wintermonths.
Since 2022,OVO has given £190million in aid, including heated blankets, smart sockets, and efficiency kits, helping 42,000 customers last year.
The latest £56million package includes free energy-saving products and direct financial support.
And it’s not just electric blankets that you could bag for free.
read more on energy bills
OVO is also giving away mattress toppers and home efficiency kits to struggling households as part of the scheme.
Customers could also receive a wide range of energy-saving measures installed through ECO4 – from loft insulation to a new boiler, or even high-end tech like heat pumps.
Eligible customers could get a whole package installed, all for free.
Financial support including Direct Debit reductions, emergency credit top-ups, and extended repayment plans are also being offered.
To check your entitlement, visit ovoenergy.com/extra-support.
Ovo is separately campaigning for the introduction of a social tariff to protect vulnerable customers from high energy prices and combat fuel poverty across the UK.
David Buttress, chief executive of OVO, said: “We’re providing support to those who need it most by working together with ourcharitypartners and committing our largest ever customer support package.”
“But this isn’t a long term solution.
“We need to make the energy system work better for everyone.
“That starts with targeted support in the form of a social tariff – no one can be, or no one needs to be left behind.”
What is the Energy Company Obligation scheme?
LOW-income and vulnerable families can get help improving the energy-efficiency of their homes through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme.
Under the ECO scheme, suppliers have a legal obligation to implement energy-saving measures in your home if you’re experiencing fuel poverty.
Help is offered on a case-by-case basis, but it can mean having a new boiler fitted, or loft or cavity wall insulation put in, often for free.
The cost of buying a new boiler and install is around £2,500, while loft insulation costs around £725 to install and cavity wall insulation in a mid-terrace house will set you back £1,800, according to Checkatrade.
Measures can also include the installation of heat pumps, smart thermostats and even solar panels.
These government schemes target low-income, vulnerable, and fuel-poor homes and can significantly reduce heating bills by up to £485 annually.
The ECO first launched in January 2013 and has been extended four times.
ECO4 applies to any help issued between April 1, 2022, and covers a four-year period until March 31, 2026.
You only qualify for the ECO under certain circumstances, for example if you claim certain benefits and live in private housing.
The list of benefits that could qualify you for the scheme is:
Child tax credit
Working tax credit
Universal Credit
Pension credit
Income support
income-based Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA)
income-related employment and support allowance (ESA)
Child benefit
Housing benefit
You could also be eligible if you living in social housing.
In addition to this, households also need to be living in properties with an energy efficiency rating of D-G if they own it, or E-G if they are renting from a private landlord.
To check you’re eligible and apply, you’ll need to contact your energy supplier.
What other grants are available?
There are several other ways households can boost their home’s energy efficiency and save money through a variety of grants.
From insulation and boiler upgrades to modifications for disabled residents, financial assistance can cover a substantial portion of your home improvement costs.
Some grants may even cover up to £50,000 worth of home improvements.
To qualify, you must have an energy performance certificate rating of D or lower.
You could be in line for essential upgrades to your home, including roof, loft or cavity wall insulation – which could cut your annual energy bill by £100s.
Check whether you meet the eligibility criteria by visiting gov.uk/apply-great-british-insulation-scheme.
Boiler upgrade scheme – £7,500
Through the boiler upgrade scheme, you could get a grant to cover part of the cost of replacing fossil fuel heating systems with a heat pump or biomass boiler.
You can get one grant per property, towards help with the following:
£7,500 towards an air source heat pump
£7,500 towards a ground source heat pump (including water source heat pumps and those on shared ground loops)
£5,000 towards a biomass boiler
To qualify for this scheme you must own the property you are looking to upgrade.
You must find an MCS-certified installer to claim the grant on your behalf.
MCS is the certification scheme for energy-efficiency product installers.
You can find the nearest ones to you by visiting www.mcscertified.com/find-an-installer, but it is worth shopping for a few quotes.
Home upgrade grant – £1,000s
The home upgrade grant provides funding for various energy efficiency measures for homes that are not connected to the gas grid, often in rural or semi-rural areas.
To be eligible, you must own and live in the property you’re applying for and not use a mains gas boiler as your home’s main heating system.
You’ll also need an performance certificate (EPC) rating of D, E, F or G – if you do not know your home’s EPC you can find it out when you apply.
You’ll usually need to have a household income of £36,000 a year or less.
If you’re eligible, your local council will arrange a home survey to see how your home could be made more energy efficient.
They might suggest improvements like installing wall, loft and underfloor insulation, air source heat pumps, electric radiators
Find out more by visiting gov.uk/apply-home-upgrade-grant.
What energy bill help is available?
There’s a number of different ways to get help paying your energy bills if you’re struggling to get by.
If you fall into debt, you can always approach your supplier to see if they can put you on a repayment plan before putting you on a prepayment meter.
This involves paying off what you owe in instalments over a set period.
If your supplier offers you a repayment plan you don’t think you can afford, speak to them again to see if you can negotiate a better deal.
Here are some handy tips to ease the effects of cold weather on your hands …
A pair of mitts can really help your hands through the winter months.
Wear gloves outside so that the cold air doesn’t zap the moisture out of your skin.
For washing up, protect your hands with rubber gloves. Apply hand cream before putting on the gloves and the warm water will help the cream soothe your hands.
Dry, brittle and split nails are a real pain in winter, when our hands are craving moisture. The answer may lie in your food cupboard.
Rubbing olive oil into your nails and cuticles each day can strengthen and soothe them, reducing the risk of splits.
Nursem is a handcare brand started by former children’s intensive care nurse Antonia Philp, whose hands were left cracked and sore from constant handwashing.
Or, to soothe winter hands, try this. Blitz 100g oats in a food mixer until it becomes a powder.
Add to a bowl of warm water with 50ml of olive oil. Soak hands for 10 minutes before drying and apply hand cream.
