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A 26-Year-Old Made Obsession for $750K and now EVERYTHING is different! Jul 15, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back, and this week they're leading with a number that should scare every studio in Hollywood: Curry Barker was 26 when he made the horror movie Obsession for three-quarters of a million dollars. It's now closing in on half a BILLION worldwide. When they asked him what studios should know about Gen Z, his answer was blunt: "We're tired of slop, and we want good original movies back." Is the audience finally dragging Hollywood back to good stories, well told, or is this just a fluke?

THEN: the live-action Moana was supposed to be a $200 million slam dunk for Disney... instead it did $40 million domestic and under $100 million worldwide, with rumors Disney had to yank a "number one movie in the world" ad it had already written. Is this a Moana problem, or a Rock problem?

ALL THAT PLUS: the Emmy nominations drop, Rhea's cozy British pick, Angelo gives his highest recommendation in months to Power Ballad, and much MUCH more!

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The TV Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Jay Black, with regular guests Angelo Cataldi and Rhea Hughes. Each week, we dive into the new Golden Age of Television, with a discussion of the latest shows and news.

Everything You Love Is Disappearing!! Jul 08, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back — and this week they pull Philly sports legend Glen MacNow into the chair for an episode built on a genuinely scary idea: the shows and movies you love can just… disappear. They lead with the number Netflix would rather bury: its biggest hits are hemorrhaging 30 to 70 percent of their audience by season two. Beef won a pile of Emmys and then lost 70% of its viewers. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder dropped 80%. The theory? Netflix trained us to binge a season in a weekend, wait two years, and stop caring. Glen and Rhea will die on the binge hill; Angelo wants his TV doled out week to week so audiences actually stay invested.

THEN: Cocoon, the 1985 Ron Howard movie that won Don Ameche an Oscar, has vanished. You can't stream it, you can't buy it, the out-of-print DVD is going for hundreds of dollars, and your only real move is Amazon Japan with a VPN. The culprit is music rights nobody will license, even though the rights holders earn exactly zero dollars leaving it locked in a vault. Angelo makes the wild case that scarcity is actually GOOD! He drags Hitchcock deliberately embargoing Rear Window into it, while Glen and Rhea argue everything should be available to everyone. Who's right?

ALL THAT PLUS: Sony just deleted 500 movies that people BOUGHT, Rhea's hooked on Inspector Ellis on Acorn; Angelo's all-in on Tuner with Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman (no explosions, all twists), and much MUCH more!

See Glen Macnbow perform "The Greatest Moments in Philadelphia Sports History" with Ray Didinger and Joe Conklin on August 6th at the Ocean City Music Pier, tickets at GreatestPhillySports.com.

The Bear Is Back!!!! Jul 01, 2026

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Rhea and Angelo discuss the triumphant return of The Bear, the not-so-triumphant return of Larry David and the weird generosity these days of TV and movie critics.

We have new TV recommendations, too. Plus lots of other fun stuff.

Why did Spielberg's latest movie FALL OFF A CLIFF!? Jun 24, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss Steven Spielberg falling off a cliff. Disclosure Day scored a huge opening weekend — $44 million domestic, $92.8 million worldwide, bigger than E.T., Saving Private Ryan, or The Fabelmans — and then dropped a staggering 62% in weekend two, landing a soft B CinemaScore on a $115 million budget that now needs to claw its way toward $300 million just to break even. Angelo reviews it, then discusses what went wrong.

THEN: YouTube wiped out 16 faceless AI channels in a single sweep this year... 35 million subscribers, 4.7 billion lifetime views, and nearly $10 million in annual ad revenue, gone overnight. Is this the most ominous sign yet that low-effort consumption, the background YouTube videos and the filler Spotify tracks, is the first thing AI just quietly takes over? And the gang's real fight: does it even matter if nobody was paying close attention in the first place?

ALL THAT PLUS: Widow's Bay, the merits of a Vancouver vacation without air conditioning, a harrowing new documentary on Netflix and much MUCH more!

Byron Allen is SUFFOCATING CBS!! Jun 17, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back to discuss Byron Allen's DISASTROUS start at CBS. Viewership cratered 77%, from Colbert's 2.69 million average all the way down to 628,000. And the damage isn't staying in late night. People fall asleep with the TV on and wake up on the same channel. Colbert was feeding CBS local news. CBS local news was feeding CBS This Morning. Byron Allen just cut that pipeline.

THEN: The Knicks just won their first championship since 1973, and Game 3 of the Finals pulled 23.79 million viewers, the biggest NBA audience since 2017. Last year's Thunder-Pacers Finals? Half those numbers. Same sport. Different cities. The gang debates whether this is proof the NBA is genuinely back, or proof of something more uncomfortable... that parity might actually be strangling the league's own ratings, and the best thing that could happen to the NBA is New York or LA in the Finals every single year.

ALL THAT PLUS: British corner, a discussion about The Office and political correctness, Jay reviews Disclosure Day and much MUCH more!

Is Steven Spielberg the most UNDERRATED director in Hollywood!? Jun 10, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back and this week Hugh Laurie said the quiet part out loud, and the internet still hasn't recovered. After a freelance critic named Janet Murray posted on X that House has "the same narrative every episode," Laurie responded with a thread so sarcastic it went viral — cataloguing every alternative structure they tried, comparing the formula to Bach and Frida Kahlo, and closing with "I look forward to your first novel." The internet mobbed Murray immediately. But here's the thing: she's not wrong. House is formulaic — that's what procedurals are. Laurie's real defense wasn't "no it isn't." It was that if all you see is the formula, it wasn't meant for you. Is that the most honest thing a creator has ever said in public about their own work, or is it exactly what every creator thinks and should never, ever say out loud?

THEN: Spielberg's Disclosure Day opens Friday. Reviews are calling it his best film in 20 years, with box office projections between $35 and $59 million. For Spielberg. Three of his last five films lost money (West Side Story, The Fabelmans, The BFG) roughly $380 million in losses combined. The Fabelmans is one of the best films of the decade and grossed $25 million total. Is Spielberg the most underrated working director in Hollywood right now?

ALL THAT PLUS: George R.R. is FROZEN OUT of The House of the Dragon, Angelo reviews Riot in Cell Block 99, we get a report from Tribeca by Keane Black, and much, MUCH more!

YouTube Kids Are Running Hollywood Now | Scott Pelley Burns It Down Jun 03, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay are back — and this week there are three numbers that have shaken Hollywood to its core: $81 million, $100 million, and $52 million. That's what three YouTube kids just grossed at the box office... a 20-year-old with Backrooms, a 26-year-old who turned $750K into Obsession's biggest second-weekend spike in modern box office history, and Markiplier, who walked out of a gaming channel and grossed $52 million on $3 million. The film school brats gave us Scorsese and Coppola. The VHS kids gave us Tarantino and Rodriguez. Is this the YouTube generation?

THEN: Scott Pelley walked into a meeting and told his new boss, Nick Bilton, to his face that Bilton and Bari Weiss are "murdering 60 Minutes" to placate Donald Trump. CBS is still waiting on federal approval for the Paramount/Warner Brothers merger, Bilton has zero broadcast background, and Pelley just lit a match on his own legacy. At what point does speaking truth to power become career suicide — and does it even matter if you're right?

ALL THAT PLUS: Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed is a DUD, Rhea delivers what can only be described as a passionate sermon for The Sheep Detective, Angelo checks out a new show by The Fonz and much MUCH more!

Trying Too Hard: Colbert's Messy Goodbye, Star Wars' Worst Opening Ever, and Who Gets to Decide What's News May 27, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea, and Jay — and they're leading with a question nobody in late night wants to answer: what happens when you spend your final week trying to "kill it" instead of doing what made the show great? Stephen Colbert's finale gave Billy Crystal, Ben Stiller, and Robert De Niro thirty seconds each, closed with green screen gimmicks, and ended with an 83-year-old Paul McCartney — who can't hit the notes anymore — turning off the lights on 11 years of television. Angelo, who hosted for over 30 years, gets unexpectedly honest about the ending he wishes he'd had. The gang debates whether any live show has ever actually nailed its goodbye... and the answer might surprise you.

THEN: The Mandalorian and Grogu opened to $100 million over Memorial Day weekend. That makes it the lowest-grossing Star Wars debut in franchise history, and Jay, a lifelong fan, chose a Gordon Ramsay burger over buying a ticket. Meanwhile, a $1 million horror movie called Obsession has made $75 million on word-of-mouth alone, and Backrooms, made by a 20-year-old YouTube creator, is tracking for a $50 million opening. Is this the year audiences stop showing up for IP and start demanding good movies?

ALL THAT PLUS: The FCC is threatening to reclassify The View as a news program, Rhea recommends I Fought the Law on PBS Masterpiece, Angelo brings Crime 101 on Amazon Prime, and much MUCH MORE!

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Angelo's Back, A Dad Gets Fired, and The Most Disturbing Documentary on Netflix May 20, 2026

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Angelo, Rhea and Jay are BACK together to discuss The Crash, which follows Mackenzie Shrilla, convicted of murder after driving 100 mph into a wall and killing her boyfriend and his friend. And when cameras caught her father on film basically blessing his teenager's drug use, the internet — and Angelo — had thoughts. Are the parents victims of an unfair documentary, or are they exactly what Angelo says they are: in complete and utter denial? The gang debates where documentaries end and exploitation begins, bringing up The Jinx and Paradise Lost to make the case that sometimes, the camera just catches the truth.

THEN: SAG-AFTRA just cut a deal allowing AI synthetic performers if they bring "significant additional value", and members vote June 4th. Rhea's question cuts right to it: who's deciding what's "significant"? A lawyer or an actual creative. Hollywood's future is here, and nobody agrees on whether to panic.

ALL THAT PLUS: Hayden Panettiere's memoir, the May upfronts, a reviews The Island on Acorn, and much MUCH more!

Has Disney Finally Killed Star Wars!? May 13, 2026

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Jay Black and Rhea Hughes are back — and filling in for Angelo today is Philadelphia sports media legend Glen Macnow — and they're leading with a number that should terrify every executive at Disney: The Mandalorian and Grogu is tracking at $80 million for its May 22 opening, which would make it the lowest-grossing Star Wars debut in franchise history (below Solo, the movie the whole industry agreed was a catastrophe). Disney has been flooding its streaming service with Star Wars for years, and audiences have simply burned out: are streamers so desperate for content that they're systematically dismantling every billion-dollar movie brand Hollywood has left? And does anyone actually watch the shows they get in return?

THEN: Stephen Colbert's final episode airs May 21 and Kimmel, Fallon, Meyers, Oliver are rallying around him. It's genuinely touching. But it also made Jay think about Leno and Letterman (who loathed each other) and Carson freezing Joan Rivers out for life after she dared to get her own show. The whole industry is so aggressively supportive of each other now: is that warmth actually good for culture, or did we lose something real when TV rivalries died?

ALL THAT PLUS: The Cannes Film Festival, Glen and Rhea bond hard over Deadloch, and Glen is wants everyone to watch Jury Duty: Company Retreat.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger are going to be LIVE talking about patriotic sports movies on May 27th, at the Ritz Theater in Haddon Township, NJ. If you don't get your tickets right now, you will spend the rest of your life explaining to people why you missed the greatest night of sports cinema conversation ever assembled!

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