FIRST LOOK
http://www.eonline.com/news
ON TELEVISION (MONDAY 8/31/26)
NBC: The Kelly Clarkson (Series Finale) at 3pm
Pay up, viewers! Apple just raised the cost of Apple TV subscriptions – again. Apple TV now costs $14.99 per month, a $2 price hike, while the annual plan now costs $119.99, which is up $20. Prices are effective for new subscribers as of Friday, while existing subscribers get one month’s notice.
-Apple is also raising its Apple One subscription service by $2 to $21.95 per month. That service bundles Apple TV and Apple Music with other Apple features, including Apple Arcade and cloud storage.
-Apple’s latest streaming price hike marks its second in just a year. In August 2025, Apple raised the monthly subscription cost for Apple TV from $9.99 to $12.99, while the annual subscription stayed stable at $99.
-Other streamers have also been jacking up their prices as the competition and pressure for profitability intensifies. NBCUniversal’s Peacock raised its prices earlier this month for the first time in four years. Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+ and YouTube Premium have all bumped up their prices in the past two years.
–The Takeaway: While streaming platforms keep raising prices to try to stay profitable, the frequent price hikes are making the streaming landscape even more competitive as viewers become more cost-conscious and choosier about which streaming services they pay for – and how much they’re willing to pay for them.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Actors Tracy Oliver (“Harlem”) and Issa Rae (“Insecure”) teamed up to create a series project called “Open,” which explores the dramatic effects of a couple’s decision to open their marriage. Paramount Television Studios will produce the series with Oliver serving as showrunner. Oliver and Rae are two of the co-executive producers for the series. And it’s not the duo’s first collaboration together, either – the two actors co-created “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl,” a series that premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel in 2011.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Happy 8/28 to all who celebrated! On Friday, Netflix announced that it ordered “Arrivals: A New Manifest Mystery,” a spinoff of the “Manifest” supernatural drama series exploring the mystery of Flight 828, which reappeared after its passengers and crew had been presumed dead for five years. Netflix announced the series order exactly five years to the day after the streamer shared plans to revive the show for a fourth season after its NBC cancellation. “Manifest” creator Jeff Rake will share the executive producer and showrunner duties with Margaret Easley (“Big Love”) and Laura Putney (“Mistresses”) for the spinoff, with Warner Bros. TV serving as the production studio.
(Source: Cynopsis)
On Sept. 1, ABC will air a new documentary titled “9/11: United We Stand – 25 Years Later.” The documentary highlights the first responders, reporters and cultural figures who played a pivotal role in the nation’s recovery efforts and collective healing following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The documentary, led by sports analyst and ABC co-host Michael Strahan, will feature interviews with Pete Davidson (“Saturday Night Live”), Jimmy Fallon (“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”) and Billy Crystal (“Soap”), among others.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Approximately 128 million viewers tuned into Fox’s coverage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup over the summer, which the broadcaster credits in large part for the 28% year-over-year revenue increase it reported for the second fiscal quarter this year. Even so, it appears that viewership numbers of that scale aren’t immediately turning into a drastic increase in advertising investments for club soccer, which remains fairly steady. Sports and media experts told Digiday that steadiness in the face of World Cup wins could be due to the timing of soccer programming and marketers’ efforts to reach both passive and impassioned sports fans.
(Source: Cynopsis)
Disney+ announced a global distribution deal with the Pokémon Company International, which will include a new stop-motion series called “Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu,” created by animation studio Aardman and slated for release in 2027. Also included in the distribution deal is the classic animated series “Pokémon the Series: The Beginning,” now streaming on Disney+ in the US and select international markets.
(Source: Cynopsis)
CBS announced that “Big Brother” received two Guinness World Records titles for most episodes of a prime-time TV show and most episodes of a competitive reality TV show. The series aired its 1,000th episode on Thursday. CBS also announced the series averaged 5.21 million weekly viewers across platforms this summer, up 10% year over year based on Nielsen data.
(Source: Cynopsis)
POWERBALL
Today’s Jackpot is $131 million.
(One ticket costs $2.00)
Powerball is played in 43 states.
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WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
Spider-Man: Brand New Day – $15.5 million
The Odyssey – $14.3 million
Coyote vs. Acme – $11.1 million
The Dog Stars – $8 million
Insidious: Out of the Further – $7.3 million
(Source: Box Office Mojo)
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