‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Premiere Draws 25 Million Global Viewers in First Day, Amazon Says

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Coming off a lot of Emmys love, ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary” went back in session Wednesday with a Season 2 premiere that kept pace with its freshman finale last spring. According to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data, Episode 1 of Season 2 averaged a 0.5 rating among adults ages 18-49 and 2.8 million total viewers, tying it with “The Conners” Season premiere for ABC’s highest-rated show during Wednesday primetime. That marks a solid start to the new school year for “Abbott Elementary,” which put up a 0.6 rating and 2.8 million total viewers in the comparable Nielsen metrics for its Season 1 finale in April.

Ana de Armas went out of her way to try and secure Marilyn Monroe‘s blessing from beyond the grave before diving into the creation of Blonde.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Let the Games Begin,” the “9-1-1” Season 6 premiere. “9-1-1” returned in all its zany glory Monday on Fox with the premiere of its sixth season. During the episode, Oliver Stark’s Evan “Buck” Buckley tackled a blimp emergency with his team at the 118 — and yet that somehow wasn’t the biggest hurdle he had to overcome in the Season 6 premiere. Here, Variety breaks down the episode, titled “Let the Games Begin,” with Stark and how it lays the groundwork for Buck’s journey throughout the rest of “9-1-1” Season 6.

settling to $16.81 at the bell. It was down more than 2% in after-hours trading.Backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, the conservative platform, which is seen as an alternative to YouTube, attracted the likes of Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and several QAnon influencers who were booted from social media.Rumble, which trades under the ticker handle “RUM,” says it has 78 million global monthly viewers and will launch exclusive shows from actor Russell Brand and journalist Glenn Greenwald, according to CNBC.The company, which touts that it does “not stifle, censor, or punish creativity and freedom of expression,” is also associated with a similar alternative platform as it manages ad sales for Truth Social, the social media platform kickstarted by former President Donald Trump after he was banned from mainstream social media networks like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.“We create technologies that are immune to cancel culture.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer TLC’s “Sister Wives” returned Sunday, drawing the show’s highest-rated season premiere in six years with the first episode of Season 11. Per Nielsen data, the reality show’s 11th season premiere averaged 2.2 million total viewers and a 1.42 rating among women ages 18-49, the advertiser-coveted demographic for the cable channel. That demo rating was the highest for a “Sister Wives” premiere in six years. Additionally, Episode 1 of Season 11 drew a 1.91 rating among women ages 25-54, another key market for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TLC. According to TLC, on the “Sister Wives” Season 11 premiere night Sunday, “tweet volume saw triple digit growth compared to the previous premiere,” growing 192%). It was also the top primetime cable reality program on Facebook, No. 3 on Instagram and No. 4 on Twitter for social interactions.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Funko is hard at work on its first-ever console game, which the CEO of the fan-collectibles company says will feature the “mixing” of characters from multiple popular IPs transformed into the brand’s iconic Pop! format. “You will know them. And we are excited because we think the interaction between these IPs will speak to who Funko is by mixing the IPs in the game,” Andrew Pearlmutter told Variety at Funko’s investor day press preview Tuesday. “And they’re not young IPs, so that’s the fun part. That’s all I can say.” For reference, Funko has long worked with “not young” brands like Marvel, DC, Disney, Star Wars and Harry Potter — just to name a few.

Adult Swim’s Emmy-winning animated comedy Rick and Morty is off to a strong start following its Season 6 premiere. The debut episode drew more than 1 million viewers in L+3, up 57% from its September 4 premiere. Those numbers will likely continue to grow as the Season 6 premiere episode “Solaricks” is available for streaming on Adult Swim’s YouTube channel until September 27.

Naman Ramachandran Ayan Mukerji’s Bollywood action fantasy “Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva” was one of the leading films at the global box office over the weekend, grossing $28.2 million, according to its producers, Disney’s Star Studios India and Dharma Productions. The film released in India across 5,019 screens and debuted at No. 1 with a three-day weekend of $18.9 million. The film’s overseas screen count was 3,894. In the U.S., where the film is distributed by Disney, it released in 810 theaters and debuted at No. 2 with $4.4 million. However, the film needs to sustain its momentum to break even, with its budget approximately $51 million.

William Earl One of the biggest crowdpleasers of the Toronto International Film Festival has arrived. “The Menu,” a high-class horror comedy written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and directed by Mark Mylod, held its rollicking world premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on Saturday. Mylod, the in-demand TV director who has helmed key episodes of “Game of Thrones,” “Shameless” and “Succession,” leaned on the satirical world of the latter series in this black comedy lampooning fine dining, foodie culture and the ultra-rich. Anya Taylor-Joy continues her scene-stealing career as Margot, a cuisine novice who agrees to join obnoxious Tyler (Nicholas Hoult, as infuriating and pathetic as he is on “The Great”) at a hyper-expensive, once-in-a-lifetime meal prepared by the intimidating and legendary Chef Slowik (a devilish Ralph Fiennes) at his private island restaurant. Although the menu is rumored to be legendary, there is, of course, more in store for the diners than meets the eye.

posted a photo of themselves wearing a fan-made shirt with human, hobbit and elf ears with different skin tones.Also included on the shirt is the mantra “You are all welcome here,” written in Elvish.Astin, who was not in the photo, shared a Twitter pic of himself wearing a hat with the same legend.“You Are All Welcome Here,” Wood, 41, captioned his photo.The “Lord of the Rings” show also released a statement regarding the racist attacks.You Are All Welcome Here @LOTRonPrime @DonMarshall72 #RingsOfPower https://t.co/8txOhlHa2f pic.twitter.com/nWytILT0zG“We, the cast of Rings of Power, stand together in absolute solidarity and against the relentless racism, threats, harassment and abuse some of our cast mates of color are being subjected to on a daily basis,” the statement reads.“We refuse to ignore it or tolerate it.”The statement goes on to say that “Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien created a world where people from different races and cultures existed, along with the hashtag #youarewelcomehere.“From Middle-earth to a galaxy far, far away… #YouAreAllWelcomeHere,” the official “Star Wars” account responded on Twitter.“Rings of Power” isn’t the only show to receive racist backlash over cast diversity.In June, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” actress Moses Ingram was also subject to racist trolls over her role as Reva.

The trials and tribulations of being a female heir to the Iron Throne continue to enthrall viewers of HBO’s House of the Dragon. Though the Labor Day holiday delayed folks from watching the third episode on Sunday, the episode has already exceeded 16 million viewers based on a combination of Nielsen and first party data.

Serena Williams’ final U.S. Open match Friday was a grand slam for ESPN.

Strictly stars Tyler West, Ellie Taylor and Will Mellor all shared a look at their experience. Kiss FM DJ and presenter Tyler shared a series of photos to his Instagram story after confessing: "First day at school. Tried to get a boyband photo today.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer (SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Solaricks,” the Season 6 premiere of “Rick and Morty.”) “Rick and Morty” kicked off its sixth season with an even bigger reveal than it dropped in its fifth season finale: Rick Sanchez is not Morty’s grandfather — at least this Rick (C-137) is not this Morty’s grandfather. Due to an accidental “reset” in portal travelers on the Season 6 opener, “Solaricks,” rather than Rick’s intended reset of port travel after the collapse of the Citadel and Evil Morty’s escape through the Central Finite Curve blew it all to hell in the Season 5 finale, Rick, Morty and Jerry were each pulled back into their original worlds/realities.

record with 10 million viewers in its premiere last month and boosted its viewership by 2% for its second episode. “The Rings of Power” is led by showrunners and executive producers Payne and Patrick McKay.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the two-episode premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” At the end of the first episode of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” one of two installments dropped by Amazon Prime Video on the show’s launch day, young Harfoot Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) follows a fiery object that’s come shooting down from the skies of Middle-earth to find a mysterious, barely clothed man unconscious at the center of a flaming crater that’s been hollowed out in the earth. By the end of the second episode, Nori and her best friend Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) are watching the large man, played by Daniel Weyman and credited only as “The Stranger,” throw fireflies into the sky to create what Nori thinks is a map of specific stars he’s trying to find — before those fireflies burn out and fall to the ground.

global premiere last night — and thanked the showrunners for ignoring his notes on the series.The Amazon founder traveled to London’s Leicester Square for the premiere of the big-budget TV show in a move to establish its importance to the company.Bezos, 58, honored showrunners Patrick McKay and John D. Payne while introducing the first two episodes of the series.“Every showrunner’s dream – and I mean every showrunner – their dream is to get notes on scripts and early cuts from the founder and executive chairman,” the Amazon boss joked. “They loved that.

K.J. Yossman Amazon boss Jeff Bezos (pictured above, left) thanked “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” showrunners Patrick McKay and John D. Payne at the U.K. premiere of the Amazon Prime Video series on Tuesday night – for ignoring his notes on the show. “Every showrunner’s dream – and I mean every showrunner – their dream is to get notes on scripts and early cuts from the founder and executive chairman,” Bezos quipped while introducing the first two episodes of the series at the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square. “They loved that. I need to thank you both for listening whenever it helped but mostly I need to thank you for ignoring me at exactly the right times.”