The two-episode premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drew 25 million viewers around the world in 24 hours, making it the biggest debut in Prime Video's history, Amazon said in a press release. "It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories — among the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre — have led us to this proud moment," said Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke. 

There was a lot on the line for the series, with a reported $465 million budget for the first season and heavy competition from HBO's rival House of Dragons series. The latter also recently debuted to the highest ratings in HBO's history with 9.986 million viewers across its linear HBO and streaming HBO Max platforms.

Amazon also took the unusual step of delaying reviews for The Rings of Power by 72 hours to filter out trolls, Variety reported. It appeared to have been "review bombed" on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, where it received a 37 percent rating from users but an 84 percent mark from critics. The series has faced trolling over its decision to cast actors of color as elves, dwarves and other characters. 

The studio plans to evaluate each review to determine whether it's legitimate or created by a bot or troll. Amazon first introduced the practice when the baseball series A League of Their Own debuted on August 12th. That strategy appears to have worked, with the latter earning a 4.3 out of 5 star rating on Prime Video, compared to a 94 percent Rotten Tomatoes critic rating (however, that also closely lines up with the 85 percent audience score on RT). 

The Game of Thrones finale was never going to please everyone, but the consensus is that the final season had a lot of flaws. As such, it's totally understandable if you're reluctant to sign up to HBO Max just to catch the new spin-off show, House of the Dragon. You now won't have to pay anything to get a proper taste of the series and see if it might be for you, as HBO has dropped the first episode on YouTube for free.

The premiere sets the table for a story that's set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones (which is now streaming in 4K HDR on HBO Max). House of the Dragon focuses on House Targaryen, which means there are lots of people with white hair. Oh, and dragons.

While we can't embed the video here to an age restriction setting (this is very much not a family-friendly show), you can head over to YouTube to watch the episode. It's worth noting it appears to be geo-restricted to the US. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a different flavor of high-budget fantasy, the first episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power just hit Amazon Prime.

HBO has shared the first footage from its upcoming live-action adaptation of The Last of Us. In a trailer the streamer published on YouTube before the premiere of House of the Dragon, we see about 20 seconds of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie. Despite the short length of the clip, it's filled with moments fans will recognize. We see an exchange between Joel and Ellie that's lifted directly from the original game. There's even a flashback featuring Joel's biological daughter. The footage also offers a glimpse of Nick Offerman as Bill.

Expectations for the series are already riding high. In addition to a star-studded cast, Craig Mazin of Chernobyl fame is involved in the project as writer, creator and executive producer, as is the game's original creative director, Neil Druckmann. The series is expected to premiere in early 2023. The first season will feature 10 episodes.  

It's a little jarring to consider what's happening over at HBO Max a bloodbath in the context of Sesame Street, but that's exactly what's going on at the streaming platform right now. The platform has removed around 200 old episodes of the classic preschooler show, as Variety reports.

All episodes from seasons 39-52 are still available, along with a selection from the first, fifth and seventh seasons. There are 456 Sesame Street episodes on HBO Max right now, but it offered around 650 episodes not too long ago. HBO landed an exclusive deal back in 2015 to broadcast new episodes of the show before they aired on PBS. HBO Max will be the place to catch new Sesame Street episodes through at least 2025, but good luck trying to find old episodes there.

The platform yanked the Sesame Street episodes in the same week it removed dozens of other shows, including 20 original series (such as animated programs). While it's common for titles to cycle in and out of streaming services, it's rare to see exclusives going away. That's becoming increasingly par for the course at HBO Max.

Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery said it nixed those shows ahead of HBO Max merging with Discovery+ next year. “As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and Discovery+. That will include the removal of some content from both platforms," it said.

Since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery has been on a brutal cost-cutting drive. It laid off dozens of HBO and HBO Max production staffers this week. The company recently removed some other original films and shows from HBO Max — including An American Pickle, HBO show Vinyl and the 2020 remake of The Witches — reportedly to avoid paying residuals on them. 

It also canceled HBO Max exclusive movies Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, which were almost completed. Reports suggest it did so to claim tax write-downs on the projects.

The union of HBO Max and Discovery+ is already causing pain through layoffs, and now the move is affecting some shows. Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed to Variety that it's removing 36 titles from HBO Max as soon as this week while it prepares for the Discovery+ platform merger. Most of the productions aren't huge, but they do include recognizable HBO work like the Sesame Street spinoff The Not-too-Late-Show with Elmo and the Peter Dinklage movie My Dinner with Hervé. A handful of Cartoon Network shows are leaving. 

In a statement, HBO Max said content would disappear from both services as it worked to bring the media libraries "together under one platform." The provider didn't elaborate on its reasoning, although Variety noted that pulling the shows outright (instead of canceling future seasons) would help HBO Max avoid paying more royalties. Warner Bros. Discovery said it would find $3 billion in savings as part of the corporate merger.

As you might imagine, at least some affected producers aren't happy — this not only cuts off income, but might prevent people from seeing their work unless it finds another home. Summer Camp Island creator Julia Pott noted that some episodes developed during the pandemic will never see the light of day. Warner Bros. Discovery has "no respect for artists," she said.

The combination of HBO Max and Discovery+ is expected to launch in summer 2023. While it's not clear if Warner Bros. Discovery will drop more shows or otherwise slash costs, this latest move won't be reassuring if you were hoping your favorite series would make the leap to the unified service.

Hulu has ordered a limited series adaptation of Devil in the White City, which will star Keanu Reeves and be executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. The streamer announced the news today at the Television Critics Association’s summer tour. Based on the book of the same name by Erik Larson about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, the series will be the first time the work is adapted for the screen after more than a decade’s worth of deals and bidding by numerous studios. Todd Field (In the Bedroom,Little Children) is set to direct the series. Deadlinereported that the eight-episode series is aiming for a 2024 release.

As The Hollywood Reporternotes, DiCaprio first optioned the rights to the book in 2010, and was set to star in a feature film adaptation that would be directed by Scorcese. Now, both men will executive produce the limited series, which will be a co-production of Paramount Television Studios and Disney’s ABC Signature.

Disney signed a deal with Comcast where it will buy its 33 percent stake in Hulu in 2024 — granting it full operational control of the streamer. But as CNBC notes, the deal was signed before the launch of Disney+, and there’s current confusion over what role another streaming service will play in the vast Disney empire. Hulu also houses a number of critically-acclaimed series, including Dopesick, The Dropout and The Handmaid’s Tale. With Devil in the White City, it seems Disney is attempting to position Hulu within the crowded streaming landscape as an adult-oriented platform for prestige TV.

After a delay of nearly three years, season 3 of Hulu's The Orville finally launched last month and proved to be worth the wait. Now, creator Seth MacFarlane has announced some extra recompense for fans — the first three seasons of the series will also stream on Disney+. 

The Orville has been relatively popular with critics, but moved from much wider distribution with Fox to the smaller audiences of Hulu after two seasons. With over 85 million subscribers internationally, though, Disney+ will greatly expand the pool of potential viewers.

"I’m thrilled to bring all three seasons of The Orville to Disney+," said MacFarlane. "Making this show has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my career, and I’m immensely grateful to Disney for providing us the opportunity to expand our Orville community further. I can’t wait for new audiences to experience this series."

The extra eyeballs on The Orville with Disney+ could prove crucial to the series, as it has yet to be greenlit for a fourth season. MacFarlane himself didn't reveal anything in that regard, saying "I don't think we'll know until this season is finished." The last two episodes of season 3 are set to air on July 28th and August 4th, and all three seasons will hit Disney+ on August 10th. 

It’s official. Nearly four years after Netflix canceled Daredevil and the series more recently made its way over to Disney+, Disney confirmed it’s developing a new 18-episode live-action TV show starring the blind superhero. On Saturday, Marvel announced Daredevil: Born Again and shared that stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio would reprise their roles as Daredevil and Kingpin.

News that the company planned to revive Daredevil first came to light in May, with Variety reporting that Disney had hired Matt Corman and Chris Ord to write and produce the series. Disney currently plans to begin streaming Born Again sometime in the spring of 2024. Before then, Marvel fans can look forward to I Am Groot and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law arriving on Disney+. Both shows got new trailers during San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.

Paramount has shared a new trailer for the upcoming third season of Star Trek: Picard. And while we already knew Picard’s final adventure would reunite Patrick Stewart with most of the principal cast of The Next Generation, it’s still good to see some characters we haven’t seen in a while. The minute-long clip Paramount released during San Diego Comic-Con features voiceovers from nearly all of Picard’s season three cast, including LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn. It’s not much more than what Paramount had to offer back in April, but at least this time we get to see the former crew of the USS Enterprise in their new uniforms.

That’s not the only Star Trek news to come out of Comic-Con. Paramount also announced that season two of Strange New Worlds will feature a crossover episode with Lower Decks. Jonathan Frakes will direct the episode, which will feature a combination of live-action and animated footage. Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid will also reprise their roles as the voices of Beckett Mariner and Brad Boimler. Season two of Strange New Worlds doesn’t have a release date yet, but Star Trek fans can look forward to watching a new season of Lower Decks starting on August 25th. On that note, Paramount also shared a new trailer for the animated show, which you can see below.

The final episode of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience is available starting today and it's closing things out with a bang. The four-part series, which debuted in October 2020, wraps up with the first spacewalk filmed in ultra high-resolution cinematic virtual reality. The episode, which is called "Expand," includes the arrival of a SpaceX crew on the International Space Station for the first time as well. Meanwhile, the astronauts are forced to reckon with the impact of COVID-19 back on Earth.

You can check out "Expand" on Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 headsets for free. The other Space Explorers: The ISS Experience episodes are still available too. Meanwhile, Felix & Paul, the studio behind the series, plans to livestream the Artemis I launch in VR. The launch of an uncrewed mission to the Moon is currently slated for August 29th, September 2nd or September 5th.