The Pitt Averaging 10 Million+ Viewers, ‘A+' Grade From TVLine Readers — Among Max's Top 3 Series
Max's The Pitt is averaging more than 10 million global viewers through its first 14 episodes (of 15), the streamer reported the day after the hit medical drama's freshman finale.
Max also noted that the Noah Wyle-led series enjoyed 'an unprecedented 13-week streak of week-over-week growth, with every single episode since its two-part premiere on January 9 outperforming the last.'
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To date, The Pitt's first episode has amassed 16.2 million global viewers. (Unlike some streamers, Max has not shared how exactly it defines a 'viewer.')
As superlatives go, it was shared in a recent Variety cover story that The Pitt 'ranks among the Top 3 most-watched Max series in the nearly five-year-old platform's history.
TVLine readers gave both Thursday night's finale and the season as a whole a rare average grade of 'A+.' In fact, Season 1 scored one of the highest 'A+' grades in our 14-year history — the equivalent of a 98 out of 100.
The Pitt was renewed for Season 2 on Feb. 14, midway through the show's first season. TVLine on Thursday night shared all kinds of details on the Season 2 plan, including an expected time jump and in what month and year new episodes will arrive.
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Cosmopolitan
43 minutes ago
- Cosmopolitan
‘Ginny & Georgia' Season 3 on Netflix Tackles Painful Periods
New episodes of Ginny & Georgia season 3 went online on Thursday and there is practically no adolescent issue that this mother-daughter dramedy hasn't covered. Losing your virginity? Check. Getting into a huge fight with your bestie? Yep. Getting drunk at a house party? Got that covered. Learning that your mom killed your stepdad? Also check. Okay, maybe that last one isn't so typical, but you get the idea. So it's no surprise that in season 3 of Ginny & Georgia, the Netflix hit is tackling that infamous coming-of-age milestone: periods. For the past two seasons, fans have watched high school sophomore Ginny and her core group of girlfriends, Max, Abby, and Norah try to survive Wellsbury High. In classic teen show fashion, every character has their own issues. Max is a girl-crazy drama queen (literally, she's an actor), Abby is struggling with body dysmorphia and bulimia, and now, in season 3, Norah's got period problems. Throughout the newest season, Norah is either on her period, waiting for it, or complaining about it. 'My period is so irregular, I can't even predict when it's going to happen,' she says in episode 6, right before getting all of her friends to take pregnancy tests with her. The very next episode, her pregnancy scare is forgotten, but her mysterious period ailments continue. 'My mom took me to the gyno, which was pointless because they just ask me a hundred different questions. And you don't know your family history when you're adopted.' (Yep, the show also has an adoption subplot.) The doctors ran tests, Norah explained, but still can't figure out what's going on. Well, I have a pretty good guess. I first got my period when I was 11, and for five years, when doctors asked me if my periods were heavy or irregular, I shrugged and said, 'No.' I didn't know any better. What I didn't tell my pediatrician was that I was bleeding through super tampons and maxi pads, staining my pajamas and sheets, and downing Advil to deal with my period cramps. Despite having two sisters and a whole gaggle of girlfriends, I truly thought that my period was normal because I had learned to live with it. I never thought to compare notes. Then one morning during a particularly heavy period, I took a step out of bed and a blood clot flew out of my underwear and onto the carpet. I had bled through the super plus tampon I was wearing and my overnight maxi pad. The next time my doctor asked me if my periods were heavy, I finally said, 'Yes.' Unlike Norah, I was overweight, so my doctor already suspected I had a hormonal issue and sent me to an endocrinologist straight away. A few doctors appointments and 8 to 10 vials worth of blood tests later, I was diagnosed with PCOS—Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. It's a hormone disorder believed to be hereditary that can cause, among other things, excess facial hair, heavy or irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, and ovarian cysts. Some women don't have a lot of symptoms; others have all of the above. At the time, the criteria for PCOS was extremely vague, and the possible treatments were basically nonexistent. (In case you need a reminder: Women's health is underfunded, under-researched, and undervalued.) Effective medical treatments for PCOS are hard to come by. When I asked about next steps, my doctor shrugged their shoulders, gave me a prescription for birth control, and told me to lose weight (which, oh, by the way, is harder to do when you have PCOS). Over 15 years later, it seems not much has changed. At the end of the season, Norah's period mystery remains unsolved. She doesn't know why her periods are irregular or why she has bad cramps. And after years of just dealing with it, she seems resigned to just barreling through. I feel her pain. While I assume that she'll get a hard-fought diagnosis of either PCOS or endometriosis in season 4, it's also possible that she'll never get the answers she's looking for. Ask any woman with PCOS or endometriosis and they'll tell you it took years for them to even go to a doctor to discuss period pain, let alone be diagnosed. And that's partly due to the fact that many women just don't know that these conditions exist. In modern America, period pain is often dismissed, and uterus-related conversations are still taboo. Even in teen shows like Gilmore Girls or Gossip Girl, characters don't acknowledge their periods until there's a pregnancy scare plot. Young women like Norah might not learn about PCOS or endometriosis from their friends or their mothers or even their doctors—so I'm hoping that at least for some teens and tweens, Norah's storyline on Ginny & Georgia can fill in the gaps. And if a hormone disorder is the cause of her period problems, I hope she gets diagnosed faster than I did.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
What The Streaming Wars Reveal about Bad Strategy
Rooftop party and viewing in Los Angeles. Created By Michelle Loret de Mola using Midjourney Max just pulled a classic Hollywood move: the reboot. Two years after Warner Bros. Discovery stripped away the iconic 'HBO' from its name, they've decided to bring it back. Max will now be called HBO Max…again. This will be the streaming service's fifth name change. They were HBO Go in 2008, then HBO Now in 2015, then HBO Max in 2020, then just Max in 2023, and now (hopefully, finally) back to HBO Max. On the face of it, this just seems like bad brand management. But there's a bigger lesson to be learned here. These changes were more than just rebrands: each new name came along with a fundamentally different business strategy. HBO succeeded when it relied on its own creativity. And then stumbled when it tried to copy competitors. For decades, HBO had a unique playbook. It focused on a combination of recently released movies, exclusive live events, and original series. While broadcast television depended on advertising, HBO used a subscription model. HBO played a leading role in what has been called 'television's second golden age.' It greenlit shows that shaped the culture, like The Sopranos, Sex and The City, The Wire, and Game of Thrones. At its core, HBO's playbook was all about the curation and production of prestige content. Of course, that was before the consultants came in. In June 2018, Time Warner, HBO's parent company, was acquired by AT&T for $85 billion. Shortly after completing the acquisition, John Stankey, the new CEO of WarnerMedia decided to change the playbook. To Stankey, HBO's tightly curated, time and resource-intensive model didn't seem scalable. He wanted a broader, more mass market platform with more content, more engagement, and more subscriber growth. In a town hall to HBO employees, Stankey emphasized, "We need hours a day. It's not hours a week, and it's not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people's hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes. I want more hours of engagement." Stankey believed substantially more content would increase viewer engagement, and that would provide more data, in turn enabling monetization through advertising and subscriptions. In short, HBO's new strategy would be to stop being HBO and start trying to be Netflix. And who wouldn't want to be Netflix? Netflix was the company that slayed Blockbuster, reinvented TV distribution, disrupted Hollywood, and rewrote the rules of what it meant to be a media company. Today, Netflix enjoys a half trillion dollar market cap that is double that of Disney and 22 times that of Warner Bros. Discovery. There was just one problem with that playbook: HBO isn't Netflix. What followed was seven years of wandering in the wilderness, as HBO struggled to emulate the Netflix model. Frustrated with the new strategy, HBO CEO Richard Plepler walked away in 2019. HBO's original content was folded into Warner Bros.' extensive library of content and relaunched as HBO Max. And while global subscriptions for HBO Max reached 69.4 million by October 2021, much of that growth came because we were all locked up at home during a pandemic. Unable to drive further growth from its acquisition, AT&T spun off WarnerMedia to create Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022. And things got even worse. Warner CEO David Zaslav doubled down on the Netflix playbook by dropping the HBO name altogether and flooding the platform with content from Discovery and Food Network. Suddenly, the platform that brought you The Wire was pumping out shows like Dr. Pimple Popper and My 600-lb Life. The end result of this copycat strategy was external confusion, internal demoralization, and financial underperformance. In recent months, Warner Bros. Discovery execs have begun to concede that they simply can't compete head-to-head with Netflix. 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According to Nielsen, Warner Bros. Discovery drew 1.5% of viewing time in March. This was less than Disney, Amazon, Paramount, Roku, and Tubi. Netflix dominated, with 8% of total viewership. The lessons from the streaming world apply to every industry: the minute you stop asking what makes you special and start copying others, you've already lost. You have to be creative. You have to come up with your own playbook for growth. It's a mistake to think you can succeed by copying the strategies of successful competitors. Trying to win by benchmarking high-performing peers feels safe. It has persuasive appeal when presented in a PowerPoint deck. A huge industry of consultants has grown up around it, adding to the illusion of safety. And it's an easy way to win short-term praise from the business press and investors. In reality, though, benchmarking is a fast track to mediocrity. Copying others only tells you what worked yesterday for someone else, when what leaders need to focus on is what will work for them tomorrow. Great companies aren't built on copycat playbooks — they succeed by doing something original based on their unique strengths. Even while others were trying to copy it, Netflix stayed true to its own unique playbook based on global content, viewer data, and rapid iteration. When the company took out $2 billion in debt in 2018 to help finance a surge in original content, skeptics questioned whether its strategy was sustainable. But it wasn't a gamble — it was an investment based on data. Unlike traditional studios, Netflix knew exactly what its viewers were watching, where, for how long, and when they dropped off. It used those insights to launch hit shows like Bridgerton, Squid Game, and Stranger Things. Netflix also localized content early, producing Korean hits for South Korea and Indian dramas for South Asia and the Middle East. By the end of 2024, the skeptics had been silenced — Netflix's subscriber numbers topped 300 million, more than double the total at the end of 2018. Netflix operates on the premise that it will win by doing things its own way. For its part, Disney could have fallen into the trap of trying to chase Netflix when it launched its Disney+ streaming service in 2019. But rather than flooding the zone with content, Disney realized that its winning playbook depended on developing content around signature franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, and Pixar. These worlds are ultimately more than content — they're emotional ecosystems. And Disney knows how to turn emotions into revenue streams — through a flywheel of fan engagement, merchandise, theatrical releases, and theme park rides. For that reason, Disney doesn't define success solely through streaming metrics. It also pays close attention to loyalty, lifetime customer value, park attendance, and toy sales. Netflix and Disney+ succeeded by developing their own unique playbooks. HBO lost its way by trying to be something it wasn't. Influenced by consultants and consensus thinking, it was led into the sea of sameness, where companies go to die…or at least spend years treading water. To be sure, that doesn't mean you shouldn't watch and learn from competitors. But there's a big difference between stealing a page from someone else and trying to copy their whole playbook. The risk of doing that is threefold. First, it means you're playing to someone else's strengths, not your own. Second, it means you're focusing on what worked yesterday, not tomorrow. And third, you end up the same as everyone else, and sink into mediocrity. So if benchmarking isn't the answer, what is? The path to success lies in writing your own playbook, starting by answering five fundamental questions that define who you are and your vision for the future. HBO's latest reboot has been greeted with its fair share of sniggers and eye-rolls. But it shows that the company is waking up to what made it great in the first place. That's a good thing, giving it a shot at renewed success. The path forward for HBO isn't about going bigger or trying to please everyone. It's about going bolder, with fewer, better stories that shape the culture. In the end, the companies that come out on top aren't the ones chasing the crowd. They're the ones bold enough to say: This is who we are. This is what we believe. And this is how we win. No benchmarking required.
CNET
6 hours ago
- CNET
My Favorite Film Is a Historical Drama Packed With Modern Themes. It's Now Free to Stream
I can count on one hand the number of times I've finished watching a film for the first time and immediately turned around to rewatch it. And there's only one film that I wish I could erase from my memory simply to watch it again for the first time. That film is Céline Sciamma's 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. A visually stunning film that reimagines a timeless love story, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is brimming with slow-burn passion, classical references, relevant and modern themes with breathtaking cinematography to boot. I first saw the movie as an undergraduate film student at UNC Chapel Hill and have since watched the film at least a dozen times, each resonating as strongly as the first watch. So I can't help but evangelize the film -- especially when it's free to watch on Kanopy. The movie is also available on Max -- one of CNET's picks for best streaming service -- with a paid subscription or available to rent on Prime Video, but the easiest option is to watch free right now on Kanopy with your public library login or university ID credentials. Almost every scene in Portrait of a Lady on Fire looks like a masterpiece painting. Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma Set in 1770 Brittany, in northern France, Portrait of a Lady on Fire tells the story of Marianne, a middle-class painter commissioned by a countess to paint the wedding portrait of her daughter, Héloïse, a young woman forced to leave the convent to enter an arranged marriage with a Milanese nobleman. Opposing the marriage, Héloïse refuses to sit for any portrait, which would guarantee her marriage, so Marianne must produce the portrait in secret. Having already exhausted other painters, the Countess instructs Marianne to act as Héloïse's companion, accompanying her day to day while silently memorizing her features to paint in secret. Through these meetings, the two women form a friendship and eventually a romance that transcends boundaries of class and sexuality. Tragically, Marianne is forced to create the one object that will ensure the end of her blossoming relationship with Héloïse. Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel deliver engrossing and elegant performances. Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma Starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, accompanied by an almost entirely female cast, the film is a powerfully acted LGBTQ+ romance that studies power, memory, passion and desire through the eyes of women. Despite its 18th century setting, the film unflinchingly examines modern themes of gender, class, sexuality and reproductive rights -- all of which suffocate under a repressive patriarchal society, yet flourish when those strict confines are removed. Noted as a feminist film that banishes the male gaze, reinterprets the classic Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and subverts expectations of the master/muse relationship, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a rare feminist triumph. With its nuanced themes, exquisite cinematography and emotionally resonant performances, it's a beautifully moving film and you're sure to have a profound and unforgettable cinematic experience. Or, if you're like me, you'll just sob in front of a theater full of strangers and not even care. Either way, you're in for a treat. (And while you're at it, I will probably be watching it for the umpteenth time.) Portrait of a Lady on Fire won the Queer Palm at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Lilies Films/Hold-Up Films/Arte France Cinéma Portrait of a Lady on Fire was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The film lost that top honor to Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, but won the Queer Palm, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award. Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes in 2019. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is just one of our CNET experts' favorite movies that's available to stream now. You should also explore our full rundown of the best movies on Max, Netflix and Amazon Prime. Plus, stream our favorite horror double feature on Netflix. More movie recommendations:
