Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Happiest Season is proving what we already knew: that a gay Christmas rom-com was long, long overdue. Hulu announced today that the Kirsten Stewart movie has shattered records at the streaming platform and earned the number one spot as the most-watched film across all acquired and Hulu Original films during its opening weekend.
As if that achievement wasn’t enough, Happiest Season was also named the movie with the highest engagement with Hulu subscribers, and even brought plenty of new customers to the service, where Happiest Season is exclusively streaming. Hulu also revealed that the holiday movie was a hit with its Watch Party feature, which allows users to stream a title and chat in real time with friends and family.
The Happiest Season stats follow another successful weekend for Hulu, which previously named the Sarah Paulson drama Run its most watched movie ever in an opening weekend, beating out Hulu Original Palm Springs.
Here’s what else you may have missed today.
Netflix is teasing the second installment of their new reality series Song Exploder, sharing a first look at the latest episodes with an official trailer featuring Dua Lipa. The series, which is based on the popular podcast of the same name, “spotlights some of the world’s greatest musicians as they reveal how they brought one of their songs to life.” We can look forward to seeing artists like Dua Lipa, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails and Natalia Lafourcade when the Volume 2 of the series premieres on Netflix Dec. 15. Watch the full Song Exploder trailer in the video above.
Showtime is debuting a free channel on Pluto TV, Variety reports. The channel, titled Showtime Selects, will include around 250 hours of original programming with ads, including episodes of The Affair, Billions, Ray Donovan, The L Word, and Californication, plus full series of The Loudest Voice and Murder in the Bayou. Showtime Selects will also feature sneak peeks at Bryan Cranston’s new drama, Your Honor, and the last season of Shameless. The Pluto TV channel launches today, Dec. 1, and will include updated content each month.
Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone are teaming up for a new Netflix series, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The new series, titled God’s Favorite Idiot, is a workplace comedy that follows tech support employee Clark Thompson (Falcone) and his love interest, co-worker Amily Luck (McCarthy). Clark falls in love with Amily right when he “becomes the unwitting messenger of God.” The 16-episode series also promises “roller skating, a lake of fire and an impending apocalypse.” McCarthy and Falcone, who are married, are frequent collaborators and most recently worked on HBO Max’s Superintelligence together.
A Little Late with Lilly Singh is switching it up behind the scenes ahead of Season 2. Deadline reports that the NBC late night comedy is bringing on Neil Punsalan as showrunner, taking over for Aliyah Silverstein. Punsalan previously worked on Comedy Central’s Doing the Most with Phoebe Robinson. Head Writer Sean O’Connor is also being replaced, with The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon alum Chelsea Davison taking on his role. Aside from the writing staff changes, Singh’s show is also switching locations, swapping out the studio stage with an L.A. house. “For this second round, I know the ropes and plan to bring more of my creativity to the table,” Singh said in a statement. “It’s time to get goofy, be imperfect and bring my full authentic self to late night.”
