The Town with Matthew Belloni

@thetownwithmatthewbelloni · Podcast

Latest segments

• Chuck Lorre's memoir, 2026-10-28
  Pulls the Moonves casting fights out of the memoir
  Pulls the Moonves casting fights out of the memoir: his people called Cryer the death of comedy, and he shut down a series with Allison Janney as lead, though he raised no objection to her on Mom. Lorre says he has not kept in touch.
• Chuck Lorre's memoir, 2026-10-28
  Recounts the Sheen replacement in Lorre's own words
  Lorre tells the replacement story in his own words: Moonves telling him there would be a Two and a Half Men on the fall schedule, the Hugh Grant approach, and 88 episodes with Kutcher. Adds the size of the Grant offer and the Moonves ultimatum.
• Chuck Lorre's memoir, 2026-10-28
  Sketches Lorre's career before the interview
  Opens the interview with a career sketch of Lorre: four shows at once, one Emmy, the difficult-talent reputation, and the memoir Sitcom, which takes shots at Moonves, Scientology and Sheen. Setup for the conversation, not new reporting.
• YouTube tops Netflix in Nielsen, 2026-10-26
  Questions the YouTube-Netflix comparison
  Takes up the new Nielsen Gauge and argues the YouTube-versus-Netflix comparison is not apples to apples, since YouTube does not say what drives its viewing. Reads Sarandos's earnings-call line as a signal Netflix will invest less in creator and podcast content.
• Fielder's Holmes documentary, 2026-10-21
  Corrects the audience stat to 70 percent
  Call-sheet segment corrects the audience stat to 70 percent under 35, then handicaps the expansion to 2,600 theaters against Clayface. The correction restores a figure already on the record; the rest is prediction.
• Fielder's Holmes documentary, 2026-10-20
  Adds the Holmes film's screen count and call
  Call sheet segment on the Holmes documentary's opening: the $15 million figure, the record comparisons and the under-25 audience. Adds a screen count of 885 and a claim that Holmes called Fielder last week, plus a prediction of a Best Picture nomination and an HBO Max companion piece.
• Netflix replaces Bajaria, 2026-10-20
  Speculates on who fills the Netflix film job
  Speculates about who fills the Netflix film job after Dan Lin's exit - Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, a second run at David Greenbaum, or Universal's Peter Kramer - and predicts big-director deals will come with theatrical releases. Stays inside the fallout of the purge.
• Netflix replaces Bajaria, 2026-10-20
  Weighs whether the Rice hire signals an acquisition
  Weighs whether the Rice hire signals a studio acquisition, with Belloni floating NBCUniversal after the Comcast split and Shaw calling it a programming fix instead. Stays inside the shakeup already on the record, adding only Sarandos's statement language.
• Netflix replaces Bajaria, 2026-10-20
  Speculates what Rice means for content strategy
  Speculates about what Peter Rice's arrival signals for content strategy: more prestige filmmakers, a bigger sports push, and licensing other networks like the TF1 experiment in France. Frames it against the 2022 pivot to advertising and the password crackdown, and stays inside opinion about what the change might mean.
• Netflix replaces Bajaria, 2026-10-20
  Explains the timing and argues Bajaria is scapegoated
  Explains the timing of the shakeup: engagement stuck at one to two percent growth, a programming drought after Squid Game and Stranger Things ended, Emmy losses and talent departures. Argues Bajaria is being scapegoated for the failed Warner Brothers bid, which the hosts pin on Sarandos and Peters.
• Netflix replaces Bajaria, 2026-10-20
  Recounts breaking the news in his newsletter
  Belloni recounts breaking the news in his Puck newsletter: Bajaria out as chief content officer, Rice in, and Dan Lin gone from film. He frames it around 2 percent engagement growth, a 40 percent stock decline, a thousand layoffs and the failed Warner Brothers bid.
• Street Fighter flops, 2026-10-16
  Sets box office lines and takes unders
  Box office predictions segment ahead of the weekend: sets lines for Street Fighter, Whalefall and You Can See Everything and takes unders on the first two. Adds the tracking split - NRG at $43 million against Paramount's mid-30s - and the Legendary-Capcom financing behind Street Fighter.
• Stairway licensed for Narnia, 2026-10-13
  Reviews the Narnia trailer and its marketing
  Reviews the Narnia trailer and its marketing rather than the Stairway licensing, warning that Netflix is selling a franchise before the first film has proven itself and citing the Dark Universe and Divergent as cautionary tales. Stays inside the trailer release already on the record.
• Paramount settles AG suit, 2026-10-13
  Speculates on who runs the studios
  Speculates about who runs the movie studios after the merger closes: whether DeLuca and Abdi stay at Warner Bros., whether Greenstein and Goldberg absorb them, and whether Ellison names a single content chief. Prediction and org-chart guesswork, with a passing nod to the unsigned consent decree.
• Paramount settles AG suit, 2026-10-13
  Predicts a phased post-close integration
  Moves past the unsigned consent decree to the post-close integration: debt first, then the executive structure. Predicts a phased rollout like Paramount's, with the new org visible by year's end. Speculation and planning, no new development in the case.
• Paramount settles AG suit, 2026-10-13
  Sets up the unsigned consent decree
  Sets up the episode on the unsigned Paramount-Warner Bros. consent decree and the judge's demand that the parties answer Senator Cory Booker's letter, then lays out the combined company's scale and the open question of who runs its assets.