Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon compilation of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Julia Alexander takes a closer look at how Hollywood’s biggest streamers became obsessed with YouTube, and why copying its creator-fueled playbook is likely to backfire. Look no further than MrBeast’s Beast Games, which cost Amazon $100 million to produce but ended up underperforming Max’s The Pitt. Netflix may have more success experimenting with shorter video formats, but it’s all easier said than done… 

Plus, below the fold: Sen. Angus King joins John Heilemann for a rollicking conversation about the Medicaid cuts baked into the Big Beautiful Bill—and the Supreme Court’s head-spinning decision to restrict federal judges from issuing universal injunctions. Sarah Shapiro assesses Vuori’s exit options after its ultrarich $5.5 billion valuation. And Julie Davich previews a new exhibition by Lisa Yuskavage, the iconoclastic artist known for her voluptuous, subversive vision of femininity.  

Meanwhile, on the pods: John Ourand reunites with Axios’s Sara Fischer on The Varsity to break down what a Skydance-Paramount merger portends for CBS Sports. On The Town, Matt Belloni is joined by Blumhouse C.E.O. Jason Blum to discuss why his new film M3GAN 2.0 significantly underperformed during its opening weekend. And on The Powers That Be, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Puck’s newest partner, Ian Krietzberg, explore the contradictions at the heart of the Trump administration’s A.I. strategy.

HOLLYWOOD

As it approaches an audience ceiling, the leader in subscription streaming is looking to nick a few elements of the free model to drive engagement—namely, mastering shortform, creator-made content. Easier said than done…

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WASHINGTON

A conversation with Maine’s junior Senator, Angus King, a rare independent in a tribal world, on the eve of the Big Beautiful Bill’s passage.

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FASHION

Nearly a year after the company’s significant $825 million capital raise, the post-parody athleisure brand seems primed for a liquidity event, whether an I.P.O. or a sale to a strategic.

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ART

Lisa Yuskavage’s work has been criticized as too overtly sexual, and the artist herself as a “bad feminist.” But she sees the critical reception as a nuisance on her journey from working-class Philly to a Morgan Library & Museum show, which puts her works on paper alongside Thoreau’s journals and Bach’s sheet music.

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SPORTS

Axios’s Sara Fischer returns to the pod for a sweeping tour of the most urgent issues in the sports media landscape—from the looming Trump-CBS settlement (and what a Skydance-Paramount merger portends for CBS Sports) to the College Football Playoff’s potential expansion, the growing leverage of live sports in ad markets, the possibility of a new NFL stadium in D.C., and much, much more.

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HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Blumhouse C.E.O. Jason Blum to discuss why his new film M3GAN 2.0 significantly underperformed in its opening weekend, making only $10 million domestically; Blumhouse’s recent slump; what he has learned from this year; the state of the horror genre; and the highs and lows of moviemaking.

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WASHINGTON

Ian Krietzberg joins guest host Leigh Ann Caldwell to break down the eleventh-hour removal of a controversial A.I. provision from the Big Beautiful Bill. Then they discuss the contradictions at the heart of the Trump administration’s A.I. strategy, from its deregulatory stance to its $500 billion bet on the Stargate initiative—and a looming A.I. policy framework that may favor innovation over environmental protections.

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