The 11th Hour Dispatch — Thursday, July 12, 2018
BINGE WATCH
It’s Emmys season (aka my Christmas), and Netflix has of course crushed some dreams with its giant wallet. The streaming giant racked up the most nominations with 112, breaking HBO’s 17-year-long streak of leading the television-focused award show. Besides this historic breakthrough, here are a few of 11th Hour’s other 2018 Emmy nomination faves:
- Sandra Oh received the recognition she deserves and became the first woman of Asian decent to be nominated for Lead Actress in a Drama for Killing Eve.
- Kenan Thompson finally picked up a nomination for Saturday Night Live after 15 years on the show. Better late than never I guess.
- The late Anthony Bourdain received six posthumous nods for his CNN series Parts Unknown.
- And the winner of the 11th Hour’s absolute favorite story of all goes to Megan Amram. The comedian (you probably follow her on Twitter) dropped her punchline for the most meta joke possible and picked up not one but two nominations for her delightfully good satirical web series An Emmy for Megan. Even if she doesn’t win the award, she’s made a series that is solid comedy gold.
All in all, this was a pretty decent round of nominations for the 70th annual awards show, though you can be damn sure I’m greatly holding a grudge for The Good Place’s snub. In the words of our very own Kimber Myers, “What the fork, Emmy voters?!”
If you want to the full rundown of nominations, Variety has your back here.
YOUNG MONEY
Mother Monster Stefani “Lady Gaga” Germanotta has been quietly working on a beauty startup that has already pulled in VC from Lightspeed Venture Partners, one of the top funds focused on consumer goods. No total was disclosed for the investment in the startup, Haus Beauty, but similar investments in the early days of companies like Snap, Stitch Fix, and Honest Company were in the $5 million to $10 million range. Little is also known about Haus Beauty itself other than that Ben Jones, the former chief digital officer of Honest Company, serves as CEO and that Gaga is a founder. Beauty lines from other moguls like Rihanna’s Fenty or Kylie Cosmetics from Kylie Jenner — who just yesterday was referred to as “set to be the youngest ever self-made billionaire” on the cover of Forbes — have greatly succeeded in the market, and with the voracious nature of Gaga’s Little Monsters, Haus Beauty will likely enjoy a similar rise to the top.
BIG BUSINESS
The Big Bad FCC took a giant gulp from Ajit Pai’s enormous Reese’s mug and voted 4–0 to open up the C-band spectrum for terrestrial wireless use. This spectrum is currently used to deliver cable and broadcast programming to cable head-ends, televisions, and radio stations through satellite. If you have no idea what you just read, just know that this means the FCC is doing this to help close the digital divide and push us closer to the inevitable 5G. The commission also adopted a Report and Order that enables authorized state and local officials to conduct “live code” tests of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) using the codes and processes that would be used if the world was actually crumbling around us, which yes, does sound as terrifying as it is. Lastly, the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that moves the commission toward modernization of “Kid Vid” rules, which dictate how childrens’ television is handled in the U.S. If you know a small child, you don’t need me to tell you that they’re finding content pretty much anywhere but the TV, so this is likely a smart move to take before the kids overthrow us all with the help of Big Bird.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
Build a Bear Workshop held a “Pay Your Age Day,” and as you would imagine, it did not go great.
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