Simone Biles' show; the TikTok Olympics; great reads about the games; Carlson and Orban; Hello Sunshine's big sale

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Brian Stelter here at 10:50pm ET Monday with the latest on makegoods, media diets, "Wicked," DirecTV, Hello Sunshine, "SNL," Amazon, and much more...

"Exclamation point" in Tokyo

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo will continue through the end of the week, but Tuesday will have the feel of a "finale" for many American viewers. Simone Biles will compete in the balance beam finals in Tokyo -- at a time well before dawn in the US. "What a lovely punctuation mark, this exclamation point, at the end of her Olympics if she is able to pull this off," Christine Brennan told Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." Brennan said it will be "a huge moment at these Olympic games, the biggest by far." NBC will live-stream the finals starting at 4:50am ET Tuesday... And then will repackage the event for a prime-time audience on Tuesday night.

Thinking about NBC's role

Almost every day I see another column that tries to address the NBC factor in Biles' mental health hurdles. The newest one is by Richard Zoglin, writing for WaPo.

"To understand Biles's decision to step back from much of the gymnastics competition at the Tokyo Games, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room: the orgy of hype, hero worship and home-team hyperventilating that has come to define NBC's coverage of the Olympics," Zoglin wrote. "Somehow, sooner or later, something like this had to happen." He pointed out that "home-country boosterism" by NBC is what's seemingly "needed to juice viewer interest..."

Biles' most recent retweet...

...Was to amplify an Olympics superfan with just about a thousand followers who wanted everyone to notice that Biles has been boosting her teammates. The user wrote, "Regardless of the picture the media tries to paint, the world really needs to know that Simone Biles is, in fact, cheering for her teammates and the other competitors with everything she has -- so loud, you can hear her on the broadcast. She's elated for them."

Welcome to the 'TikTok Olympics'

"Accept it: The Olympics are a reality TV show," Jenny Singer wrote for Glamour on Monday. "And at the 2021 Games, TikTok has allowed athletes to do the only thing braver and more patriotic than winning gold medals: content creation." (I admit, I laughed at that.)

Singer's serious point: Instead of experiencing the Olympics "through the lens of big TV networks," anyone with a phone or a laptop has been able to watch through the eyes of the athletes, thanks to "mesmerizing" snippets of video posted to social media. She compiled some of the best TikTok videos from the games here...

>> Related: CNN's AJ Willingham piece about TikTok's intimate view of the athletes...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- "We're in the home stretch of the most dramatic Olympics in recent memory, held against great odds amid a global pandemic in a country where many Japanese residents didn't want it to happen at all," NPR's team says. Check out their list of "10 unique storylines to follow in the final stretch..."

-- The Guardian's Aaron Timms with a scathing critique of NBC's coverage: "Viewers have been able to see everything at any given moment... while understanding fundamentally nothing about what's going on..."

-- The WSJ's newest A-hed is titled "No Fans, No Problem:" While "a lot has been said about holding an Olympics without fans," these Olympic sports "never have spectators anyway..."

-- One of Adam Kilgore's many WaPo bylines from Tokyo: "With her hair and mask — and a silver medal — Raven Saunders gets attention, then uses it..."

-- Jason Gay calls this "the wildest journey of these Olympics:" Matt Ludwig, a replacement pole vaulter, was "asked to get on a plane, take a 13-hour flight, land in Tokyo, sleep a few hours... and compete." And he did! Here's the story...

Major makegoods

A week and a half into the Summer Games, it's clear that the TV ratings -- while high by almost any normal streaming-era standard -- have fallen well short of NBC's hopes and expectations. "No amount of spin can hide the fact that a big chunk of the audience has simply abandoned watching NBC's carefully packaged prime-time presentation of the Olympics," Vulture's Joe Adalian wrote the other day.

TV ad sales power NBC's Olympic profitability, so the company has been suffering from "bad luck," indeed. As WaPo's Ben Strauss reported, "NBC has been negotiating with advertisers, offering them make up ad inventory on its digital broadcasts to allow them to reach more viewers," a/k/a makegoods. "NBC may potentially offer some companies spots on Sunday Night Football this fall, as well, to make up for the shortfalls in Olympic viewership..."

TUESDAY PLANNER

Discovery reports earnings before the bell; Activision Blizzard, after the close...

New nonfiction releases include "Here, Right Matters" by Alexander Vindman, "The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden" by Peter Bergen, and "Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century" by Tim Higgins...

"Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union" kicks off a three-night run on HBO. Scroll down for Brian Lowry's review...

Another stepping stone in Broadway's return

On Tuesday in Texas, "'Wicked' will become the first touring Broadway show to resume performances since the pandemic prompted theaters to close," the NYT's Michael Paulson reports. He went to Dallas "to watch rehearsals and talk with cast and crew as they prepare to perform in a changed world." Read all about it...

Update on Sky News Australia

The Murdoch-owned network Sky News Australia is now halfway through its weeklong YouTube suspension. On Monday The Guardian identified six videos that were removed by the platform, some of which were "advocating" discredited Covid treatments. Australia's other TV networks are covering the controversy in depth – Australia's ABC interviewed former prime minister Kevin Rudd, a fierce critic of Rupert's, who said "Murdoch has been putting out anti-scientific, unfactual and frankly dangerous information."

>> Related: As I said on "Erin Burnett OutFront" Monday night, every day brings a new variant of Covid-19 misinformation...

Media diets of the unvaccinated?

I have a hunch that the vast majority of CNN fans and NYT subscribers and Twitter junkies were vaccinated months ago. So the well-meaning exhortations to get vaccinated are falling on already-vaxxed ears. Unvaccinated adults are, I suspect, less likely to consume mainstream news sources. They're not reading this newsletter in large numbers. (Let me know if I'm wrong!) They're not reading much traditional news at all. They might be listening to right-wing radio or scrolling through sarcastic memes on Facebook. (Again, this is a hunch. There's precious little research into news diets and Covid-era choices.) So what will persuade them?

Charlie Warzel hits on this, from a different angle, in his latest column. "When it comes to the politically-motivated vaccine refusers," he wrote, "the rest of us might want to stay out of the discussion if right-wing messaging shifts pro-vaccine. If mainstream media, Joe Biden, or anyone who is an oppositional force chimes in to signal approval, that will taint the message..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- As employers make moves to mandate vaccines, they are battling the kinds of B.S. we describe in this letter every day. "Misinfo is one of the challenges that we are overcoming, and we are very focused on it," DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Andrea Mitchell on Monday... (MSNBC)

-- The conservative Washington Examiner is imposing a vaccination requirement on employees just like lots of other employers. Staffers who don't follow through will have to wear masks, stay out of conference rooms, and submit a negative Covid test once a week... (Daily Caller)

-- FYI, CNN implemented this requirement for office-bound staffers back in June, and that's why I don't hesitate while hurrying in and out of the NY HQ for live shots. Mandates make a world of difference...

-- Key findings from this new Monmouth poll: 68% of Americans "report receiving at least one dose of Covid vaccine... while 2% will get it as soon as possible and 9% remain hesitant, but persuadable. However, 17% say they remain opposed to getting the vaccine at all." (Monmouth)

-- Monmouth shows "31% of Republicans saying they will likely never get the vaccine. Never. As in not ever," Chris Cillizza writes... (CNN)

-- "The Masked Singer" has been "hit with a dozen cases of Covid," but "the show is not shutting down filming or tapings," Elaine Low reports. Here's why... (Insider)

-- Montel Williams, who tested positive for Covid after being vaccinated, told CNN's Victor Blackwell that he believes he avoided a hospital stay in a Covid ward thanks to his vax... (CNN)

Napolitano out at Fox

Fox has "parted ways" with Judge Andrew Napolitano, the network's longtime senior legal analyst, according to a statement from Fox. It's unclear when this actually happened. But it was revealed after a lawsuit was "filed Monday by Fox Business production assistant John Fawcett, who alleges that he was sexually harassed in an elevator by the Judge in 2019," TVNewser's A.J. Katz wrote. "In his lawsuit, Fawcett alleges senior execs were aware of the misconduct, but declined to take further action. Fawcett also alleges that Napolitano also harassed other male employees, but HR also declined to investigate those incidents."

Fawcett, who most recently worked on Larry Kudlow's show, also alleges that Kudlow "repeatedly made racist and sexist remarks during staff meetings." Fox says those claims "are completely baseless and nothing more than a desperate attempt at a payday..."

Carlson and Orbán

Fox's Tucker Carlson and Hungary's right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán chatted on Monday in Budapest, and a few hours later Carlson said he would be hosting his show from Hungary all week long. According to The Daily Beast and other outlets, Carlson is set to deliver a speech at a "far-right conference in Budapest" this weekend. Fox declined to comment on the foreign trip by its highest-rated host. But the trip is already rising eyebrows, given Orban's strongman tendencies and the years-long erosion of democracy in Hungary...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- One of this week's most compelling reads: David Brooks revisiting his seminal book "Bobos in Paradise" and confronting the failures of the "creative class..." (The Atlantic)

Marking Austin Tice's 40th

"The last time American journalist Austin Tice was free, he was 31. This month Austin will be 40." The Washington Post's Press Freedom Partnership will mark Tice's birthday, which is on August 11, with this ad running in Monday's paper and continuing throughout the month:

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Kerry Flynn:

-- "The chief executive of Washingtonian magazine is throwing everything she's got at her staff's effort to form a union," Dave Jamieson reports... (HuffPost)

-- "Most news outlets cut back to service only metro areas during the Great Recession. That's changing in South Carolina, Arkansas and, now, Connecticut," Rick Edmonds writes about Hearst... (Poynter)

-- "The co-hosts of 'The Nod' are back, and this time, they've separated from Gimlet Media and Spotify and are instead taking their work to SiriusXM's Stitcher," Ashley Carman reports... (The Verge)

-- Angie Han, my former coworker from Mashable, is joining The Hollywood Reporter as a TV critic... (THR)

Hello Sunshine's big sale

Kerry Flynn writes: "Reese Witherspoon's women-centric media company is being sold to a mysterious new media company backed by Blackstone and led by former Disney execs Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer. The WSJ estimates that the deal values Hello Sunshine at $900 million. So what's next for the new company? More acquisitions, per Cynthia Littleton's interview with the duo for Variety: 'We want companies that are producing meaningful, category-defining content brands that resonate with their chosen audiences,' Mayer said..."

Funniest Twitter #fail of the day

The Verge's James Vincent writes: "Twitter's verification process is notoriously slapdash, but you'd expect the company not to fall for the exact same fake twice, right? Wrong! In 2012, Twitter verified an account supposedly belonging to illustrious author Cormac McCarthy, which was in reality started by an unpublished novelist. Now, in 2021, it's done the same thing again, briefly verifying a second McCarthy fake under the handle @CormacMcCrthy." Now it's been undone... and Twitter says it happened "by mistake..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- "On Monday, AT&T completed its spinoff of DirecTV." Meg James reports that "the AT&T brand will be stripped away as part of DirecTV's efforts to simplify its message and repair its reputation among consumers..." (LAT)

-- The DirecTV spinoff "should heat up NFL Sunday Ticket rights chatter," Anthony Crupi reports... (Sportico)

-- It is "SNL" cast member contract negotiation season. Lorne Michaels is asking some "SNL" players to "agree to stay through the show's 50th... a landmark occasion that is slated to start in the fall of 2024," Brian Steinberg reports... (Variety)

-- "DaBaby has apologized for the false and disparaging comments he made about gay men and HIV during a performance at a Miami music festival," Sandra Gonzalez reports... (CNN)

-- Matt Damon was in damage control mode on Monday, and here's why... (THR)

HBO's 'classy' Obama doc

Brian Lowry writes: "The Obamas have a deal with Netflix, but HBO lays claim to Barack Obama's life and legacy with 'Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union,' a classy three-part documentary -- timed to his 60th birthday on Wednesday -- that seeks to contextualize what he accomplished as well as what was left unfinished." The first part debuts Tuesday night and streams here. Read Lowry's full assessment...

Bob Ross, the 'streaming phenom'

The long-dead public-television painter Bob Ross "has become a mainstay of the digital universe — particularly during the pandemic, when the popularity of a new Bob Ross channel skyrocketed as people trapped at home turned to their televisions for therapy," WaPo's Steven Zeitchik writes. He says "Ross provides a reductio ad absurdum for a quiet digital-age truth: A sprinkling of coveted intellectual property can allow a shrewd company to punch well above its weight." But not without some biz drama. Read all about it here...

Amazon heads to Middle Earth next year

Frank Pallotta writes: "Amazon's highly anticipated (and reportedly quite expensive) 'Lord of the Rings' series finally has a premiere date. The series is set to debut on September 2, 2022 on Prime Video, the company announced on Monday. The show will premiere in 240 countries and territories worldwide and new episodes will be available weekly..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX

By Lisa Respers France:

-- Kathy Griffin said Monday that she has lung cancer, despite not being a smoker, she said...

-- The bromance between Lisa Bonet's current husband and ex-husband continues. Jason Momoa's "brother," Lenny Kravitz, wished him a happy birthday...

-- Excited for "House of Gucci?" Here's what to watch to get ready for that forthcoming film...

Parasite ruins NBC's 'Slip 'N Slide' plans

"Following an outbreak of a parasitic infection that shut down production and led NBC to yank the show from a planned post-Olympics premiere date, 'Ultimate Slip 'N Slide' will not air at all this summer," TheWrap's Jennifer Maas and Tony Maglio reported Monday. "NBC and Universal Television Alternative Studio, which is producing the show, are still committed to finding a new, safe location to film the $18 million show and get it on the air, but there is currently no plan in place for resuming production or an estimated window during which the show will premiere." The infection was... quite unpleasant...