Nick Hilton

Opinion | In his commitment to creating a show that puts clickbait and ad sales ahead of public service, he is teaching the rest of the media an important lesson. The great fear is that they learn something from it

🖋 @nickfthilton.bsky.social

Read more: trib.al/JbsdMhl

Is Celebrity Traitors the most anticipated launch on British TV ever? I'm trying to think of another new show that arrived with such pre-release hype...

Diary of a CEO's Steven Bartlett is everything wrong with podcasting An episode featuring Louis Tomlinson will be screened in cinemas tonight. As ever, clicks and cash seem to trump good-quality content

I didn't write the headline, but, yeah, I certainly don't think Steven Bartlett is a force for good in podcasting.

It’s almost like the media thinks ‘Taylor Swift’ is quite an effective keyword…

I don’t think I’ve seen a critical cycle work as quickly as it has with The Life of a Showgirl: immediate fawning praise followed, swiftly, by a vicious backlash. And now “actually, it’s kind of good” reappraisal. All within a week! We might manage to repeat the cycle again by the end of the month…

The Not-so Free Press: how profit and polarisation became unhealthy bedfellows Bari Weiss has sold The Free Press for a rumoured $150m – wow.

A newsletter on the idea that The Free Press was somehow worth $150m.

Gilmore Girls at 25: Why we love Lorelai and Rory more than ever A quarter of a century after it arrived on screens, ‘Gilmore Girls’ is more popular than ever, writes Nick Hilton. It’s hardly surprising that the show has thrived – it depicts a liberal, accepting, c...

Happy 25th birthday to Gilmore Girls: a fantasy of America that’s infinitely preferable to the real thing.

Netflix’s Ed Gein drama shows how our appetite for horror has changed With the latest edition of his ‘Monster’ series, the showrunner leans, yet again, into his icky instincts and leaves nothing to the imagination, writes Nick Hilton

I went out of my way to watch Monster: the Ed Gein Story yesterday (it is, I think, the worst of the Monsters) and write about how televisual horror is evolving into something all too literal.

The moment, last night, when Movers & Shakers won Gold in the Impact category at the British Podcast Awards. A great recognition for a long, hard year of campaigning, and thankfully @rorycj.bsky.social was on hand to collect the award.

To be fair to Tyler Cowen, I suspect AI is going to significantly increase the global supply of virgins. His utopia is coming.

Not going to review the new Hamlet at the National (thankfully…) but I will review the bloke who tapped me on the shoulder in the interval and said “sorry if you have some sort of condition but your head is moving a lot”. My review of him? Two thumbs down!

Better availability in London 😎

I think Didsbury is their last remaining Manchester cinema. Amazingly, it seems like 2/3 of the seats have already been booked...

He's definitely pivoted massively away from business stuff. But will 1D stans really fill a cinema in Didsbury in order to hear a 2-hour interview with Louis Tomlinson (not even Harry!) a day early??

A journalistic bridge too far...

Genuinely fascinated by this. It will be released as a podcast 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉 𝒹𝒶𝓎. You are paying £15 to spend 120 minutes(!!!) watching a podcast that will be on YouTube 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓍𝓉 𝒹𝒶𝓎.

Who are the people paying £15 to go to their local Cineworld to watch the latest episode of Diary of a CEO with... Louis Tomlinson from One Direction? Like, what demographic could this possibly be catering to?

Have other podcast people noticed a huge increase in obviously AI-generated guest suggestion emails in the past few weeks? If so, is this the result of some new, bullshit AI tool? Or has there been a new data leak?

AI vs Stardust: are film's A-listers safe from digital replacement? A Tale of Two AIs: Tilly Norwood and Maya Lanez

Anyway, more on the Tilly Norwood nonsense, via my Substack.

Inside the life of an extra, and how they might all get killed off by AI As the BBC comedy ‘Extras’ turns 20, Nick Hilton looks at the quirks of a job that has been integral to the TV and film industry, and the threat it’s faced with today

(For this piece, I interview an Oscar-winning VFX developer, now working in AI, who noted that we're probably still 5 years from being able to properly composite AI into non-AI shots. At the moment, that's an impenetrable barrier to utilising "AI actors").

Hollywood celebrities outraged over new 'AI actor' Tilly Norwood The AI actress is apparently in talks with Hollywood talent agencies to represent her on the big screen.

The acting community is generating a lot of noise about this, complete non-story, of an AI actress. This is a PR gimmick, not a real threat to their jobs. But when have the acting establishment ever shown any solidarity with their technical colleagues who are already losing jobs to AI?

No comment – obviously – on the person making these comments, but I do wonder how many people have experienced the sheer volume or density of misogyny that Emma Watson has experienced since she was a literal child. I think the insinuation that she is some unworldly naïf is a touch unfair.

AI vs Stardust: are film's A-listers safe from digital replacement? A Tale of Two AIs: Tilly Norwood and Maya Lanez

Acting isn't threatened by AI because – and I hate to say it – you can't fuck an AI. Whereas rotoscopers? Compositors? Extras? They're the creative industries professions who are genuinely imperilled by the current direction of traffic.

Let there be light: Why modern TV shows are so often too dark to see Nick Hilton digs into why telly seems to be so gloomy, and argues that realism should not be placed above the needs of viewers

Some thoughts on the lighting of TV. Essentially: there are so many variables that filmmakers can't control with TV, that it makes it hard to be tricksy with light. Better to err on the side of caution with the great, democratic art form.

For all its faults as a publication, TMZ can still occasionally cook.

😈 tell the friendly chatbot your secrets. your deepest, darkest secrets... 😈

David Tennant is a class act in sprawling ITV phone-hacking drama The Hack – review Jack Thorne, who wrote ‘Toxic Town’ and ‘Adolescence’, is back again with a show that might have worked better as two separate stories

The Hack is a bit of a muddle, but still entertaining enough.

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

um yeah, nice one guys but if your "science" isn't a chatbot that can create other chatbots, then i think i speak for the entire investment community when i say: i'm out!

Is one person listening to all these shows in order to compile this briefing? If so, deserving of raise (and/or their liberty).