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

Today, we lead with Kim Masters’s insiderly reporting into a changing of the guard at Amazon’s Prime Video, where former Netflix executive Peter Friedlander was just hired as its new head of television. As Kim notes, the move was greeted internally with a cautious sigh of relief: Friedlander is celebrated for his taste and artist-friendly approach, and some had been anxious that the job might’ve gone to a less beloved executive. But can Friedlander adjust to a culture that values scale more than Emmys?

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman delivers her final dispatch from Europe as Fashion Month wraps up, with notes on everything from Pieter Mulier’s beautiful Alaïa to Matthieu Blazy’s triumphant Chanel debut. Abby Livingston charts the latest beats in the increasingly contentious Texas G.O.P. Senate primary. And John Ourand chats with a billionaire Texas Tech booster about his controversial plan to overhaul college sports.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt Belloni and Lucas Shaw connect on The Town to assess The Smashing Machine’s underwhelming box office results. On Impolitic, John Heilemann and Dylan Byers discuss Bari Weiss’s new gig at CBS News and Jimmy Kimmel’s post-suspension victory lap. On The Grill Room, Dylan chats with Red Seat Ventures’ Chris Balfe about the conservative creator economy. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby sits down with Leigh Ann Caldwell to evaluate who’s winning the government shutdown messaging war.

HOLLYWOOD

The former longtime Netflix executive was beloved for greenlighting blockbusters and passion projects, alike. At Prime Video, he’ll need to work within new constraints: financial discipline, less prestige, a company that covets scale more than Emmys. And he’s never been a guy who likes saying no.

FASHION

News and notes on the final shows of the season: Pieter Mulier’s beautifully commercial Alaïa, Pierpaolo’s modern twist on couture, the Alessandro riddle, and Matthieu Blazy’s triumphant debut at Chanel.

WASHINGTON

News and notes on two Republican power struggles: Cornyn’s tightening Texas Senate race, Corey Lewandowski’s New Hampshire mischief, and their implications for 2026.

SPORTS

The former NFL player and billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell struck a nerve with his radical proposal to overhaul the Sports Broadcasting Act. But is there actually some logic to his quixotic plan?

HOLLYWOOD

Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw use the disappointing box office performance for A24’s sports drama The Smashing Machine, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to examine the current state of A24, the difficulty of living up to its sky-high valuation, and the natural life cycle of a growing indie movie studio.

WASHINGTON

John welcomes Puck’s master of the media multiverse, Dylan Byers, back to the show to discuss Bari Weiss’s elevation to editor-in-chief of CBS News and Jimmy Kimmel’s East Coast victory lap after the furor around his suspension and reinstatement by Disney and ABC. Byers also weighs in on the panic in Hollywood over OpenAI’s Sora, and the first signs of the remaking of The Washington Post’s op-ed page as directed by Jeff Bezos.

MEDIA

Chris Balfe, C.E.O. of Red Seat Ventures, joins Dylan for a deep dive into the booming independent creator economy—what creators need, how they can scale, the smartest ways to unlock new revenue streams, and more. Balfe also breaks down Red Seat’s growing portfolio of conservative voices, from Tucker Carlson to Megyn Kelly, and its recent acquisition by Fox, which has emerged as the most aggressive legacy player chasing creator talent.

WASHINGTON

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter to discuss the state of play surrounding the week-old government shutdown, as Democrats seem to be winning the messaging war and early polls suggest that Trump and Republicans are taking most of the blame. Can Trump and Speaker Johnson actually convince Americans they’re not trying to gut healthcare benefits? What points of leverage do the parties have at their disposal? And what might eventually break the impasse?

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