It's Sunday and here’s a handpicked selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

But first, tic-tac-toe is the hot new esport. An event at SXSW pits noughts-and-crosses tacticians against one another and ranks their results on a virtual leaderboard.

CREATOR COMMOTION

The TV star: Noah Beck is joining the cast of FOX’s Baywatch reboot. The TikTok star will portray a “rookie lifeguard” in the upcoming reboot of the classic Pamela Anderson/David Hasselhoff series. Beck previously showed off his acting skills (and his smoldering looks) on Tubi’s Sidelined: The QB and Me. Now he’s headed to another FOX-owned network as part of an ensemble cast.

The afterparty: Vanity Fair is bringing creators to its Oscars afterparty. On its official YouTube channel, the culture publication will feature Quenlin Blackwell, Brittany Broski, and Jake Shane as they host a stream filled with hobnobbing, celebrity interviews, and celebrations of the night’s victors. Of course, there will be short-form social media content on tap as well.

The political alliance: Donald Trump has given Jake Paul his “complete endorsement” for any future political campaigns. In the wake of the endorsement, I only have one thing to say: This bit from the 2017 Streamy Awards has aged…interestingly.

The end of an era: The PGA tour is hitting the brakes on its Creator Classic. Last year, the top golf circuit embraced YouTube stars like Grant Horvat and Luke Kwon with a three-part series of creator tournaments. In 2026, however, the Creator Classic will not return to The Players Championship. Is the PGA Tour appeasing older fans who don’t want anything to do with creators, or is it just restructuring its creator plans heading into 2027?

THE BIZ

The candy collab: Feastables is getting a branded tie-in with a line of Super Mario Galaxy candies. Everyone’s favorite red-capped plumber is making his big-screen return this April. When he does, moviegoers will get the chance to eat some on-theme sweets courtesy of Feastables. This might become the biggest Gen Alpha movie theater meme since the Minecraft chicken jockey.

The partnership: Jomboy Media is integrating Fanatics’ sportsbook and prediction market into its baseball content. Jimmy O’Brien’s media company is one of the most prominent creator brands in the baseball world. Jomboy’s success has attracted the interest of Fanatics and its betting products. We’re going to see a lot of deals like this in 2026. As some leagues remain skeptical about prediction markets, there is a huge market for creator partnerships in the sports gambling world.

The ranking: An official BookTok chart is coming to the U.K. We already know that TikTok’s literary videos drive millions of sales while shifting tastes toward genres like romantasy. Later this year, we’ll learn just how impactful those clips can be when NielsenIQ BookData contributes its numbers to a new BookTok chart. The 20 titles generating the most engagement on TikTok will crack the ranking.

The fund: FiveTwoNine, Billion Dollar Boy, and Patreon are making space for creators at Cannes Lions. The creative festival is increasingly geared toward influencer marketing, so three companies that are active in the creator economy are teaming up to send 20 people to France. The Cannes Lions Creator Fund will cover more than just travel expenses. It also opens doors for its recipients by connecting them to decision-makers who can advance their careers.

TECH TIME

The AI wave: What will ByteDance do with access to top Nvidia chips? The parent company is already a major player in the world of generative AI. Now that it has access to about 36,000 top-end chips, it is well-equipped to make a run at competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. TikTok redefined video content in the West. Can ByteDance pull off a similar coup in the world of AI?

The executive perspective: Patreon CEO Jack Conte is both “amazed and furious” about AI. Conte is also a creator himself, so he knows how frustrating it can be when hard work doesn’t lead to deserved rewards. That’s why he’s advocating for creators to receive “consent, credit, and compensation” as their content is used to train increasingly powerful AI models. Until that happens, those creators will just have to keep using Patreon, I guess.

The AI tool: Meta has acquired a social network where AIs can communicate with one another. The tech giant has a lot of potential uses for its new property Moltbook. Perhaps it wants to build the conversational systems that lead to more chatbot referrals, or maybe it sees Moltbook as a powerful canvas for experimentation. If you ask me, Meta just wants to get all the AIs together for a big game of mafia.

The “Laundry Chair”: Simone Giertz’s YouTube channel is filled with more than a decade of “shitty robots” and other gadgets with questionable utility. For her next move, the Swedish investor has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a chair that doubles as a hamper.

If you never know what to do with clothes that aren’t clean but aren’t ready to be laundered either, consider throwing a few bones Giertz’s way.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.