It’s Thursday, and Elton John has officially joined the YouTube Billion Views Club thanks to the music video for his 1989 single, “Sacrifice.”

TALKING POLITICS

The spike: The 2026 U.S. midterm elections resulted in a historic victory for Democrats—but liberal politicians weren’t the only big winners on November 3. Streamers across YouTube, Twitch, Kick, and Rumble picked up more viewership than they’ve ever received during midterm election coverage.

According to Streams Charts, election-related broadcasts on those four platforms combined to haul in 20.87 million hours of watch time, collectively reaching 3.4 million concurrent viewers. Across 3,400 channels, election night traffic was over 4x higher than it was during the previous midterms in 2022. (Streams during the presidential election year of 2024, however, did deliver more traffic.)

That viewership spike underscores creators’ growing influence in American politics. Several of the biggest winners in 2026—including Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, and Texas Senator-elect James Talarico—boosted their campaigns through robust social media strategies.

The breakdown: The results of that push can be seen on Streams Charts’ list of the most-watched midterms broadcasts of 2026. On the right side of the aisle, Steven Crowder made a big impression on Rumble, bringing in 461,000 hours of watch time.

Progressive lightning rod Hasan Piker attracted 1.75 million hours of watch time on his November 3 Twitch stream—but even the archetypical himbo himself couldn’t keep up with Steve Kornacki.

NBC News went all-in on the dorky data analyst’s “Kornacki Cam” during the midterms, and that turned out to be the right move. Kornacki’s breakdown of the blue tsunami collected 29 million views across all platforms to become the #1 election stream. Per Streams Charts, NBC News picked up 4.39 million hours of election night watch time on YouTube.

All this goes to show that creators have become indispensable political pundits—but there’s still plenty of room at the table for traditional networks, too.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

SEARCH SAVVY

The search: Netflix’s new strategy for combating YouTube’s commanding share of living room TVs is to insist that it’s not the quantity of viewership, but the quality of viewership. And its new tool just might be a way to pump up those quality views.

AI Discover is designed to curate Netflix’s offerings in a hyperpersonalized manner, so people only see what they like. Subscribers’ first interaction with AI Discover is to pick a broad overall theme, like “Something Light,” “Scare Me,” “Family Movie Night,” or “Quick Watches.”

Once a theme is in place, Netflix’s bot brings up a bunch of suggestions, along with additional narrower themes within the first themes (for example, you might’ve hit “Scare Me,” but then Netflix could give you a way to zero in on more body horror over slasher thrillers).

Netflix says users will go through a successive process of “tuning” AI Discover’s recommendations until it “find[s] your next obsession.”

The results: Netflix says AI Discover is “powered by a new intelligence layer we’ve been building that responds to what members tell us in real time and keeps learning.”

That takes us back to the streamer’s pursuit of quality viewership. If it can use AI Discover to gather an immense amount of information about viewers’ preferences for this new “intelligence layer,” it might be able to more accurately match them with what they want to watch.

More accurate matching could in turn drive up the amount of time people spend watching a movie or a TV show—and Netflix might start shooting for average view duration as a way to have at least a chance at catching up to YouTube.

BETWEEN THE LINES

The code: Is YouTube using its Android app as a testing ground for Instagram-style social features? According to a report from Android Authority, the most recent version of the app’s code includes numerous references to Tamba, a mysterious entity with similarities to Instagram.

Android Authority’s discoveries within the YouTube app include the logo pictured above and dozens of icons that share a crude aesthetic reminiscent of hand-drawn images. Those assets are tied to a package titled “com.google.android.youtube.sandbox,” suggesting that Tamba is a separate experience from the primary version of YouTube.

It’s possible that Tamba is nothing more than an experimental platform used to test new features before they’re pushed to YouTube. But Android Authority notes that the code references a separate “test” package, which means that the entity could be something more than a digital lab.

Some of the terms used in the Tamba assets—including references to followers, direct messages, and group chats—also sound more like what you’d expect to see on Instagram than YouTube.

The context: If Google’s video platform is trying to develop its own take on Instagram, it wouldn’t be the first tech company to utilize that strategy. Meta’s perceived abandonment of the qualities that made O.G. Instagram so popular have opened up opportunities for rivals. The photo app Dispo, for example, enjoyed a brief surge by telling its users that it’s not Instagram.

More recently, TikTok embraced different types of photo content as part of an effort to revive the bygone Instagram experience.

YouTube, for its part, has built up its DMs as Instagram has turned those messages into a revenue stream. If Tamba is a real thing, it could put that form of correspondence front and center.

WATCH THIS 👀

The holiday kickoff: November is in full swing. For some people, that means swapping out Halloween decorations for “Give Thanks” throw pillows and handprint turkey decorations. But for others—including Mariah Carey—the arrival of November means it’s time.

Earlier this week, the “All I Want for Christmas” singer officially ushered in the 2026 holiday season with her annual “IT'S TIME” announcement on YouTube. This year’s kick-off video shows an abrupt transition from Halloween hijinks to the Christmas season, but it’s safe to say fans aren’t too bummed about Thanksgiving getting lost in the mix.

Carey’s video has already amassed over 15 million views in just three days. Check it out here for a hefty dose of holiday cheer.

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