It’s Tuesday and Netflix is making its platform more accessible with the addition of ASL interpretations to over 70 family-friendly shows and movies.

BRING THE DRAMA

The show: WWE has partnered with prominent microdrama platform ReelShort to produce an original live-action vertical show—which, according to the pro wrestling company, marks “the first collaboration between a major sports and entertainment brand and a microdrama platform.”

WWE and ReelShort haven’t released much information about the microdrama, but The Hollywood Reporter writes that two of WWE’s Scottish wrestlers, Drew McIntyre and Joe Hendry, will join SmackDown frontman Jacob Fatu and more as-yet-unannounced performers in the show.

Production is planned for August, with the series launch expected on ReelShort sometime this fall.

The strategy: “By bringing WWE Superstars into the ReelShort cinematic world, we are creating a new storytelling experience for the WWE Universe, while reaching a fresh audience with premium content on ReelShort’s innovative platform,” Ben Houser, Head of Original Content and Development at WWE, said.

Savvy internet denizens will know this is not exactly an unexpected move for WWE. The org has been posting match clips and behind-the-scenes content on YouTube for nearly two decades. These days, its main channel has a whopping 113 million subscribers and frequently scrapes ~1 billion views a month.

At the tail end of 2025, WWE expanded into launching individual YouTube channels for some of its top stars, starting with longtime powerhouse The Undertaker.

So while it may be a little startling to see oiled-up, muscle-bound bros as the leading lads in microdramas, we’re not at all surprised WWE is throwing itself at the hottest new thing in digital content.

TIKTOK TALK

The memo: TikTok has found its way back to Capitol Hill. In a recent memo, the Department of Justice announced that the U.S.-controlled version of TikTok (aka TikTok USDS Joint Venture) can be installed on government devices.

The platform had previously been banned from government-owned devices for years. In 2022, a group of Republican politicians (including then-South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem) became the first lawmakers to order the removal of TikTok from official devices. That same year, The No TikTok on Government Devices Act prohibited TikTok use on federal and state property—but the DOJ has now clarified that “the version of TikTok operated by the TikTok U.S. Data Security Joint Venture does not fall within this prohibition.”

In its memo, the department explained that “the Joint Venture functions independently of ByteDance, is majority-owned by American investors, and has revised the content recommendation algorithm and cybersecurity program originally developed by ByteDance to insulate federal government information against the concerning security features that initially motivated the prohibition.”

The context: Of course, not everyone waited for the DOJ’s explicit approval. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for instance, brought the app back to Big Apple phones this past March in a self-proclaimed effort to “open up new avenues of communication with the public.”

Now, the White House is following Mamdani’s lead. By making TikTok more accessible, President Trump is reiterating his support for the app and its community ahead of contentious midterm elections.

FIFA FEVER

The winners: As the World Cup made its way through North America, soccer mania left a definitive mark on YouTube Shorts—and top creators reworked their tried-and-true strategies to keep up. Now that the tournament has concluded, we can see what worked, what didn’t, and what the lasting effects of such a wide-ranging cultural moment might be.

For starters, it’s clear that there is no replacement for broadcast rights. Even as dozens of footballing channels inhabited our charts, the ones that soared the highest had access to match footage.

CazéTV falls into that category, as does FIFA itself. CazéTV’s lifetime YouTube viewership surpassed 12 billion views by the conclusion of the tournament, while the Swiss-based organization behind the Cup topped our viewership charts and produced some instant viral hits. During the final week of the tournament alone, FIFA’s official channel snagged 681.9 million weekly views—the 5th-highest sum among all YouTube hubs worldwide. A video featuring iShowSpeed gave FIFA one last blockbuster before the World Cup’s conclusion.

The ripple effect: Official broadcasters may have earned the biggest wins during the World Cup, but even channels with no prior soccer content benefited from the sports mania sweeping the globe. Multiple top Indian family channels, for example, donned jerseys and kicked balls around to tap into the excitement of the moment. For kiddos Koko & Golu, that pivot to soccer content brought 371.1 million weekly views and a 38th-place finish in the Global Top 50.

AI-powered channels found ways to get a piece of the pie, too. Some Shorts hubs used AI-generated representations of famous soccer players to transform their viewership over the course of the tournament. With help from AI Haaland, AI Mbappe, and AI Lamine Yamal, for instance, Japan-based channel Mischief Time rounded out the World Cup with a 13th-place finish in the Global Top 50.

WATCH THIS 👀

The pop culture game: After airing for six seasons across channels like Nickelodeon and platforms like Netflix, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir is leaving its mark on YouTube Shorts.

The French animated series is getting plenty of publicity online thanks to channels like Arishnev, a Russian YouTube hub that claimed the #1 spot in this week’s Global Sub Top 50 rankings.

Arishnev has made a name for itself by posting an assortment of Italian brainrot media and KPop Demon Hunters references. Now, it’s also drawing big views with content inspired by Miraculous characters like Marinette (aka the daring super-powered heroine Ladybug) and Adrian (Marinette’s longtime love interest, Cat Noir). Check out one of Arishnev’s latest pop culture-powered clips here to see what all the hype is about.

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