By Mark Kennedy, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --"MacGruber," a parody skit on "Saturday Night Live" that became a movie, is coming back to the small screen.
The NBCUniversal streaming platform Peacock said Monday that Will Forte will once again play the mullet-haired hero for a new half-hour series.
Peacock said the series will follow MacGruber after rotting in prison for a decade as he hunts down a mysterious villain from his past.
The "MacGyver" parody series will use the 2010 film adaptation as a jumping off point. That portrayed MacGruber as a soldier of fortune who is supposedly a whiz at defusing bombs. The film also starred Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe and Val Kilmer.
The film "MacGruber" helped Forte transition from "Saturday Night Live." While a box-office disappointment, earning just $8.5 million, the absurdist comedy has its cult adherents.
Netflix’s subscriber growth is slowing, but its profit and stock price are still surging
Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service's crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.
The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year.
Even so, the company's revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.
Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers โ far more than any other streaming service.
The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company's revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.
The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix's stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company's shares so far this year.
"We had a plan to reaccelerate growth and we delivered on that plan," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during a video call discussing the results.
The past quarter's subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch... Read More