News Brief: 'Peak TV,' Streamer Studio Accounting Gimmicks, and the Precarity of Hollywood Labor

In this News Brief, we are joined by Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller, authors of the new book Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers. Tracking the transformation of streaming services into studios, the overproduction of series during the "Peak TV" era, and the fallout in Hollywood of both the #MeToo movement and the COVID pandemic, the book explains how the conflicting interests of studio executives, creative workers, and workers' unions changed Hollywood forever.

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Guests

Miranda Banks is Professor of Film, Television, and Media Studies at Loyola Marymount University, author of The Writers: A History of American Screenwriters and Their Guild, and coeditor of Production Studies (Rutgers University Press, 2015), and co-author of Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers (University of California Press, 2026).

Kate Fortmueller is Associate Professor of Film and Media History at Georgia State University and author of Below the Stars: How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production and Hollywood Shutdown: Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID (University of Texas Press, 2021) and co-author of Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers (University of California Press, 2026).

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this News Brief, go here. You can also find transcripts of past episodes, live shows, Beg-a-Thons, interviews, and News Briefs here.

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Citations Merch

Summer's nearly upon us and there's no better time to load up on some new gear. And you're in luck: the Citations Needed merch store is open! Wear, carry, sip, and —most importantly, share — your support for the show by picking up a t-shirt, tank top, hoodie, tote bag, water bottle or mug for yourself and your favorite Citations fan.

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Credits

Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams

Producer: Julianne Tveten

Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn

Newsletter: Marco Cartolano

Music: Grandaddy

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