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- The HTN Emmy Awards Fashion Roundup (Not Really)
The HTN Emmy Awards Fashion Roundup (Not Really)
PLUS: “Any Details???” AI Podcast Edition
Steve
September 16, 2025
Hola Hollywood tech nerds!
In this week’s post:
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The HTN Emmy Awards Fashion Roundup (Not Really)
It’s that time of year! The annual Hollywood Tech Nerd Emmy Awards Fashion Roundup. On a scale from “Ugh!” to “Wowzers!”, I rate some of the wildest and most provocative outfits at this year’s Emmy Awards telecast.
I’m joking, of course - I still own and wear T-shirts I had in college, I am not the guy to cover fashion. But! I am the guy who writes about entertainment and tech and over the past few months we’ve covered many of the Emmy winners and nominees within the actual purview of this newsletter, so in light of Sunday’s awards I thought I’d resurface these articles and provide some related links!
The Pitt won big both with audiences and now the Emmys, and I’ve written in the past both about the specifics of why The Pitt found success, as well as how the broader trends in streaming shows have eroded the audiences they should be cultivating.
Adolescence was another Emmy fave, picking up multiple acting awards as well as one for Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series. Given each episode was one entire take as I covered in an earlier newsletter, very much deserved.
Andor and The Rehearsal are shows that were both chronically under-nominated and under-rewarded, but they have something else in common: well-considered uses of virtual production like ILM’s StageCraft. The use of virtual production spaces will only increase as production costs rise.
The Last of Us had a large-scale battle sequence that incorporated physical sets, CGI, and weather-matching.
“Any Details???” AI Podcast Edition
I don’t mean to continually pick on The Hollywood Reporter for their AI coverage… oh who am I kidding, I absolutely mean to pick on them. The beatings will continue until the AI articles improve!
“5,000 Podcasts. 3,000 Episodes a Week. $1 Cost Per Episode — Behind an AI Start Up’s Plan” is this week’s press release- sorry, “news article,” about a podcast company called Inception Point AI.
Inception Point AI… builds a stable of AI talent to host podcasts, and eventually become broader influencers across social media, literature and more. Amid the high costs for producing narrative podcasts and pricy, short-term contracts for popular hosts, the idea here is being able to own, scale and control the talent (unlike those off-the-cuff humans) and produce shows at a minimal cost.
“We believe that in the near future half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that’s bringing those people to life,” said CEO Jeanine Wright, who was previously chief operating officer of podcasting company Wondery, which has recently had to reorganize under the changing podcast landscape.
These are actual words published in a respected trade newspaper. “We believe that in the near future half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that’s bringing those people to life” is a deranged thing to hear and then print with no followup questions. THR didn’t think to ask “Wait, what do you mean ‘half the people on the planet will be AI’? What? Are you OK? Do you need some water?”
I can tell you what Wright’s statement means: that these companies and their representatives know they can just blow smoke up the asses of the entertainment press, because publications like The Hollywood Reporter won’t ask questions or express any sort of skepticism towards claims made about AI-related products. They just write it all down and serve it to their readers!
Inception Point AI already has more than 5,000 shows across its Quiet Please Podcast Network and produces more than 3,000 episodes a week. Collectively, the network has seen 10 million downloads since September 2023.
10 million downloads? Says who? The company you’re writing about? Was this verified independently? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to find actual listeners of these podcasts to interview? I would assume within that ten million downloads you could locate one Quiet. Please fan. Wouldn’t you like to talk to someone who loves AI-generated podcasts?
I have an idea, why don’t we just go to the “Quiet. Please” Podcast Network listing on Apple Podcasts and see what’s there.
Isn’t this interesting, one of their top podcasts is called “Jason and Travis Kelce-Football Brothers” and features the faces of said brothers on the show’s artwork.
Based on the art, a person browsing would likely assume this is the podcast that the Kelce brothers actually host, New Heights, or perhaps an ESPN-style background look at their careers over time, featuring interviews with the brothers, coaches, opposing players and so on. (Interesting sidenote: New Heights is a Wondery show. Curious!)
So what is “Jason and Travis Kelce-Football Brothers”? It’s an AI-generated voice reading AI-generated news copy about the Kelces. Each episode is about 6-12 minutes long. Oh, and they also have ads.
I can only speculate, but I would have to assume that these podcasts serve a similar function to the Asylum’s video mockbusters: tricking consumers into selecting their shoddy product instead of the real thing. I’m not saying these shows are scams, of course. I report, you decide!
As for how it stacks up against human podcasts? “I think that people who are still referring to all AI-generated content as AI slop are probably lazy luddites. Because there’s a lot of really good stuff out there,” Wright said.
Incredible to argue that shows like “Football Brothers” aren’t slop. They’re the definition of slop! Also, shouldn’t THR unpack what Wright means? If you don’t want to listen to an AI-generated podcast, you’re a “lazy Luddite”? I’m lazy because I’d rather listen to the actual Kelce brothers instead of a robot reading ChatGPT news summaries?
I suppose what’s being implied here is that the podcasts, while AI-generated, are still rigorously vetted so they don’t go out with misinformation or AI hallucinations. I’m sure that must be the case:
The content team, led by Katie Brown, a former lifestyle television host and home goods expert, gives each podcast a title, creates an outline of the podcast, with the content filled out by AI, and assigns it one of the personalities as a host. Other team members do a final check and add in music and sound. The shows are also spot-checked periodically.
So if you don’t want to listen to a slop show with little-to-no human involvement and QC that consists of being “spot-checked periodically,” you are a “lazy Luddite.” Got it!
The startup is currently bootstrapped, and employees are not yet salaried, but the company will soon seek outside funding.
OK come on, man. Give me a break! “10 million downloads” and nobody is getting paid anything? Why was this even written about? This is the crux of my complaint: as long as you attach an AI angle to it, you can get the entertainment trades to do free press releases for whatever bullshit you want! Ever wonder why you don’t see articles like this in Wired or Ars Technica?
Attention Hollywood press: I would like to announce my new AI movie studio HTNFilms. We’re releasing an Aunt Joan-directed movie in 2027, honest! ChatGPT is writing the script with Runway serving as DP and Claude as editor! We predict 2 billion dollars at the box office. Send somebody from The Hollywood Reporter over here to collect my press release immediately!
Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)
Here’s a round-up of cool and interesting links about Hollywood and technology:
The future of TV ads, according to Roku. (link)
Apple aims to kill the iPhone’s biggest vulnerability. (link)
How John Williams single-handedly saved Home Alone. (link)