Dissecting the Bill That Could Transform Hollywood, With Its Co-Author

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No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. It is Thursday, September 24th. Today, something happened that was unthinkable only a couple years ago. A bipartisan bill was introduced in both houses of Congress to create a federal production tax incentive for making movies and TV shows in the United States. We've talked about this effort before and the Trump endorsement. John Voight's role in it all. Sorry. Hollywood ambassador John Voight's role in convincing the president. And in the process, take a shot at Canada and the U.K., things that Trump likes to do. But until today, we didn't know exactly what would be in this bill. It's a 20% tax credit on labor expenses by American workers on qualifying productions, with some sweeteners that we will discuss could bring it up to about 30%. And the backers, everyone from Democrats in Southern California to Republicans in Georgia and Texas, they say it will create more than $100 million in labor costs. So, what else is in the bill and what's the process now for getting this thing passed? Today, we've got one of the bill's authors here to explain. Laura Friedman is a first-term congresswoman representing Burbank, Hollywood, other parts of L.A., and she's a former movie producer. In the 90s, Friedman was VP Development at Reischer Entertainment, had other film development jobs, and she was the mayor of Glendale, was elected to the council. She was also a member of the California Assembly, and last year, she became a member of the House of Representatives, taking over Adam Schiff's seat when he became senator. We're going to get into what's in this bill, importantly, what's not in it, whether a vote could actually happen this year, and the path to making a federal tax incentive a reality. From The Ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany, and this is The Town. All right, we are here with Congresswoman Laura Friedman. Representative of Burbank, Glendale, West Hollywood, all the fun parts of L.A., right? Am I right there? And Hollywood. And Hollywood, and Hollywood proper as well. That's right. Well, thank you for coming on the show. I appreciate it. I know this is a long time coming for you. You've been working on this for a long time. But I want to discuss less the path to this because we have discussed this. We've had the Film USA people on. We've had Senator Schiff on. I want to talk specifically about what is in this bill and what is not in this bill. So can you just give us the overview of what you put in this bill, why you put it in there, and how it's strategically designed to help get it passed? Great. So when you hear the details of the bill, you'll see that what this bill is mostly about is encouraging the creation of jobs here in America and making sure that we encourage productions that do offer, you know, those job opportunities that we have been losing here in Los Angeles and around the country as so many productions have gone overseas. So what the bill does at its heart is it establishes a 20% tax credit for qualified productions, which are film and TV productions, to be paid against labor expenses. So that's why it's about the job creation. Sure. So it's 20% and it can go up to 30% because there are extra bonus credits that you can get. If you have certain extra qualifications, such as shooting in a federally qualified disaster area, shooting in a rural area. That's basically all of L.A., correct, after the fires? It would be all of L.A. for five years post-disaster declaration. So then there's other parts of the country that also are under disaster declaration. So it would also encourage those economic engines to locate in those parts of the country. You get a bump up if you're an indie producer. Five percent. You get a bump up if you're a company that's shooting a lot of your productions overseas, like many of our studios are, and you bring a large percentage of those back to the United States. But you can only get two of those plus-ups, and they're five percent each. So you have a 20% base that goes up to 30% if you can qualify. And this is stacked, right? It includes post-production, and post-production is standalone. So if you have a film that's, let's say, shot overseas, and you want to do post here in Los Angeles, the post-production labor, your expenses would also be eligible for the tax credit. Oh, that's interesting, because California just passed a modest, but a first-of-its-kind post-production tax credit this past week. Right, and special effects also qualify. Okay, interesting. So this is stacked, right? States can now, if this passes, and we'll get to the machinations here, but if this passes, states will then compete against each other. And some of these states are offering 20%, 30% on their own. So next thing you know, we could be looking at 50%, 60% of labor expenses deductible for shooting in certain states. Is that correct? Yeah, depending on how the state does their tax credit, and different states do their tax credit differently. But yes, it's certainly conceivable. In California, the credit is on labor expenses and also on non-labor expenses, like just on hard production costs. So you wouldn't get the bump up on the non-labor part. You would get the bump up on the labor expenses. And this includes above-the-line expenses. That's been the big criticism of California, is that it doesn't include actor, writer, director. And that's where a lot of these big studio movie costs go. So it's not competitive with the U.K., which does offer above-the-line. So the federal credit would include above-the-line. The federal credit includes above-the-line, yes. Okay. And was that a tough negotiation? Because this is a bipartisan effort. This is both House and Senate, both Republicans and Democrats. Your colleague, Representative Jack, has been involved on behalf of Georgia. And was that a tough sell? Because these Republicans, they're going to have to deal with the fact that we are now going to be, if this passes, subsidizing Tom Cruise's salary. So it so far has not been a tough sell. I hope you're not trying to make it a tough sell for them. I am not. I'm just stating the reality here. Look, it is— You guys don't want to talk about this element, but this is a big deal for a lot of constituencies around the country. Yeah. And absolutely, that is the criticism that we hear sometimes. And that's one of the reasons why California doesn't do above-the-line. Also, California, to be clear, is a capped credit. So California has a certain pool of money. And California decided that they didn't want a large percentage of that going, like you said, to tax credits that would help sort of subsidize these larger salaries. They wanted to make sure. They wanted to make sure that more of it went to the below-the-line cast and crew and to the physical productions themselves. So California, I think, made it not a bad strategic choice and a choice that, with a capped credit, makes total sense. With an uncapped credit, it's a different equation. I agree. No disrespect to California, but the whole point of these things is to be competitive. And if you're going to go halfway, you're not going to be competitive. You've got to go all in. Hey, I'm not saying I disagree with you. And I worked on the California tax credit. And I will tell you that me and other people who were part of negotiating that and trying to get it through got what we could get in a state where it was not an easy sell. You know, people think that this becomes a breakdown between, like, Democrats and Republicans. It's not. These people have concerns regardless of what side of the aisle they're on. But that's changing, right? I mean, Politico posted a poll yesterday. on this very subject. And people in California now, 62 percent of them think that there should be some kind of a incentive to keep entertainment jobs in California. And that's a that's a change. Yeah. So when California first started, we didn't see as we weren't seeing quite the amount of job losses that we have been seeing more recently. And, you know, some of this comes down to like you like you said, it's it's public support. But sometimes the public support comes after something becomes a crisis. You know, you can go around and warn this is going to be a crisis. We're going to see big economic impacts of this industry leaving across Los Angeles, not just to the people working directly in the industry, but to the coffee shops and the restaurants and dry cleaners and everybody else. And I think that when we were having the conversation six, seven years ago, it didn't seem as immediate as it does now. So absolutely, I would support California going back and making their tax credit much more competitive. And I think that with this tax credit and with what is. In the paramount deal that Rob Bonta just negotiated, there's a lot more reason why making California's tax credit would pay a bigger bonanza back to the state of California. So I would absolutely support them going back and doing what they can to make it more competitive. Well, OK, so a lot of things you just brought up. And first, I think it's hilarious to see people like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass and Nithya Raman all talk about how they're pushing, pushing, pushing for these jobs to stay in Los Angeles. Where were these people over the past 10 years? I mean, Karen Bass has been in office and it's not like she has been a champion of entertainment jobs until she probably saw the polling and said, oh, crap, this is a this is a real big problem for this city. It's kind of amazing to me. But whatever it is, what it is. Well, some of us, myself included, who have represented this area for a long time, have been raising the alarm for a long time, you know, and not everyone in the state kind of saw what was coming. And, you know, other if you're a representative representing an area in northern California or in the Central Valley, you know, let's be honest, you're looking at a different set of challenges in your own district. So that's something that we have to overcome federally as well, you know, to bring it back to this bill. And we haven't you know, one of the things I would say you mentioned, like subsidizing these big star salaries. Let's not forget that when you're paying a big star, this huge salary in another country, you're also denying that payroll tax. Coming back into the United States, that's being paid to a foreign government. So we are losing tax revenue here in the United States by allowing the payroll by allowing the production overseas. So there is every economic reason in the world to include above the line, we need to be competitive. And there's reasons why other countries have seen this industry as being so particularly valuable, that they are willing to put the investments that they've been putting out there to lure it away. And I think it's high tide that this country decides that they're serious about what's happening. And I think it's high tide that this country decides growth industry, what's an industry that carries a tremendous amount of soft power along with it, that has a variety of really aspirational jobs, some of which don't require a college degree and still pay a great salary jobs that people like me, I moved all the way across the country, knowing like three people in Los Angeles to work in this industry, how many job sectors are that attractive to young people, right? So we have every reason in the world to want to bring this industry back and protect it. And we have every reason in the world to want to bring this industry back. And, you know, this is the time to do it. I agree with you. The Bonta settlement. Can we both agree? This is not ideal. There is no guarantee of job growth in California. All he does is he guarantees $300 million a year extra in U.S. spend. That's not California. He's the attorney general of California. What did he do for us? Well, Matt, let's not forget that within that settlement is a plus up of a higher amount to be shot in the U.S. if this film tax credit bill passes. And then if California improves their own incentive program, another bump up from what they have. So there's actually within there, something that hasn't been getting a lot of attention is a huge commitment to move what right now is 5% of their of their productions are being shot in the United States to move up to I think it's around 40% if those things happen. But those are big ifs, right? I mean, and Bonta to his credit, Bonta says he's going to help introduce a bill to get the California credit uncapped and to increase the amount of money. But that's a big if. But there's also a bump up, and I think it's 30% if the federal film tax credit passes. That is true. So that's on you. And that's the part that I'm working. That's on me and Schiff and, you know, everybody else we're working with. And so, you know, I've been working, as you know, you know, for a couple of years on this now since I've been in Congress. And that that would be big. That is in writing. As far as I can see, it's enforceable. And that would be huge for production here in Los Angeles. But don't you think he should have gotten a commitment up front to California? Look, I'm not I'm not a lawyer. I know I look like a lawyer. Always think I'm a lawyer. I just play one on Zooms. I'm not a lawyer. You know, I actually am a lawyer, but I haven't practiced in a long time. And I know that he had some leverage and it doesn't feel like he got the most out of that leverage. Look, he negotiated. It was a. He was in a bad position from day one with federal regulators that were willing to bless this merger with other countries that had already said it was legal. There are certainly a lot of attorneys in this area who, you know, some attorneys thought he had a strong case and many did not. And it was a big gamble. Well, he's got the leadership of the state telling him to settle. So I think that mattered a lot. Well, look, you have you have a company that's not only threatening to leave, but was seem to be taking real steps to leave, which would have been really devastating. I mean, can you imagine if both of those film lots within a couple of years were empty and what that would mean for Los Angeles? I agree. You know, and so I think that, yeah, you know, he was being pressured, but he was also being pressured by a company that I would not bet money would not have made good on those threats. And that would have been really awful for everybody. So I hate to bring up the T word, but this is all dependent on Trump. Right. He's if he says to the Republicans, get this done, this bill is going to pass. He said, what are the next steps here? I know he did, but but OK, but he says a lot of things. I'm talking about following up and pushing it across the line. So what are the next steps here? How do you get this bill passed? Well, look, I'm a big fan of taking the momentum that you have and turning it into real action. So as soon as we've been working for a long time and I'll give Brian Jack and John Boyd a lot of credit. You know, we've been working strategically about making sure that Trump's interest in the industry, which he has had for a while. You know, he comes from this industry. He's a product. Oh, we know he does. You know, and he has talked about, you know, us losing this industry. You know, he used to call me. He not you. He called me a couple of times to complain about the Apprentice ratings coverage when I was the news editor at The Hollywood Reporter. Now, he wasn't president, but that's how much he cares about the entertainment industry. He cares. And that's a great thing for us. Let's not discount that. He cares about it. And he tweeted about it. Now, he originally, as you know, talked about Tara. And it took a while and quite a lobby effort to get him over to a tax credit solution, you know, being being publicly supportive of this solution rather than a tariff, which would have been, you know, very problematic, you know, and difficult to understand how that would even work and, you know, potential to hurt consumers and hurt the industry. So now that he has said that, that really opened the door to us dropping the bill when we did. And we have been also putting this together and negotiating what was going to be in this for quite a while, because, as you know, you've got. You've got labor unions, you've got independent producers, you've got studios, you've got a whole range of of different groups and voices within this very large tent. And we had to make sure that everyone was on the same page about every single thing that was in this. And that took a while. Yeah. The Teamsters often don't go along with these incentives because that's money that doesn't go to them. It goes to others. And they are on board with this. So, yeah, there's a lot of voices and we got everybody on the same page and everybody supportive. And that took a lot of doing. So once that happened, you know, we were able to put this bill, you know, we've been working. Everyone says this happened like in a week. No, it didn't happen in a week. Obviously, we've been working on this now for a couple of years. But as soon as Trump did that, we were really ready to then bring it into ways and means, you know, because of Trump's tweet, it gave us a much more. I think people were fairly supportive because we have Republicans there who represent Texas and represent states that have production and have seen the benefits right in their own states and have seen shrinkage. As you know, you've seen Trillith lose, you know, Marvel. And and so. So they understand, too, what's at stake. So once the president opened the door to this particular solution, we moved as fast as we could to get the language into ledge counsel and to get the bill in print. As you know, as you saw, I came out just today. And my job now is to work with my colleagues on this and particularly our ways and means partners who will shepherd it through the committee of jurisdiction to get it done in the way that, you know, that's fastest, but also the kind of most bulletproof. And that's what we are going to be working on next. And what's the timing on all of that? Well, it's still being looked at and still being negotiated. And there's a lot of sort of discussion about whether, you know, this is something that we can do this year in the lame duck, whether we have a vehicle that will enable it, whether we can do that in a way where we can get it done quickly without people raising a lot of objections, but also making sure that we do have the time to socialize it with my with my colleagues who maybe are not up on the issue, because we're going to have to have the votes from all of the you know, for all of Congress right out from across different districts. So what? What do we say to the person who's in Missouri or Kansas or any of these other states, we have to be able to make the argument to them when people do bring up, well, you're subsidizing Tom Cruise's salary and explain to them that this is actually not money going to Tom Cruise. This is money that's coming back into the United States. We have to have the time to make that argument, which is why Ryan and I have formed a filming states caucus so that we can bring all the filming states people on board and make sure that they spread that information and that they have the information to give to any colleagues who might not be as up on the issue. And the speed here from what I've read on the subject is an important element because once the Congress changes, the whole dynamic of politics changes and Trump may not have the influence over some of these states that he does currently. So do you see this as something that if it doesn't get done? Done before the Congress switches over, it potentially weakens the chances of it getting done at all? Well, I wouldn't say that. I would say we don't know. And I don't like uncertainty. I'd rather move in an environment that I have a little bit more understanding of. So if we can get it done this year, you know, we will, but we're not going to put speed ahead of making sure that we do what we need to do. The last thing I'd want is to move so quickly that we put something out there that doesn't have the support it needs. We need to make that have a balance of moving as quickly as possible. And I think that's what we need to do. We need to move as quickly as we can so that we do move in a more certain environment, but making sure that if we do move forward, we know for a fact that we have the votes that we need. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. Fall is here and Whole Foods Market has everything you need for cozy meals, seasonal treats, and easy entertaining. Elevate your hearty dishes with tasty bone-in beef short ribs or New York strip steaks with no added growth hormones or antibiotics. And as the fall evenings draw in, why not get ahead of cold season with immunity shots, herbal teas, lozenges, and supplements? 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Perfect for when you're watching the team you love or eating with the person you love. Have you eaten yet? Click or tap the banner to order or visit a Panda Express near you. All right, so let's talk a little bit about what is not in this bill because I think a lot of people in the industry will be disappointed that unscripted productions are not included. Reality shows. Actually, it's not excluded. It's not excluded. It's not? No, excluded right now is news, live sports, talk shows, daytime dramas, radio, social media content. Oh, that's okay. So potentially unscripted shows can get can get credits. As far as I read it, they can. And you know, I want to make as expansive a program as I can to keep those shows in the United States. So they're not excluded. So my position is that they're included. Okay. Yeah. I mean, Fox has been sending their shows to Ireland to film there. They say it's cheaper to fly 40 contestants on the floor to Ireland with Rob Lowe and shoot it there than it is to shoot it down the street in LA. Right. So they are not specifically excluded. Now, game shows are excluded, as far as I know. But you could argue that, you know, many reality shows are not game shows. And talk shows eliminates the Kimmel problem. A lot of Republicans might have a problem subsidizing Jimmy Kimmel when, you know, he's no fan of the president and vice versa. Yeah, there's also no content oversight, or requirement in this bill. Oh, yeah, that was an issue that there might be some kind of a direction from red states to only subsidize content that they approve. So that's none of that is in there. None of that is in there. And like making the argument that that may be a good thing for them in a Trump presidency. But going into the future, if this credit is going to last, it may not be something that they like so much. If we have a different administration, that we should not be regulating the content of speech. And for those of us who come from Hollywood, we should not be regulating the content of speech. And for those of us who know about the pre code days and the postcode days, and what that meant for content and not something we want to go back to. Yes, I agree. And transferable. These credits would be transferable. Correct. Explain why that matters. Well, because your particular production may not need these credits based on how the film ends up doing. And you could be able to transfer that to a production or a company that does need the tax credit. And that's a big deal because it just opens up a wider swath of productions. To take advantage of this, which then makes it more competitive with other countries. Yeah, more usable for these productions, more certainty for them that they're going to end up getting a tax credit of some sort. How involved have the studio heads been in this effort? I know that, you know, the press conferences and everything and people are going to push it and kind of talk about how they're involved. I know the Ellison's have been involved. I know Donna Langley at Universal was in D.C. last week to talk this up. How much have you been in contact with the individual studio heads? And what are they telling you about this effort? So that their representative at the MPA and Charlie Rifkin has been extremely involved. So you've been dealing with Charlie? I've been dealing with Charlie, but I've also spoken to the studio heads from time to time. What are they? What are their concerns? What do they ask you about? You know, they're very supportive and I haven't heard concerns from them. They're more about how to, you know, what do we need to do to get this done? They're more supportive than anything at this point. They really want to see this happen. And when I hear over and over again, and many of them, by the way, are my constituents, or live here in Los Angeles, is they want these productions to come back to the U.S. They know that their talent wants to be here. They want the industry to be here. They want to make sure that they don't continue to see jobs offshore. People lose jobs. I would think they want to make sure their own jobs remain here in the United States. Yeah, it still doesn't stop them from sending the productions overseas if they can save three pennies. Well, as someone who worked at a company that sent a whole slate of films to Canada when they started their tax credit, for us, making these films, making seven films in Canada or making four or five films in the U.S. Yeah, so I get it. You know, there's a reason people do it. And we've heard nothing except that they want to be shooting back, you know, in the United States and they need to have this kind of leveler. And look, they've also said they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, that they have to make sure things are profitable. I mean, you've heard the same thing, right? Well, this is mostly what I'm hearing is they want to know how they can be helpful. They want to make sure it's something that's usable. So while we were talking and negotiating over what the bill would really say, they were there to make sure that it was usable for them, that it was going to be competitive, that it wasn't something that was just on paper, but that when it got into the real world, they would say, oh, it sounded good, but, you know, it doesn't really work for this reason or that reason. They gave the input to make sure it worked the same way that John Voight's team made sure that it worked for independents who have a different set of needs and they work in a different way. So they wanted to also make sure that it was something that would keep independent production here in the United States. Man, who would have thought John Voight would be the fulcrum of a federal tax credit? You know, I'll tell you, as someone who has now met with him several times and spoke with him at length before he went to the White House, he is so passionate about Hollywood, you know, just across the board. He loves the town Hollywood and he, you know, remembers the glory days and wants that to come back. He loves the cruise and he talks all the time about the costumers and the set designers and all the people that he worked with. I mean, there's there's nothing selfish about his desire here. Like he doesn't need this financially. He doesn't need it for any reason. He is doing it because he truly believes in it. And I think he wants it to be a bit of his legacy. He doesn't like the spotlight. You put him on a Zoom. The guy does not want to talk, you know? No, I know he doesn't. He doesn't want to come on the show. And he's done a couple interviews, but he doesn't want to do anything on video. No, he really cares. And I mean, God love him. Like he he really cares about this. And he's been very important in this conversation. He just wants to keep going to his deli off Mulholland and have everybody recognize him and bring him his eggs that he gets every every time he's in there. I want to keep going to his deli off Mulholland. I mean, I forget the name. You can look it up. We all want that was a great story. We all want the Hollywood that brought us to Hollywood. We all want to see people working. We all want that vibrancy. We all want that excitement. We all want to see the studio lots full. We want to see the tourists coming to go to see the studio lots full. We have so much that we could lose. And that would be a huge hit to loss it. Look, it's already a huge hit. I have so many friends who worked in the industry who aren't working now. The California credit did help a lot. I mean, I have friends who like my my friend, who's a Emmy award winning makeup artist wasn't working for years. And when she was she was leaving and she's she came to she called me and she's like, I'm working again. I'm working because of the California tax credit. I've seen the help. We know that this works. And we know what a huge sigh of relief it is for California when they see productions coming back here and what that means for our local economy. And let's not I agree with you. About the fires. So many people who lost their homes work in the industry who are saying it's like a double whammy. I lose my home and I don't have a job. Yeah. And the strike and the content recession and all of it has just been pretty terrible for a lot of people. Beverly Glendale, by the way. Beverly Glendale. Thank you. That was a Politico story that I read by Daniel Miller. So look, when I worked at Reicher Entertainment, which was right next to Warner Brothers, and I was meeting people from Beverly Hills for lunch, which happened all the time. That little strip mall up at the top of Beverly Glen at Mulholland was the place that everyone met. Oh, yeah. It still is. Yeah, it still is. I mean, less so now. But there's that jazz bar there that people go to. It's kind of funny because there's a whole contingent of people up in the hills that don't ever really go down into the city. They just kind of exist up there. And I think Jon Voight is one of them. Classic LA. I tell people, there's certain places you don't need to. If you want to see celebrities, don't go there. Go to that strip mall. Or go to the Rose Bowl flea market on a Sunday morning. Anyone wearing sunglasses and a hat when it's cloudy out, celebrity, guaranteed. The Starbucks in Malibu also is pretty good. I recommend that for people that want to see stars. When I was studying for the bar exam at Pepperdine, we would go there for coffee and just a parade of random stars. It's kind of fun. Yeah. And then there's like the industry specific ones. Like Hugo's used to always be the place that all the writers went. And so like agents and writers were like at Hugo's, you know, having breakfast. In West Hollywood every day. Like I love all those places. Less trustworthy. Hollywood producers or members of Congress? You know, I'll just say, let me answer this like this. I can see that your head is going a million miles right now. I wasn't trying to be like, you know, like to dodge it. I was trying to like actually think of an answer. But I'll tell you this. So years ago, I was still working in the industry and I was on the Glendale City Council. And I went on my first lobby trip ever to Washington, D.C. And I walked into some restaurant. It was like the Capitol Grill or something. And I walk in and I'm like, I know everything going on here. It is exactly like walking into Maple Drive or the Ivy or any of those restaurants. Like I know who is like the equivalent. I know the lobbyist slash agent group. I can see who's like the executive slash Congress members. Like it's the exact, it's the same kind of town. It's the same business. People are pitching. Other people are like, you know, the producers or the buyers. Like it's, it's a lot of the same dynamics. A reason that you have some of the same issues. And. A lot of the same behavior. Except everybody's less attractive in D.C. Although maybe not these days with the Trump Botox face. I don't know what you're saying, Matt. All right. Well, thank you for coming on. I share your optimism. I hope you get this done. I do worry that this is going to be so focused on the national effort that it is not going to trickle down to California in a way that it should. Much like the Bonta settlement. But I trust you. I hope you. You get in there and make sure that it does benefit California. I'm not going to stop, you know, even after this passes, I'm going to be working on what we're doing in California as well. This is hugely important for for all of us across the California economy, not just L.A. And tell these Democrats in the Bay Area and elsewhere to get with the program like they have a eye. They have unlimited money. We do not have unlimited money in Southern California. We need this. We need this. All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate you coming on. Thanks, Matt. We are back with the call sheet. Craig, the big SNL premiere this weekend. Jalen Brunson, Cat's Eye. Excited. Very exciting. We don't get a lot of athlete hosts. Once every two or three years, we usually get an athlete hosting, let alone a premiere. And honestly, like, I know the Knicks won the NBA championship, but is Jalen Brunson that famous? I would say that. I mean, he's certainly gotten way more. Famous, but he is among the lesser famous athletes who have ever hosted SNL. Usually it's like NFL quarterbacks, Derek Jeter, you know, Travis Kelsey, Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Jalen Brunson on the less famous side. I think obviously it's a New York connection. Yeah, very famous in New York. And everybody loves him there. But, you know, Lauren famously says they do the show for all 50 states. And this guy in California is not a big Jalen Brunson person. So we'll see. We'll see how the ratings do. The ratings for SNL have been very odd lately. I mean, we saw last year I would have thought that the season premiere would be huge because of Bad Bunny, but only 4.4 million viewers. And the year before with Gene Smart, who was a replacement for someone who fell out, and I would have thought that would have tanked. That one debuted to 5.3 million. Now, that was the 50th season, and there was a lot of hoopla around it. Sure. I don't know. Let's set the line for SNL ratings at 4.4 million. And I got to take me under. I just don't think Jalen Brunson. Oh, I'm taking you over. Really? Yeah, I am. I think your sports brain is warping you here. A lot of people watch sports. More people watch this NBA Finals than any Finals since Cavs-Warriors. Yeah, it was also three, four months ago. The Bad Bunny thing being down, when you looked into that, 18-14. 49 demo was up. I think it was maybe the older people who didn't give a crap about Bad Bunny. He's speaking Spanish. I think, yeah, right. This guy, we can't understand what this guy's saying. You know, the halftime audience for the Super Bowl with Bad Bunny was also down from the previous year. I think Brunson checks a lot of boxes. I think older people who like sports, younger people who like sports. I think the New York of it all. I think it'll be buzzy. I'm just going to take the under. I just, I feel like the. There isn't as much buzz leading in. I hope it's a good season. This is a very pro-SNL podcast, as people know. But we'll see. Two new cast members, Grace Ryder and Seda Bello-Osagi. I think I'm mispronouncing that. Weirdly, they both have the same agent at Gersh, which I think is a coincidence. 17 cast members. Still too many. Yeah, the only departure was Chloe Fineman. I kind of thought there'd be a few more, and there wasn't. Well, yeah. But I believe we predicted on this show that Mikey Day might leave. Dude, Mikey Day. He's 46 years old. Like, enough. He's been on forever. I mean, Kenan. He's white Kenan. Mikey Day is white Kenan now. But yeah, Bo and Yang also left during the season. So they did lose two cast members last season. So now they're just ramping back up. Got to have 17 people on that cast. I don't know. I think they could get rid of four or five of the veterans, and it would be fine. More time for young talent, new people like Ashley Padilla, who's great. So I don't know. I agree. I think it's better when you have less people, because they have to do more, and you build a closer relationship to them. They have to play more characters. You grow with them. I know. And I know why they do it. People are off doing other things, and they want people to have time to grow into the show and stuff. I know Lauren has been on. I've talked to Lauren about this. But Lauren, it's time. Cut bait. Let some of these people go. Poor Mikey. Don't be mean to Mikey Day. No, I like Mikey Day. Who doesn't? He's just been on the show too long. That's the thing. They like to keep these people around, because there's the steady hands that are kind of ushering in the next generation. The Is It Cake business is still a pretty good business. So you need to just be the Is It Cake guy. Sure. All right. That's the show for today. I want to thank my guests, Congresswoman Laura Friedman, producer Craig Horlbeck, our editors Jesse Lopez and Stefano Sanchez. And I want to thank you. 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