Good morning. This is Megan Graham filling in for Nat Ives. Today, a look behind the scenes at ABC, where millions of dollars in production, promotion and marketing costs are in question after the network pulled the plug on its new season of "The Bachelorette." 

Once a ratings boon and cash cow for the network and its parent company, Disney, "The Bachelor" had become an aging franchise with sagging ratings and declining ad revenue.

So ABC decided to shake things up with its newest season of “The Bachelorette,” casting Taylor Frankie Paul—breakout star of Disney’s own Hulu hit, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives”—as its next leading lady looking for love. It was an act of corporate synergy likely to draw eyeballs, Joe Flint and Ashley Wong report. 

But the decision backfired this week after TMZ published a video of Paul in a 2023 physical altercation with her former partner. On Thursday, ABC quickly pulled the plug on the new season, just days before it was scheduled to debut this Sunday. It is unclear if the season will ever air.

Pulling the highly anticipated show could lose ABC tens of millions of dollars in production, promotion and marketing costs. The network also will have to placate advertisers who had bought time during “The Bachelorette,” which hasn’t had a new season since 2024.

ABC licenses “The Bachelor” franchise from Warner Bros. Television. ABC was paying approximately $5 million per episode to Warner for the coming 10-episode season, people familiar with the deal said. If the show ends up not airing, ABC will eat that $50 million cost.

People close to the show are hoping that as more is revealed about Paul’s relationship with Mortensen, a more sympathetic character will emerge and the episodes could air.

Podcasters who spent the best part of a decade honing their craft and growing their audiences have found themselves in a curious position: Burnt out or cast aside by fresh demands of the now thriving industry, Katie Deighton reports. 

Once a star-making medium for nobodies with a dream and a microphone, podcasts are now dominated by the already-famous. Competition from celebrity hosts and the push to film episodes for video platforms has changed the equation, even for those with still-sizeable audiences. Some now are pressing pause, bowing out or trying to change things up creatively.

Nearly 60% of Americans aged 12 and up say they tuned into a podcast in the past month, according to Edison Research’s latest Infinite Dial report on digital media consumer behavior.

But only a few blockbuster names, such as Joe Rogan and Amy Poehler, or shows backed by household media companies like the New York Times and NBC, rake in huge audiences and paychecks. Nearly half of all ad revenue goes to just 500 podcasts, according to analytics platform Magellan AI, and Edison data shows top-10 shows account for about 40% of weekly podcast listenership.

On Friday, I hit up an event for Poca, a new brand of zero-calorie syrups with fiber designed to be added to coffee, matcha or sparkling water. The company was begun by Hims' co-founder Hilary Coles and former head of marketing Emily Boschwitz. 

The event, hosted at Gem Home in Nolita, invited guests to sample items like iced caramel coffee or chia seed pudding infused with the company's syrups. 

It's just the latest development in a trend of "fibermaxxing," the move to include fiber in everything from sodas to donuts. Even Chipotle rolled out a "High Protein-High Fiber Bowl" recently. 

Samsung smart fridges have started serving up ads. Many owners of the devices are not happy about it, Jiyoung Sohn reports. 

Americans have learned to live with ads on smartphones and other devices as a necessary trade-off of connectivity. But the kitchen remained largely off-limits.

The ads are only on certain Family Hub fridges that have screens and internet connectivity. They run as a rectangular banner at the bottom—part of a widget that also shows news, the weather and a calendar. Samsung declined to say how long the pilot might last or whether it would end. 

“I think it’s rude for them to add something without my consent after the sale” was completed, said Will Tipton, 27.

He is hoping to return the fridge—and be done with the company for good. “I will never buy a Samsung appliance or device again, unless I absolutely need it.”

Samsung launched the banner-type fridge ads that come as part of the widget via an October software update. In a footnote of a news release at the time, Samsung pledged to “serve contextual or non-personal ads” and respect data privacy. The banner ads can be turned off in settings.

Samsung said the purpose of the pilot is to explore whether ads relevant to home chores can be useful to owners, and that overall pushback has been negligible. The “turn-off” rate for the pilot ad program remains in the bottom single-digit range, it said.

CBS News is ending its radio service as part of broader layoffs while Editor in Chief Bari Weiss looks to reshape the storied network. [WSJ] 

Remedy Place is betting on consumer demand for “smart pens” made for at-home self-injection. [Glossy]

A look inside the time when America was broke—but Hollywood was booming. [WSJ] 

BTS pushes the limits of the music industry’s business model. [WSJ]

Why the Publicis-Trade Desk split signals a turning point for programmatic advertising. [Ad Age]

Unilever is in talks with spice maker McCormick to sell its food business, which includes Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr. [WSJ]

AI Is rewriting the old rules of Google search and SEO. [WSJ]