🐸 “Find Your Muppet” — Sesame Street’s Cocomelon threat. Saratoga’s viral facial water. Signal’s user error.
23:00 Share

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, March 27th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-Boy. Here's the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Stocks are down, but T-Boy's up. And we whipped up, honestly, three best stories we've ever done. Jack, what's on today's show? For our first story, Saratoga water has more attention than forever right now.

after it went accidentally viral. Here's the playbook on what a brand should do if it goes viral by mistake. Speaking of mistakes, for our second story, it's Signalgate. That was the story of the day again yesterday as the scandal escalated with more screenshots. So Jack and I looked at Signal itself and we were reminded of a wise thing our IT director once told us. And our third and final story is Sesame Street.

Sesame Street is in trouble. The day after Elmo got grilled by Congress. But the bigger issue here is that Cookie Monster is getting competition from Cocoa Mellon. But yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I like three stories, Nick and Jack. I love three stories today. The biggest drama of the year. What is it, Nick? Jack, it is ironically

happening over at Netflix. Here's the tea. Yep. Seven years ago, Netflix greenlit Carl Rensch to direct a new TV series. Carl Rensch said he needed 11 million bucks to finish that TV series. So Carl invited Netflix executives over to his home to tell them that he was over budget. So Netflix wired this director $11 million to finish the filming on that film. But seven years later, he didn't finish

He didn't finish the filming, did he, Nick? No, he didn't, Jack. And why is that? That Netflix sci-fi series still isn't streaming either, is it, Nick? No, it is not. And why is that, Jack? Because the director spent all $11 million personally on gambling, crypto, and five Rolls Royces. Oh, we got the receipts. Literally, we have the receipts. Because Netflix has pressed charges. Get this, besties. This director spent $652,000 of Netflix's money personally.

Yeah.

You can't sleep on it. He spent $5.4 million on designer art deco furniture. Plus $400,000 at the Four Seasons Hotel. But our personal favorite. Yes, Jack? He spent $1.1 million to pay lawyers to preemptively sue Netflix. No!

Netflix, we couldn't spend that much money if we tried and we promise we'll never sue you. And with the leftover money, he bought a Ferrari, five Rolls Royces and a house in Portugal. Not too shabby, but the wilder part. He invested in Dogecoin apparently and his crypto portfolio hit $24 million at one point. Yeah.

He doubled the amount of money he took from Netflix. But then the crypto bet tanked by 90%, so he was in the red big time. So add it all up, Yetis, and this story is so wild, Netflix should make a movie about it. Scratch that. It's so wild, Hulu should make a movie about it. We couldn't have scripted it any better than that. Jack, let's hit our first stories.

First, a quick word from our sponsor.

Weighing in at less than 2.2 pounds, carrying a powerful 80-watt battery for an all-day charge and an OLED screen, it is the Lenovo Aura Edition AI PC imagined with Intel. With artificial intelligence integrated from the ground up, it's possible on your Intel AI PC. Yetis, learn more about the Lenovo Aura Edition AI PC at lenovo.com slash aura.

Airbnb. All right, Vince Vaughn, is it too early to get excited about wedding season? Never. Never. All right, how many you got? I have only two weddings this summer, which is the lowest since I started going to weddings. It's an all-time low, all-time low. It is an all-time low, but both weddings mean I can host people on Airbnb. And now, Jack, I know we both love travel because you get to host people at your home Airbnb and make money off of it.

So this year, both of my weddings are in Vermont. Normally, Nick, I'd make them day trips, but I'm going to treat myself and book a hotel for these two weddings. Okay, and why are you doing that, Jack? Because it means I can host people on Airbnb and use some of that money to pay for the hotel. Besties, millions of people host on Airbnb, but millions more have never thought about hosting. Yetis, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host.

For our first story, an influencer just revealed his 3 a.m. ice facial routine. True thing. And it caused a water stock to jump 6% this week. Saratoga Water is a case study on how to handle accidental influence. Accidental influence.

But yetis, let us introduce you to a man, a big man named Ashton Hall. And he's not just an influencer, he's a gymfluencer. His biceps are the content. Because Ashton Hall played football at Alcorn State University down in Mississippi. And now he posts videos of his workouts in the gym. He is a gymfluencer. He has 5 million followers and 5 million abs. Yeah, but his latest video, Jack...

It was a little more personal than his typical workout routines, wasn't it, man? He showed the world his morning routine, step by step, minute by minute, and it begins at 3.52 a.m. in the morning. That's right, 3.52 a.m. Eastern. Let's go here. 3.54 a.m., he's doing push-ups. By 4.02 a.m., he's doing meditation, and at 4.28 a.m., he's writing in his diary. Standard trendy wellness stuff. Okay, but then, Jack, at 5.02 a.m., he's reading a book. At 5.58 a.m., he's running on the treadmill, and by 6.39

He's swimming in a pool. Rise and grind, baby. Did you notice at 8.45 a.m. he rubs a banana on his face? No joke. I missed that part. I haven't read the details on that, but it took him apparently a minute.

The biggest surprise, though, for the internet was what this man did at 9.09 a.m. First of all, he's been up for over five hours at 9.09. Yeah, it's a full day, pretty much. This is the moment when Ashton dunks his face into a bowl of iced sparkling water. Specifically, he stuck his face into a Saratoga blue bottle sparkling water bowl. And that ice bath facial, that

premium ice bath facial was viewed by 741 million people just on X. Jack, let's call this the Saratoga Splash. And what was the wildest part about this gymfluencer doing the Saratoga Splash? That three-second cameo from Saratoga Waters boosted the company's stock by 6%. Besties, the parent company here is

Primo Water. That's whose stock jumped 6%. It's a little-known company, but we actually covered it last year on The Pot. We covered it because it happens to be the biggest water company in America. It's got a $6 billion valuation. It's bigger than Lyft. They own a bunch of bottled water brands, including Arrowwood, Mountain Valley Deer Park, and

they have five-gallon jugs that you can refill at, like, every grocery store. Saratoga's, like, the crown jewel of their water offering. Like, if LaCroix has got a beach body, then, like, Saratoga's a ballerina, Jack. Upstate New York. Yeah. I mean, where's there better water than that? Founded in 1872, Saratoga is basically America's Perrier. It's pronounced Perrier. But the 6% stock jump, I mean, Jack, that added $360 million in market value just from one viral post. But that viral post

wasn't a paid ad with Saratoga. No, it wasn't. Saratoga Water had no prior knowledge that this post was going to happen. No, the way Jack and I like to think of this is this was accidental influence. But it doesn't matter. This one gymfluencer accidentally influenced 740 million pairs of eyeballs to look at a blue bottle of Saratoga Water. Like we said, advertising, that's what you pay for. But publicity, that's what you pray for. Although let's be honest, nobody was looking at the bottle.

the bottled water. They were looking at his abs. All five million of them. But the bigger drama yet is, is that Saratoga hasn't said a word about it since. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our water buddies over at Saratoga? Don't enter the chat.

Yetis, this was Saratoga and Primo's biggest marketing moment in 153 years of tap and water. They got so many new mentions, they probably thought their socials got hacked. And Jack, how did Saratoga respond to all this sudden viral attention? Chill.

Yeah, they were chill about it, and we think that was really powerful. Saratoga Waters basically winked to Ashton by posting a bottle of Saratoga beside a bowl of ice. And then they said, this is the pairing we never knew we needed. Basically, they didn't text the chain, they hearted the message.

It was subtle. And that move reminds us of a story we did last week on brand nicknames. Yes, it does. Consumers hate it when brands start using their nicknames themselves. Yeah, studies show that when Target tweets the nickname Target, it actually leads to less engagement. And it's the same concept, we think, with an unexpected viral moment.

If the brand engages, the moment loses its authenticity. Yeah, Saratoga did say something. It would be almost absurd if they stayed totally silent, but they really barely said anything. Because as soon as a brand enters an internet conversation about it, it's over. The conversation's over. That's why we like to say, don't enter the chat.

For our second story, the Signalgate scandal escalated yesterday as full attack plans on a terrorist group were revealed publicly from a group chat. So we have to tell you about Signal and the dude behind it.

Yetis, on Monday, this was the headline of Atlantic Magazine. And Jack, I gotta imagine, this got more clicks than anything in Atlantic's century-old history. Here's the headline. The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans. That is something you're probably gonna click on right there. The reporter of that article was accidentally added to a group chat that had the vice president, the defense secretary, the national security advisors, the whole cabinet, basically.

And in that group chat, just like the group chats we got with our buddy Timmy, he saw plans to attack a terrorist group before it actually happened. So on Monday, he revealed screenshots proving that he was accidentally included in this group chat. And this looks like, again, one of your typical friend group chats. They included an emoji of a USA flag and a fist after the bombing mission was successfully completed. So kind of like the group chats you're in, same emoji, same group chat.

different context. Now, Trump and his cabinet criticized the journalists and basically said this wasn't a big deal. Although the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz took full responsibility for the mistake. But Trump's team said that the texts didn't include anything confidential, and they specifically said nobody was texting war plans. So, on Wednesday, March

The journalist did what any teenager would do if they were accused of lying by their parents. He showed more screenshots. He just showed more. Look at this one, Mom. He published the rest of the text that he had previously withheld, the ones that included the detailed war plans. Turns out the information in that group chat was actually very confidential. Probably the most confidential information we've ever read in our lives. And here's why we're saying that. The Secretary of Defense texted...

extremely detailed plans about an attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels. At 1400 hours, the first bombs drop. At 1500 hours, F-18 fighter jets launch a second strike. Basically, this was a play-by-play of the military strike. Those are the screenshots. Those are the facts of the scandal.

but we're not getting into the political implications of it. If you want those, those are a story for a different podcast. What we were curious about is the platform that was used. It wasn't iMessage and it wasn't Telegram and it wasn't WhatsApp. It was actually a platform called Signal. Signal is an encrypted messaging platform run by a guy with a rat tail and his name is Marley Moxie Spike.

He actually changed his name to that at a younger age, but he's a hacker and he runs Signal in an interesting way. As a nonprofit. Yeah. There's no ads. There's nothing you have to pay. There's no subscription. There's no business model. Signal makes money based on donations, kind of like Wikipedia. It's used by a lot of journalists because it's such a secure messaging platform. And Marley Moxie Spike saw this opportunity and turned the group chat drama into a marketing moment. He said Signal is the gold standard if it's used by the US military. And you know what?

Signal Surge to one of the top 10 apps in America after all of this Signalgate drama. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Signal? A system is only as secure as the person using it. Yetis, 20 years ago, this chat would have happened on a secure conference call. It would have happened in the situation room. But today, we text.

And with end-to-end encryption, the platforms we text on generally are pretty darn secure. WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram, Signal, they're all end-to-end encrypted so only the sender and the receiver can view the message. It's so secure that the police can't access the messages, even with a warrant. The tech companies behind them can't see what's being messaged. But the reason this story leaked wasn't because of an encryption issue, a hacking, or a signal error.

The reason it leaked was a human error. The tech industry calls this user error. Yeah. The finance industry calls it a fat-fingered mistake. Yeah, we do. You and I call it, oh my God, I texted the wrong person. Oh, delete, delete, delete. The Situation Room is more mistake-proof. Yeah, it is. It would have been harder to add the wrong person to the Situation Room. Because someone would tackle them. But Signalgate is a reminder that the system is only as secure as the person using it.

Now, a quick word from our sponsor. Mom, I need to lay low for a few days. Lay low? What's going on? I only paid for this Hyundai Tucson. Christopher Allen Lynch. Deals so right, it almost feels wrong. Get the car or SUV you want at the Hyundai Getaway sales event. Get 0.99% APR for 60 months or 7,500 EV bonus on the Hyundai Ioniq 5. Visit your local Hyundai dealer today. Offers end March 31st. Call 562-314-4603 for details.

Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of...

Cats. Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.

For our third and final story, Elmo is seeing red, literally. Sesame Street is facing a perfect storm of problems as their deal with HBO ends. Because Cookie Monster is facing competition from Cocomelon.

I'm sorry, Jack. One second. I'm just a little lost here. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? For the last 10 years, Nick, you've had to take the HBO tunnel. That's right. And why is that, Jack? In 2015, HBO began paying Sesame Street $30 to $35 million a year for the rights to the show. Jack, I think it was $30 million, $31 million, $30.

52 million. Well, unfortunately, that lucrative deal with HBO is ending. And Hollywood is completely different in 2025 than it was in 2015. Back then, profits at streamers didn't matter. Profit schmuppets. Subscriber growth is all that streamers wanted. But today, profits are.

are all that matters in the streaming industry. That's why Sesame Street's New Deal won't be nearly as lucrative as the HBO one was. Plus, President Trump is basically pulling the plug on Big Bird. His administration has killed grants that Sesame Street and its long-term distributor PBS

used to enjoy. Just this Wednesday, Congress grilled the head of PBS, accusing the channel of bias. So, Sesame Street laid off 20% of its staff last month. They're even tapping Oscar the Grouch's savings just to survive. But yet, there's actually a bigger problem here facing Sesame Street, and it's brought to us by the letter C.

for competition. Nick, can I go full Cars 1 with an analogy here? Okay, I like this, Jack. We're using a kid's show as an analogy to explain Sesame Street's competitive landscape. I love it. Roll with it, roll with it. Sesame Street is like Lightning McQueen. It's the most successful race car of all time by far. Okay, I'm following you. But now, Sesame Street is facing next generation competition. And the Jackson Storm is Cocoa Melon. And Miss Rachel is Cruze.

And Bluey, I don't know who Bluey is, but Bluey's competitive too. Okay, so basically what you're saying is Sesame Street is facing new competition from Cocoa Melon, Miss Rachel, Bluey, even Baby Shark is taking a bite out of Bird and Ernie. These new age kids shows have cracked the code on engagement better than Sesame Street ever has.

For example, Coco Mellon mesmerizes kids with endless songs and nursery rhymes that are optimized for the algorithm. You just can't change the channel. Meanwhile, Bluey was the most streamed show or movie of 2024 on Disney+. By far, it was the most streamed. In fact, Sesame Street has done research showing that kids laugh while watching Bluey in a way they just don't while watching Sesame Street. Now, the CEO of Sesame Street has tried to assure everyone...

one. This is not the rejection of Sesame Street, and Sesame Street is not going away. But she did acknowledge that Elmo must adapt to survive. So the 56th season is adapting by changing the format. Jack, what's the new Sesame Street going to look like next season? It's going to be two 11-minute chunks with a tiny chunk in between, which is different than the historical magazine format that Sesame Street had. You're going to get more comedic elements, more music, more animation in Sesame Street now. But distribution is destined.

And the 56th season doesn't know where it will be distributed. It doesn't know where it will be streamed. Sesame Street, they're in talks with Netflix, with YouTube, with Amazon Prime Video, but no one has committed yet. They're also in talks with Tubi, Roku, and PBS. But again, we don't know where it will end up. So Jack, I got to ask you the question from the beginning of this story.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street next season, man? I can't. We can't. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over on Avenue C at Sesame Street? To engage or to educate. With the Muppets, Sesame Street got both.

YETIS, Jack and I did a whole deep dive episode on the best idea yet about Sesame Street, about this issue. From the start, Sesame Street's mission was to use TV to educate kids, especially kids from low-income families. But they knew there was a tension with that mission because kids want fun on TV.

They don't want phonics. Yeah, your six-year-old learns in school because they can't leave. But when they're not in school, they can just change the channel on the TV. Their solution to this tension was the Muppets. The Muppets. The Muppets were the candy that made the teaching still feel like fun. That was Sesame Street's solution.

But today, kids have higher expectations for engagement than just Muppets. Now, if Sesame Street leans too much into laughing and music, they'll abandon their mission to educate kids. Okay, but Jack, if the education purists at Sesame Street have too much sway, then nobody will watch the show. We hope Sesame Street finds the right balance to continue to thrive in the YouTube and Netflix era. What Sesame Street needs is to find its next Muppet solution. You need to find your Muppet.

Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Primo Water's Saratoga brand is the star of a viral morning routine, and the stock jumped 6% because of it. How did Saratoga respond to their accidental influence? By not...

entering the chat. For our second story, it's Signalgate. That scandal escalated on Wednesday as the reporter showed he was telling the truth with screenshots. Signal is a reminder that the system is only as secure as the person using it. And our third and final story, Sesame Street is in trouble. Yep. It's about to become homeless as its deal with HBO expires. To engage or to educate, with the Muppets, Sesame Street got both.

Find your Muppet Jack. Elmo wants you to find your Muppet Jack. That is really strong. Elmo would like to know what else I need to know today, Jack. First, Major League Baseball's opening day is today. 28 teams play in 14 games. Now, the two other teams started their season last week over in Japan, where the Dodgers won both games, and Japan has basically become the second biggest market for baseball. But there's no major rule changes in the MLB this year.

True. Although they tested robo umpires to call balls and strikes during spring training. Interesting. And second, President Trump announced new 25% tariffs on all cars coming into the United States. As we said last month, these tariffs will raise the price of a Chevy Silverado by as much as $10,000. Europe, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Korea, they are bound to retaliate in a tit-for-tat of trade war too. Car stocks fell across the board Wednesday as new car prices are bound to go up. And finally...

That's the sound of the bubble tea bubble only growing bigger because NASDAQ is getting its first bubble tea stock in America. China's boba brand, Chegi, just filed for an IPO on American soil. But the 6,000 locations are in China. They'll be opening their first one in Los Angeles this year. Because big balls of tapioca for $5 a cup, that's a profit puppy. That's a profit puppy.

Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Peter from Fort Lee, New Jersey. This week was Greece's Independence Day. Greece, great country, fantastic food, epic history. Give us a second on that spanakopita. But we think the Greek national anthem may be the greatest part of Greek culture and the economy. Because Greece's national anthem is the longest in the world.

It has 158 stanzas. Yeah, although at soccer games, they sing a shorter version than like at the Olympics, but the full version is 50, 158 stanzas. Do you know how long it takes to sing the full national anthem? Yeah, how long does this take, Jack? 54 minutes. What is this, the Odyssey? And it's all Greek to us. I mean, we can barely understand this thing. The Iliad. The Greek national anthem. Longer than anything written by Homer.

Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you look fantastic over there too. I think that's enough, Nick. It wasn't me, Jack. Give us a count by count as we walk off the episode. Yetis, Jack and I would love you to give us five stars for review. Five stars.

star review. I feel pressure that I should do one now. Is there a character I can do? Cookie Monster! Cookie Gonger! Cookie! Cookie! Alright, Yetis, and on that note, we would love your five star reviews. We can't wait to see you tomorrow. Y'all look fantastic.

And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti Nick Kramer, turning 41 years old in lovely Brattleboro, Vermont. Known as the other Nick, this is my big brother, father of three, proud to be in his family. Jack, I believe Nick Kramer worked on a nuclear submarine. Am I right? Close, close. A nuclear power plant. Yeah, he basically was the plot of Hunt for Red October. It's based on Nick Kramer, Jack's eldest brother.

And a happy 49th birthday to legendary bestie Robert Hill celebrating in Neenah, Wisconsin. Happy birthday to Devin Potassic in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, who's celebrating in Charlotte and getting married this year. And Bridget Martin from lovely Long Island is a publishing badass and a published author with a birthday. And a big shout out to Lindsay Higgins, who got a new job at Richard Fleischman & Associates.

in sales and business development. She's crushing that tech infrastructure behind the financial firms. And thanks to everybody who entered the chat on our T-Boy community question yesterday. Apparently, none of you like Slack. John Molina, Nicole Vallejo, Ahmed, Adam Wallet. Whole bunch of others dropped a comment. We see you. We see you. And if you want to get a shout out on this show, we got a link in the episode description or go to tboypod.com slash shout outs.

If you like the best one yet, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. And before you go, tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We want to get to know you.

Are you feeling stuck in your career or lacking employment at the moment? Experiencing symptoms of job dissatisfaction? You might be suffering from a common condition known as career stagnation. But don't worry, there's a solution. Monster.com. Monster.com offers a comprehensive suite of career-boosting tools designed just for you.

Our free resume review and AI interview prep tool will help you stand out from the crowd. Need more guidance? Dive into our career advice articles for expert tips and insights. And don't forget to check out our salary tools to ensure you're getting paid what you're worth. Side effects may include a new job, increased confidence, and a brighter future. Consult Monster.com today and take the first step towards your new career. Ready for your next job opportunity? Visit Monster.com now.