Spend enough time watching the TMZ Livestream and you eventually realize that the celebrity stories are only part of the attraction. While viewers may initially tune in for the latest Hollywood scandal, courtroom drama, sports controversy, or breaking entertainment news, many stay because of the people delivering it. What began as a behind-the-scenes look at the making of TMZ Live has evolved into something far more interesting—a daily gathering of reporters, producers, lawyers, content creators, and commentators whose personalities have become as familiar to regular viewers as the celebrities they cover. The chemistry between the staff, the running jokes, occasional disagreements, and genuine friendships have helped transform the livestream into one of the most unique programs on YouTube. Because there are simply too many contributors to profile in a single article, what follows is only a representative sampling of the many faces who help make the TMZ Livestream the success it has become. Countless others work both on camera and behind the scenes, and their efforts are every bit as essential to keeping the gossip machine running.

Every weekday morning, while most people are commuting, checking their phones, or pretending to work, a unique part of YouTube wakes up. Here, thousands tune in to watch people at work—not actors, reality stars, or gamers, but actual employees. Specifically, the staff at TMZ. At first, this might sound like a boring idea for a show. Watching reporters at their desks, producers sorting papers, and lawyers debating celebrity scandals doesn’t seem exciting. Yet, the TMZ Livestream has become strangely addictive on YouTube. I stumbled upon it by chance.

There are certain actors I will watch in almost anything. Allison Janney is one of them. Frankly, I would watch her read the proverbial phone book and probably come away entertained. She possesses that increasingly rare quality among actors: the ability to make even ordinary dialogue sound like something worth listening to. Fortunately, Miss You, Love You, HBO/Max's intimate new drama written and directed by Jim Rash, gives her far more to work with than a phone book. It gives her grief, anger, regret, loneliness, and a mountain of dialogue, and Janney makes every moment count.

Some true-crime documentaries fascinate viewers, while others leave them unsettled. Netflix's The Crash is definitely in the latter group. Directed by Gareth Johnson, this 94-minute film looks back at one of the most shocking criminal cases in recent years: the 2022 deaths of Dominic Russo and Davion Flanagan. Both were killed when seventeen-year-old Mackenzie Shirilla crashed her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, at almost 100 miles per hour. At first, it seemed like a tragic accident, but investigators soon found something more disturbing. There was no sign that Shirilla tried to brake before the crash. She was later convicted of murder and aggravated vehicular homicide, receiving two concurrent prison sentences of fifteen years to life.

Some performers become so familiar that we forget how unique they actually are. Martin Short is a perfect example. For almost fifty years, he has bounced between television, film, Broadway, sketch comedy, talk shows, and awards ceremonies with nonstop energy. His characters are often over-the-top, theatrical, and intentionally silly. Yet, underneath all the comedy, there is always something surprisingly moving. That mix is at the heart of Marty, Life Is Short, Netflix’s warm new documentary directed by Lawrence Kasdan.

For only a handful of entertainers can their biography feel so synonymous with the century that gave rise to them. Mel Brooks may be one of those entertainers. Mel Brooks: The 99-Year-Old Man, the wide-ranging two-part documentary from directors Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio exists not only as a career-spanning retrospective but as a time capsule of sorts; one fortunate to catch its subject with the quickness still in his step and his comedic wit fully intact, anxiously aware of his fortune at having lived this long. Streaming on HBO Max, the film chronicles Brooks’s life from his Brooklyn childhood in 1926 to the edge of his hundredth birthday, which he reaches at the end of June, and does so with a mix of reverence, invention, and affectionate chaos that feels wholly appropriate.

When the creators of South Park—Trey Parker and Matt Stone—announce they’re tackling generative AI and deepfakes, you already know things are going to get messy. In Season 28’s Episode 3, titled “Sora Not Sorry”, the show delivers its most unhinged, up-to-the-minute commentary yet, weaving together revenge porn, political sex scandals, and the collapse of trust in digital media. The result is equal parts hilarious, gross, and strangely urgent. 

The Prince of Darkness shuffles into the final chapter of Ozzy: No Escape from Now. He’s sporting one of the many black hats the camera never tires of capturing, and the exit tunnel is too long to care about a closer shot. There are no fireworks on which to close this surprisingly intimate doc, just the slow-motion, death-defying plummet of the legend we thought would live forever.

Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Monster: The Ed Gein Story, a show that attempts to “look into the disturbed mind of one of America’s most vicious killers,” often does the opposite and get lost in its own mythology.