John and Craig are joined by the ghosts of Scriptnotes past and present (Megana and Drew) for a festive competition: discussing the perils of studio bake-offs — pitting writer against writer for one coveted job — while simultaneously judging three of LA’s finest holiday cookies.

We also look at Netflix’s recently released viewership data, follow up on homonyms, AI coverage and voting, and answer a listener question on the definition of a drafts. But first, we investigate the origin of a very useful word that’s new to John and Craig.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we travel to holidays past to discuss the best presents we ever received — and the gifts that got away.

Links:

• Netflix Viewership Data
• The absolutely legitimate, incredibly useful Indian English word you’re not using by Diksha Madhok
• Homographs
• The Very Best Cookie In The Whole Wide World
• DeLuscious Cookies
• Levain Bakery
• Clue Conspiracy
• Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz
• Upright Steamer
• The Kelly Clarkson Connection
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter
• John on Mastodon
• Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 1-19-24: The transcript for this episode can be found here.

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