Hasta La Creative!

It won’t make anyone forget the early incarnation of “American Idol” that struck so much fear in the heats of rival programmers that they would refer to it in hushed tones as “the Death Star,” but ABC’s revival of the once-colossal musical competition series delivered strong numbers for a Sunday night in 2018.

According to Nielsen preliminary data, ABC’s first crack at “American Idol” averaged 10.3 million viewers and a 2.3 rating in the network’s target demo, which works out to around 2.96 million adults 18 to 49. And while that’s a fraction of the audience “Idol” regularly served up back in its mid-aughts heyday, the TV turnout marked a significant upgrade for ABC’s Sunday 8-10 p.m. lineup, which season-to-date is averaging just 4.5 million viewers and a 1.0 in the demo.

Sunday night’s “Idol” broadcast delivered ABC’s biggest premiere ratings in the time slot since the supernatural drama “Resurrection” bowed to 13.9 million viewers and a 3.8 in the demo back in March 2014. Before last night’s reboot, those two hours of ABC’s Sunday night roster served as a placeholder for the 28-year-old “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and the transplanted “Shark Tank.”

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Apple is acquiring Texture, a digital magazine servicedubbed by media industry observers as “Netflix for magazines”that lets users subscribe to more than 200 titles for $9.99 a month.

Texture, offered via the app stores of Apple, Google and Amazon.com Inc., bolsters Apple’s efforts in online services and media. The Cupertino, California company aims to top $50 billion in annual services revenue by 2021, and a magazine subscription service would likely contribute to that.

Texture’s magazine catalog includes Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Bloomberg Businessweek. The app is currently run by Next Issue Media LLC, owned by a group of publishers and other companies including Hearst Corp., Meredith Corp., News Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. In 2014, private-equity firm KKR invested $50 million in the company.

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Gatorade made its SXSW activation slightly deceptive. When attendees walk into the space they enter into the G-Store–a somewhat small pop-up shop filled to the brim with any and every possible Gatorade product you could imagine, from protein powder to classic Gatorade drinks. Attendees are given iPads as soon as they enter the store and…

Though it’s only Monday morning, much South by Southwest madness has already transpired: We’ve traversed miles outside town to HBO’s legendary West World activation (video to come on that), faked a ride on a private jet at Bravo’s “InstaCON” activation for its show “Imposters” and sat in on Uber chief brand officer Bozoma Saint John’s chat on Sunday (we also spoke to Michael Barbaro, host of the popular New York Times poidcast, “The Daily”).

Read below for that, and more, then keep checking in here today for SXSW updates throughout Monday.

3 p.m. Sunday

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The ad industry officially joins the movement with the creation of Time’s Up Advertising.