The Hollywood Reporter August 9, 2023

Heat Index Shari Redstone The mogul’s Paramount Global draws decent earnings reviews from Wall Street (“path ahead appears improved”), even if it’s still seen as an M&A target. Dave Portnoy As ESPN inks a $2 billion deal with Penn Entertainment to set up its foothold in gambling, the casino owner ditches Barstool Sports and sells it back to Portnoy, its founder. Perry Sook The CW notched its smallest quarterly loss yet, $78 million, but it remains to be seen whether the Nexstar CEO’s “Moneyball” (i.e., analytics-based) strategy will pay off. Lachlan Murdoch How much should be read into softer political ad spending at the CEO’s Fox Corp. and a slow trickle of layoffs at Fox News? On the bright side: Tubi revenue is growing. Showbiz Stocks $23.57 (+1.55%) ENDEAVOR (EDR)…

A few weeks before Bob Iger sat down for that CNBC interview in which he said Disney’s linear TV networks, like ABC and FX, “may not be core” to the company’s business, a veteran Hollywood executive mused to THR on the possibility of a deal that would rock the industry: Apple buying Disney. It’s an idea that keeps being discussed, even though many top executives have scoffed at it and many still do. Apple doesn’t want to buy a studio, they say, and there’s no way the feds would allow a huge deal like that to go through. But this observer wasn’t so quick to rule it out. “I don’t think [Apple] would buy the company as it presently exists,” he said. “But if you see Bob start to divest…

Striking actors and the media companies they work for remain far apart on negotiations for a new contract, with no talks taking place since SAGAFTRA members took to the picket lines July 14. Both the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing studios, seem dug in to their respective positions. One of the union’s proposals in particular — for a small cut of streaming service revenue from successful shows and movies — has generated a lot of pushback from the management side, with the AMPTP saying it has “fundamental objections” to the idea. SAG-AFTRA contends that it’s a necessary (if novel) step given the industry-altering changes in the streaming era. SAG-AFTRA’S PROPOSAL The union’s contract offer includes setting aside 2 percent of revenue generated by a…

We’re not allowed to talk about Scrubs.” That was the consensus that co-stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison reached almost immediately during the Aug. 1 episode of their Scrubs rewatch podcast, Fake Doctors, Real Friends. The pair, like many actors with thriving audio platforms, had been unsure of how to approach their side gig during the SAG-AFTRA strike and initially segued into repeats. Not only is there the obvious fear of speaking out of turn during Hollywood’s labor crisis — see recent foot-in-mouth comments from Stephen Amell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Zachary Levi, each of whom immediately backpedaled — podcasting is proving to be a strike gray area despite the union clearing up guidelines. Mostly. “Rewatch, recap and companion shows are promotional, and they can drive viewers to struck companies’…

Conventional wisdom says: If you want to win a big Hollywood award, release your project as late as possible. That would explain the glut of Oscar bait dumped in the final months of the calendar year, as studios and streamers hope their fall releases will be fresh on Academy voters’ minds when they receive their ballots in January. There are, of course, always outliers; Everything Everywhere All at Once, this year’s Oscar winner for best picture, hit theaters in March 2022 and still managed to maintain momentum throughout awards season to claim Oscar victory. Similar unwritten rules apply to the Emmys. The Television Academy’s eligibility window runs from June 1 to May 31 — which is why many of this year’s Emmy-nominated series saw their seasons premiere in spring 2023.…

RedBird IMI, the venture led by former NBCUniversal and CNN chief Jeff Zucker, has made its first media investment. The $1 billion media, entertainment and sports vehicle (a joint venture between Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird and Abu Dhabi’s International Media Investments) said Aug. 7 that it’s launching a nonfiction content studio led by Ian Orefice, the former president and COO of Time Studios. The new studio, called EverWonder, will finance, produce and distribute nonfiction features, documentaries and series, with a particular eye toward projects that can be leveraged into brand extensions or new intellectual property. Orefice, who has known Zucker for years, says that he decided earlier this year to pursue the new venture. “I think it’s an incredibly exciting time in the nonfiction space, and we have the ability for…