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Media's Post-Election Meltdown; View From Hollywood's Trump Backers; Late-Night Wake; THR Next Gen Execs Unveiled

November 09, 2016

The morning after: Americans rebuked countless newspapers that endorsed Hillary Clinton, rebutted data journalists that claimed polls were on their side and proved that most cable news pundits had no idea what they were talking about. On a brighter note: There's a new THR magazine out today, a great issue spotlighting the Next Gen leaders in the entertainment industry. — Matthew Belloni and Erik Hayden.

If there's such a thing as a chart that will live in infamy, this is it. The New York Times, which led the day forecasting a more than 80 percent chance of victory for Clinton, careened over to predicting a 95 percent chance of victory for Trump in a matter of hours. Nate Silver and his FiveThirtyEight model fared similarly.

The only news outlet that is getting credit for their polling prowess is The Los Angeles Times, which, conventional wisdom forecast, had an outlier model. This is just the beginning for media soul-searching. Trump's Twitter bio now reads "President-Elect of the United States." Michael Moore warned us all.

► No one knows what happens next. Media analyst Andrew Tyndall has a great look at all the factors that have added up to the words "President-Elect Trump" and it starts with how TV news played the contest. Tyndall writes, for starters:

R.I.P. Issues Coverage. Presenting this election as a contest of personalities has eviscerated coverage as a contest of policy platforms. A viewer of the broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts will have seen a virtual absence of issues coverage. In the previous seven election years (1988 through 2012), there has been an annual three-broadcast network average of 156 minutes on issues; this year, through mid-October, just 32 minutes.

The Poor Pundits. The formula for political analysis by the TV roundtable collapsed this season. Tradition dictated the group be a mixture of in-house correspondents and outsider partisans, campaign operatives and surrogates — symmetrically, one from the right and one from the left — to deliver each side's talking points. The Trump candidacy broke that symmetry.

► There are actually people in Hollywood celebrating right now. Paul Bond was at the viewing party where the industry's secretive group of conservatives known as Friends of Abe erupted in cheers for the real estate mogul. Said Mell Flynn, an actress, casting director and Republican delegate: "I'm a Republican activist who knows a lot of Democrats who are now in the Trump camp." The view from Trumpworld.

► What happened at Clinton's New York event last night. "It's getting really bad," was how an industry executive described the scene to Pamela McClintock. "So bad, people are crying." Around 9 p.m. ET, the VIPs backstage began making their way to the floor of the Javits Center, where Clinton was scheduled to take to the podium. "I've never seen a more defeated group of people," said the executive. "And truly scared for our country." The view from Clintonworld.

And now, on an entirely different note: A drum roll...

In the new issue: The Hollywood Reporter's 23rd annual Next Gen list features the industry's rising stars in film, television and digital who may one day become the next studio chief or media mogul. Fronting the issue are Spider-Man: Homecoming stars Zendaya and Tom Holland:

Among the actors who gathered in Los Angeles and New York for the bi-coastal photoshoots: Olivia Cooke and Tye Sheridan who will share screentime in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One; Alex Wolff who will star in Patriots Day with Mark Wahlberg; and Thomas Mann, soon to be seen in Kong: Skull Island with Tom Hiddleston and Brie Larson.

► Full talent list I Full exec list I Cover video I Zendaya Q&A I Tom Holland Q&A.

Can NFL Ratings Rebound?

A season-long question: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been battling an unanticipated narrative for the nation's most watched sport — cratering ratings, Michael O'Connell writes:

NFL viewership was down about 13 percent compared with the same period last season as of Nov. 4, with primetime showdowns suffering most.

"The number of viewers has remained the same, but the amount of time they've spent with the game is where the reduction has occurred," observes Marc Ganis, president of Chicago sports marketing firm Sportscorp.

Drops vary. Fox Sports coverage of Sunday games is off only by 4 percent from the first eight weeks of the 2015 season. But ESPN has seen Monday Night Football sink 20 percent, and NBC flagship Sunday Night Football is down a similarly troubling 18 percent — now averaging fewer than 20 million viewers a week.

It's especially scary for ESPN, which pays the NFL $1.9 billion a year for rights.

Elsewhere in TV...

► ABC plans The Goldbergs spinoff series. The network is teaming with creator Adam F. Goldberg to develop an untitled 1990s-set spinoff of the 1980-something comedy, giving the project a script commitment and significant penalty attached.

► Fox TV inks new deal with Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The pair behind The Last Man on Earth and Son of Zorn have signed another three-year pod deal in which they will develop, write and direct their own live-action and animation comedy projects.

► Car Wash reboot planned from Will Packer. ABC is teaming with Packer to develop a single-camera comedy based on the 1976 feature film. Rob Horn and Matt Claybrooks will pen the script for the project, which landed with a script plus penalty commitment.

► Freeform cancels Dead of Summer. The Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis ABC Studios drama took place in the late '80s and followed counselors at a Midwestern summer camp. It debuted in June to poor reviews and only 630,000 total viewers.

► ABC not moving forward with Conviction. All 13 episodes of the Hayley Atwell drama will air, though it's unclear how long the series will remain in its current Mondays at 10 p.m. slot.

Colbert's election special turns into a wake. Critic Frank Scheck writes: The comedian's shell-shocked, stunned demeanor reflected the mounting fear, anxiety, and ultimate depression that afflicted a significant portion of the country as the results poured in: "I'm not sure it's a comedy show at this point."

Fox Grapples With 'X-Men' Issues

With the summer release of X-Men: Apocalypse behind it and a Deadpool sequel hitting a speed bump, 20th Century Fox is finding its superhero franchise at a crossroads, Borys Kit reports:

Fox has had movie rights to Marvel's X-Men characters since the 1990s, well before Marvel became its own studio and Fox ostensibly launched the modern comic book movie with 2000's X-Men. But now, after some highs, lows and one reset (2011's X-Men: First Class), there are signs of wear and tear on a franchise that has grossed more than $4 billion.

A reset button has been pressed. Sources say the flagship series will be reconfigured, with Simon Kinberg, overseer of the franchise as producer and writer, working on a new script. Singer, who directed four X-Men movies, will not be returning, according to insiders, but the script is being written with Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy optimistically in mind.

And after being on hold as Channing Tatum shot Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, Gambit should move back into active development with a new filmmaker.

Elsewhere in film...

► Mission: Impossible 6 lands release date. Weeks after Tom Cruise closed his deal to return to the marquee action-thriller franchise after contentious dealmaking halted preproduction on the next movie, Paramount has dated the film for July 27, 2018.

► Top Sony dealmaker exits amid studio friction... Andrew Gumpert, the head of Sony Pictures' business affairs group and one of the most respected dealmakers in Hollywood, exited his post in the latest sign of unrest at the Sony film studio.

► ... and Sony's CEO responded to an internal revolt. CEO Kaz Hirai broke his silence on the complaints about the studio chairman, saying that he is “in frequent contact with the Sony Pictures’ senior team including Michael Lynton and Tom Rothman to discuss all aspects of business." The backstory.

↱ Almost Christmas, reviewed. In the Universal film, Danny Glover plays the patriarch of a family reuniting for the holidays in the first Yuletide-themed movie of the season. Frank Scheck's takeaway: "A Christmas turkey." ↲

► Avengers 3 scouting photo teases mystery location. The directors shared a photo of a stairwell Tuesday captioning it "scouting." Judging by the image, it's a safe bet this is scouting a secondary location — with some fans speculating it looks similar to Doctor Strange style.

► R.I.P., Jud Kinberg. The father of X-Men movie architect Simon Kinberg who produced such stellar films as the Vincent van Gogh biopic Lust for Life, starring Kirk Douglas, and William Holden's Executive Suite, has died. He was 91. Full obit.

New Awards Chatter podcast: Miles Teller. One of Hollywood's few leading men under the age of 30 chats with Scott Feinberg about the near-death experience that changed his life, why he owes his career to Nicole Kidman and his thoughts on Fantastic Four. Listen here.

Profile: NBC News Breakout Katy Tur

As Trump becomes President-Elect, Marisa Guthrie takes a closer look at one of the star reporters who covered his campaign from the beginning:

The NBC News correspondent assigned Katy Tur repeatedly was called out by Trump at rallies and news conferences ("third-rate journalist"), on Twitter ("dishonest reporting") and in her sit-down interview with him in July 2015 ("You don't even know what you're talking about").

Over the past 18 months, she has visited more than 40 states and made close to 4,000 live TV appearances. While Trump and his minions were persistent critics, her reporting was lauded by everyone from conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt to The Hill editor Niall Stanage.

By the assessment of a top broadcast talent agent, Tur, along with MSNBC's Hallie Jackson and CNN's Van Jones, "are the three people who popped this cycle." How much could this boost her asking price? "It's always hard to quantify ... but I'd say 30 percent, 50 percent? This has been huge for her."

The bigger question: How will Tur will spend her hard-earned campaign capital? "Does she want morning TV?" asks the agent. "I don't see that for her, I see her more as a hard-news person. … There will likely be a reshuffling at NBC after the election, so that should position her well."

Says Tur: "Whether I want to stay in politics, that's a question I haven't answered. What I have loved about this election and will miss is I feel like I've found my voice as a reporter. I have found where I am best, and that is being a fact-checker and being fearless."