What's news: George Cheeks will be the new CEO of CBS as Joe Ianniello departs, Netflix's The Crown will end with season five, Paradigm dismisses CAA sale talks, Emma Watts out at 20th Century, Cynthia Erico in conversation with Roxane Gay, a flurry of series and pilot pickups. Plus: THR's critics pick the best of Sundance, and remembering Fred Silverman. --Alex Weprin

 CBS CEO Shakeup

►Just in: George Cheeks to replace Joe Ianniello as head of CBS. Cheeks has been appointed president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group, effective March 23. In his new role he will have oversight of the CBS network, CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports, CBS Television Studios and CBS Television Stations and CBS’ first-run syndication business. He succeeds Ianniello who "will work with the company to ensure a smooth transition." Cheeks joins ViacomCBS from NBCUniversal, where he most recently served as Vice Chairman, NBCUniversal Content Studios. The story.

►Netflix's The Crown will come to an end after its fifth season. Imelda Staunton – who was first rumored last year – is confirmed as taking the golden baton from Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth for its final outing. "At the outset I had imagined The Crown running for six seasons but now that we have begun work on the stories for season five it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop," said creator Peter Morgan in a statement. "I’m grateful to Netflix and Sony for supporting me in this decision." Season four will air later this year. The story.

►Paradigm's Sam Gores dismisses CAA sale talks: "We like the path we're on." Following a Los Angeles Times report Thursday afternoon that Paradigm had held "exploratory discussions" with CAA, Gores sent a companywide email a few hours later to set the record straight: "Let me state emphatically – we are not for sale, nor are we selling the agency." Here's the email.

►20th Century shakeup. Emma Watts has resigned as chief of 20th Century Studios less than a year after the Disney merger closed in March 2019. Her existing team remains in place at 20th Century and a successor is expected to be named in the coming weeks. Her departure sparked heartfelt statements from the likes of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, and Ryan Reynolds. More.

Elsewhere in film...

--Amblin Partners is going back to school with Oscar-nominated producer Marc Platt. Amblin and Platt are partnering for a feature adaptation of The Bear, the upcoming fiction debut from New York Times best-selling author and high school English teacher Natalie Ford.

--From Shawshank to 1917: Thomas  Newman breaks down his "proud," petrifying path composing famed film scores.

--Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan want to "be old ladies together making movies about old ladies."

--Bong Joon Ho talks about the genesis of the new black and white Parasite cut.

--Frank Scheck reviews Gretel & Hansel.

 Cynthia Erivo On EGOT, Aretha, And More

►Cynthia Erivo and Roxane Gay in conversation: Inclusion, politics and that possible EGOT title. The Harriet star and double Oscar nominee reveals the loneliness of being the only actor of color in the race ("to not be able to share with another black actress is saddening") and her thoughts on British actors playing African-American characters.

--Gay: "You're nominated for two Oscars this year. If you win, you will be the youngest EGOT winner. Do you care about those kinds of accolades? Was this something you imagined for your career?"

--Erivo: "I think I've said 'EGOT' less than everybody else. I don't know that it's that I care less or that it's not the most important thing to me. It really is and it really has been about getting good work and playing roles I feel are good for me. When I played Celie [in The Color Purple], it wasn't because I thought I would win an award. It was because I really wanted to play her. In my heart parts and my gut, I was like, I know it's a role I'm supposed to play. The [accolades] are not the most important thing." The interview.

►Stephen Galloway named dean of Chapman University's film school. After nearly three decades at The Hollywood Reporter, the publication's executive editor will become only the second dean of the Dodge College since its founding in 1996. The story.

+Brad Pitt and the science of the perfect Oscars acceptance speech. Self-deprecating humor, love of "the community" and respect for history has helped propel Pitt, Renée Zellweger and other contenders toward their likely coronations, Galloway writes. The column.

The complete guide to the 2020 Oscars parties and events. Oscar parties will be happening all over Los Angeles in the days leading up to the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony next Sunday. Find out who will be where with Chris Gardner's running list of the events, which will be updated throughout the week. The list.

In other business news...

►Amazon Prime surpasses 150 million members. The offering, which gives members access to free two-day shipping and unlimited video and music streaming, received more signups during the fourth quarter of 2019 "than ever before," CEO Jeff Bezos disclosed in the company's earnings report for the three-month period that ended in December. The company first disclosed Prime numbers in 2018, revealing that the service had hit 100 million members. The story.

►Dan Loeb isn’t through with Sony just yet. The hedge fund manager and founder of asset management firm Third Point told investors in a letter Thursday that he still thinks "Sony’s media and semiconductors franchises can stand alone and create more value independently than together." That being said, Sony was also a "winner" for the firm last year. The story.

►Nintendo posts massive Switch console sales over holiday quarter. The Japanese gaming company sold more than 10.8 million hardware units over the period, Patrick Shanley reports. More.



^THR critics pick the 20 best films of Sundance 2020. Faves include a shocking #MeToo thriller with Carey Mulligan, a masterful 'abortion drama,' an Andy Samberg comedy, the latest from Miranda July and docs about Russell Simmons' accusers, Jamal Khashoggi and Chechnya's gay purge. The list.

+Sundance reviews: We Are Freestyle Love Supreme... Exil... Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen... Into The Deep... Sergio... The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me... Run Sweetheart Run... Some Kind of Heaven...

►"Everything goes through me": Assistants behind Oscar-nominated films speak out. In the wake of #PayUpHollywood, the group Young Entertainment Activists has released a video highlighting support staff behind Joker, Marriage Story, Ford v Ferrari, Little Women and more. The story.

►Young & the Restless renewed for four more seasons at CBS. The network, in a deal with producers Sony Pictures Television, has renewed Y&R for four additional seasons, taking the long-running soap (it's been on TV for 47 years) through the 2023-24 broadcast season. The story.

►Series pickups: David E. Kelley is returning to ABC in a big way. The Disney-owned broadcaster has handed out a straight-to-series order for drama The Big Sky, written and produced by Kelley... Starz has given a series order to Run the World, a comedy from Dear White People showrunner Yvette Lee Bowser and writer Leigh Davenport... SNL's Cecily Strong will star in Apple comedy Schmigadoon, a scripted comedy series set to be exec produced by SNL mastermind Lorne Michaels... Before Midnight actress and writer Julie Delpy is headed to Netflix with a series she created and will star in called On the Verge... Netflix has handed out a 10-episode order for Country Comfort, a multi-camera family comedy that will star Katharine McPhee and Eddie Cibrian.

+Pilot pickups: The CW picked up to pilot Kung Fu, a reboot of the cult 1970s series from the team behind NBC's Blindspot, and The Republic of Sarah, a drama that will be redeveloped from last season when it narrowly missed a series order at CBS... Jenny Bicks and Paul Feig are setting out to explore This Country. The duo will executive produce a Fox comedy inspired by the BAFTA-winning BBC series of the same name... ABC is looking for its next Lost. The network on Thursday handed out a pilot order to Wreckage, a drama based on the book of the same name by Emily Bleeker..

Elsewhere in TV...

--The Good Place creator Mike Schur opens up about bringing peace to its universe in series finale.

--Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney will team up with Amblin Television to develop both scripted and nonfiction series based on a Washington Post investigation into the war in Afghanistan.

--Ratings: Criminal Minds delivered season-high ratings for CBS on Wednesday, helped by a stronger than usual lead-in and also likely by NBC giving its Chicago shows the night off. Dueling specials about the British royal family on Fox and ABC drew nearly identical audiences.

 Fred Silverman: 1937-2020

►Fred Silverman, legendary television programmer, dies at 82. Silverman, whose talent for picking shows like All in the Family, The Waltons, Charlie’s Angels, Roots and Hill Street Blues earned him the nickname "The Man With the Golden Gut" as the only executive to program for CBS, ABC and NBC, died Thursday at his home in Pacific Palisades.

--Silverman gave David Letterman his first TV show; orchestrated such popular spinoffs as The Jeffersons, Rhoda, Laverne & Shirley, The Bionic Woman and The Facts of Life; brought "Jiggle TV" series like Charlie’s Angels and Three’s Company to the airwaves (and suggested Suzanne Somers play Chrissy on the latter); and presided over Real People, one of the first hit shows to bring a news mentality to entertainment. The obituary.

+Both ABC and CBS ran in memoriam cards for Silverman at 8 pm, per Vulture's Joe Adalian.

►Julie Plec moves overall deal to Universal TV. The prolific creator of shows like The Vampire Diaries has inked a four-year deal with the studio and departed her longtime home at Warner Bros. TV. Lesley Goldberg has the details.

+Revolving door: Skydance Media has upped Bill Bost to president of its TV division... The WWE is parting ways with its co-presidents, George Barrios and Michelle Wilson. The company says it is now searching for a new CFO and a new chief revenue officer. Board member Frank A. Riddick III will be interim CFO...

►Why Cohen Media Group's billionaire founder bought a magazine. "What distinguishes Avenue at this time is to get away from all the politics and all the controversy," Charles S. Cohen, who also owns Landmark Theatres and Curzon Cinemas, says of his purchase of the longtime New York society title. More.

►Mandy Moore, Dave Chappelle and more stars help campaign in Iowa: It's "truly an open race." With the state's Feb. 3 caucuses fast approaching, stars and producers are fanning out to support their favored candidates, Peter Kiefer reports: "I don't want to wake up next November and think what more could I have done." The story.



^Why Quentin Tarantino won't give you his cell number. The filmmaker makes his cast and crew surrender their phones before stepping onto his set, and it turns out his distaste for modern-day telephony goes even deeper, Chris Gardner and Rebecca Ford report. More.

►Theater review: Frank Scheck reviews Medea, starring Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale. "There's no doubting the striking theatrical craftsmanship and imaginative daring of this intermittently powerful, iconoclastic take on Euripides' classic," he writes. "What's questionable is the point of it all." The review.

 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Knives Out, Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story were among the feature films honored by the Casting Society of America at the 2020 Artios Awards on Thursday night. Other film honorees included Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (the Zeitgeist Award), The Last Black Man in San Francisco (low budget - comedy or drama) and, tied for best animation, The Lion King and Toy Story 4.

--TV winners included The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (comedy series), Game of Thrones (drama series), When They See Us (limited series) and Queer Eye (reality series), with the pilot and first seasons of Pose and Russian Doll also recognized. The full list of winners.

►Entertainment and nightlife publicist Joyce Sevilla was found dead in her West Hollywood apartment Wednesday night, multiple sources told Chris Gardner. She was believed to be 47. The obituary.

+Obituaries: Jack Burns, one of the original writers for The Muppet Show and a comedy partner to George Carlin, has died. The writer, actor and comedian was 86... Monique van Vooren, the Belgian-born actress who starred as a villainess in Tarzan and the She-Devil and played the Penguin's moll in Burgess Meredith's final appearance on Batman, has died. She was 92... Harriet Frank Jr., the two-time Oscar nominee for Hud and Norma Rae who partnered with her husband, the late Irving Ravetch, to form one of the great screenwriting teams in Hollywood history, has died. She was 96... Marj Dusay, who played an alien who stole Spock's brain on Star Trek and worked on five daytime soap operas during her career, has died. She was 83...

►THR Power Lawyers nominations due today. Nominations for THR's 14th annual issue highlighting the best entertainment attorneys in the country are due by the end of the day. Do you know a Power Lawyer? Nominate them now. Details here.

►TV's Top 5 podcast: During this week's podcast, hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg are joined by BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and discuss what to expect from the Super Bowl and the future of True Detective. Listen.

What else we're reading...

--Quibi will have a Super Bowl ad. You can watch it here.

--"These brands said no to running Super Bowl commercials" [NY Times]

--"High Maintenance and the new TV fantasy of New York" [NY Times Magazine]

--"Impeachment trial pushes Ted Cruz to top of podcast charts" [WSJ]

Today's birthdays: Justin Timberlake, 39, Minnie Driver, 50, Portia de Rossi, 47, Kerry Washington, 43, Philip Glass, 83, Martha MacCallum, 56