What's news: 120,000-plus crew jobs lost since pandemic began, theater owners ask for a government bailout, TV writers rooms turn to video conferencing, how China plans to reopen its theaters, Cannes and MIPTV plan virtual markets. Plus: Chernin Group and Advance Invest $200M In Scopely, and how Conan O'Brien plans to return to TBS this month. --Alex Weprin

 Job Losses Begin

►Estimated 120,000 entertainment industry crew jobs lost during pandemic. More than 120,000 IATSE jobs are estimated to have already been lost since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, according to individual correspondences that the International Cinematographers Guild (Local 600) and Motion Picture Editors Guild (Local 700) sent out to members.

--"This is a devastating time for the entire IA family," MPEG national executive director Cathy Repola wrote Wednesday in a message, which also stated that IATSE "has been successful at securing a standardized two weeks of pay from our more responsible employers. The IA intends to address those employers who are not following suit." The story

+Shonda Rhimes, Greg Berlanti, other top showrunners match donations for support staff relief fund. As companies' coronavirus policies leave some assistants, coordinators and others without jobs or with fewer work hours, a newly-created fundraiser has raised over $275,000 to offer them financial support. More.

+The Rosie O'Donnell Show is getting a one-night revival on Sunday to raise money for The Actors Fund and the growing number of performing arts and entertainment professionals put out of work by the coronavirus pandemic. The special will air live, on YouTube and Broadway.com, and has already assembled an A-list roster of guests to appear from the socially distant comforts of their own homes. More.

►Theater owners ask Congress for emergency bailout amid unprecedented closures. The business model of the movie theater industry is uniquely vulnerable in the present crisis, the National Association of Theater owners said Thursday in announcing the request. "As we confront this evolving and unprecedented period, we call on Congress and the Administration to ensure that America’s movie theater industry and its tens of thousands of employees across the country can remain resilient," the NATO statement read. The story.

+Indie cinemas across Europe facing financial ruin amid coronavirus crisis. As lockdowns throughout the continent force European screens to go dark, independent cinema owners warn that their whole industry could disappear: "It's a question of 1-2 months before we see bankruptcies.” More.

+Imax CEO explains how China's 70,000 theaters could start to reopen. With new coronavirus cases in China approaching zero, Richard Gelfond is optimistic that moviegoing will resume and grow in the coming weeks and months. "I'm hoping — and a lot of this is subject to biology — that by June things will be somewhat more normal over there," Gelfond tells THR. The story.

+China to rerelease old blockbusters to help cinemas reopen. Local studios and regulators have banded together to give cinemas permission to screen former blockbusters for free, including The Wandering Earth, Wolf Warrior 2, Wolf Totem and Lebanese indie hit Capernaum. More.

Networks, studios, unions and festivals are finding ways to adapt to the growing crisis, often by embracing digital media...

+Actors’ Equity unveils streaming agreements as virus shutters live venues. With live theaters closed across the country and nothing in sight but more dark stages, the union announced Wednesday that it has made streaming media agreements available for producers located in an areas where there is a limit on public gatherings, allowing them to capture and make a performance available online for one-time viewing to ticket buyers. The story.

+Cannes launches virtual market to run alongside physical event. Cannes' online initiative will take place May 12-23, during the market's scheduled dates. The Cannes Film Festival and the Marche du Film are, at the moment, still scheduled to take place as planned, though it is looking more and more likely that they both will be canceled amid growing concerns, and government shutdowns, because of the spread of the coronavirus. The story.

+MIPTV launching digital version following coronavirus cancellation. Organizer Reed Midem on Wednesday said it was launching a digital platform, MIPTV Online+, to provide companies with a stripped-down, virtual version of MIPTV 2020, which was set to run March 30-April 2 in Cannes, as well as the nonfiction and formats markets, MIPDoc and MIPFormats, originally programmed for March 28 and 29. The story.

+Fox breaks ranks with cable news on streaming access amid virus crisis. Fox Corp. is taking a temporary step away from the cable bundle and making its television properties freely available to stream. Fox News will now become available to stream without paying for cable, the company said Wednesday. The move was described as a partnership with Fox's pay TV providers. The story.

+CBS This Morning will originate from The Ed Sullivan Theater. Normally the home of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Times Square theater will instead be turned to news duty. In a memo to staff, CBS News president Susan Zirinsky thanked Late Show executive producer Chris Licht "and the Colbert crew who will be handling all technical operations out of the Ed Sullivan Theater." More.

►Sony to release Bloodshot on demand early. “Sony Pictures is firmly committed to theatrical exhibition and we support windowing,” Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman said in a statement. “This is a unique and exceedingly rare circumstance where theaters have been required to close nationwide for the greater good and Bloodshot is abruptly unavailable in any medium. Audiences will now have the chance to own Bloodshot right away and see it at home, where we are all spending more time. We are confident that -- like other businesses hit hard by the virus -- movie theaters will bounce back strongly, and we will be there to support them.” More.

 The TV Business Adapts And Reacts

►How TV's writers rooms keep working amid a virus crisis. A few days into the pandemic, Zoom emerged as the top app for harried screenwriters in the time of COVID-19, as writers meet online to hash out storylines.

Quote: "Ask writers what element they miss most about being together and the answer is inevitably the camaraderie. 'In a writers room you can have a lot of fun tangents and breakdowns where you're discussing anything but the script — which is half the fun sometimes,' says Royce, whose credits also include Everybody Loves Raymond. 'With teleconference, you feel like you're wasting time if you talk about something else. It's good in terms of efficiency but less fun in a comedy way.'" The story.

+HBO Max's eagerly anticipated Friends reunion special is being delayed. Sources tell THR's Lesley Goldberg that the unscripted special was set to be filmed next Monday and Tuesday on the show's iconic and former home at Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank. Given the current state of the global coronavirus pandemic, production has been delayed until at least May. A formal filming date has not been determined as it's unclear when any programming will be able to resume production. The story.

+WarnerMedia's TBS will have at least one show in production this month: Conan O'Brien says he will be resuming his TBS comedy series, Conan, at the end of the month. New episodes will air beginning March 30 (the same date that all other late night shows are tentatively scheduled to resume), according to the network. They will be filmed without an audience — in compliance with California Gov. Gavin Newsom's directive barring gatherings of more than 250 people — and on an iPhone, with show guests appearing via a video feed. The Conan production staff will work from home. More.

►Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington on promoting Little Fires Everywhere in a pandemic. The duo discussed their new Hulu series with THR just hours after the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Quote: "It feels a little odd to be here talking about a television show," Witherspoon told THR the morning of March 12, well before any emergency regulations were put in place by the state and national governments. "If we have an opportunity to distract or entertain, I feel very lucky to be part of a community that's helping [do that]." The story.

The day in coronavirus-related cancelations and postponements...

+The 2020 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has been postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

+The 2020 CFDA Fashion Awards have been pushed back from June. The Council of Fashion Designers of America announced its decision to postpone the starry event in light of the pandemic.

+Tyra Banks is postponing the opening of her ModelLand theme park. Set to open at Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica on May 1, ModelLand was dubbed "the ultimate modeling fantasy" in a 21,000 square foot space featuring photoshoots, makeovers, an immersive theater and personalized lookbooks. 

►Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Trump's coronavirus reaction reminds of Hunters Nazi conspiracy. The president’s blame-the-black-guy rhetoric and foot-dragging behavior have the same result as the Amazon show's gleefully unrepentant Nazis', and his racist failures and lack of leadership will be his legacy, the THR columnist writes. The column.

Late night hosts and other entertainers are taking to social media and YouTube to entertain fans...

--Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday told jokes from home with the only audience members being his wife and two daughters, before interviewing guest Lin-Manuel Miranda over Skype... In the latest episode of Quarantine Minilogue, Jimmy Kimmel spoke about the latest updates amid the coronavirus pandemic and suggested a framework for people to follow to maintain structure and normality during self-quarantining... The Daily Show launched The Daily Social Distancing Show. Host Trevor Noah, who is self-isolating at his home in New York City, began the video by explaining the impetus behind the temporary web-only show... To lighten the mood as the world struggled with the coronavirus pandemic, a host of stars took turns to sing John Lennon's hopeful classic "Imagine" in a video posted to Gal Gadot's Instagram on Wednesday...

In other coronavirus-related news...

--E.U. asks Netflix to limit high-definition streams to avoid internet congestion amid coronavirus.

--Image Comics publisher asks for retailer relief amid coronavirus pandemic.

--ABC News staffer with coronavirus hopes to be a "reality check" for people with "mild symptoms."

--Weddings in the age of coronavirus: How Hollywood is redefining "happily ever after."

--Frozen 2 star tests positive, shares coronavirus symptoms.

 And now the rest of the day's news...

In business news...

+Chernin Group, Newhouse's Advance invest $200 million in mobile game company Scopely. As a result of the investment, a representative from Advance will join Scopely’s board of directors while a TCG representative will now serve as a board observer. UBS Investment Bank served as exclusive financial advisor to Advance and Paul Hastings LLP served as its legal advisor on the investment. The story.

+ViacomCBS is suspending the sale of CBS’ New York headquarters, Black Rock, citing the quickly-evolving coronavirus pandemic. Despite the delay, the company says it still hopes to sell the Eero Saarinen-designed office building in 2020.

+Fitch Ratings has put The Walt Disney Company on credit watch, with a negative outlook, over concerns about how the Hollywood studio will weather the coronavirus outbreak in the near term. Cutting the conglomerate's rating outlook from stable to negative, Fitch on Wednesday in a note said it expected "the coronavirus pandemic will materially weaken Disney's operating and credit profile over the near term (next two to three quarters)."

 Harvey Weinstein is leaving the Rikers Island prison to be admitted to the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, New York, his prison consultant Craig Rothfeld said Wednesday. The Downstate Correctional Facility is a Reception/Classification Center in the New York State prison system. At the facility, Weinstein will be evaluated to determine which long-term correctional facility "meets his or her security, medical, mental health and other needs," according to the general guidelines for prisoners. More.

+New York City prosecutor hits Netflix with libel suit over When They See Us. Linda Fairstein objects to being portrayed as a racist in Ava DuVernay's docuseries about the "Central Park Five." The story.

►Bella Thorne inks Fox development deal. Under the terms of the nonexclusive pact, Thorne will develop scripted and unscripted programming for the independent broadcast network. The news comes as — spoiler alert! — Thorne is fresh off of a turn on Fox's The Masked Singer. She was revealed as one of the masked contestants during Wednesday's airing. The story.

►David Alan Grier on closing a Broadway run with no closing night. The actor reflects on the abrupt final curtain that fell on A Soldier's Play five performances ahead of schedule when the coronavirus pandemic put out the lights on Broadway last week. More.

►Next-Gen Xbox Series X console to launch amid 2020 holiday season. Despite a leak on the company's website stating the new system would debut on Thanksgiving, Microsoft is now committing to the broader "holiday" window. More.

►Reviews: Daniel Fienberg reviews the HBO documentary After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News... Fienberg also reviews season four of IFC's Brockmire... And he also reviews the Netflix documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness...

More news...

--TV ratings: Tuesday night brought increased ratings for a number of network shows, consistent with the pattern of the past five days or so. Ellen's Game of Games got the biggest boost, and its fellow shows on NBC, along with those on all the other broadcast networks, saw gains.

--Vida is coming to an end at Starz. The Lionsgate-backed premium cable network said Wednesday that its previously announced third season of the Latinx dramedy from showrunner Tanya Saracho would be its last.

--KROQ's Kevin Ryder says the entire morning show team was fired.

--Playboy's next print magazine will be its last for 2020... and maybe ever.

--World's first digital watch, seen on James Bond in Live and Let Die, is back.

What else we're reading...

--"Sports leagues offer free streaming of older games amid coronavirus shutdown" [WSJ]

--"‘An ever-changing situation’: TV ad buyers adapt to live sports hiatus" [Digiday]

--"Acceptance growing that Tokyo games could be postponed" [Sports Business Journal]

--"How Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take got Dr. Anthony Fauci for coronavirus talk" [NY Post]

--"“Dishonesty...is always an indicator of weakness”: Tucker Carlson on how he brought his coronavirus message to Mar-a-Lago" [Vanity Fair]

Today's birthdays: Bruce Willis, 65, Glenn Close, 73, Ursula Andress, 84, Julien Macdonald, 49, David Ross, 43.