What's news: What next for the TV business? Gaming on the rise as America stays home, below-the-line Hollywood facing disaster amid the pandemic, theater owners insist things will "return to normal," TV news practices social distancing. Black Widow, Cannes Lion and Eurovision postponed or canceled. Plus: Fox buys Tubi, and Westworld opens to a smaller audience. --Alex Weprin

 What Next For The TV Biz?

While the production shutdowns, cancelations and postponements continue, the entertainment business is trying to grapple with the new reality, and thinking ahead to what comes after the virus threat recedes...

►TV has mostly stopped production. What happens next? Industry insiders mull everything from filming in trimmed down shifts, opening writers rooms and picking up pilots to series without producing a single scene as fallout from the coronavirus global pandemic turns the industry upside down, Lesley Goldberg reports.

Quote: Resuming production on halted shows won’t be quite as easy as it sounds. Given the demands of the Peak TV era, sound stages and crews are already booked out several months, even years, in advance; and the same can be true of writers, actors and directors, who increasingly commit to other projects during their respective hiatuses. "It's all going to be dictated by time," a top cable exec says of which productions will resume and when."

"The exec also notes that some projects could be pushed an entire calendar year as they're forced to navigate production space and talent availability. Several studios are already in conversations about extending the options on casts for bubble shows and broadcast pilots from the standard June 30 expiration date." The story.

►Gaming usage up 75 percent amid coronavirus outbreak, Verizon reports. As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread and citizens have been encouraged to "self-isolate," many are turning to gaming as they are kept indoors by the pandemic. According to Verizon, U.S. video game usage during peak hours has gone up 75 percent since the quarantine first went into effect last week. Meanwhile, video streaming has also increased by 12 percent. Overall web traffic is up nearly 20 percent, but social media usage was flat. The story.



^Below-the-line Hollywood faces sudden unemployment amid coronavirus: "It's a disaster." Most production employees are gig workers that don't receive healthcare from companies they work for and do not typically receive paid sick leave, Katie Kilkenny reports on what that means for the industry.

Quote: "This is the first March in 4 years I haven't had full time work lined up. The shoots I have are postpone[d] or in limbo," first assistant director Isabella Olaguera posted to her Facebook last Thursday. "Are any other freelancers a little nervous?" The story.

+Hollywood guilds tap emergency funds for workers, but that may not be enough. Filing for unemployment or disability benefits is an option for some, and the unions are urging the federal government to do more, Jonathan Handel writes. But there are other resources, for guild members and non-union workers alike. Some may be little-known or have a broader scope than obvious. The somewhat obscure Actors Fund, for instance, is not just for actors. The story.

+IATSE commits $2.5 million in donations to entertainment charities. The contributions will be made to The Actors Fund, the Motion Picture and Television Fund and the Actors Fund of Canada amid the coronavirus pandemic. More.

►Amid virus crisis, theater owners say moviegoing "will return to normal." "No one can precisely predict when public life will return to normal, but it will return," the National Association of Theatre Owners stated in a bullish note. "Although there has been speculation in the media that the temporary closure of theaters will lead to accelerated or exclusive releases of theatrical titles to home streaming, such speculation ignores the underlying financial logic of studio investment in theatrical titles," the statement said. The story.

+Cinemark joined AMC and Regal in closing its theatres while the crisis persists. The closures mean the country's three largest theater chains will be shuttered for a period of at least a few months. More.

+Exhibition analyst cuts AMC stock rating, price targets across sector on coronavirus. The shutdown of U.S. cinemas "will dramatically impact revenues and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization" for most operators, says B. Riley FBR's Eric Wold. More.

+Column: "A sense of loss as movie theaters close." The ability to go to the movies pales in comparison to many of life's essentials affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but the chance to experience art (good, bad and mediocre) with an audience is an irreplaceable means to connect with humanity, Richard Newby writes. The column.

►Shuttered U.K cinema chains may not be able to make insurance claims. The general consensus from many was that, in not officially ordering businesses to close — as had been done across various parts of Europe, including Italy, France and Spain — the government was effectively ensuring that, should cinema chains make the decision themselves due to empty venues or concerns over staff safety, they wouldn’t be able to claim on insurance. Nevertheless, on Tuesday the U.K.'s biggest cinemas chains Odeon, Cineworld and Vue all announced they would be closing. Here's the story.

The day in coronavirus cancelations...



►Disney pushes back Black Widow release. The movie, which was set to hit theaters in North America on May 1, has been pushed to an undetermined future date. It is the long-awaited stand-alone on Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow superhero that also stars Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz. Disney also pushed back the releases of Searchlight Pictures' The Personal History of David Copperfield, starring Dev Patel and originally set for May 8, and 20th Century's Amy Adams-starrer Woman in the Window (originally set for May 15) from the calendar; future dates are to be determined. The story.

+The Cannes Lions festival of creativity on Wednesday said it would postpone its 2020 edition until October.

+Even Eurovision can't beat the coronavirus. The popular pan-European singing competition has been canceled.

+The Billboard Music Awards is being postponed amid the coronavirus outbreak. The show was set to air live from Las Vegas on Wednesday, April 29, on NBC. 

+The BBC has been forced to shut down production on its popular long-running soap EastEnders due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

+The Olivier Awards, the U.K.'s top theater honors, is the latest entertainment industry event to be affected by the coronavirus. The ceremony, due to take place on Sunday, April 5 in London, has now been canceled. 

+The British Academy has officially postponed both its television awards and television craft awards due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. 

+Organizers of Glastonbury Festival, one of the world's most famous, not to mention largest, music events, has announced that its 2020 edition will no longer take place.

+Netflix Is a Joke Fest: Following the lead of organizations behind numerous other major upcoming events, Netflix is postponing its inaugural stand-up comedy festival.

 TV News Social Distancing

►Social distancing becomes new normal on cable news. Network personalities — and guests — are going remote or even filming from different parts of the same studio amid the coronavirus outbreak, Jeremy Barr reports. The story.

+Americans trust network TV over Trump for coronavirus updates, poll finds. Some 59 percent of adults say they have "a lot" or "some" trust in broadcasters, while 43 percent say the same about the President's messaging, a Hollywood Reporter/Morning Consult survey shows. The data.

+NBC Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie co-hosted the program from her home this morning. Guthrie had a mild sore throat and runny nose, but wanted to abide by CDC guidelines. More.

Other coronavirus-related news...

--Though Disney has stopped live-action work on projects such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in the wake of the coronavirus, the Marvel Studios movie got some good news this week. Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton tested negative for COVID-19, after self-isolating last week.

--Hazmat suits in the supermarket: How wealthy Hamptons-ites are panic-buying.

--Kevin Durant among four Brooklyn Nets to test positive for coronavirus... And: A New York-based CNN employee has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the network confirmed to THR on Tuesday afternoon.

--Los Angeles fitness community goes virtual after coronavirus gym ban.

Celebrities are grappling with crisis as well. Some more than others...

--Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel debut quarantine-themed jokes from their homes.

--Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Garner, Justin Timberlake and Amy Adams are just a few of the people that have taken charitable initiatives to help those affected by the coronavirus.

--On the other hand: Vanessa Hudgens took to Instagram Stories Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to clarify comments she made during an Instagram Live clip a day earlier that has gone viral with many accusing her of not taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously enough.

--Jared Leto is in shock about coronavirus — having said he just learned about the pandemic. The Oscar-winning actor wrote on Twitter on Monday night that he had recently emerged from a 12-day silent meditation to learn about the news that has engulfed the planet. 

 Here's the rest of the day's news...

►The virus scare isn't stopping deals from being made. Fox Corp. has acquired the streaming service Tubi TV for $440 million in cash, the company said Tuesday. At the same time, it has also sold its 5 percent stake in the streaming platform Roku, using the proceeds to help finance the acquisition. The details.

+Sienna Films, producer of Hulu's Cardinal, has been sold off as asset sales at Kew Media Group continue after it was tipped into receivership by the Ontario Superior Court. Terms of the acquisition by Montreal-based Datsit Sphere, which produces series like Transplant, 19-2 and Rumours, were not disclosed. More.

+In other business news: Lionsgate chairman Mark Rachesky has taken advantage of a weak company stock price to continue adding to his ownership stake in the Hollywood studio led by CEO Jon Feltheimer. More.

►Westworld opens season three with a smaller, streaming-heavy audience. Sunday's premiere gathered an audience of 1.7 million viewers, per Nielsen and HBO figures. The on-air debut for Westworld brought in 901,000 viewers, less than half of the 2.05 million who watched the season two premiere in April 2018. An on-air replay and early digital viewing accounted for about 800,000 more viewers — 47 percent of the show's Sunday total. More.

Judge wipes out $2.8 million copyright verdict against Katy Perry, Capitol Records. More than a half a year after a California jury stunned the music world by punishing Perry for ripping off a Christian rapper's song, a judge finds there was nothing protectable to infringe. More.

+Also: Two L.A. police officers face demand to testify at Johnny Depp's U.K. trial. U.K. courts are "operating normally," and as the actor's libel trial against a news publisher begins next week, the proceeding could see streamed testimony via a transatlantic video link, Eriq Gardner reports.

More news...

--Hulu is jumping into the companion podcast game, teaming up with iHeartRadio to create a series that will take listeners inside its new limited series, Little Fires Everywhere... Little Fires Everywhere author Celeste Ng says TV adaptation will ask viewers to "check their blindspots."

--Inkoo Kang reviews Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem... Daniel Fienberg reviews Netflix's Feel Good...

--Liam Hemsworth and Clark Duke retaliate against their drug dealer boss in the trailer for Lionsgate's Arkansas.

Obituaries: Lyle Waggoner, the actor with the leading man looks who spent seven seasons on The Carol Burnett Show before portraying versions of Steve Trevor a generation apart on Wonder Woman, has died. He was 84... Stuart Whitman, the rugged actor who starred on TV's Cimarron Strip and received an Oscar nomination for playing a convicted child molester trying to rid himself of psychological demons in The Mark, has died. He was 92... Gary B. Kibbe, who served as John Carpenter's cinematographer on seven films, including They Live, In the Mouth of Madness and Escape From L.A., has died. He was 79...

What else we're reading...

--"Disney looks to sell TrueX, ad tech firm it absorbed from Fox" [WSJ]

--"Stay-at-home lockdown a boon for video services? Not so fast." [The Information]

--"Glued to TV for now, but when programming thins and bills mount …" [NY Times]

--"The coronavirus threw ESPN a curveball. How the sports giant is changing its game" [LA Times]

Today's birthdays: Queen Latifah, 50, Frederik Willem de Klerk, 84, Vanessa Williams, 57, Lily Collins, 31, Adam Levine, 41.