What's news: HBO Max sets its launch date, NBCUniversal buys Vudu and sells Peloton, Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network delayed, Marvel invokes force majeure to terminate showrunner deals, inside the MPTF's virus battle, Cannes Market boss discusses the virtual edition. Plus: Warner Bros.' The Batman among the latest films to be pushed, Dwayne Johnson's new HBO show, and big numbers for ESPN's The Last Dance. --Alex Weprin

 HBO Max Sets Launch Day

►HBO Max has a launch date, and a launch slate. HBO Max will enter the crowded streaming wars on May 27. The streaming service is set to debut amid the shutdown brought about by the novel coronavirus outbreaking, bringing with it 10,000 hours of library programming from across the WarnerMedia portfolio. The $15-per-month offering will serve up the entire HBO experience supplemented with movies and TV shows from the Warner Bros. library and a handful of new original series. 

--Scripted comedy Love Life starring Anna Kendrick, documentary On the Record, ballroom dance competition series Legendary and Sesame Workshop's late night series The Not Too Late Show with Elmo will be among the originals at launch. The story.

►Marvel terminates pair of showrunner overall deals. Sources tell THR's Lesley Goldberg that Marvel has terminated overall deals with TV showrunners Steve Lightfoot (The Punisher) and Paul Zbyszewski (Helstrom).  Sources say the duo's respective deals were with Marvel and not Disney-owned ABC Studios, which serves as the studio on the company's comic book series.

--Is this the first of many to come? The pacts are what are believed to be some of the first to be force majeured amid the industry-wide production shutdown as studios of all sizes begin to tighten their respective belts. A force majeure clause typically allows studios increased latitude to make decisions that are motivated by an unforeseeable incident like the novel coronavirus. The story.

►Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network launch delayed by COVID-19. The former Fixer Upper duo announced the news on Tuesday morning, simultaneously setting a four-hour preview event for April 26 on DIY Network — one that will tease the inaugural slate of ten original series made for the joint venture with Discovery Inc. But with virtually no television being filmed amid coronavirus concerns, and a very short runway before the fall, Magnolia’s official debut has been put on hold until a yet-to-be-determined date. The story.

►NBCUniversal's Fandango to acquire Walmart's Vudu video streaming service. The deal will allow Fandango to bolster its 4-year-old digital movie marketplace, FandangoNow. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the next couple of months, were not disclosed. Walmart began shopping Vudu after deciding not to pursue a more aggressive push into the competitive subscription streaming business. 

--NBCUniversal and parent company Comcast are investing heavily in streaming video. NBCU's Peacock service soft-launched last week, and Comcast acquired another free streaming service, Xumo, in February. The story.

+While NBCU is buying, it is also selling. The company has sold about half of its stake in Peloton Interactive, the fitness company that broadcasts live-streaming workout videos to users of its exercise equipment. NBCUniversal sold 5.2 million of those shares for $34.21 each, netting the company about $178 million, according to filings with the SEC. It still holds more than 5.1 million shares in Peloton, having participated in its Series E and F funding rounds. It is not immediately clear whether the company intends to hold on to those shares, or liquidate them. The story.

 The Virus Crisis Hits Home

►"It feels like a war zone": Inside the MPTF's virus battle. With four dead and two dozen sickened — including nine employees — Hollywood's century-old facility for the elderly fights both COVID-19 and residents' quarantined loneliness in "the biggest challenge the home has ever seen," Gary Baum writes.

Quote:  “Until our first positive I went to sleep every night thinking, ‘OK, is tomorrow the day?’ We knew it would happen. I’d get up every morning and pray. Then we heard the news. It was a gut punch," says Bob Beitcher, the CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund's Country House and Hospital. "It’s like hearing about the first guy in your Army unit who gets killed. This is real; it’s not an exercise.” The story.

►Disney World employees fear major delays from Florida's unemployment system. The Walt Disney Company is in the midst of working with Florida to auto-enroll employees into the unemployment benefit system. The move is seen by some as a double-edged sword in that it is a helpful first step to hopefully avoid crashing the state's system — but now the situation is out of employees' hands. And there is no telling when they will hear from the state to continue the process for actually filing a claim. More.



►Canada faces $1.23 billion hit from Hollywood production shutdown. The Canadian Media Productions Association on Tuesday released a COVID-19 impact report that estimates $1.757 billion (US$1.23 billion) in Hollywood production spending in Canada will be lost if the North American industry shutdown lasts until June 30. More.

In other business news...

►STX's merger plan with Eros touts "risk-mitigated" films, streaming ambition. An investor presentation released Monday adds more detail to the combined Hollywood and Bollywood firm that will trade on the New York Stock Exchange. More.

+Fox Corp. price target lowered by analyst over "steeper" TV ad revenue decline. "We now expect steeper U.S. advertising declines in 2020 with a more gradual recovery in 2021," UBS analyst John Hodulik wrote in an investors note about the the slimmed-down media firm that emerged from the $71.3 billion sale of 21st Century Fox assets to Walt Disney. More.

+Univision discloses refinanced debt, has $650 million in available cash. The Spanish-language media giant revealed preliminary first quarter financials as former Viacom CFO Wade Davis gets set to acquire a majority stake. More.

+Charter plans no worker layoffs, furloughs for 60 days. Charter, led by CEO Tom Rutledge, on its site also said that it will permanently increase its minimum wage to $20 per hour. More.

►Cinematographers Guild president offers update on how TV and film work could resume. Live sports and game shows (which could be televised without fans or audiences) could return sooner than work on features, says guild exec John Lindley. More.

+Related: A coalition of Hollywood unions and guilds on Monday sent an email to their combined membership, which numbers about a half-million workers, emphasizing solidarity and providing links to a variety of resources.

►How I'm Living Now: Jerry Harris, Cheer star. Harris was in the final days of training with the Navarro College cheer squad ahead of the NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship, when news came that the pandemic had shut down the April competition — and a possible second season. After moving out of his dorm and saying goodbye to his team, Harris went home to Chicago to shelter in place with his family, where he's been doing daily inspirational Instagram Lives and has teamed with Netflix for their social media series Wanna Talk About It?, centering on mental health during the crisis. The interview.

►Trump says he will sign executive order to "temporarily suspend immigration" in U.S. Details are unknown, and there are expected to be carve-outs, but the order will nonetheless impact every aspect of the economy. More.

In other coronavirus-related news....

--How is American Idol going to go live during the pandemic? The producers say they have a plan for that.

--Of all the A-list Zoom parties that have taken place since the COVID-19 pandemic began, producer Scott Budnick organized one of the most unorthodox — a group call with Common and 130,000 California prisoners in their cells.

--Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday announced an aggressive reopening plan for his state that would allow cinemas to begin reopening early next week.

--CNN's Chris Cuomo can see family again: "This is what I've been dreaming weeks for."

--New York City won't allow public events in June, including three of the city's major annual celebrations: the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Celebrate Israel parade and the Pride parade on its 50th anniversary.

--Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis partnered with Nocking Point Wines and Battle Creek Vineyards to launch their own Quarantine Wine. They shared that 100 percent of the profits will be donated to a number of charities that are helping with coronavirus relief efforts.

Obituaries: Tom Lester, the gawky Mississippi native who starred as the friendly Hooterville farmhand Eb Dawson on the madcap CBS sitcom Green Acres, has died. He was 81... Italian restaurateur Sirio Maccioni, who opened the celebrated French restaurant Le Cirque and watched it grow into arguably Manhattan's favorite dining room of the rich and famous, has died in Italy. He was 88...

 What Will a Virtual Cannes Market Look Like?

►Cannes Market boss shares details on first-ever virtual edition. Cannes' international film market will go online-only this year in late June. “It will be as close to the experience of the physical market as we can make it," executive director Jérôme Paillard tells Scott Roxborough. 

Quote: "We think it's very important to keep the momentum of the screening and the market. Of course, because of the time zone differences, we'll have to have some re-runs of films but we want to do them on the same day if possible, to maintain that urgency of everyone watching the film at the same time. If you just send links to people, they don't necessarily take the time to watch them. And you have no control over when they see the film, so it is difficult to organize meetings and sales negotiations on the back of that. There's a large consensus to do things this way." The interview.

►The Batman moves back amid Warner Bros. date shuffle. The film, starring Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, had been set to hit the big screen June 25, 2021. It will now ride into theaters Oct. 1, 2021. More immediately, the studio is pushing Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark and King Richard out of 2020 entirely. The story.

+Netflix lands Melissa McCarthy, Ted Melfi dramedy The Starling. The movie, currently in postproduction, also stars Chris O'Dowd and Kevin Kline, with a large ensemble cast that includes Daveed Diggs, Loretta Devine and Timothy Olyphant. More.

►Dwayne Johnson and Issa Rae team for HBO wrestling show. The WWE legend and former Ballers star will executive produce a show about backyard wrestling that's in development at the premium cabler. His Seven Bucks Productions partner, Dany Garcia, and the Insecure creator and star are also executive producing. The story.

+Discovery Channel to launch virtual talk show with Josh Gates. Josh Gates Tonight will premiere at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, with a special Earth Day episode. While staying "Safer at Home," Gates will interview guests including Joel McHale, Mark Rober, Jonathan Scott, Drew Scott, Dr. Sandra Lee, Jeb Corliss, Jason Hawes, Capt. Keith Colburn and environmental experts including Forrest Galante and Luke Tipple about their commitment to preserving Earth. More.

►Big numbers for ESPN's The Last Dance: The opening two hours of ESPN's docuseries, which chronicles Michael Jordan's career, fame and legacy while focusing on the 1997-98 NBA season, averaged 6.1 million viewers Sunday on ESPN and ESPN2. The two episodes are the most-watched ever for ESPN documentary content — and in a sports-starved landscape, outdrew nearly every live NBA game this season. More.

+Also: One World: Together at Home concert draws nearly 21 million viewers. Across four broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and The CW — along with a host of cable outlets, the two-hour Together at Home drew 20.74 million viewers in the U.S. It is the biggest audience for any Saturday-night program, excluding the NFL playoffs, this season. More.

+Broadcast TV ratings: Sunday's broadcast ratings were largely down week-to-week, with ABC's American Idol and CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles topping the entertainment offerings and 60 Minutes leading all shows. NBC's The Wall and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist also reached multi-week highs in total viewers. The numbers.

►Awards Chatter podcast: Billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark Cuban, who is an investor in more than 150 small businesses, an NBA team and an entertainment holding company, reflects on his experience as a reality TV host and the coronavirus crisis in the first episode of Awards Chatter since the pandemic-spurred lockdown. Listen.

►Review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the Apple TV+ documentary Beastie Boys Story. The review.

In other news...

--Spyglass Media has named Peter Oillataguerre president of production.

--IFC Films has picked up the U.S. rights to Summerland, Jessica Swale's feature directorial debut that stars Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and is planning a July 31 release.

--Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz on convincing Netflix to buy its first improv special.

--Facebook has launched a new app dedicated exclusively to video games, game streaming and discussion about the games industry.

--The newly formed MSG Entertainment Corp has hired Mark FitzPatrick as its chief financial officer, reporting to CEO James Dolan

What else we're reading...

--"Harsh realities for theaters closed by coronavirus after plays go online" [WSJ]

--"Musicians turn to streaming concerts from home to pay the bills" [Bloomberg]

--"How viewer-starved sports networks are filling the coronavirus void" [Axios]

Today's birthdays: Queen Elizabeth II, 94, James McAvoy, 41, Andie MacDowell, 62, Tony Romo, 40, Tony Danza, 69.