What's news: Disney+ soars past 50 million subscribers, Hollywood prepares for a production logjam when lockdowns end, why now might not be the best time to file for bankruptcy, Broadway's shutdown is extended into June, there's a Doogie Howser reboot in the works, Brad Pitt's Plan B inks Warner Bros. deal, and My Spy sells to Amazon. Plus: Meet the man who keeps CNN running during the pandemic, and Modern Family's creators talk about the finale. --Alex Weprin

 Disney's Big Number

►Disney+ Hits 50 million paid subscribers. Disney's streaming service delivered a rare bit of good news for the entertainment giant, which still sees its U.S. theme parks shuttered, and its TV and film production paused amidst the coronavirus pandemic. The uptick in subscribers comes after the nearly five-month-old service began to roll out in more countries around the world. On March 24, the service became available in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other European countries. It launched in India on Friday.

--Context: Disney+ has nearly doubled its subscriber base since early February, when the company said it hit 26.5 million subscribers. Eight million of the new subscribers come from India's Hotstar service. By reaching the 50 million milestone, Disney+ has shot past corporate sister service Hulu, which has more than 30 million subs.

--When Disney officially unveiled Disney+ almost exactly a year ago, it told analysts that it set a target of 60-90 million subscribers by the end of 2024. It appears it may hit the low end of that range four years early. The story.

+Here's what Wall Street is saying. "This is 50 comin’ out your stereos, hard to tell though cause I switched the flow," writes Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall in a report, citing lyrics from a 50 Cent song. "It’s unclear how 'Hotstar's advertising VOD [tier] is accounted for in the 8 million, though Disney's press release uses the key phrase 'paid subscribers' for both the total 50 million and the Indian 8 million. Excluding India AVOD, our model had Disney surpassing the 50 million milestone in the December 2020 quarter." More.

►Why bankruptcy may not be the best option now for Hollywood's distressed firms. Some companies may find it makes more sense to forgo Chapter 11 given the lack of interest in competitors acquiring assets at auction, Eriq Gardner reports: "You need to show a path toward an exit." The story.

+That being said: An AMC Theatres "bankruptcy appears likely," analyst says. MKM Partners' Eric Handler downgrades the stock to a "sell," estimating its "cash burn rate in a no-revenue environment is running at $155 million per month, which likely keeps AMC liquid until June/July." More.

►Hollywood braces for production logjam post-virus: "There’s going to be so much jockeying." Dozens of films and TV series that had to pack up mid-shoot are expected to compete with previously scheduled projects for limited studio space at a time when production was already at all-time highs, Bryn Elise Sandberg writes.

Quote: “It’s like a horse race — you’re waiting for the gates to open and everybody’s going to rush out at the same time,” says Claudio Ruben, the head of New Mexico’s Garson Studios. As for how it’ll all play out, Ruben is cautiously optimistic. "I think most people are going to be patient and respectful, but I can’t imagine there won't be some jostling in the mix." The story.

►CAA cuts pay amid pandemic, agency heads to forgo salary. Announced via video conference this morning, the reductions in pay will be companywide and proportionate – meaning higher earners take deeper cuts – maxing out at 50 percent, with the exception of co-chairmen Richard Lovett, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, who will forgo the remainder of their salaries for 2020. The story.

Just in: Sony Corp. has paid $400 million for a 4.98 percent stake in Chinese online entertainment player Bilibili. The all-cash deal for the minority holding, made through subsidiary Sony Corporation of America, will see Bilibili and Sony collaborate in entertainment businesses in the Chinese market, including anime and mobile games. More.

 Broadway Shutdown Extended

►Coronavirus shutdown extends to June on Broadway. The Broadway League, the trade organization that represents New York's top-tier theater industry, confirmed Wednesday that the 41 venues that make up the Great White Way will not reopen April 12, as previously scheduled. Broadway will now remain dark through June 7, though given the unabated spread of the coronavirus pandemic, subsequent announcements are widely expected to push back that reopening date further as needed. The story.

►How the global film industry is working to mitigate mass layoffs. While Hollywood companies like Disney begin furloughs and pay cuts, employees at overseas studios in Germany, Italy, the U.K. and even China are being kept afloat by governments and employers, Scott Roxborough and Patrick Brzeski report: "People will remember who stood behind their workers in difficult times and who didn't." The story.

►Editors Guild cuts second-quarter dues by 50 percent. The Local 700 board also voted to absorb the $7 processing fee for those who pay by credit card. "We will continue to evaluate the need for relief for union dues for future billing cycles," wrote MPEG president Alan Heim and national executive director Cathy Repola in a letter to members. More.

►Meet the CNN staffer who's essential to keeping its Atlanta HQ running. John Camacho, a 21-year company veteran and senior engineer, describes his new social distancing normal as he keeps the CNN Center functioning amid the coronavirus shutdown. "I have a slogan that I created when this all happened, which is, 'When news breaks, we fix it.' We’re the team that makes sure everything is flowing nicely. If everything is flowing nicely, you’ll see the news and everyone is happy." The interview.

►How I'm Living Now: Alan Yang, Tigertail filmmaker. With the pandemic keeping him at home in Los Angeles, the Emmy winner opens up about cooking Mexican and Taiwanese food with his girlfriend, buying hand sanitizer for his dad and binge-watching… Criterion films?! The interview.



In other coronavirus-related news...

--VENN, a new gaming-centered media network, is moving its launch up to July amid the virus crisis.

--Richard agent Weitz’s private pandemic concerts? They have since raised $100,000 for charity.

--ABC News is mourning the loss of Good Morning America studio camera operator Tony Greer, who has died due to complications from the novel coronavirus.

--A coalition of industry producers, writers and directors have come together to launch the It Takes Our Village COVID-19 relief fund for film and TV crew members left without work during Hollywood's production shutdown.

--MGM Resorts International's emergency relief fund for struggling Las Vegas workers has swelled to $11 million after donations from Jay Leno, David Copperfield and Bill Maher.

--U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has unveiled a raft of budget-cutting measures to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Among the measure are an immediate 20 percent pay cut voluntarily taken by all executive and non-executive board members, alongside the suspension of the 2020 bonus scheme for executive directors.

--The cast of Full House reunited to film a quarantine-inspired video titled "Full Quarantine" on Wednesday... Randy Newman has a new song that is all about staying safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Obituaries: Thomas L. Miller, the legendary television producer behind such iconic sitcoms as Happy Days, Family Matters, Full House, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, Perfect Strangers and Step by Step, has died. He was 79... Eliot Tiegel, an author, former Los Angeles bureau chief and managing editor of Billboard and the husband of late Entertainment Tonight producer Bonnie Tiegel, has died. He was 84... Veteran Canadian TV actor Ghyslain Tremblay, star of French-language series across a 40-year career including L'Amour qui tue, Les parc des braves and Les 100 tours de Centour, has died. He was 68...

 About The 'Modern Family' Finale

►Modern Family creators open up about the series finale (and the state of a spinoff). Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd talk with THR's Lesley Goldberg about the decisions that went into bringing their Emmy-winning comedy to a close: "The best endings are actually beginnings that don't try to put a period on a series." The interview.

+Critic's notebook: Despite flaws, Modern Family leaves a legacy to love. From its all-time great pilot to its Emmy wins to its role in establishing ABC's family-comedy forte, Modern Family had a 250-episode run that was inconsistent but both hilarious and important, Daniel Fienberg writes. The column.

►The Good Fight stages a surreal return: A Hillary presidency, "Trump TV" and a free Weinstein. Season four opener "The Gang Deals with Alternate Reality" does just that — and creators Michelle and Robert King talk Michael O'Connell through their "thought experiment," as well as the pandemic's impact on production. The interview.

Deals are still being made...

►A Doogie Howser reboot is in the works at Disney+. The new project has a working title of Doogie Kealoha, M.D., and comes from How I Met Your Mother and Fresh Off the Boat veteran Kourtney Kang. Disney-owned 20th Century Fox TV, which produced the original series, is the studio. The Disney+ project's lead character is a half-Asian, half-white 16-year-old girl with a genius-level intellect who has breezed through college and medical school and is now working as a doctor in Hawaii. The character's background reflects that of Kang. The story.

►Amazon acquires comedy My Spy from STX. The movie, which was set to hit theaters in U.S. on April 17, hails from STXfilms and MWM Studios and had already begun rolling out overseas, including in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to the global shuttering of cinemas due to the novel coronavirus, the movie earned over $4 million at the international box office. More.

►Brad Pitt's Plan B inks first-look deal with Warner Bros. Plan B was most recently with Annapurna, with whom it signed a deal in 2017 and for whom it made the Adam McKay-directed Dick Cheney biopic, Vice. The story.

In ratings news...

►Tiger King draws Stranger Things-like audience for Netflix, Nielsen says. The series averaged almost 19 million viewers in the United States over its first 10 days, according to Nielsen's SVOD Content Ratings, and more than 34 million people watched at least a few minutes of it. Those numbers rival one of Netflix's biggest shows, Stranger Things. The numbers.

+Tiger King, Love Is Blind signal reality is "next battleground" for streamers, report finds. Research published Wednesday by Ampere Analysis under the title "SVOD services wake up to Reality" shows that streaming platforms in the U.S. and U.K. last year commissioned 95 unscripted shows, making reality, by volume, the third-most popular genre among streaming services behind documentaries (152 commissions) and comedy specials (121 commissions). More.

+Fox to air Tiger King special produced by TMZ. The hourlong special, titled TMZ Investigates: Tiger King — What Really Went Down?, will feature TMZ head Harvey Levin, interviews with people connected to the case of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, and "never-before-seen footage." It is set to air Monday. More.

+TV ratings: The series finale of Schitt's Creek brought the biggest U.S. audience ever to the cult comedy. Tuesday's final episode delivered series-best numbers for Pop TV of 501,000 viewers, edging the 499,000 for the previous week's installment. Simulcasts on ViacomCBS siblings Comedy Central and Logo added about 300,000 more viewers. More.

+And: Fox's The Resident drew its biggest same-day audience of the season on Tuesday, and Empire had its best outing in some six months in total viewers. NBC's Ellen's Game of Games topped the night among adults 18-49, and CBS led primetime in viewers despite airing a full slate of repeats. More.

►How Alison Roman became the face of home cooking, apocalypse notwithstanding. From a kitchen in upstate New  York, the New York Times food columnist helps America adjust to constant home cooking amid the coronavirus pandemic, Michael O'Connell writes. The story.

 Viacom has reached a settlement with a former VH1 exec who alleged he was racially discriminated against and fired in retaliation for complaining about it, according to a Tuesday court filing. More.

►The perils of Hollywood’s reckless social media posts. In times of crises, fame can be a valuable platform for mobilization and inspiration, but COVID-19 has rewritten the rules, and too many famous faces need to stop and think before they post, writes THR columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The column.

►11 great TV ensembles that make for great company. Viewers struggling with prolonged solitude or craving escape from their quarantine-mates (sorry, spouses, kids and parents) should spend some time with these standout small-screen casts, write Inkoo Kang and Daniel Fienberg. The list.

In other news...

--Starz has promoted CMO Alison Hoffman to president of its domestic networks operation.

--Little Fires Everywhere boss on deviating from the book in flashback episode.

--ABC is commemorating the life of Garry Marshall. The Disney-owned broadcast network on Wednesday announced it would air The Happy Days of Garry Marshall, a two-hour special featuring interviews with a number of stars the producer worked with during his legendary career. 

--Netflix is finding creative ways to put out new content during the quarantine. The streaming service is launching a new Instagram Live series called Wanna Talk About It? featuring the stars of some of its most popular YA shows and films talking about how to take care during the pandemic.

--Alita: Battle Angel star Rosa Salazar has left Paradigm for UTA.

What else we're reading...

--"YouTube tested by flood of star doctors during 'infodemic'" [Bloomberg]

--"Welcome to the greater Phoebe Waller-Bridge universe" [The Ringer]

--"The humble phone call has made a comeback" [NY Times]

--The UFC plans to hold an event next week on tribal land to skirt social distancing orders [Axios]

Today's birthdays: Dennis Quaid, 66, Cynthia Nixon, 54, Keshia Knight Pulliam, 41, Kristen Stewart, 30, Jackie Evancho, 20.