What's news: It's Disney earnings day, AMC Networks predicts a 30 percent advertising decline next quarter, Andy Lack out amid NBCUniversal restructuring, TV writers grapple with whether to incorporate the pandemic into storylines, Taika Waititi to helm a Star Wars feature, 3,000 people go to the movies in San Antonio. Plus: Jerry Seinfeld on what may be his last stand-up special, and Daniel Radcliffe will read Harry Potter for Spotify. --Alex Weprin

 TV Writers Weigh In on COVID Storylines

►TV writers wrestle with how (and when) to work COVID-19 into series. "It’s really hard to write about the fight in the fifth round,” says prolific producer Kenya Barris, one of many who's discussing potential plot lines about the novel coronavirus, Lacey Rose and Lesley Goldberg report.

Quote: "Some figure setting a show with the pandemic in the rearview mirror will make it easier, creatively, particularly given the lag time that naturally exists between production and air; while others see the potential for fresh material in setting a series mid-pandemic. Of course, if you do bring your show into a COVID-19 world, there’s the added question of when do you stop doing virus stories? It’s something [Single Parents creator] J.J. Philbin say she’s already stressing about: 'Do you say, ‘I’m going to guess that things are going to get back to normal by, like, November, so around episode 5 we’re going to do away with the face marks?''” The story.

►Disney earnings day: The entertainment giant reports earnings after the market close, and is expected to give at least some guidance on the novel coronavirus pandemic's unprecedented impact on film and TV production, theme park closures, the disruption to sports, and more. Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield on Tuesday downgraded Disney's stock as he argued there's too little future earnings visibility to measure the COVID-19 impact on the studio's theme parks, theatrical releases and other out-of-home businesses. The downgrade follows similar moves from other analysts.

+Meanwhile this morning: AMC Networks posts a 10.8 percent U.S. ad revenue drop. The company, led by CEO Josh Sapan and the home of The Walking Dead, posted its virus-impacted results, but raised its streaming subscriber forecast. Here's a critical part: the company is now forecasting a 30 percent advertising decline in Q2. The story.

►NBCUniversal executive shakeup: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is reorganizing his senior leadership team at the company, marking the first major executive restructuring since succeeding Steve Burke at the beginning of the year.

--For starters, NBC News chairman Andy Lack will step down at the end of the month. Telemundo chief Cesar Conde will oversee NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC as chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, with NBC News president Noah Oppenheim, MSNBC president Phil Griffin and CNBC chairman Mark Hoffman now reporting to him. Lack departs after a controversial second tenure atop the news division. Last year Ronan Farrow accused Lack and other NBC News executives of killing an investigation into Harvey Weinstein.

--On the entertainment side of the business, Mark Lazarus, will oversee the company's entertainment businesses, the streaming service Peacock as well as sports and local stations. The new streaming service, which soft-launched for Comcast subscribers last month is the company's biggest priority for 2020.

--It's about consolidation: NBCUniversal is merging its TV and streaming businesses, as Lazarus will become chairman of NBCUniversal television and streaming, a new unit that combines NBC Entertainment the entertainment cable TV channels, the sports group, local stations and Peacock. Likewise, it is also merging its news businesses, by folding CNBC into the larger NBC News umbrella. The business news channel had been run independently. The story.

►UTA to furlough staffers due to coronavirus shutdown. While the extent of the furloughs is unknown, a source notes that the agency's assistants will be the most heavily affected. UTA will continue to pay staffers' health insurance throughout the furlough period. In a memo Monday to staff, CEO Jeremy Zimmer wrote, "We had hoped the salary reductions we all took would be sufficient, but at this point we must take this additional step to ensure the ongoing financial stability of UTA." The story.

+CAA gets downgraded by Moodys, S&P. The agency is bolstering its liquidity with a new $75 million bond, but the credit agencies are taking a dim view of the current marketplace. The story.

 New 'Star Wars' Projects

►Taika Waititi to direct new Star Wars film. Disney usually saves a couple of announcements for Star Wars Day (May the 4th...) and this year was no exception, despite the global health crisis. Waititi, the filmmaker behind Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit will direct and co-write a new Star Wars movie for theatrical release. Oscar nominated 1917 writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns will pen the script with Waititi. In January, THR broke the news that Lucasfilm was courting Waititi for a Star Wars film.

--In addition to the Waititi news, Disney and Lucasfilm also confirmed Monday that Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland will serve as showrunner for a Disney+ streaming series set in the Star Wars galaxy. The story.

+MGM lands Ron Howard's Thai cave rescue movie Thirteen Lives. The film tells the true story of the 2018 rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded, impenetrable cave system in Thailand, which gained international attention. William Nicholson, the Oscar-nominated writer of Gladiator, penned the feature, which will be produced by P.J. van Sandwijk of Storyteller Productions, Gabrielle Tana of Magnolia Mae, and Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Karen Lunder of Imagine Entertainment. More.

►San Antonio movie chain reopens early, attracts 3,000 customers on first weekend. Tickets were discounted and social distancing measures were put in place, but the locations brought in between $3,300 and $7,000 over the weekend. While those numbers wouldn't normally impress, studio executives were heartened, particularly since there are no new releases. The Santikos marquee instead boasts such titles as Trolls World Tour, Bloodshot, I Still Believe, The Hunt and Bad Boys for Life. "It shows me there is a pent-up demand," says one Hollywood distribution chief. The story.

+Hong Kong to reopen cinemas as virus restrictions are eased. Universal's Trolls World Tour will be among the films hitting Hong Kong movie theaters on Friday as the local government begins easing social distancing restrictions. More.

►Job platform for creatives backed by Shari Redstone and Michael Eisner launches in beta. As many in the entertainment industry are facing layoffs and reduced work hours amid the coronavirus pandemic, a free job platform called Creatively, aimed at creative professionals, is launching to offer information on job opportunities, networking and digital portfolios. The story.

+Hollywood Professional Association launches industry recovery task force. Details on specific initiatives and the industry organizations and individuals involved in the task force will follow in the next few weeks. More.

►How I'm Living Now: Jill Kargman, writer and self-proclaimed "Cuomosexual." The Odd Mom Out writer and star talks about the empty Upper East Side, her son's class getting "porn bombed" and her newfound love of Governor Andrew Cuomo. The interview.

Obituaries: John Ericson, who starred alongside Anne Francis on TV's Honey West and with Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock and with Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, has died. He was 93... Michael Keenan, who portrayed Mayor Bill Pugen on the 1990s CBS series Picket Fences and taught acting and directing at USC for more than 25 years, has died. He was 80... Roger Horchow, the former mail-order magnate who received Tony Awards for producing the 1992 Gershwin musical Crazy for You and a 2000 revival of Kiss Me, Kate, has died. He was 91...

 Seinfeld's Last Special?

►Jerry Seinfeld jumped out of a helicopter (really!) in what may be his last comedy special. In a press conference held over Zoom, the comedian also revealed that Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee has likely come to an end, and he will wait to return to stand-up shows until audiences can be full: "I don't want to compromise the experience." The story.

►Just in: Daniel Radcliffe, David Beckham to lead audio reading of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone for Spotify. J.K. Rowling and her Wizarding World media company are teaming up with the music streamer to launch an audio recording of the series' first book. Each week, a different person will read a chapter in the book, starting with Radcliffe. More.

 MGM is being sued for allegedly infringing the copyrights on its own movies. How? According to a complaint filed Monday in California federal court, Starz Entertainment says it had a deal for MGM's library, including recent James Bond movies as well as Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bull Durham, Rain Man, Thelma & Louise, Mad Max, The Terminator and many others. Starz alleges the deal gave it the exclusive right to exhibit those movies and that MGM represented it would not take any action to materially impair bargained-for rights. Here's the story.

►Nicolas Cage to play Tiger King's Joe Exotic in scripted series. In the first TV role of his career, Cage will play Joe in an eight-episode scripted series from CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television. It's based on a Texas Monthly story published in 2019. American Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana, who has an overall deal at CBS TV Studios, and Paul Young optioned the article in June 2019, well before Tiger King became a word-of-mouth phenomenon. Cage had been in talks to play the lead role since April. CBS TV Studios and Imagine are taking the show out to potential buyers soon. The story.

 Kerry Ehrin is staying put at Apple. The Morning Show showrunner has renewed her overall deal with the streamer. As part of the multiple-year renewal, Ehrin will continue to lead the Reese Witherspoon-Jennifer Aniston drama while also developing new projects for the platform. The story.

+Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg has signed an exclusive live streaming deal with YouTube, the platform on which the Swedish content creator has amassed a following of over 104 million subscribers. The story.

+Nick Santora is putting down roots at Skydance TV. The veteran showrunner has signed a multiple-year overall deal with the indie studio. Under the pact Santora will create and develop new projects for Skydance as well as continue serving as showrunner on Amazon's upcoming Jack Reacher TV series. More.

Revolving door: Condé Nast has named Dannielle Carrig its first-ever global chief communications officer...  Food and lifestyle content creator Eitan Bernath, known for his viral cooking videos on shortform video platform TikTok, has found representation with WME... Starz has named Christina Davis to lead its original programming team... Skydance TV's Carol Turner is taking over the role as exec vp production and postproduction at ABC Studios, as Gary French is retiring... Kira Snyder, Rand Ravich and Far Shariat will be showrunners forJ.J. Abrams' HBO sci-fi series Demimonde...

►FuboTV says COVID-19 impact will be "significant." "Although we continue to offer our services, without live sports, there is no assurance we will continue to maintain our subscriber base or continue to receive advertising dollars," the streamer said in a shareholders letter from CEO David Gandler that unveiled preliminary financial results for fiscal 2019, its first since merging with FaceBank Group. More.

►TV ratings: American Idol led Sunday's primetime ratings among adults 18-49, although it was down slightly week to week. It did tick up in total viewers, rebounding some from last week's season low. CBS' airing of Raiders of the Lost Ark — the first in a series of theatrical films on Sunday nights at the network — posted decent numbers, in line with recent averages. The numbers.

►12 swoon-worthy small-screen couples for the romance-starved viewer. Spies navigating an arranged marriage, one of English lit’s most-beloved unions, a reality-TV match made in heaven and more — these indelible pairings may provide just the sweetness and/or heat confined viewers are craving these days. Here's the list from THR's TV critics Daniel Fienberg and Inkoo Kang.

+Critic's notebook: All Rise quarantine episode raises the bar by being average. CBS' character-driven legal drama achieved something unlikely by doing a Stay-at-Home episode that felt like a normal episode and not a stunt, Daniel Fienberg writes. The notebook.

In other news...

--Filmmaker Joe Russo has closed a deal to pen a sequel to the Netflix Chris Hemsworth action film Extraction.

--Nisha Ganatra's feel-good comedy The High Note is largely bypassing a theatrical run and will premiere May 29 on premium VOD amid ongoing cinema closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

--All performances at London's West End venues are canceled until at least June 28, due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.

--Imax and Sony Pictures Entertainment on Monday expanded their movie distribution deal to include hundreds of new and library movie titles to be released on the giant screen exhibitor's at-home platform, Imax Enhanced.

--How CBS' All Rise pulled off its timely virtual episode.

--Amazon Games Studio has set a release date for its upcoming free-to-play, team-based shooter Crucible: May 20.

--Netflix on Monday announced that the stars of the streamer's dating reality series Too Hot to Handle will gather virtually for a reunion special that will be available to stream on Friday.

--Jane Fonda will release a book about her journey as an activist.

What else we're reading...

--"'Trump is really aiming to take down Fox': A group associated with Donald Trump Jr. is buying a major stake in OANN" [Vanity Fair]

--Ted Sarandos: "How film and television production can safely resume in a COVID-19 world" [LA Times]

--"ESPN not close to breaching affiliate deals" [Sports Business Daily]

--"Masterclass seeks funding at about $800 million value" [Bloomberg]

--"CNN sends Trump campaign cease-and-desist letter for misleading ad" [CNN Business]

Today's birthdays: Adele, 32, Henry Cavill, 37, Lance Henriksen, 80, Richard E. Grant, 63, Michael Palin, 77.