What's news: A shakeup at The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Cinemark adds to its debt load, the video game-to-movie pipeline stays hot, Will Smith and Kevin Hart rebooting Planes, Trains and Automobiles, day one from the virtual DNC, Lily Singh gets an NBC sketch show, Reese Witherspoon snags an Apple music competition show. Plus: A new bidder for TikTok, a solid debut for Lovecraft Country. --Alex Weprin

 Ron Meyer Out At NBCUniversal; Shake-Up At 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'

➤Ron Meyer out as NBCUniversal vice chairman. "I am writing to share some unfortunate news. Late last week Ron Meyer informed NBCUniversal that he had acted in a manner which we believe is not consistent with our company policies or values," NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said in a statement Tuesday. "Based on Ron’s disclosure of these actions, we have mutually concluded that Ron should leave the company, effective immediately. We thank Ron for his 25 years of service, and for his significant contributions to NBCUniversal."

--It's unclear if Meyer will be replaced at the company, which is in the midst of a massive reorganization that saw NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy pushed out and Frances Berwick promoted to an expanded role at the company overseeing business strategy for all of the entertainment side. The story.

➤Ellen DeGeneres Show producers out amid WarnerMedia investigation. Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and Jonathan Norman have parted ways with The Ellen DeGeneres Show as WarnerMedia continues to investigate the daytime show following reports of a toxic workplace, Katie Kilkenny reports. Top executive producers Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner will remain at the talk show despite claims leveled in BuzzFeed News stories of "day-to-day toxicity" fostered by supervisors. 

--DeGeneres announced the staffing changes in an all-staff video Zoom call, where she also apologized again to staff for press reports about the show's toxic workplace. In the call, DeGeneres discussed being an introverted personality that likes to have her own space, which may have led to staffers believing she wasn't nice. "I’m a multi-layered person, and I try to be the best person I can be and try to learn from my mistakes," she said. The story.

➤The video game to movie pipeline is still hot: Snoot Entertainment— the indie production banner behind features like Blindspotting and Little Monsters— is partnering with indie video game developer Campo Santo for a feature film adaptation of Firewatch. The critically acclaimed game was released in February 2016, and since has sold over 2.5 million copies. Firewatch was previously being developed by Good Universe, but when the company sold to Lionsgate rights reverted back to Campo Santo. The story.

In other film news…

+Will Smith, Kevin Hart to star in Planes, Trains and Automobiles remake. The duo is developing a new version of the 1987 feature via their respective Hartbeat Productions and Westbrook Studios banners with Paramount and are attached to star in the new movie. More.

+Amandla Stenberg joins Universal musical adaptation Dear Evan Hansen. The Hate U Give star will play Alana, a high school senior whose cheery facade and social-media savvy mask a deeper loneliness and isolation, and whose response to the death of a classmate ignites a movement. More. 

➤Cinemark to raise $400 million via private offering. Cinemark is raising new debt as it completes a phased reopening of its movie theater circuit after the delay in the releases of Hollywood tentpole releases.The third-largest domestic cinema chain on March 16 first announced temporary theater closures at all of its 345 sites amid the COVID-19 crisis. That was followed by rival cinemas across the U.S. also going dark as a health safety precaution. More.

 DNC DAY ONE

➤Day one of the virtual Democratic National Convention saw plenty of speeches, but few were memorable, save for a pair of fiery primetime speeches from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Michelle Obama. Sanders unleashed a scathing attack on President Donald Trump, suggesting that under him “authoritarianism has taken root in our country,” while Obama urged viewers to “vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.” 

+In a critic’s notebook, THR TV critic Daniel Fienberg writes that Obama “struck a tone that pundits on the right may characterize as negative — ‘If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me they can and they will’ — but the speech was fueled by a belief that empathy is still the thing that can save us. That feels very hopeful to me.” The notebook.

In TV news…

➤Lilly Singh to star in primetime sketch show at NBC. NBC has ordered two episodes of Sketchy Times With Lilly Singh, which will feature Singh playing every character — a familiar format to viewers of her popular YouTube videos — in a series of sketches satirizing how we're all adjusting to the new normal. The two episodes will be shot at Singh's home, using minimal crew and in observation of all safety protocols. Each episode will feature a specific theme and include Singh's signature musical parodies. The story.

+Reese Witherspoon to produce country music competition for Apple. My Kind of Country is the first competition series to land at the nine-month-old streamer. Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and Done + Dusted will produce the series. The show, described as a "hybrid series," will bring a documentary sensibility to the music competition genre. The story.

+Solid numbers for Lovecraft Country. The new show averaged 760,000 viewers for its on-air premiere, which grew to 1.4 million with replays and streaming. The additional plays and streaming made up about 46 percent of the total first-night audience. All of those numbers are extremely similar to those of Watchmen's premiere on Oct. 20. More.

+Dancing with the Stars sets Sept. 14 return. The rebooted show, to be hosted by Tyra Banks will be “a fresh take on the competition, and exciting new and returning pros, all while maintaining the heart and soul of the beloved series,” per ABC.

+Supernatural final episodes set for October CW bow. The network's longest-running series will begin its final run on Oct. 8, leading to a series finale on Nov. 19. A retrospective special will precede the final episode. The 15th and final season of Supernatural was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, with three episodes left to film and postproduction work still to do on four others. More.

➤There’s a new bidder for TikTok: Tech giant Oracle is partnering with other firms to try and mount a bid for the mobile video app. Currently Microsoft is in talks with the app’s parent company ByteDance about an acquisition, but the addition of Oracle adds a new wrinkle, and could lead to a bidding war.

➤Better Call Saul showrunner talks connecting prequel’s final season to Breaking Bad. 'Better Call Saul' co-creator Peter Gould shares his excitement about Vince Gilligan returning to the writers room and disappointment at Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn missing out on noms in an interview with Daniel Fienberg. The interview.

➤Broadcast TV ratings: CBS topped Sunday's primetime ratings thanks to 60 Minutes and Big Brother — which were, respectively, the most watched show of the night and the No. 1 program among adults 18-49 on the broadcast networks. The numbers.

Editor’s note: Links to some of our stories were not functioning in yesterday’s newsletter. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions or concerns (or tips!), let me know at Alex.Weprin@THR.com.

In other news…

--The virtual live table read of Fast Times at Ridgemont High just got a boost of star power with the addition of Brad Pitt and Jimmy Kimmel.

--Two men have been indicted in the 2002 slaying of hip hop artist Jam Master Jay, which until now had been one of New York City's most notorious unsolved killings.

--Jensen Ackles has found his Supernatural follow-up. The star of the long-running CW series will join the cast of Amazon's The Boys for its third season. 

--Quinn Coleman, a major label executive, DJ and son of former BET chief Debra Lee, died on Sunday at the age of 31.

--French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis will head up the jury of this year's socially-distanced Deauville American Film Festival.

--WME Partner Richard Weitz’s ‘Quarantunes’ passed the $8 million mark as his daughter (and co-host) was feted by Tina Fey, John Mayer and Shawn Mendes.

--Creative Artists Agency is strengthening its diversity and inclusion efforts by launching CAA Scholars to support a diverse group of worthy students eyeing college, university or trade educations.

--Black Bear Pictures has tapped Leigh Kittay as its new head of film, charged with growing the feature slate at Teddy Schwarzman's production outfit.

What else we're reading…

--”Who is Keanu Reeves, really?” [Vulture]

--”Snapchat experiments with letting users share more content off app” [Axios]

--”Fortnite creator says Apple is threatening to curb access to software tools” [WSJ]

--”TikTok launches a new information hub and Twitter account to ‘correct the record,’ it says” [TechCrunch]

Today's birthdays: Edward Norton, 51, Christian Slater, 51, Robert Redford, 84, Madeleine Stowe, 62, Andy Samberg, 42.