Today In Entertainment OCTOBER 28, 2020
What's news: How Quibi's failure shapes Jeffrey Katzenberg's legacy and future, Jon Stewart strikes a deal with Apple to return to TV, more corporate restructuring at Netflix and Sony, MGM pushes back Respect, Amazon's very nice Borat numbers, Sony film revenue falls amid pandemic. Plus: In Treatment revived and Narcos renewed, and studies examine the relationship between Fox News viewing and pandemic precautions. --Alex Weprin Quibi and Katzenberg's Legacy ➤"A bottomless need to win": How Quibi's implosion shapes Jeffrey Katzenberg's legacy and future. The mogul hoped his short form streaming service would finally make him a Hollywood titan. Instead, the tide rolled back and "left him naked on the beach," Kim Masters reports. --"According to a top industry executive, the original idea for Quibi was that it would be fully backed by the studios. Multiple sources say Katzenberg initially approached with a nine-figure ask from each, starting with Disney chairman Bob Iger because Disney was so dominant, and where it led others would follow. 'He relentlessly kept asking,' says the exec, adding that Katzenberg’s relentlessness is 'what makes him a genius in many ways.' But the answer was no, and the ask was lowered by degrees." --“'I don’t pretend to know what kids are going to like anymore,' says a high-level Quibi colleague who is actually several years younger than Katzenberg. 'But Jeffrey is, like many entrepreneurs, a true believer in [his] own underlying ideas.' By the end, says a source, Quibi had only 100,000 active users a day, and cancellations were coming in fast." The story. ➤Jon Stewart is returning to TV. As part of an expansive, multi-year deal with Apple, the Emmy-drenched former writer, producer and host of The Daily Show is set to front an all new current affairs series for the streaming service. The show, which will run for multiple seasons, puts Stewart back in the anchor’s chair as he explores a host of topics at the center of both the national conversation and his own advocacy work. --The still untitled show, which will feature hourlong, single-subject episodes, will be executive produced by Stewart, through his company Busboy Productions. In his role as EP, he’ll be joined by his longtime manager James Dixon and former HBO chief Richard Plepler, who via his EDEN Productions also has a rich deal at Apple. A showrunner for the forthcoming series, for which Apple is expected to offer a companion podcast, has yet to be named. The story. Restructuring Continues ➤Netflix restructures under Bela Bajaria. The newly installed vp global TV has promoted Brian Wright, Peter Friedlander, Jinny Howe and Renate Radford as a search is under way for an executive to head U.S. series and comedy. The details. +Sony is merging its film and TV marketing teams. As a result, Sony becomes the first major studio to consolidate the once disparate divisions, offering a testament to the blurring of the line between theatrical and streaming. A source says 35 staffers will receive pink slips due to the move, marking the studio's first significant round of layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic. The story. +Speaking of Sony: The tech giant reported Wednesday in Tokyo that Sony Pictures saw its fiscal second-quarter operating earnings fall to $299 million as the novel coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on the theatrical film business and hit advertising revenues. The results represent a slide of 18.3 percent from the studio's profit of $366 million in the same period of 2019. Revenue at Sony Pictures fell $615 million in the quarter, a 25 percent year-on-year decline. More. ➤MGM and Bron's Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, starring Jennifer Hudson as the iconic singer, is delaying its release yet again amid the ongoing pandemic. The film is being pushed from Jan. 15, 2021 to Aug. 13, 2021 in advance of awards season. Respect will be released domestically via United Artists and internationally via Universal. MGM also said it is is taking Tomb Raider 2 off the calendar for now. The sequel had been set to hit the big screen on March 19, 2021. More. ➤Borat's very nice debut for Amazon. Amazon Studios' Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — which marks the streamer's first original global tentpole — said Tuesday the Sacha Baron Cohen sequel was streamed by "tens of million of customers" during its debut over the weekend, resulting in huge engagement across its Prime platform. The company wouldn't elaborate further regarding numbers. There are some 150 million Prime members around the world. The story. --There's an asterisk: As with most streaming numbers, Amazon's figure comes wthout context, making it hard to gauge just how popular the film was. Did tens of millions start it but leave after a couple of minutes? Did they watch all the way through? Netflix defines a view as someone watching for two minutes, is Amazon taking a similar approach? In either case it is a stark departure from the (slightly) more transparent world of box office measurement, or Nielsen TV ratings. Pandemic-Shortened Seasons ➤CBS shortens episode counts for most of its scripted originals. Most of CBS' original scripted series will run between 16 and 18 episodes as the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on network schedules. Dramas Blue Bloods, Bull, Magnum P.I., NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans and SEAL Team will each run for 16 episodes. NCIS: Los Angeles and comedy The Neighborhood will both stretch 18 installments. Sophomore comedy The Unicorn will stick with its planned 13-episode order. The orders are down from the traditional 24-episode runs for most of the originals. More. In other TV news... +Netflix is continuing the saga of Narcos: Mexico, but with one major change at the top. Narcos: Mexico has been renewed for a third season at the streaming giant, with showrunner Eric Newman stepping aside in its return. Co-creator Carlo Bernard, who has been an executive producer since the drug cartel franchise launched in 2015, will step into the showrunner role as Newman focuses on his other upcoming projects at Netflix via his overall deal with the streamer. The story. +HBO's Emmy-winning drama In Treatment is officially returning for a fourth season. The premium cable network on Tuesday announced that Orange Is the New Black alum Uzo Aduba will star in the revived fourth season of the series, which will begin production in the fall for a 2021 debut. More. +Ice-T is headed to daytime TV. The Law & Order: SVU star and rapper will host a syndicated legal show called The Mediator. The half-hour series will get a four-week tryout on some Fox-owned stations, including those in New York and Los Angeles, in March 2021. More. +The Ellen DeGeneres Show is bringing back its live studio audience for the first time since the pandemic began. The daytime host is welcoming a limited amount of people for her tapings, starting with her Wednesday, October 28 episode of the show. More. +The CW is keeping its Canadian drama pipeline open. The broadcast network has picked up additional seasons of Burden of Truth and Coroner to air sometime in 2021. The pickups follow their renewals by Canada's CBC; both are in production on their next seasons. Additionally, The CW will air a three-episode "special event" of its British import Bulletproof sometime next year. More. +TruTV is getting into the cooking-show game. The WarnerMedia cable network has greenlit a show called Fast Foodies, starring Top Chef winners Kristen Kish and Jeremy Ford and Iron Chef champion Justin Sutherland. In each episode, a celebrity guest will bring their favorite fast food item — from burgers to Hawaiian pizza to sausage muffins — and the three chefs will compete to re-create and then reimagine the dish. More. ➤Studies link viewership of Fox News to reduced pandemic precaution. Four academic papers show a correspondence between watching the network and employing less stringent COVID-19 safety measures, a claim Fox calls "cherry-picking." The story. ➤Catherine Oxenberg reacts to Keith Raniere sentencing: "It's over for him." Hours after that resounding judgment, Oxenberg, 59, spoke to THR's Seth Abramovitch about the message the punishment sends to would-be sex traffickers and master manipulators, the fragility of the human mind and the delicate process of rebuilding her relationship with her daughter. The interview. ➤A group of YouTubers whose channels were deleted earlier this month amid a purge of conspiracy theory content from the site are suing the tech giant for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights to broadcast political speech on matters of public interest — and they're seeking an emergency injunction to regain access to the platform. More. ➤Francesco director on headline-making new Pope doc. Evgeny Afineevsky, an Oscar and Emmy nominee for 2015's Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, spoke with THR's Scott Feinberg at the Vatican. The interview. Revolving door: JoAnn Alfano is expanding her purview at NBCUniversal. The executive, with the company since 2013, is adding oversight of current programming at Universal Content Studios as well as the International Formats Group to her duties... CBS has hired Will Packer Media executive Sheila Ducksworth to head up its development efforts under a deal with the NAACP... Sesame Workshop says that Steve Youngwood will be its next CEO, with Sherrie Westin to become its president... Casting roundup: Jennifer Lopez and Armie Hammer are set to star in Lionsgate’s action-comedy Shotgun Wedding from Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore...Newcomer Jaden Michael will star as a high school Colin Kaepernick in Netflix limited series Colin in Black & White... Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen are reuniting on screen for an Apple TV+ series called Platonic... Emma Thompson is set to star in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, a comedy about sex, desire and fulfillment from Sophie Hyde, director of 2019 Sundance hit drama Animals... ➤Film reviews: David Rooney reviews The Craft: Legacy, writing that "Zoe Lister-Jones, the writer-director of this sequel, clearly loves The Craft. But whether her affection extends to horror movies as a genre remains unclear." The review. +Rooney also reviews Come Play, writing that the Focus Features Halloween release doesn't exactly break new ground but it does put an intriguing spin on familiar elements by giving the techno presence a semblance of sentient conscience driven by loneliness." The review. In other news... --The Cannes Film Festival, a version of it anyway, kicked off Tuesday night, with a mini-event, called Special Cannes 2020, that will screen four films across three evenings, alongside a competition selection of shorts and film school features. --In its latest survey, the Hollywood Commission, an organization chaired by Anita Hill, found that gender harassment, or offensive workplace talk, is the most common type of harassment in the entertainment industry. --The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first World Series since 1988. --The ugliness of real world politics has trickled down to an informal presidential poll of kids sponsored by Nickelodeon. The ViacomCBS cable network said the online poll, part of its Kids Pick the President special that aired Tuesday night, was targeted by bots. --Culver City-based mobile games company Scopely revealed on Wednesday that it has raised $340 million in Series E funding from a group of investors with experience in interactive entertainment. --T-Mobile is launching a new suite of skinny TV bundles aimed at cord cutters. --Moon Knight has found its director. The Disney+ series from Marvel Studios has tapped filmmaker Mohamed Diab to step behind the camera. --Jamie Lee Curtis, Russell Brand, Josh Brolin, Joe Manganiello and Craig T. Nelson are among those slated to appear during a virtual 50th anniversary celebration for Clare|Matrix. What else we're reading... --"Is Jeff Bezos interested in buying CNN?" [Fox Business] --"Demi Lovato, The Lincoln Project partner for election ad campaign" [Rolling Stone] --"CBS gave Latinos an hour of primetime TV to honor essential workers. Did it land?" [LA Times] --"Kim Kardashian West could always have fun and not post about it" [Vanity Fair] Today's birthdays: Bill Gates, 65, Julia Roberts, 53, Joaquin Phoenix, 46, Caitlyn Jenner, 71, Nolan Gould, 22.
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