Today In Entertainment

NOVEMBER 04, 2020

What's news: Without a winner in the presidential election, #CountEveryVote becomes a Hollywood rallying cry. TV news networks prepare for a drawn-out fight, NBC News interrupts Trump speech as network anchors and contributors fact check "extremely flammable" claims of "fraud," the view from late night TV, a Borat cameo on CNN, TV news anchors and executives on what's next. In other news: Hulu cancels Castle Rock, Christopher Nolan talks Tenet box office, Canada comes for U.S. streamers. --Alex Weprin

 What Now?

As Americans wake up on Wednesday, there is still no clear sense of whether President Donald Trump has won re-election, or whether former Vice President Joe Biden will be elected the 46h President of the United States. With millions of votes still to be counted in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and even Georgia, there is still time for anything to happen.

➤"#CountEveryVote" becomes a rallying call in Hollywood as Trump boasts and Biden urges caution. As the presidential election remained undecided into the early morning hours on the east coast with millions of votes still to be tallied, some in Hollywood were quick to fight the Democratic panic with the call to "Count Every Vote," as former Vice President Joe Biden urged supporters to remain confident and President Donald Trump threatened court action over what he called "fraud" in the tightly contested race. The story.

+Let's talk about Trump's "extremely flammable" overnight statement. Trump appeared at the White House and declared the election "a fraud on the American public," adding that "we were getting ready to win this election, frankly we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity, for the good of this nation."

--NBC News actually interrupted Trump's address to do a fact-check. “We're listening to the President speaking at the White House, but we've got to dip in here because there have been several statements that are just frankly not true," Savannah Guthrie said. "The fact of the matter is those states have not come close to counting all of their vote. There’s still outstanding vote.”

--Every other network expressed similar skepticism, even if they didn't break into the President's remarks. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said "This is an extremely flammable situation and the president just threw a match into it," CBS News anchor Norah O'Donnell said that Trump was "castrating the facts of the election results that have been reported tonight,"...

--CNN contributor and former Republican Senator Rick Santorum said "I was very distressed by what I just heard the president say," Former Republican governor of New Jersey and Trump campaign adviser Chris Christie told ABC News "there's just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn't," "This isn't law, this isn't politics, this is theater," added ABC's Terry Moran...

--Twitter added a "misleading" label to a Trump tweet in which he said "We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!" More.

+Fox News at the center of an extremely controversial call. At 11:20 PM ET, the Fox News decision desk called the state of Arizona for Biden, becoming the first to do so. As of this morning, the AP also called Arizona for Biden, though the other TV networks have thus far held back.

--According to Fox White House correspondent John Roberts, the Trump camp was "livid" about the call. "We're getting a lot of incoming here and we need you to answer some questions," Fox anchor Bret Baier said to Arnon Mishkin, the head of Fox's decision desk. Mishkin became a target for the Trump camp after the call, with former Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie mocking Mishkin as "your so-called expert" on Fox & Friends this morning.

+Let's talk TV ratings. The record-shattering number of voters, combined with an election that was drawn-out throughout the night (and beyond) means that there will most likely be record TV ratings reported today. An early call would have sent viewers to bed. Given the trendlines so far this election cycle, don't be surprised if the cable news channels top the broadcasters, with Fox News securing the biggest audience of any network...

+What comes next? I spoke to a number of network news anchors and executives ahead of the election to ask them how they were planning for what could be a drawn-out fight.

--Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum: "We are used to long election nights, I think we are all geared now to the idea that this could take days or even weeks... I think that everyone is prepared for a long haul, there is at least a hope that there is a faster resolution or understanding of what is going on on election night. It would be a relief for the country at this point, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen, we see both sides lawyering up, and this unique situation with more than 70 million people voting beforehand, and an enormous push for increased turnout..."

--CBS News president Susan Zirinsky: "I liken it to a baseball game. We are in the third inning, we know the score, they announced it, but there are multiple innings, and that score can totally turn around."

--ABC News president James Goldston: "There is a strong probability that in some states we wont see full results for likely several days after election day... We have put elaborate plans in place to essentially staff this and run with this for as long as is necessary, all of those shows can easily swap over to doing non-stop election coverage..."

--ABC News anchor Linsey Davis: "We have been billing this as potentially election week, or even beyond that, for a while with our viewers... This could be something that ends up being a throwback to like 2000..."

 The View From Late Night

+On Showtime, Stephen Colbert, who was dressed up for the occasion in a blue suit and silver tie and sitting on a set that looked like a replica of the Oval Office, said that while the 2016 show was "quite famously a painful experience, I wouldn't want to be with anyone but you right now." Beyond that, Colbert was glad to be on Showtime, where he could curse with abandon, saying "Holy sh*t, this is a weird f*cking election." More.

+On Comedy Central, Trevor Noah broadcasted from his "special election fallout shelter" stocked with items such as hand sanitizer, board games, toilet paper, a boombox and surrounded by boarded up windows. "I've already thrown up on myself and I've had time to clean it up," Noah quipped. He was later joined by Roy Wood Jr., who brought liquor and discussed the current race stats. More.

+Borat made a cameo. No, really. Amazon Prime's Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was a sponsor of CNN's election night coverage, including a shoutout from CNN's election commercial announcer, who announced to viewers "election night in America, brought to you by Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, an Amazon original movie..." If you're wondering, a 30 second election night ad on CNN ran for about $231,000, though a sponsorship like Borat's likely ran for more...

+Hollywood anxiety: Several politically active stars in Hollywood shared their anxieties over delayed results of the 2020 election and urged voters to remain in line and make sure their vote is counted. Elizabeth Banks, Billy Eichner, Sarah Cooper and Samantha Bee were among the top names who took to Twitter to share their feelings amid the election results. More.

+Prop 17 passes, Prop 20 fails on California ballot as most state races await results. As one of the biggest political battles in recent history played out on the national stage, Californians decided some key issues and seats on Tuesday, from a contentious Los Angeles City Council campaign that drew major Hollywood players on either side to a race for the 25th Congressional District, a seat once held by Katie Hill. Also on the ballot statewide, 12 propositions which stand, if passed, to affect everything from commercial property taxes and criminal justice policies to the use of affirmative action in universities. The results.

Some other notable storylines...

+A television news anchor won a house seat, as former Telemundo reporter and anchor Maria Elvira Salazar ousted Democrat Donna Shalala in Miami. She becomes the second Florida Republican member of Congress with a connection to Telemundo. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart is the brother of Telemundo's evening news anchor Jose Díaz-Balart.

+Sarah McBride made history Tuesday, becoming the first transgender state senator in the United States by besting a Republican opponent Steve Washington in Delaware. LGBTQ Hollywood also took to social media to offer their congrats for McBride, who just days ago shared that she received an endorsement heading into the election from former President Barack Obama. More.

+One more thing: Kanye has conceded. The hip-hop star's sputtering race for the presidency never truly got off the starting blocks, and he's finally admitted defeat. In a tweet posted late on Tuesday, Kanye West called time and turned his attention to the next election. More.

 The Rest Of The Day's News...

➤Castle Rock is closing up shop at Hulu. The Disney-owned streamer has canceled the scripted anthology based on stories created by horror master Stephen King. From Warner Bros. TV and exec producers J.J. Abrams and showrunners/creators Dustin Thomason and Sam Shaw, season two launched around Halloween last year and ended its 10-episode run in December. The story.

➤Just in: There is a major shake-up in the world of visual effects. In a deal that alters the global visual effects and postproduction landscape, London headquartered Framestore — the visual effects house whose work on Gravity and Blade Runner 2049 won VFX Oscars — in partnership with Aleph Capital and Crestview Partners, announced the acquisition of postproduction banner Company 3, VFX business Method and their sister companies.

--Combined they aim to form what the companies described as a "global creative services studio working across every part of the creative and production process." Terms of the deal and additional details were not immediately available. The story.

➤Christopher Nolan warns studios are drawing "wrong conclusions" from Tenet box office. "Warner Bros. released Tenet, and I’m thrilled that it has made almost $350 million. But I am worried that the studios are drawing the wrong conclusions from our release — that rather than looking at where the film has worked well and how that can provide them with much needed revenue, they’re looking at where it hasn’t lived up to pre-COVID expectations and will start using that as an excuse to make exhibition take all the losses from the pandemic instead of getting in the game and adapting — or rebuilding our business, in other words," Nolan told The Los Angeles Times. More.

➤Canada is coming for the streamers. Canada's federal government has unveiled long-awaited legislation to regulate U.S. streamers like Netflix and Disney+ and force them to pay for the production of Canadian film, TV and music product.

--The proposed amendments to the federal Broadcasting Act will create a new "online company" category and for the first time regulate global media players active in the Canadian market. The resulting obligations will include foreign players having to subsidize the development, production and distribution of local entertainment and cultural content. The details.

➤AT&T weighs selling a minority stake in DirecTV. The company is seeking to sell a "significant" minority stake in its DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse and AT&T Now businesses, which combine for about 17 million pay-TV subscribers. A number of private equity firms, including Apollo Management, are said to be submitting bids, which would be due next month. The story.

➤TV Ratings: Aided by a big NFL lead-in The Simpsons' annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode drew season-high ratings in Sunday's final Nielsen figures. The weekend brought more solid numbers for Saturday Night Live and the Hallmark Channel's holiday movies as well, and Fox News had a bigger than usual Sunday night with its weekday primetime hosts doing special editions of their shows. The numbers.

In other news...

--U.S. TV station giant Sinclair Broadcast Group reported "stronger-than-expected" political advertising revenue in its third quarter and recorded a $4.23 billion impairment charge related mostly to its regional sports networks business.

--The Walking Dead has found its Lucille — and no, we're not talking about the baseball bat. Instead, it's the original Lucille, the one who gave Negan's famed barbed-wired baseball bat its name: his wife, who died in tragic fashion before the events of the zombie drama. The character will appear in the upcoming batch of season 10 bonus episodes, with a familiar face occupying the role: One Tree Hill veteran Hilarie Burton Morgan, who happens to be Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan's real life wife.

--The European Film Academy will celebrate the nominees and winners of this year's European Film Awards (EFA) with a week of virtual events leading up to an online-only EFA ceremony on December 12.

--AT&T CEO John Stankey, who previously served as the CEO of WarnerMedia, will step down from the board of directors of shipping and logistics giant UPS. Stankey had been a UPS board member since 2014.

--His House director hopes it "creates a conversation."

What else we're reading...

--"Comcast, Walmart in talks to develop and distribute smart TVs" [WSJ]

--"How 2020 rocked the gentle world of children’s TV like never before" [LA Times]

--"Apple TV Plus one year later: still on trial" [The Verge]

Today's birthdays: Matthew McConaughey, 51, Sean Combs aka Diddy, 51, Kathy Griffin, 60, Ralph Macchio, 59, Laura Bush, 74.

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NOVEMBER 04, 2020

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