Today In Entertainment

DECEMBER 29, 2020

What's news: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle turn to celebrity friends for Spotify podcast debut, Boss Baby sequel gets pushed, Hollywood assistants of color talk 2020, Channing Tatum joining Sandra Bullock in Paramount comedy, surprising Amazon-NFL streaming numbers. Plus: A review of Cobra Kai season 3, and the broadcast TV unscripted scorecard. --Alex Weprin

 Sussexes Lean On Star Power In Podcast Debut

►The Sussexes make their podcasting debut, with a bevy of guest stars. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have released the first podcast through their multi-year deal with the audio streaming giant. The holiday special reflects on 2020 and offers hopes for the new year.

--A number of guests are joining the couple on the podcast, which they are producing via their Archewell Audio production company alongside Spotify-owned Gimlet. They include Stacey Abrams, José Andrés, Brené Brown, Deepak Chopra, James Corden, Elton John, Naomi Osaka and Tyler Perry. The story.

►The boss needs a bit more time off. Universal announced Monday that DreamWorks Animation's sequel The Boss Baby: Family Business is pushing back its release date in theaters from March 26, 2021 to Sept. 17, 2021. In a twinned move, DWA's Bad Guys, which had been set to open on Sept. 17, is unset for now. A new 2022 release date will be announced in the coming weeks. The story.

In other film news...

►Channing Tatum is in final talks to star opposite Sandra Bullock in Paramount comedy The Lost City of D. Akin to Romancing the Stone, the movie is described as an old-fashioned star vehicle as well as a screwball adventure featuring mismatched leads, witty repartee and of course, romance. The story follows a romance author, who learns that a supposedly fictional city she had written about is real. She and the actor who portrays the lead character in her book take a life-threatening journey to find this lost city. The story.

 Hollywood Assistants Talk 2020

►A "humbling," "inspiring" "rollercoaster": Hollywood's assistants of color reflect on 2020. Assistants speak with THR's Emily Hilton and share their thoughts on a tumultuous 2020 and their hopes for the industry and their peers in the new year.

--"We live in a society where people find their value by their job title," says a showrunner's assistant who lost her job earlier this year. “That's how we define how worthy we are, by who we work for, how much money we're making and our job titles, and when I got rid of all that, I was having my own personal reckoning." The story.

►Some surprising NFL streaming numbers: The NFL's first game to air exclusively on a streaming outlet drew a decent-sized audience on Saturday — one in line with games aired on the league's NFL Network. The matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals drew an average audience of 4.8 million viewers on Amazon's Prime Video and Twitch platforms and mobile properties run by the NFL, the two teams and Verizon. Local over-the-air stations in San Francisco and Phoenix also carried the game, bringing the total audience to 5.9 million, per the NFL. The numbers.

+Broadcast TV ratings: The premiere of The Masked Dancer on Fox Sunday put up the best 18-49 rating for a series debut so far this season. NBC's Sunday Night Football also looks to be headed for its biggest audience in more than a month. The numbers.

►Broadcast TV unscripted scorecard 2021: What's new, renewed and canceled. THR tracks the comings and goings of broadcast's reality landscape, from The Masked Singer to World's Funniest Animals. The list.

►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews season 3 of Cobra Kai, which is now on Netflix after being canceled by YouTube. "If I were to criticize the third season of Cobra Kai for frequently aspiring to things the foundation of the show isn't steady enough to support, the complaint is tempered by the understanding that Cobra Kai remains likable and often rousingly entertaining." The review.

In other news...

--Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings will each earn more than $34.6 million in 2021, with CFO Spencer Neumann in line for a payday of more than $11.5 million, the company disclosed Monday.

--Nadine Labaki, the Lebanese actress and filmmaker who landed an Oscar nomination as director of 2018's record-smashing feature Capernaum, has been cast in the upcoming Arabic language remake of hit Italian drama Perfect Strangers.

--Where Wonder Woman 3 could go.

►Obituaries: Nick McGlashan, one of the stars of the Discovery series Deadliest Catch, has died, the Davidson County Medical Examiner confirmed to THR. He was 33... Alice Spivak, a veteran acting teacher and dialogue coach who appeared in such films as The Muppets Take Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Please Give and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, died Nov. 9, her family announced. She was 85... Artie Siccardi, a backstage legend of Broadway who worked on dozens of shows, from Annie, Ain't Misbehavin' and Sweeney Todd to Children of a Lesser God, Cats, Brighton Beach Memoirs and The Color Purple, has died. He was 89...

What else we're reading...

--"Ava DuVernay and Peter Roth have a plan to diversify crews. And Hollywood is on board" [LA Times]

--"Surprise ending for publishers: In 2020, business was good" [NY Times]

--"Anya Taylor-Joy on The Queen’s Gambit and dancing at the end of the pandemic" [WSJ]

--"NFL retains its ratings crown as sports prevail over politics, entertainment" [Sportico]

Today's birthdays: Jon Voight, 82, Ted Danson, 73, Patricia Clarkson, 61, Jude Law, 48, Alison Brie, 38, Diego Luna, 41.

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DECEMBER 29, 2020

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