Today In Entertainment MARCH 09, 2021
What's news: The royal interview scored NFL-like ratings in the U.S. and dominated in the U.K., BAFTA nominations, the Justice League Snyder Cut made a surprise (and short-lived) debut on HBO Max Monday, Avatar tries to overtake Avengers: Endgame with China revival, FX eyes Kindred. Plus: ViacomCBS' streaming chief on Paramount+ plans, Brandy heads to ABC. --Alex Weprin Royal Ratings You know your TV special is a big deal when the CEO of the network sends an all-staff email about it. So it was with CBS and Oprah's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry."The special is another recent example of major broadcast events on CBS creating a shared cultural moment that ignites social media and sets the agenda for coverage and conversation everywhere," wrote CBS CEO George Cheeks in a memo to staff Monday. ►CBS' interview special Oprah With Meghan and Harry delivered an NFL-like audience Sunday night. The two-hour special, produced by Winfrey's Harpo Productions, averaged better than 17 million viewers — 17.14 million, according to Nielsen's fast national numbers. Aside from the post-Super Bowl premiere of The Equalizer on Feb. 7, that's the biggest audience for any non-sports program on the broadcast networks this season. The numbers. +In the U.K., the interview on ITV was by far the most-watched program of the year. According to BARB figures reported by overnights.tv, the show attracted a "total audience" of 11.4 million, capturing 54.4 percent of viewers, adding that it was a "much younger profile than normal and a 72 percent share for adults 25-34." "Advertising demand was strong for the program," ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said during an earnings conference call with reporters on Tuesday before overnight ratings were available. The story. +Why isn't it available on the newly-launched Paramount+? The Los Angeles Times' Stephen Battaglio writes that Harry and Meghan's deal with Netflix stood in the way of securing streaming rights for the ViacomCBS service. It is, however, available to stream on CBS.com for a short period of time. --Meanwhile: ViacomCBS stock rose by nearly 13 percent on Monday, with the share price surging right after the ratings were released. The stock closed at $83.66, an all-time record... Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan stormed off the set of his own morning show in the U.K. after a colleague called him out for his rants against Meghan Markle and Prince Harry following their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey... 'Snyder Cut' Surprise ►Justice League surprises some HBO Max subscribers with accidental debut. Fans have been waiting years for its arrival, and on Monday, Zack Snyder's Justice League came 10 days early for some HBO Max subscribers. For reasons unknown, when some users attempted to play Tom & Jerry, the new CGI/live-action hybrid film from director Tim Story, the upcoming Justice League cut played instead. The anticipated four-hour film from Zack Snyder is not due out until March 18. The story. ►Avatar is trying to overtake Avengers: Endgame once more. China's Film Bureau has approved a surprise plan for the director's 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar to get a wide re-release in the country on Friday, Patrick Brzeski reports. The technologically trailblazing blockbuster will be made available to exhibitors for a nationwide release in both Imax 3D and ordinary 3D. --The unexpected rollout of the movie could have the effect of restoring James Cameron and Avatar's crown as the highest-grossing movie in global box-office history (not adjusted for inflation), pushing Marvel's Avengers: Endgame back into second place. Endgame currently tops the record books with $2.797 billion and change, with Avatar trailing at $2.790 billion — meaning the Pandora-set, blue-peopled sci-fi spectacular will need to earn just under $7.4 million to reclaim the crown. The story. ►Just in: BAFTA nominations. Nomadland and Rocks lead the pack of nominees for the BAFTA 2021 awards in the most diverse nominations list ever seen in the British Academy’s history, and coming just a year after it was embroiled in the #BaftaSoWhite controversy, sparking a 7-month review and overhaul of the voting rules and regulations. The nominees. +Also: The 2021 shortlist for the BAFTA best director award features the highest number of female filmmakers — by some margin — in the British Academy's 74-year history. More. Awards roundup... +The Producers Guild of America on Monday unveiled its movie and TV nominations. Among the nominees for the PGA's top prize, the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, are a number of films hoping to land best picture nominations at the Oscars, including Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Mank, Minari, Nomadland, One Night In Miami..., Promising Young Woman, Sound Of Metal and The Trial of the Chicago 7. The nominees. +The Directors Guild of America has revealed its 2021 nominees in its documentary, TV and commercial categories. The guild is set to announce its five theatrical feature film nominees and first-time director nominees today. The nominees. +Supervising sound editor Dennis Drummond -- whose credits include Dick Tracy and A League of Their Own -- will receive the Motion Picture Sound Editors' Career Achievement Award during the the 68th annual MPSE Golden Reel Awards, which will be presented during a virtual ceremony on April 16. More. +Italian actress Sophia Loren and the noted Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima will be honored at the Academy Museum's opening gala on Sept. 25, which will feature a special dinner prepared by Wolfgang Puck Catering and be just one part of a week of in-person festivities (protected by all required public health and safety measures) leading up to the Sept. 30 launch of the establishment at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. More. Paramount+ Plans ►ViacomCBS streaming exec on how to navigate massive Paramount+ content library. Tom Ryan talks to THR's Natalie Jarvey about licensing shows to a rival platform and why it's smart to be a contrarian in this business. --"There's going to be a handful of winners. There's a rising tide that will lift the best boats — not all boats — and I'm confident that we've got the absolutely best boat in free today and that we've got all the makings for one of the best boats in pay." The interview. ►FX is adapting one of the most influential novels of the past 50 years. The Disney-owned cable network has ordered a pilot for Kindred, based on the book by Octavia E. Butler. Playwright and Watchmen consulting producer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is writing the script and will executive produce Courtney Lee-Mitchell, who holds rights to the book, Darren Aronofsky (via his Protozoa Pictures) and The Americans creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields. More. +Grammy-winning singer and actress Brandy has joined the cast of ABC's pilot Queens. Brandy will star opposite Eve, Naturi Naughton and Pepi Sonuga in the drama from writer Zahir McGhee (Scandal) and ABC Signature. The show centers on four women in their 40s who reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had as the Nasty Bitches— a '90s group that made them legends in the hip-hop world. More. +Queen of the South is coming to an end. The previously announced fifth season will officially be its last, USA Network revealed Monday. The final season will return April 7 with 10 episodes, down three from its previous four seasons. More. +Sorry, Pepé: Pepé Le Pew is not featured in any current Warner Bros. TV projects and there are no current plans for the controversial cartoon skunk to return, THR's Ryan Parker reports. The news comes one day after it was reported Pepé Le Pew was scrubbed from the upcoming Space Jam 2. More. +Also: The Netflix/CBC sitcom Kim's Convenience, which broke ground in Canada as the country's first comedy led by an Asian cast, is to end after its fifth season. More. ►Coming 2 America scores biggest streaming opening weekend of past year, survey says. Research firm Screen Engine, which didn't disclose viewership numbers, finds the Amazon film's debut topped that of Wonder Woman 1984 and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. More. Revolving door: Sony Pictures Entertainment has filled its chairman role. Former Disney Television president Ravi Ahuja has joined the studio and will serve as chairman of global TV studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment corporate development... Maggie Kiley has been tapped to helm the pilot for the Greg Berlanti-produced live-action take on the Powerpuff Girls... ►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews HBO Max's Generation, writing that "It very often feels like exactly what it is, namely a show at least partly written by a teenager — Zelda was 17 when the script was picked up — with several episodes directed by someone with limited small-screen experience (Daniel's most prominent helming credit is the 2014 Jennifer Aniston-starring indie, Cake). The result at times feels more like an assemblage of big ideas and feelings than a coherent or cohesive show, but there's enough potential in the series' embracing worldview and terrific cast to justify sticking with it." The review. Obituary: Leon Gast, the celebrated Oscar-winning documentarian behind When We Were Kings, which chronicled the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, has died. He was 85. The obituary. In other news... --HBO Max and CNN Films are teaming on a feature doc about the U.S. women’s national soccer team’s ongoing fight for equal pay. --After Amazon Prime signed deals for soccer rights in the U.K. and Germany and is now eyeing more Thursday night NFL games, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei sees the streaming giant spearheading an accelerated push by Big Tech platforms for more international sports rights. --The CFOs of AT&T and Discovery touted their companies' early streaming momentum during a virtual investor conference on Monday. --The Queen's Gambit may be headed to the stage. Production company Level Forward has acquired theatrical stage rights to Walter Tevis' novel about a chess prodigy, which is also the basis for Netflix's limited series. The company — which produced the Tony-nominated revival of Oklahoma! and What the Constitution Means to Me — will develop a musical based on the book. --Disney Junior has begun production on Eureka!, a new animated series about a talented young inventor living in the fantastical prehistoric world of Rocky Falls. --Tony and Grammy Award winner Daveed Diggs and Emmy Award winner Lena Waithe are set to narrate the audiobook production of viral conception artist Natasha Marin’s Black Imagination. --The Nantucket Film Festival will go ahead with its 2021 edition amid the coronavirus pandemic, from June 17 to 28, with a first-time hybrid event that combines virtual streamings online with physical screenings in drive-in theaters and small garden settings. What else we're reading... --"Justice League producer Deborah Snyder shares how she and husband Zack overcame a wall of grief to make the 'Snyder cut' a reality" [Insider] --"Inside the Lincoln Project’s secrets, side deals and scandals" [NY Times] --"I was a Sex and the City stand-in. It made me quit Hollywood" [Glamour] --"CNN president Jeff Zucker joins board of Group Nine SPAC" [Axios] --"Tegna board nominee withdraws, citing CEO’s ‘cultural insensitivity’" [WSJ] Today's birthdays: Brittany Snow, 35, Oscar Isaac, 42, Shad Moss aka Bow Wow, 34, Kerr Smith, 49.
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