The Merger

The WarnerMedia-Discovery merger is reverberating across the media and entertainment world.

--Jason Kilar appears headed for the exit. Kilar is now negotiating an exit from the company he was tapped to lead just a year ago, with The New York Times noting that he was the subject of a Wall Street Journal profile just a few days ago. "AT&T had helped with the article, a move that a prominent talent agent deemed 'the ultimate smile-to-the-face, knife-in-the-back.'”

--What now for CNN? 33 years ago CNN founder Ted Turner called Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks and pushed for a merger. "They just belong together," Turner said. Now, Turner's vision is one step closer to reality. Inside CNN, the news was greeted with a sense of optimism. The story.

--Will there be layoffs? The companies said they expect to see $3 billion in cost-savings from the merger. That usually means layoffs, though real estate, technology and vendor savings will be a factor as well. "While overlap in our creative and content capabilities is virtually non-existent, there will be opportunity to redirect investment away from duplicative back-office, support and administrative functions into our growth strategies," AT&T CEO John Stankey wrote in an email to WarnerMedia employees Monday, obtained by THR. "This reality is a necessary part of our journey to reposition the company."

--The John Malone angle: Malone, along with the Newhouse family, gave up his super-voting shares in Discovery to get the deal done, effectively ceding control (the Newhouse family still owns Conde Nast). The tax structure of the deal also looks like a Malone special, allowing shareholders like him to avoid taxes.

“I think that the technology of connectivity and digital technologies are one focus, and creating content that people get addicted to is another focus,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “And you seldom would find both of those in the same management team... “I give [John] Stankey enormous credit for having studied the situation and come up with a solution for his company, which I think is going to work wonderfully well,”

--Remember the federal antitrust suit? Well Makan Delrahim, who ran the suit, told the Journal that the original deal "was motivated by an effort to salvage a bad deal made for DirecTV, which was why they couldn’t execute it well,” Mr. Delrahim said, adding that the pending spinoffs of both DirecTV and Time Warner will allow AT&T and Discovery to focus on wireless service and content, respectively. “Credit to Stankey to be willing to rip the cord and say, ‘Let’s get back to what we know best.’ ”

►The deal is already kickstarting fresh consolidation talks, with Amazon in talks to buy MGM. The Information, which first reported the news, says that MGM is seeking between $7-$10 billion. The studio is home to the James Bond franchise, as well as Survivor, Shark Tank and other TV programs.

--The New York Times added that "Michael De Luca, MGM’s chairman, presented the studio’s coming slate to Amazon’s team on Friday..."

Even more consolidation...

+In France: In a bid to compete with Netflix and other global streaming giants on their home ground, Groupe Bouygues and RTL Group have announced plans to merge leading French commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 to form a new European TV giant. More.

+In the music biz: French media conglomerate Vivendi is considering the sale of an additional 10 percent stake in Universal Music Group, the label home of the likes of Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, to a U.S. investor. More.

►After “fool’s gold” rush, telecom giants exiting Hollywood. AT&T and Verizon hoped that spending billions on media assets like HBO, Warner Bros., Yahoo and AOL would yield hoped for synergies with their core wireless operations — but that never panned out, Georg Szalai writes.

--“The simple rule from the past 20 years is that telco and media assets generally do not mix,” argues Ian Whittaker, a London-based finance consultant. “The mindset between the two sides is too different, and it always ends up with the telco companies regretting their purchase.” The story.
 

Upfront Update

►Fox's schedule: Fox is sticking to its usual template for the start of the 2021-22 season: Dramas to start the week, an unscripted block on Wednesdays, three days of sports and its Sunday animated comedies.

--The only difference between the coming season and others from the recent past — last fall’s pandemic-induced schedule spackling aside — are the titles. The network will debut two drama series and an unscripted companion for The Masked Singer in the fall, saving the majority of its first-year shows for the second half of the season. The story.

+Pickups: Fox is keeping its 911 franchise on call for the 2021-22 season. The broadcaster has renewed 911 for a fifth season and spinoff 911: Lone Star for a third. The two first responder dramas are among Fox’s most watched shows in 2020-21. Also returning for 2021-22 is medical drama The Resident, which will enter its fifth season in the fall. Animated series The Great North got an early third-season pickup as well, extending through the 2022-23 season. More.

+Gordon Ramsay is adding to his mini-empire of Fox series. The celebrity chef will host and executive produce a competition series called Next Level Chef to air in the 2021-22 season. The show gets its name from the set on which it takes place: a multi-level culinary arena where each floor contains a differently equipped kitchen, with ingredients to match. More.

+And there's this: Fox is getting into the crypto game. The broadcaster announced that Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon is making a new animated series called Krapopolis, but what’s what’s even more interesting is the groundbreaking technology involved in its distribution and marketing. Krapopolis is also going to be “the first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain” and mark the broadcaster network’s debut move into the NFT business. Fox says they also debuting a new NFT company called Blockchain Creative Labs. The story.

Other upfront news...

+Another CBS show looks to be on the move to Paramount+. Evil, which has been in limbo for all of the 2020-21 season after being renewed for a second run, will likely migrate to the ViacomCBS streaming platform. It will join two other CBS dramas, SEAL Team and Clarice, that are expected to make a move to Paramount+ in 2021-22. More.

+"It's Game of Thrones with otters": Discovery has greenlighted a series about three families of otters who live in Singapore’s Marina Bay. Otter Dynasty — described as an “urban wildlife story” — will focus on the sea creatures, who were once declared locally extinct from Singapore in the 1970s. Today, the smooth-coated otter has since made a comeback, with an estimated 120 otters living in Marina Bay. More.

+Discovery+ has greenlighted a docuseries focusing on Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Chasing Ghislaine, which will debut later this year, hails from executive producer and best-selling author James Patterson, the producers at eOne’s Blackfin and best-selling author and journalist Vicky Ward. More.

+Hulu has scored rights to a docuseries featuring in-depth conversations between two music icons: Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin. The six-episode series, McCartney 3, 2, 1, is set to premiere July 16. McCartney and Rubin will discuss all facets of McCartney’s more than 60 years in the music business, from his time with the Beatles and Wings to his long solo career (his most recent album, McCartney III, was released in December. More.

A Blockbuster Review

►Film review: John DeFore reviews F9, writing that "At their best, these later, save-the-world Fast flicks allowed viewers to thrill to stunts even as they guffawed at their absurdity. But in F9’s would-be showstoppers, the thrills are mostly AWOL or the feats are simply too idiotic to embrace, even guiltily. The review.

►Ten years later, John Boyega is returning to the cult classic that put him on the map. The actor will reteam with filmmaker Joe Cornish for a sequel to Attack the Block. Boyega was an unknown actor when he starred in the 2011 film that centered on a ragtag group of friends who find themselves defending their neighborhood from aliens. Boyega went on to worldwide fame several years later in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and he and his director have stoked hopes for a sequel in interviews over the years. More.

►Disruption and destruction as bombings hit film, TV industry in Palestine, Israel. Israeli airstrikes have devastated Gaza's already-weakened infrastructure, but safe rooms and air-raid shelters have allowed most studio production within Israel to continue into the second week of rocket attacks, Scott Roxborough and Alex Ritman report. The story.

►Asian and Pacific Islanders accounted for less than 6 percent of speaking roles and less than 4 percent of leads and co-leads in Hollywood films, according to a comprehensive new study from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The study, titled The Prevalence and Portrayal of Asian and Pacific Islanders across 1,300 Popular Films, comes at a time of rising violence and racism against Asian Americans and the report’s key findings show that Hollywood is failing to meaningfully represent API while at the same time continues to peddle harmful stereotypes of the community. More.

►What it was like to be the first woman running a network TV show. Back when Hollywood’s glass ceiling was nearly shatterproof, Charlotte Brown cracked it with Rhoda: "Producers started dipping their toes into the water and saying, 'Maybe I should get me one of those women writers and try it.'" The story.

In other news...

--RuPaul’s Drag Race took home the bulk of prizes during Monday night’s inaugural MTV Movie & TV Awards unscripted ceremony.

--Police in Los Angeles are investigating T.I. after several women came forward to accuse the rapper of sexual assault.

--An all-female mentoring group Femtors aims to help rising Hollywood execs achieve “career longevity.”

--The nonprofit Women in Animation launched a Talent Database with listings of an estimated 5,000 women, trans and nonbinary animation people as part of its diversity initiative dubbed “50/50 by 2025.”

--Crown Media’s lead programming and production executive Michelle Vicary is stepping down. She will leave her post as executive vp of programming at the beginning of June after 22 years at the company.

--Jeanne Yang, one of Hollywood’s top stylists with a roster of A-list actor clients, is trying on a new role as a manager producer at Anonymous Content.

What else we're reading...

--"Only shooting stars break the mild: The massive musical footprint of Shrek" [The Ringer]

--"Kenny Mayne: I’m leaving ESPN. You know that, but here’s the story in my own words" [L.A. Times]

--"Spotify wants to hire a Hollywood veteran to oversee its podcasting studios" [Bloomberg]

Today's birthdays: Tina Fey, 51, Chow Yun-Fat, 66, Miriam Margolyes, 80, Jack Johnson, 46, Reggie Jackson, 75.