What's news: HFPA outlines reforms to try and salvage the Golden Globes, defense attorneys star in new Law & Order series, Dick Wolf show among new IMDb TV slate, Amazon snags early exclusive access to the NFL, Night Court moves forward at NBC, Conan sets his TBS end date, Ryan Reynolds inks a deal with Paramount. Plus: A major victory for Michael Jackson's estate, and The Los Angeles Times has found its new editor. --Alex Weprin

HFPA Reforms

►HFPA outlines reforms, backed by NBC: The HFPA board said that it spent the past 60 days crafting proposal outlining "structural changes to the organization," and vowed that it will take "more serious measures," including but not limited to resigning, if the membership does not approve and implement the reforms in a timely manner. The HFPA's broadcasting partners for the annual Golden Globe Awards, NBCUniversal and Dick Clark Productions, issued statements on Monday endorsing the board's proposal.

--Among the proposals? The board's proposal includes admitting "at least 20 new members in 2021, with a specific focus on recruiting Black members," and with "a goal of increasing the membership by 50% over the next 18 months." To meet that objective, the board is calling for the full membership to approve the elimination of the SoCal residency requirement and to expand eligibility to any qualified journalist living in the U.S. who works for a foreign publication.

The board also wants to open membership to journalists who work "in media beyond print"; to "eliminate the sponsorship requirement"; to "remove restrictions on the number of members admitted per year"; and to reaffirm that "there are no limitations on the number of members from each territory," something that the HFPA was recently accused of enforcing in a lawsuit filed by a journalist who had been denied admission to the group. (The lawsuit was dismissed.) The story.

Another 'Law & Order'

►NBC is further expanding the world of Law & Order. The network has given a straight to series order to Law & Order: For the Defense, the seventh series in producer Dick Wolf's mega-franchise (not counting the in-limbo L&O: Hate Crimes and the True Crime limited series that dramatized the real-life Menendez murders). Former CSI showrunner Carol Mendelsohn will take the reins of the new series, which centers on the attorneys at a criminal defense firm.

--NBC describes Law & Order: For the Defense as an "unbiased" look at a criminal defense firm, putting the lawyers and the criminal justice system under the microscope and promising a "contemporary morality tale" in each episode. The story.

+Speaking of Dick Wolf: Hours after NBC announced another series in the Law & Order franchise, the procedural king has added another show — On Call, a half-hour drama that has been picked up straight to series at Amazon-backed IMDb TV: The story.

+More IMDB news: Amazon-backed IMDb TV is pushing further into the scripted originals business. Ahead of its virtual NewFronts presentation Monday, the free and ad-supported streamer has put five new scripted originals in development, including a family comedy based on the life of Shea Serrano from Mike Schur (The Good Place)... IMDB also handed out a series order to High School,  a coming-of-age comedy based on the memoir by twin siblings and Grammy-nominated performers Tegan and Sara Quinn...

+And another bit of Amazon news: Just a few weeks after the league inked a $100 billion-plus TV deal with Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox, CBS and Amazon, the tech giant is swooping in to snag even more exclusive NFL games. Amazon has struck a deal to take over exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football one year early, buying out the games that had been set to air on Fox. Amazon had been set to get exclusive rights beginning in 2023, now they will get them starting in 2022. More.

More TV News...

►NBC is returning to Night Court. The network has handed out a formal pilot order to a sequel of its Emmy-nominated comedy series with original star John Larroquette joined by Big Bang Theory grad Melissa Rauch at the top of the call sheet. More.

+Pennyworth may have not one but two homes when (and if) it returns for a third season. The Bruno Heller drama about the early days of Batman's butler may wind up being shared between Epix, the MGM-backed premium cable network that has been the show's home for its first two seasons, and HBO Max, the streaming sibling of Pennyworth studio Warner Bros. Television. More.

+The CW is locking in more of its 2021-22 schedule. The network has picked up a second season of Kung Fu, which has gotten off to a strong start, and a third run of DC series Stargirl, three months ahead of its second-season premiere in the summer. Both are from Warner Bros. TV and Berlanti Productions, the latter of which now has eight series set at The CW for next season. The details.

+The prognosis remains positive for The Good Doctor. ABC has renewed the medical drama for a fifth season. The pickup comes a couple weeks ahead of the show's fourth season finale. The show is the first of ABC's scripted series to score a renewal for the 2021-22 season. More.

+WandaVision star Elizabeth Olsen is headed to HBO Max for her next TV project. Olsen will topline Love and Death, a limited series about a notorious murder in Texas in 1980. The series from Lionsgate Television counts David E. Kelley, Nicole Kidman and director Lesli Linka Glatter among its producing team. More.

+FX will keep riding with Mayans MC. The Disney-owned cable network has renewed the biker drama for a fourth season. The pickup comes a week ahead of the show's third-season finale, scheduled for May 11; season four is set to air in 2022. More.

+The end is near for Conan: Conan O'Brien will end his nightly TBS show on June 24, the cabler announced Monday night. It will bring to an end the host's 28-year run as a late night host, stretching back to 1993 when he took over NBC's Late Show from David Letterman. More.

►Academy Honors: For Life, I Am Greta, I May Destroy You, Little America, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Social Dilemma and Welcome to Chechnya will be celebrated at the 14th Television Academy Honors, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced Monday. These seven programs and their producers — three documentaries, two drama series, one anthology series and one late-night comedy news show — "have used powerful and innovative storytelling to advance social change" "and "elevate complex issues facing society," the organization said in a statement. More.

►Ryan Reynolds and his Maximum Effort Productions have signed a three-year first-look development deal with Paramount Pictures. Reynolds launched the banner in 2018 with George Dewey, a former exec Fox’s digital theatrical marketing division. No projects were announced but the deal covers motion picture development for all Maximum Efforts projects, at all budget levels. The story.

In other film news...

+After picking up the once theatrically bound WWII feature Greyhound,  Apple has landed another Tom Hanks-fronted feature. The streamer has acquired sci-fi movie Finch, previously titled Bios, from Amblin Entertainment. The movie was previously set for an August theatrical release via Universal, which had to push the film several times due to pandemic theater closures. The story.

►Michael Jackson's estate has a big win. More than four years after going head-to-head with the IRS in U.S. Tax Court, Michael Jackson's estate has emerged largely victorious — with a federal judge finding the artist's worth at the time of his death to be much closer to its estimate than the government's and declining to issue any penalties. The dispute centered on how much Jackson's image and likeness were worth when he died in 2009, which would determine how much in taxes the estate would owe the IRS. 

--"Jackson had outlived the peak of his popularity, but in the decades before his death he kept spending as if he had not," writes the judge. "Popular culture always moves on. There will come a time when Captain EO joins Monte Brewster and Terry Forbes as names that without googling sort of sound familiar, but only to people of a certain age or to students of entertainment history. And just as the grave will swallow Jackson’s fame, time will erode the Estate’s income. It resurrected and then sold what became its most valuable asset to Sony before trial. The value of what it has left, no matter how well managed, will now dwindle as Jackson’s copyrights expire and his image and likeness shuffle first into irrelevance and then into the public domain." The story.

►The Los Angeles Times has found its new lead editor. Kevin Merida, who has lead ESPN's The Undefeated vertical since 2015, has been named executive editor of the 139-year-old newspaper. He'll be the 19th editor in Times history and the third person of color to lead the paper. Merida takes over for Norman Pearlstine, who stepped aside in December and became a senior adviser to the paper's executive chairman, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. The story.

Casting roundup: Thomasin McKenzie has been cast to play gymnast Kerri Strug in Olivia Wilde's Perfect biopic for Searchlight... Alexander Skarsgard has signed on for a recurring guest star role in the upcoming third season of the Emmy-winning drama Succession...

Obituaries: Jacques d'Amboise, the premier New York City Ballet dancer who displayed his energy and athleticism on the big screen in the musicals Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Carousel, has died. He was 86... Billie Hayes, who played the cackling Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo on Sid and Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf and the scrappy Mammy Yokum in the Broadway and big-screen versions of Li'l Abner, has died . She was 96...

In other news...

--New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo cleared the way for Broadway productions to reopen on May 19, announcing Monday that most coronavirus-related capacity restrictions in New York and New Jersey will be lifted on that date Though Broadway can effectively reopen on that date “from a capacity point of view,” Cuomo said, the governor noted that it will take time to remount productions and sell tickets.

--If this year’s Newfront pitch to advertisers is any indication, Roku is leaning more heavily into exclusive content, as it seeks to bolster its advertising business.

--The trial between Epic Games and Apple is underway in California. The major antitrust showdown could have an outsized impact on streaming's future by providing guidance about what those who control "walled gardens" online can and can't do under the nation's primary federal law regulating competition. 

--Twitter Spaces on Monday launched worldwide to all accounts with 600 or more followers, the social media company announced. The feature is in the same vein as Clubhouse, an invitation-only, audio-only app.

--Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications, which recently unveiled a $4.8 billion deal to combine media, production and content assets with Mexico's Televisa, has unveiled financial metrics and preliminary first quarter results as it considers potential financing transactions and market opportunities.

--The Weeknd says he will continue to boycott he Grammys, despite the recent rule changes.

What else we're reading...

--"'I see nothing but opportunity': Meet L.A. Times' new top editor Kevin Merida" [L.A. Times]

--"Mr. Beast, YouTube star, wants to take over the business world" [N.Y. Times]

--"About 1.5 million people still pay for AOL — but now they get tech support and identity theft services instead of dial-up internet" [CNBC]

--Ranking the 100 best sitcoms of all time [Rolling Stone]

Today's birthdays: Randy Travis, 62, Ana Gasteyer, 54, Will Arnett, 51, Erin Andrews, 43.