Zaslav Names His Top Warner Bros. Discovery Executives

►After the purge. With the $43 billion Warner Bros. Discovery megamerger about to be completed, CEO David Zaslav has unveiled more key executive appointments for the combined company. WarnerMedia leaders Casey Bloys (HBO and HBO Max), Channing Dungey (WB TV) and Toby Emmerich (WB Pictures) have survived the cull and will report directly to Zaslav. 

Coming in are trusted, longtime Discovery top executives in key operational roles, including JB Perrette (CEO and president, Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment), Kathleen Finch (chairman and chief content officer, U.S. Networks Group) and Bruce Campbell (chief revenue and strategy officer). The story.

—Apple's big week. After a raft of pickups and renewals this week, Apple TV+ has handed out a straight-to-series order for The White Darkness and tapped Tom Hiddleston to star in the drama. The limited series, based on the nonfiction book by David Grann, is inspired by the true life account of Henry Worsley, a British army officer who attempted to make the first solo and unaided crossing of the Antarctic. The story.

—*DJ Khaled voice* Another one. Apple TV+ has also picked up The Big Cigar, a six-episode limited series based on a Playboy magazine article that detailed Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton’s escape to Cuba. Moonlight star André Holland is in talks to star as Newton in the series that marks Apple’s latest collaboration with Warner Bros. Television (Ted Lasso, Shrinking). The story.  

—The lucrative economics of TV talk shows. Dr. Mehmet Oz’s run for Senate in Pennsylvania is shining a light on his finances and in particular how much he is raking in from his daytime TV gigs. THR's Alex Weprin has been digging through Oz's financial disclosure forms and found that he makes $2 million per year salary from The Dr. Oz Show with total compensation in the ballpark of $10 million. The story. 

Disney Faces Legal Threats in Florida Over "Don't Say Gay" Bill Fight

►How real is the Republican backlash? An escalating fight between Disney and Florida over the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill has pushed state lawmakers to threaten to strip the company of special privileges that essentially give it the sovereignty to act as its own government. THR's Winston Cho writes that some state Republican lawmakers have proposed to repeal a 1967 law that gives the company the authority to govern itself. The story. 

—Changes afoot. THR's labor reporter Katie Kilkenny has news on the Writers Guild of America East’s governing body making recommendations for changes to the Guild’s constitution and passing a new organizing resolution that would address recent debate over the influx of digital journalists into the union. The story. 

—Never-ending. The Bachelor franchise summer spinoff series Bachelor in Paradise has been renewed at ABC for an eighth season. Paradise joins courtroom comedy series Judge Steve Harvey in the network’s unscripted renewals announced this week, the latter returning for a second season. Premiere dates have yet to be announced. The story. 

—Döstädning. Peacock has ordered unscripted series The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, which is based on the best-selling book by Margareta Magnusson. The series will star a “Swedish Death Cleaner” who will help people do some extreme decluttering thereby “allowing us to prepare for death while we enjoy life.” The story. 

—Arthurian love. A pair of Netflix series, Brit period drama The Last Kingdom and Toni Collette-starrer Pieces of Her, finished in a virtual tie on the streaming series chart for March 7-13. Amazon also had three entries (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Upload and Reacher) in the top 10 original shows for the first time in the 19 months of Nielsen’s weekly rankings. The streaming charts. 

—Casting news. Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth will star in a Netflix feature Lonely Planet. Susannah Grant, who worked with the streamer on the drama series Unbelievable, will write and direct the love story, which is set in Morocco. The story.

HBO Renews Lakers Series 'Winning Time' 

►Run it back. HBO has renewed Winning Time, its series about the Showtime-era Lakers, for a second season. The pickup comes midway through the show’s first season, which chronicles Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) purchasing the team and Magic Johnson’s (Quincy Isaiah) rookie season in 1979-80. 

HBO has also optioned Pearlman’s follow-up about the Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant years of the Lakers, titled Three-Ring Circus, should the series go that far. (The current season has thus far only chronicled the 1979-80 season, which at that pace would put the early 2000s several seasons away.) The story.

—"She’s dope." PEN15 favorite Maya Erskine has replaced Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Amazon’s update of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, star and co-creator Donald Glover revealed Thursday. THR previously reported that Waller-Bridge exited the role following “creative differences.” Picked up straight to series in February 2021, the reboot of the 2005 film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is created by Glover and Waller-Bridge. The story.  

—Oscar-winning addition. Amazon Studios’ series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys has added Whoopi Goldberg to its cast. Goldberg is one of six actors joining the series, which is filming in Scotland, the others are Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Cecilia Noble, Ayanna Witter-Johnson and Don Gilet. The story.

—Missed a spot. Fox is renewing drama The Cleaning Lady for a second season. The Élodie Yung-fronted show becomes Fox’s first live-action scripted renewal for the 2022-23 cycle. Debuting in January, the show ranks as one of the top five new broadcast dramas for the 2021-22 broadcast season and also ranks as Hulu’s most streamed Fox debut in the network’s history. The story. 

—Intriguing. FX has ordered a pilot for an untitled half-hour comedy from writer Lauren Ludwig and exec producers Chris and Paul Weitz. The project is described as a "metaphysical comedy about a group of queer twenty-somethings forced by the most unlikely source to confront their generational anxieties and unpack their emotional baggage." The story. 

Thank Pod It's Friday

►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.

—TV's Top 5. Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. This week the guys begin by running through the headlines starting with Apple’s pickup spree and epic casting, Better Call Saul stars lining up their next projects, and more on the franchise frenzy. They also discuss the sweeping changes at WarnerMedia, and have early 2022 Emmys talk. They go deeper on the renewals of Apple's Severance and HBO's Winning Time . And Dan offers reviews AMC’s 61st Street and HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice. Listen here.

—Awards Chatter. Awards analyst Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott speaks to the Squid Game creative team. The principal team behind the Korean dystopian dramedy which has become Netflix's most popular TV show ever — creator/writer/director/EP Hwang Dong-hyuk and stars Lee Jung-jae (“Gi-hun”), Jung Ho-yeon (“Sae-byeok”), Park Hae-soo (“Sang-woo”) and Anupam Tripathi (“Ali”) — reflect on their journey to the show and its massive success.  Listen here. 

In other news...

—Russian Doll travels back to the ’80s in season 2 trailer

—Captain America Comics no. 1 sells for $3.1m

—Amid union effort, Activision Blizzard converts QA workers to full-time staff

—The Home Edit star Clea Shearer reveals breast cancer diagnosis

—Sarah Jessica Parker tests positive for COVID-19, cancels Plaza Suite performance

—Model and creator Eric Rutherford signs with UTA

—HBO Max’s Japanese crime series Tokyo Vice sells wide

—Common Sense Media launches podcast ratings for kids and family shows

—Meet Alim Smith, the artist behind the Afro-Surrealist promo art for FX’s Atlanta

—MIPTV hidden gem: Canadian coma dramedy Audrey’s Back

What else we're reading...

—Black women at Harvard Law School, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's alma mater, speak about what it means to have the first Black woman to serve as a justice [NYT]

—Why Jeff Bezos is fighting Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani over cricket TV rights [Vice]

—Analysis of the Ed Sheeran plagiarism case, and how the rise of music streaming has led to an increase in these lawsuits [Guardian]

—Ten years after Girls hit our screens and became a pop culture obsession, Chris Murphy takes stock of who really won and who lost on the show [VF]

—Mike Ryan on the joy of watching a shamelessly sleazy movie like Deep Water again [Uproxx]

Today...   

...in 1964, Paramount unveiled Audrey Hepburn and William Holden starrer Paris When It Sizzles in theaters. A remake of the 1952 French film Holiday for Henrietta, the film featured uncredited appearances by Tony Curtis, Mel Ferrer and Marlene Dietrich. The original review.

Today's birthdays: Patricia Arquette (54), Katee Sackhoff (42), Robin Wright (56), Kirsten Storms (38), Ana de la Reguera (45), Paola Nuñez (44), Stephanie Cayo (34), Anna Osceola (34), Dean Norris (59), Sung Kang (50), Jim Piddock (66), Taylor Kitsch (41), Craig Mazin (51), John Madden (74), Ezra Koenig (38), Julian Lennon (59)