Stay Connected“Ankler Agenda” breaks down the headlines, trends and creativity shaping the evolution of Hollywood, the creator economy and entertainment.
The show is hosted by Elaine Low, author of Ankler Media’s popular “Series Business” Substack newsletter, who is joined weekly by her colleagues Sean McNulty (“The Wakeup”) and Natalie Jarvey (“Like & Subscribe”) — in addition to Richard Rushfield, the Ankler himself. Episodes will also be available every Thursday on YouTube.
Copyright: © Ankler Media
Mike Schur calls Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. a “nightmare scenario” for Hollywood — and now that David Ellison has cleared the biggest obstacle to getting the deal done, he’s even more alarmed about what comes next. “It’s gasoline on a fire,” the Parks and Recreation co-creator and Dig producer tells Elaine Low, pointing to an industry already hollowed out by years of consolidation. “I hate to be doomsday-ish here… but the ecosystem is just shrinking and shrinking and shrinking.”
What does that nightmare look like? Fewer buyers, fewer jobs and ultimately fewer kinds of shows getting made — and, Schur fears, even HBO may finally be vulnerable after surviving one corporate owner after another.
One of the loudest voices against the merger, Schur is particularly skeptical that the concessions Paramount made to Rob Bonta and 11 other state AGs will provide much protection. “All of these provisions, they’re only meaningful if they’re enforced. Who’s enforcing this?” he asks of the proposed consent decree. He has equally sharp words for Ellison’s suggestion that Paramount could leave Los Angeles amid the antitrust fight. “This person wants to win the hearts and minds of this industry that he is now the most important player in, arguably — and his opening salvo is, ‘Give me what I want, or I’m going to Nashville,’” Schur says. “This is not a good way to earn our trust or respect.”
Plus: Elaine and Natalie Jarvey dig into what Ankler staffers are watching closely through the fall across the TV and film business, from DC superhero-horror film Clayface to Mark Rober’s new show on Netflix.
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So after months of big talk about only settling for structural remedies, i.e., selling off assets, what did California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the 11 other state AGs suing Paramount Skydance wind up getting? Less than you think. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Lesley Goldberg break down the settlement terms — loopholes, fine print and all — and what they mean for the future of Hollywood, including looming mass layoffs, the fate of three TV studios and why the promise of 30 films a year may not be what it seems. Then: Can a Paramount+–HBO Max superstreamer finally give Netflix a real rival?
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A dire warning from Anthropic and OpenAI that increasingly autonomous AI agents could launch cyberattacks – or worse – has an especially chilling implication for Hollywood, where studios and streamers are rapidly weaving AI into their businesses. "Imagine a world in which there are thousands of Sony hacks happening in real time," Reel AI columnist Erik Barmack tells Elaine Low and Sean McNulty. "You could take down the entire industry. Confidentiality, protections, the secure release of IP – all of those things could be harmed."
And while the guilds fight generative AI and Hollywood hashes out rules for how the technology can be used, Erik says the industry may be focused on the wrong threat: "What happens when recursive learning gets better and better, and these agents go off and do thinking on their own?"
Plus: There may finally be momentum behind a federal film and TV tax incentive. Rep. Laura Friedman tells Elaine that lawmakers from both parties are working with Hollywood's guilds and Jon Voight – Donald Trump's special Hollywood ambassador, whom she describes as a key bridge to the president. Friedman says she hopes the proposal can move by year-end – and describes the unusual bipartisan effort as giving lawmakers "an extra sort of joy" in working together: "We're still one country."
00:00 Intro
00:24 Welcome To Ankler Agenda
01:35 Paramount Vs. State AG Showdown
03:00 Did Bari Weiss Sink 60 Minutes?
04:46 Ai Leaders Sound The Alarm
05:53 The 1,200 Agent 'Collective'
08:21 Hollywood's Big AI Bet
09:41 Bots That Lie And Hack
10:49 The Next Sony Hack, Times 1,000
12:59 Will A Slow Down Actually Happen?
13:41 Guilds Fighting The Last Battle
15:20 Studios Vs. Big Tech Power
17:44 Bring Back The Landline
18:40 Next: Rep. Laura Friedman
19:01 Hollywood's Economic Freefall
20:40 143,000 Jobs On The Line
21:51 From Film Producer To Congress
24:38 Inside The Bill And The Timeline
26:30 Jon Voight's Role As Trump's Bridge
29:05 Bipartisanship In A Polarized Era
31:05 Selling It To Non-Hollywood States
32:28 California's $750 Million Fight
34:30 The Goal: Every Soundstage Full
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Inside President Macron’s summit, where Ted Sarandos, Dana Walden and Hollywood power players attended — very quietly
French President Emmanuel Macron summoned some of the biggest names in global entertainment to the south of France this week to talk about nothing less than the future of cinema — and Hollywood came. Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Dana Walden, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and other industry heavyweights attended the first-ever Lumière Summit, co-hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, as filmmakers, executives and government leaders grappled with AI, the attention economy and the threats facing traditional entertainment.
“He did something that I think people who work in the entertainment industry in the U.S. have been really hungry to see happen,” says Ankler EIC Janice Min, who stops by the pod after attending the summit at the invitation of the French government. “Somebody in charge saying things about an industry that’s struggling.”
But if France was eager to lead the conversation, Hollywood’s own leaders were considerably more cautious. Sarandos and Walden were seen but not heard, while Sony’s Tom Rothman and a very pointed George Clooney were among the few major American figures willing to speak freely. “No one’s saying Trump, but it’s kind of about Trump,” Janice says of the geopolitical undercurrent running through the gathering. “It was great that Hollywood showed up — and it was revealing that a lot of them didn’t feel like they could take the stage.”
Plus: Thanks to Widow’s Bay, Apple TV leads the pack ahead of the primetime Emmy telecast, and Natalie Jarvey crowns a winner in the Ankler Agenda summer box office draft.
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It wasn’t long ago when studios took the biggest jewels of their fall slates — the Gravitys and Jokers and First Mans — to the Venice Film Festival to kick off awards season and put A-list talent on a gondola. But this year, not so much: The Venice lineup is light on flashy studio premieres — don’t look for Tom Cruise and Digger or Timothée Chalamet and Dune: Part Three or Jeremy Strong and The Social Reckoning — and heavy on indie and international titles. Elaine Low and Sean McNulty talk to Ankler awards editor and Prestige Junkie host Katey Rich about how the studio calculus on festival season has shifted — and how best picture winner One Battle After Another was a canary in the coal mine for this year’s underwhelming slate.
Then: Katey sticks around to talk with Elaine and Natalie Jarvey about the top Emmy storylines — including the Television Academy’s controversial decision to boot major categories from the primetime show (sorry, David Harbour and Dakota Fanning) and why, with the final season of Hacks and prohibitive drama frontrunner The Pitt leading the way, this could be the last stand for HBO Max before the merger.
Also: Elaine and Sean on Donald Trump‘s sudden renewed enthusiasm to bring production back to Hollywood and why there’s actual bipartisan support for federal film and TV tax incentives. Make Hollywood great again?
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Hollywood’s newest talent warisn’t over movie stars. For years, YouTube was treated as a “farm league,” in Ted Sarandos‘ words — a place where talent dreamt of graduating to Hollywood. Now smaller player Netflix is raiding the world’s biggest streamer, scooping up creators, podcasters and personalities who built their audiences on YouTube. And YouTube has had enough. Natalie Jarvey shares her scoop on the millions that Neal Mohan‘s tech giant is throwing down to keep its creators exclusive — and names who’s been offered the cash — in an escalation one dealmaker says reveals that YouTube is “scared shitless.” Natalie joins Elaine Low and Sean McNulty to unpack her fresh reporting on the new creator bidding wars — and debate the bigger question: Which company is actually playing defense?
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So much for détente. California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled Monday’s planned meeting with Paramount after accusing the company of leaking — and misrepresenting — confidential settlement discussions to the press. “They need to sleep in the bed that they made,” Bonta tells Elaine Low in this bonus episode of Ankler Agenda, blasting Paramount for “playing games” and waging a PR campaign while, he says, losing where it matters: in court.
The rupture comes even as Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and several Hollywood guilds have all voiced varying degrees of support for getting the two sides to the table. Does that growing pressure change Bonta’s thinking? “Not at all,” he says.
But Bonta also makes clear that the door isn’t permanently shut. He says he’s ready to resume negotiations if Paramount stops the leaks and comes back in good faith — and, for the first time, gets unusually specific about what a deal might require. Forget the chatter about CNN: Bonta says the news network “is not our focus” and that resolving the states’ antitrust concerns would require some portion of Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery’s combined cable portfolio to be placed under separate ownership.
Bonta also explains why behavioral remedies are a nonstarter, says he hopes Republican attorneys general may still join the case, and dismisses as “meritless” and “silly” a request seeking his correspondence with Mark Ruffalo following backlash over the actor’s criticism of the Paramount deal.
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Hayden Panettiere worked in Hollywood since she was 11 months old, and by the time Heroes made her a household name at 16, she was already navigating the darker side of child stardom. The Wall Street Journal‘s Esther Zuckerman joins Elaine Low to reflect on Panettiere’s life, career and exploitation — including a top NBC exec kissing her on the lips when she was a teenager, and an Oscar winner who exposed himself — and the extreme emotional toll of growing up in front of the camera.
Then, California Attorney General Rob Bonta tells Elainehe is ready to talk to Paramount, a slight shift from his earlier hard-line posture. “Let there be no doubt here, now, or anywhere for any time. It has always been our position that coming to the table is always on the table,” he says, adding, “We prefer to resolve cases in the boardroom instead of the courtroom.”
So what’s stopping them? Bonta accuses Paramount of “playing cute” and mounting a PR campaign instead of offering the structural remedies the state AGs want. He’s equally dismissive of Paramount’s threat to move and request for a $1.9 billion bond: His argument is that Paramount voluntarily agreed to the ticking fee it faces — and now wants California taxpayers to pick up the tab for a problem it created for itself. “It’s revealing the weakness of their position. It looks desperate,” Bonta says. Elaine and Sean McNulty break down her chat with the California AG, as Hollywood guilds plead for resolution and the town lingers in uncertainty.
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“Everyone has dry powder for sports,” Ashley Cullins heard while reporting her recent look at the private equity firms circling Hollywood. It’s a truism Bob Iger and Josh Kushner‘s Thrive Capital proved, buying the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion. But sports is only part of the story. With billions in undeployed capital sitting on the sidelines, where else is private equity looking to spend — and what kinds of Hollywood companies still look attractive amid lofty valuations, delayed exits and fears of an AI bubble? Ashley joins Elaine Low and Sean McNulty to break down the biggest players, the sectors they’re chasing and the deals that could come next — plus the bigger question hanging over all of it: Is private equity actually good for Hollywood?
Plus: David Ellison turns up the pressure in the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery fight, threatening to move the company out of California as Rob Bonta calls it “blackmail” — even as both sides signal there may still be a path to a negotiated settlement.
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It’s been a while since Hollywood has seen a power couple quite like Zendaya and Tom Holland. With Spider-Man: Brand New Dayand The Odyssey, the newlyweds helped drive more than $2 billion (and counting) at the box office this year. What makes them so bankable to Gen Z in a volatile theatrical landscape? And how much does the audience’s parasocial investment in them help sell tickets? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down what each star gets right in an era of fractured attention. Meanwhile: David Ellison breaks his silence! Paramount’s chief took to the New York Times to defend his planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The crew parses what he really means (“Unfortunately, I can’t give anyone a view into my heart and mind”) — and what he’s trying to signal to Hollywood as his company heads to trial in 2027 amid increasingly long odds and states unwilling to show mercy to “kings and oligarchs.”
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What a difference a month makes. With Paramount’s bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery now in limbo, 35,000 Warners staffers have plenty of time to reconsider their options. Could HBO chief Casey Bloys or WBTV head Channing Dungey be tempted by more stable pastures? Is Warners still a haven for top showrunners? As confidence in the deal crumbles, Hollywood is taking sides. (Case in point: Ari Emanuel‘s WSJ op-ed dismissing the state AGs’ lawsuit as “trash.”) The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg joins Elaine Low and Sean McNulty to break down the quiet panic inside WBD, and why anyone senior at the company who hasn’t spoken with David Ellison yet might want to be looking for a new job. Then, Degen Pener pops by to talk about the 4,000 newly minted SpaceX millionaires in L.A. and the luxury real estate they are about to snap up.
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What could Paramount Skydance do to make a dozen attorneys general drop their lawsuit against the Warner Bros. Discovery merger? Sell off CNN? Paramount Pictures? According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta: not much. “We’re not talking about settlement. We’re going to be telling the judge when we want a trial date,” he tells Elaine Low on Friday, shortly after Paramount announced it would delay the merger until June 2027 or until a pair of antitrust lawsuits against it work their way through the courts — whichever comes first. “We’re not going to have oligarchs or kings in the economy,” says Bonta.
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David Ellison may be calling Paramount’s agreement to delay its $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition a “significant win.” Wall Street appears less convinced.
Paramount Skydance shares sank to a new low after the company agreed Friday not to close the deal until the antitrust lawsuits brought by 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America are resolved — or until next June, whichever comes first.
The delay starts an expensive clock. Beginning in October, Paramount must pay WBD shareholders roughly $7 million a day, or about $650 million per quarter, while the acquisition remains unfinished. Even a resolution early next year could cost close to $1 billion. A fight stretching to June would push the bill toward $2 billion — on top of the nearly $80 billion in debt the combined company is already expected to carry.
“The state AGs are clearly making a lot more noise than they probably were expecting,” MoffettNathanson senior analyst Robert Fishman tells Sean McNulty on a special bonus episode of Ankler Agenda.
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Who’s buying Letterboxd? The social media platform, prized for its Gen Z audience and movie fan bona fides, is on the market for a rumored $250 million — with multiple studios circling. Dealmakers columnist Ashley Cullins, who broke the big news of A24 pursuing the platform, joins Elaine Low to reveal the other potential buyers and why the price tag is raising eyebrows, and what other M&A moves could come next — including likely outcomes for Lionsgate and whether Disney might split up a la Comcast-NBCU. Plus: Elaine, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey dissect IMAX’s sudden resurgence as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey keeps the box office in a chokehold – and turns access to premium screens into the summer’s biggest FOMO.
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States, 1. Paramount, 0. The $111 billion Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger has hit its first real wall after a coalition of 12 states won a temporary restraining order blocking the deal. And California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the charge, isn’t interested in helping Paramount find a way around it.
“We love the judge’s order,” Bonta tells Elaine Low in an exclusive interview recorded just hours after the ruling. The decision gives Paramount as many as 28 days to choose among three bad options — settle, fight or walk away — and Bonta argues it has already undercut one of the company’s central defenses: that the merger would help it compete with Netflix, Amazon and Apple, even if it reduces competition in theatrical film and cable. He explains why more states may now join the challenge, what happens at the pivotal preliminary-injunction hearing and whether any concession could persuade him to stand down. His answer, essentially: Don’t merge.
Plus, Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield join Elaine to explain why the deal is no longer inevitable — and whether this is merely a two-week delay or the beginning of the end for Paramount-WBD.
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It’s a bad week for David Ellison, with Paramount Skydance facing two concurrent lawsuits seeking to block its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — plus a shareholder case accusing Ellison and his father, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, of corruption. On Monday, 12 state attorneys general — led by California AG Rob Bonta — filed their long-expected lawsuit, claiming the proposed merger was “unlawful.” On Tuesday, the Writers Guild of America stepped up, saying the combined company “threatens the economic and creative health of the American entertainment industry.” Former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya and WGA West board member Adam Conover join Elaine Low to explain the states’ and WGA’s respective suits — and the harms they see the deal causing to an entertainment industry already under strain. Plus, all good things must come to an end: Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the power ofLove Island USA and the ratings bonanza that is the World Cup.
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Welcome to Netflix’s hard pivot.
Faced with lagging engagement from its users and signs of audience disinterest in some of its top shows between seasons, Netflix’s next big thing might be… cable television. Live channels, more talk shows (via video podcasts) and creator content and bundles with other streamers (including perhaps Peacock) to recreate the lean-back appeal of watching TV on the couch.
Certainly, it’s possible Netflix makes a play for another company — perhaps NBCU now that Comcast has split the film and television studio from its broadband company, or Starz. But Jessica suggests there’s an even better fit for M&A hiding in plain sight: Spotify.
Listen to today’s bonus episode for more from Sean and Jessica on Netflix and the next steps for Paramount, plus hear Sean’s conversation with Fandango’s Shawn Robbins about the weekend box office, where Disney’s live-action Moana added another flop to the summer tally.
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Monoculture may not be dead after all — it just needed Taylor Swift in a wedding dress and Christopher Nolan in IMAX. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down an old-fashioned July of cultural spectacle, from the Swift-Travis Kelce nuptials to Nolan’s star-studded Odyssey, which arrives with sold-out premium-format screenings and billion-dollar expectations. Is this the summer moviegoing comes back? And is Nolan the last director in Hollywood whose name alone can make audiences show up? Plus: hot takes on this week’s Emmy nominations — including big love for Widow’s Bay and another tough year for YouTube’s contenders as they inch into the race.
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Books run on word-of-mouth. So what are the people who shape what gets made, watched, read and bought reading? Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty dig into The Ankler’s inaugural summer reading list, where 100 notables — including Sony Entertainment CEO Ravi Ahuja, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sherry Lansing, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, Netflix film chief Dan Lin, Gillian Anderson and Janelle James — shared the books they’re packing, recommending and obsessing over now. Plus, with every major buyer adapting a glut of novels for the screena — see Elaine’s Series Businesssellers’ guide — the team unpacks why book-based IP is hotter than ever and which major titles are in development.
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Another Monday, another huge deal in Hollywood.
Two weeks ago, Fox Corp. announced its intentions to acquire Roku for $22 billion. Now, it’s Comcast’s turn — in reverse.
Today, the company revealed it will exit Hollywood completely, spinning off another division, consisting of NBCUniversal and Sky Media, as a publicly traded company, and joining Versant outside the Comcast gates.
Comcast hopes to have all this done by summer 2027 – just like Fox and Roku.
On Monday’s special extra-bonus edition of Ankler Agenda, Sean McNulty and Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz dive into the strategy afoot here, how Wall Street is driving the split, and the challenges and opportunities for both companies going forward.
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Oprah flew in to close deals, FOX Entertainment CEO Rob Wade came to talk up his investment in creator-led programming and even the Teletubbies arrived, ready to party. Last week, a cross-section of dealmakers, executives and stars flooded the Croisette for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where the battle between YouTube and Netflix was hotter than France’s record-setting heatwave — and “creator” was the buzzword for the second year in a row. Ankler Media CEO Janice Min and Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey break down who broke through in a week where, as Janice noted, subtlety was not the name of the game. Then, listen to Janice’s full conversation with YouTube chief business officer Mary Ellen Coe and Royal Court host Brittany Broski, where Coe came to the Croisette ready to hit back at Netflix’s podcast poaching with a few choice words, including “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” It’s on!
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Leave it to the U.S. sports-TV machine to turn three-minute hydration breaks at the FIFA World Cup — a new feature to prevent players from collapsing in the heat — into a multimillion-dollar ad opportunity for Fox. With 48 nations competing for global football domination on U.S. soil, the World Cup is a cultural and ratings bonanza, delivering NFL-sized audiences for marquee U.S. matches and proving once again why global soccer is the one sports property that can make even the Super Bowl look local. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Reel AI columnist Erik Barmack break down Fox’s incredible broadcast bargain, Telemundo’s crossover to English-language viewers and whether Netflix could get the rights to the 2030 World Cup. Plus, Natalie Jarvey pops by from the South of France to talk Cannes Lions — the canapés, conversations and the buzz on the ground about the Fox-Roku deal and how fandoms are driving entertainment’s future.
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At Cannes Lions, the exec tells Ankler CEO Janice Min how the hardware behemoth became a streaming empire — 'We really do have almost Super Bowl-size audiences every day' — and makes his first public comments on the Fox acquisition.
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Los Angeles mayoral candidate and Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman is acutely aware of what’s at stake as local Hollywood production craters — 42,000 jobs lost over two years between 2022 and 2024, shoot days down 50 percent below the five-year average. Many of her constituents in District 4, which stretches from the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Monica Mountains, work in the industry — and her husband, Vali Chandrasekaran, is a longtime writer and producer, with credits on television comedies like Modern Family, 30 Rock and Netflix’s The Four Seasons.
Last week, Raman came by the Ankler offices for a conversation with Richard Rushfield about her plan to save the industry, as well as her thoughts about how we got here.
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Would you rather spend $18 billion a year on content like Netflix does, or $22 billion once to buy the remote? That’s the bet Fox Corp. is making with its blockbuster acquisition of hardware and distribution behemoth Roku, a deal that suddenly turns the home of Fox News, Fox Sports, Tubi, cable channels and a broadcast network into one of the most unconventional combatants in the Streaming Wars. While Netflix continues to flex its massive annual content budget, Fox initially sat out the arms race, buying Tubi in 2020, investing in creators, AI-fueled microdrama company Holywater and podcast company Red Seat Ventures. Now, as a combined Tubi-Roku puts Fox behind only YouTube and Netflix in TV viewing share, Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey declare the winners and losers — including what the executive shakeout might look like inside — why Wall Street isn’t fully sold and how this repositions Fox in the entertainment landscape.
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Nothing like a $22 billion deal to start a week, as Fox was revealed as the mystery buyer for the Roku business — furthering Lachlan Murdoch’s company’s diversification from being heavily based in the linear TV ecosystem, to extending strong tentacles in the digital and streaming space.
In this bonus episode of Ankler Agenda, Business Insider columnist and Channels podcast host Peter Kafka joins The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty to dive into the strategy, what this means for Hollywood streamers and more as consolidation continues to ripple across the ecosystem.
Plus, Christopher Rosen joins Sean for a Monday Box Office conversation about the … mixed opening for Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day and what lies ahead, as well as the big drops from opening weekend for Masters of the Universe and Scary Movie — two pictures with vastly different fates at the box office.
And, why Universal will still likely win the summer despite the cloudy outlook for Disclosure Day, and more.
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It’s a deal that would have been unimaginable a decade ago — maybe even two years ago. But last month, motivational speaker and On Purpose host Jay Shetty signed a reported $100 million agreement to move his video podcast exclusively to Netflix and Spotify. In the era of Alex Cooper, Joe Rogan and the Kelce brothers, streamers are battling for podcast talent as the once audio-only medium morphs into the next Hollywood battleground — with Netflix, naturally, upping the ante. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty dive into the rise of podcasting post-Covid and post-strikes, Netflix and Spotify’s pod strategy as a bulwark against YouTube and why streamers are betting that video podcasts are really just the next generation of low-cost talk shows.
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“I would not be feeling good right now if I was sitting in my corner office over at Disney after this weekend,” one source tells Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey about the box office success of Backrooms and Obsession — two movies from popular YouTube creators-turned-filmmakers Kane Parsons and Curry Barker, respectively. Both low-budget breakouts leapfrogged over Star Wars’ The Mandalorian and Grogu last weekend, raising questions about what this unprecedented success says about moviegoing’s future and Gen Z taste. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie dive into the YouTube revolution, then examine the growing disconnect between what Hollywood is saying about AI in public vs. how it’s using it — and how even cinema giants like Martin Scorsese are coming around. (For an inside look at the next gen of horror, listen toNatalie’s conversation at NAB Show with Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear, Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier, and M3GAN writer Akela Cooper.)
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Angelenos are on the clock. The Los Angeles mayoral election is set for June 2, and even those who don’t live in SoCal should pay close attention to the outcome. Hollywood is taking center stage in a way it rarely has before as local production plummets, jobs shrink and frustration ripples through the city. Has Mayor Karen Bass done enough? Could City Councilmember Nithya Raman or former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt(and his surprising donor list) shake things up? Richard Rushfield joins Elaine Low and Natalie Jarvey to break down what each major candidate has said about the film and TV industry and whether anyone at City Hall can save L.A. production. Come for the voters’ guide, stay for Richard’s tale about interning for Mayor Tom Bradley.
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The summer box office is already popping, with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael raking in millions before Memorial Day — and with new movies coming from Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Marvel, Pixar and A24’s youngest director ever, it feels like the industry might have its best summer since 2019. (Even if The Mandalorian and Grogu fails to launch.) Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey make their picks for the season’s biggest hits in Ankler Agenda‘s first-ever summer box office draft (fantasy football-style), as they predict the next top performers of the summer.
Plus: With President Trump voicing support for The Hills alum Spencer Pratt in his run for mayor of Los Angeles — “I’d like to see him do well” — and Pratt gaining ground among the Hollywood elite, the town gets closer to seeing the reality show president push the reality show mayoral candidate to the top (or is it bottom?) of the food chain.
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People still want to be scared out of their minds together, and Atomic Monster president Michael Clear, M3GAN writer Akela Cooper and YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Mark Fischbach (aka Markiplier) are all in the business of giving audiences those thrills. Their conversation, which was moderated by Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey on the Ankler’s Business of Media and Entertainment Stage at NAB Show in April, also highlights how horror is opening new doors into Hollywood. Fischbach details how fan demand helped boost his self-distributed film, Iron Lung, to $50 million at the global box office, while Clear points to more YouTube creators like Backrooms filmmaker Kane Parsons disrupting Hollywood's horror pipeline.
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It’s the end of Upfronts week, better known as Hollywood’s annual pilgrimage to woo Madison Ave. Formerly about broadcast TV schedules, Upfronts has become a showcase for a much stranger, fragmented TV future: creators, podcasts, live sports, live events, movies, dog shows and, yes, lots of AI, the cringe buzzword of the week (and jeez, sorry, scripted). Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the major themes from Disney, Netflix, WBD and others, including top living room streamer YouTube, whose competing Brandcast cast a long shadow over the festivities — and the choices highlighted on rivals’ stages. The gang also crowns the best and worst celeb cameos (Anne Hathaway, Mia Hamm and Matthew Stafford), musical performances (Olivia Rodrigo, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves) and, of course, ad pitches.
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Quarterly earnings season isn’t just MBA word salad. Earnings calls are where Hollywood’s biggest companies tell Wall Street what matters most — and where employees often learn what’s really happening inside their own studios. This week, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount reported earnings, and Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down what the companies are signaling about the future of Hollywood: Disney’s “super app” ambitions, the industry’s AI push, vertical video and what the looming Warner-Paramount merger could mean for the business. Plus: What did new Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro reveal in his first earnings call from the C-suite? And what does Warners have planned as it exits the stage?
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The agency formerly known as Wasserman — made infamous in recent months by founder Casey Wasserman’s flirtatious emails with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell — is up for sale. So who wants it? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Ashley Cullins break down the bidders, the stakes for the representation business and what the multibillion-dollar price tag reveals about the industry — and who has the juice. Plus, Kimmelgate 2.0: The FCC goes after Disney, and Paramount discloses just how foreign-funded a combined Paramount-WBD could be. (Hint: a lot!)
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The entertainment industry’s economic and existential tailspin is playing out on the political stage, as Los Angeles’ mayoral candidates curry favor with the Hollywood set before the June 2 primary. Incumbent Karen Bass, city council member Nithya Raman and former The Hills star Spencer Pratt aren’t wooing the A-list, but the rank-and-file of an industry being squeezed by runaway production. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Ashley Cullins break down the crisis and — finally! — the growing bidding war between California, New York, New Jersey and beyond as states fight to keep film and TV projects in the U.S. Plus, Natalie Jarvey gives us the NAB Show recap, and the crew contemplates what comes next for WarnerMount.
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Everyone talks about taking big swings again, but few Hollywood execs feel like they’re actually in a position to do it — without fearing for their jobs. But former Showtime head Jana Winograde and ex-Warner Bros. Television pres Susan Rovner are greenlighting shows from the backseats of cars and searching for new talent right out of film school, after making the leap from legacy TV to microdramas with aTwist (nee MicroCo), a vertical series app backed by Chris McGurk-led Cineverse and former WME chair Lloyd Braun.
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During Warner Bros.’ supersized CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas, the studio’s sale to Paramount went unmentioned — even as it touted a theatrical slate stretching into 2028. But the contentious merger was impossible to ignore, dominating chatter across the convention floor and even inadvertently pulling The Ankler into the mix thanks to what’s now being dubbed “pin-gate.” Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the drama, along with the biggest takeaways from this year’s theatrical showcase.
Plus, the trio is joined by special guest John August — Big Fish and Corpse Bride screenwriter and co-chair of the WGA West negotiating committee — to go inside the guild’s surprisingly swift deal with the studios. He unpacks the WGA’s divisive bargaining agreement now up for a vote, including major changes to the healthcare plan, and addresses the criticism head-on.
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The tentative deal between the Writers Guild and Hollywood’s major studios has quelled fears of another strike — all while shaking up the major guilds’ contract cycle. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the key terms, including a $321 million infusion into the WGA health plan (alongside higher deductibles and premiums) and a shift to a four-year bargaining agreement rather than the usual three. The deal — and its limited movement on AI — will shape not just the upcoming SAG and DGA negotiations, but the industry’s broader trajectory. Plus, the trio looks at a rare bright spot: box office ticket sales are up 23 percent year over year, fueled by hits like Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Project Hail Mary and other family-friendly fare.
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Sean Penn, puffing away inside the Beverly Hilton at the Golden Globes. Kylie Jenner, with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth, on the cover of Vanity Fair. Nurse Dana, taking a drag on The Pitt. Smoking is back — both IRL and on screen — just as Hollywood’s shrinking career ladder leaves many millennials feeling stuck and a stressed-out Gen Z, inheriting the collapse, searches for connection and release. Editor, writer and former pack-a-day smoker Degen Pener joins Elaine Low and Sean McNulty to explainwhat’s driving young Hollywood workers to light up after talking to young industry workers outside clubs across Los Angeles — and what Gen Xers like him and Sean make of it. Plus, Elaine and Sean debate which generation really has it worse in today’s business — and whether boomers are to blame.
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Silicon Valley was supposed to be satire. In 2026, it plays more like a warning. In a look back on the iconic 2010s HBO comedy, co-creator Mike Judge and exec producer Alec Berg reflect on how “incredibly intentional” they were in making tech startup life feel plausible. But what’s wilder is how close to reality some of their storylines actually got, from AI to the ruthless capitalism of the real-world Silicon Valley. Judge and Berg recall the real-life tech titans who informed the show, the Stanford math professor who helped them construct academically sound dick jokes, and the making of the series' mockumentary-style finale. As Berg puts it: “It’s beyond satire.”
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Casting Taylor Frankie Paul on The Bachelorette was supposed to revive the wilting franchise. Instead, a 2023 video of Paul attacking her ex-boyfriend triggered the meltdown of not one, but two of Disney’s biggest reality shows. Paul’s season of The Bachelorette is now sitting on a shelf, and production on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives — where Paul is a central character — is paused indefinitely. The Ringer’s Juliet Litman, host of the popular Bachelor Party pod, joins Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty to break down how the Paul catastrophe is reshaping the franchise, its fandom and the show’s future prospects. Plus, Lesley Goldberg stops by to unpack Netflix’s new bigger buying spree — and why sources say the streamer may be experiencing a case of “prestige envy.”
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Here’s the irony: Even in the age of streaming, about 85 percent of profits from a merged Paramount Skydance–Warner Bros. Discovery still would come from linear TV, as Sean McNulty points out.
So what do you do with more than two dozen aging cable networks? Spin them off, reinvent them as digital brands or send them to TV’s great dead-brand graveyard in the sky — all while Wall Street watches with a serious stink eye?
Enter March Sadness. Sean, Elaine Low and Natalie Jarvey build a bracket to crown the most valuable Warnermount cable asset, with CNN, HGTV, Nickelodeon, BET and more going head-to-head. Which properties are the No. 1 seeds, and which networks are… MTV2? The answers (and the ratings) might surprise you.
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“It’s a crazy irony that your reward for incredible artistic success in modern Hollywood is that you then get to lay off a bunch of your employees,” Prestige Junkie host Katey Rich tells Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey in the run-up to Sunday’s Oscars, where two Warner Bros. films — Sinners and One Battle After Another — are going head-to-head for best picture right as Paramount Skydance is about to swallow the studio whole. “It really couldn’t be a more perfect metaphor for how backward so many of the industry’s priorities are.”
Speaking of which, The Business of Television author and former head of business affairs at Paramount TV and Amazon Studios, Ken Basin, stops by to chat about the current state of dealmaking in television, how much the Paramount-Warner merger is going to weigh on day-to-day business (“Warners is effectively frozen”), and what Netflix should do with its $2.8 billion breakup fee.
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Talk about whiplash: A week ago, a Netflix–Warner Bros. deal looked likely. Turns out, the winning combo may be… Paramount Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery. (Rolls right off the tongue.) That is — if it survives regulatory scrutiny, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta warning that the merger is “not a done deal.” Still, a swirl of questions remains — all driven by a strategy executives aren’t quite saying out loud: cut billions in costs, merge the streaming platforms (creating clear winners and losers), squeeze what’s left of the cable business for cash and use the scale of a combined studio to survive a rapidly shrinking TV ecosystem. And all that Middle East money? Sure, nothing to see here. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey, Sean McNulty and Lesley Goldberg break it all down.
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Just how much longer can the Netflix vs. Paramount merger madness go on? (Cue the eye rolls.) Paramount made a fresh $31-per-share offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, and WBD’s response — which can be boiled down to “We’re getting there, maybe” — is about as close to coquettish as a corporation can get. Meanwhile, Netflix is not-so-patiently waiting in the wings, as co-CEO Ted Sarandos wraps a weeklong press tour to convince Wall Street and Hollywood that his company’s offer for WBD (which, as he’ll remind you, was already accepted in December) is superior. So what happens now? Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty answer your burning questions about the whole saga and read between the lines of Sarandos’ press offensive.
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What are the odds of another Hollywood strike in 2026? The answer to who has more leverage — the guilds or the studios — may surprise you. With AI, healthcare and streaming again on the bargaining table just three short years after the writers and actors strikes shuttered the town — Elaine Low, Sean McNulty, Natalie Jarvey and Dealmakers columnist Ashley Cullins discuss the talks between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Plus, who might buy Casey Wasserman’s namesake agency after his tawdry email exchanges with Ghislaine Maxwell came to light and blew up his empire? The team has some ideas.
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Nearly 20 years ago, Spencer Pratt became reality TV infamous on the cover of Us Weekly. In this bonus episode, he sat down with Ankler Media CEO and editor-in-chief Janice Min — the editor who once put him there — to talk about his run for mayor of Los Angeles. Pratt calls Gavin Newsom a “demon” and a “reality star in charge of everything failing.” He slams the city’s response to the 2025 wildfires, argues L.A. isn’t ready for the Olympics — “not even ready for a USC game," claims he already has a Day One “blacklist” of city officials he’d fire and has sharp words for Hollywood unions and the CEOs who run the studios. It’s classic Pratt for those who first met him on MTV's The Hills: provocative, theatrical, and strategically aware of the spotlight. But it’s also a reminder that the machinery of fame and the machinery of politics are now fully intertwined.
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“So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?” Casey Wasserman — founder of the Wasserman Agency, chair of the LA28 Olympic Committee, and grandson of Hollywood founding father Lew Wasserman — wrote in a 2003 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, later convicted of sex trafficking minors. The message is one of several exchanges included in the millions of documents released by the Justice Department as part of the Epstein files — and it has thrown one of the industry’s most connected executives into crisis. Chappell Roan and Abby Wambach publicly cut ties with Wasserman this week, with others threatening to follow.
But he’s not the only major player to appear in the Epstein email archive, as journalist and author Allen Salkin found out. Still, the bigger story may be what the cache reveals about the clubby worlds of media and entertainment, industries built on proximity — who gets invited to the dinner, who makes the introduction, who vouches for whom. Salkin joins Elaine Low and Natalie Jarvey to unpack the boldface names surfacing in the files and what their presence — whether incidental, transactional, or something more — says about the networks that drive the entertainment business. Plus, Sean McNulty breaks down the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics ratings, and Paramount’s latest sweetened bid for Warner Bros.
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Bell Media President Sean Cohan tells The Ankler’s Elaine Low onstage at NATPE Global/Realscreen Summit in Miami about the pitch process for ‘Heated Rivalry,’ how the show’s creators protected its Canadian authenticity and why so many viewers are “reheating” (aka rewatching) the gay hockey drama. He also charts the growth of Bell-owned Canadian streamer Crave and takes a contrarian view on Hollywood consolidation, including the Netflix-Warner Bros. tie-up. “We run as an industry to a ‘sky is falling’ kind of a place,” Cohan says. While big mergers have undeniably harsh consequences, they also open “lanes of opportunity.” He adds. “It'll be a great time for entrepreneurship, because these distracted, big, lumbering giants are going to get a little slower.”
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Disney finally did it: Bob Iger has a successor. Parks chief Josh D’Amaro is taking the throne, with runner-up Dana Walden annexing more territory at the Mouse House (and earning a higher base salary than her new boss). Everyone in TV and film knows Walden, but who is D’Amaro? And what does this new era of Disney actually look like? Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty read between the lines and lay out the challenges facing D’Amaro on Day One. Then, Lesley Goldberg joins to share her reporting on Walden’s new remit, while theme park journalist Carlye Wisel discusses D’Amaro’s impact on the parks business. Plus, Matthew Frank is back with a look at the prediction markets ahead of perhaps the biggest sports betting day of the year: the Super Bowl.
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'MeidasTouch' podcaster and progressive media exec Ben Meiselas joins Like & Subscribe's Natalie Jarvey for a fiery discussion of the risks and new rules for American journalists as they report in U.S. cities “that look and feel like Fallujah” and work to cover "a regime that is hell-bent on retribution and instilling fear." Meiselas also reveals his close ties with Don Lemon, now facing federal charges in connection with his coverage of a Minnesota anti-ICE protest, and why he sees the "weaponization" of the U.S. Department of Justice faltering. As Meiselas’ podcast sees explosive growth, he argues that legacy news has lost the plot and audiences — "people who feel, who are struggling, who are being left behind" — and shares the strategy to keep building his independent media empire.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger is ready to abdicate the throne. Again. Six years after Iger first stepped down as CEO, and 38 months after he regained control of Disney following Bob Chapek’s disastrous two-year stretch, the succession planning committee is expected to announce the winner in “early 2026,” aka now. (Cue the Succession theme.) But even as the frontrunners have remained the same — it’s still a presumed two-horse race between Disney Parks head Josh D’Amaro and Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden — the world has rapidly changed. Disney has to contend with AI, a behemoth rival in a merged Netflix-Warner Bros., and a charged political environment. Which of these heavyweights lands the TKO? Would co-CEOs, à la Netflix, make sense? Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty break it all down ahead of Disney’s next earnings call.
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Meryl, Leo, Scarlett, Zendaya — every generation produces its breakout stars. But minting the next one has never been harder amid the collapse of monoculture and the rise of social media. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey predict the top stars of 2026, share behind-the-scenes insights from the casting directors of Heated Rivalry on how they found Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie and that pivotal chemistry test, and explain how Snap is building a path to success for creators. Plus: The latest on the WBD-Netflix merger saga (now with all-cash!), and Matthew Frank’s update on his Netflix earnings call and talk-show bets on the prediction markets.
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Nothing stirred more outrage at the Golden Globes than the integration of prediction market (read: betting platform) Polymarket in the telecast — Katey Rich called it “incredibly tacky,” and Richard Rushfield argued the show “milked opportunities for clickbait and cash grabs into the show like a BuzzFeed headline writer circa 12 years ago.” After years of harmless live-voting on American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, is betting the next frontier of interactive TV? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey trace the history of entertainment gamification — and the money now pouring in (see: Amazon and FanDuel’s NBA deal). Plus, an inside look at the first-ever Ankler Invitational, Elaine’s smashing new tennis event.
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One year after the L.A. fires and three years after the strikes — with another round of labor drama looming — it can feel like every creative you know is fleeing Hollywood. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty, and Natalie Jarvey dig into the actual data behind a yes, very real L.A. exodus — but separate panic, perception and think-piece fuel from reality. Then, MoviePass is back — this time as a predictions market. Matthew Frank risks $1,000 of The Ankler’s own money to explain how prediction markets work in 2026, why they’re called a “degenerate economy” and how you can bet on everything from Oscar categories and the ceremony itself (including the monologue) to what show will be #1 on Netflix.
Plus: Richard Rushfield lays out the six fronts that will decide whether 2026 is Hollywood’s comeback year — or the start of its final slide.
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Which business trends are giving the Ankler crew hope in the New Year? Is the 2023 writers’ strike responsible for the current shaky entertainment economy? What streaming service would Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey bring back from the dead? (Spoiler alert: no one picked Go90.) You sent in your most burning questions for Ankler Agenda’s last episode of the year, and the gang delivers. This may be the first mailbag episode, but it’s not the last — send in your questions any time of year at podcasts@theankler.com.
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Netflix, YouTube, horny hockey hunks — even amid rough economic terrain this year, these industry standouts and more not only survived through ’25, but thrived. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey are joined by a cavalcade of Ankler’s best — including Katey Rich, Lesley Goldberg, Matthew Frank and Ankler Agenda executive producer Shana Naomi Krochmal — to share their winners of the year, as well as the unfortunate losers. (Sorry, but if you’re reading this, Sean has you on the list — and he’s brought receipts.)
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In a year when creators surged fully into the mainstream, ICYMI’s Lia Haberman joins Like & Subscribe's Natalie Jarvey for a Substack Live recap of the biggest highs and lows of 2025. From MrBeast going Hollywood to Ms. Rachel landing on Netflix, plus podcasts turning into video shows and YouTube cementing itself as television, they break down what changed, and what those shifts mean for the creator economy going into 2026. Natalie and Lia also hand out totally fake (but very fun) awards to the people, trends, and storylines that defined the year. And because looking back means being honest, they also dig into stunts and terms they want to leave behind in 2025.
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Some guys can’t take a hint. After half a dozen proposals and a hostile bid, Paramount Skydance got a definitive “no means no” from Warner Bros. Discovery’s board this week. Elaine Low and Sean McNulty break down how the tables turned on suitor PSKY, what this means for the timeline of a Netflix-Warner Bros. merger and the wild payouts David Zaslav and the WBD C-suite are getting regardless of what happens. (Contraction, schmontraction.) Then, Erik Barmack unpacks Disney’s $1B investment in OpenAI, Bob Iger’s claim that the deal poses “no threat to creatives,” and what it really means when 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters can now be remixed into user-generated Sora videos.
Plus: Richard Rushfield on the tragic murders of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
Want to be featured in a future mailbag episode? Send your questions to podcasts@theankler.com!
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Prestige Junkie's Katey Rich and Natalie Jarvey jumped on Substack Live to discuss why the Academy struck a deal with YouTube to air the Oscars, who might win the most in this deal, and what kind of changes we might expect for the Oscars going forward.
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Richard Rushfield, Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen taped a special Prestige Junkie episode to discuss what Richard rightly hailed as Rob Reiner's “towering career of a towering presence” in the industry. From his early days as a sitcom star on All in the Family to his remarkable 12-year run of feature films, starting with 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap and ending with 1996’s The American President — with 1986’s Stand By Me, 1987’s The Princess Bride and 1989’s When Harry Met Sally among those in between — Reiner influenced a generation.
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Creator and actor Noah Beck and Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles join Natalie Jarvey to break down how athletes are building fandom — and entire careers — beyond the field. From NIL to fashion to acting, they share how they navigate social media pressure, pursue new opportunities, and stay competitive while staying themselves. Subscribe to Like and Subscribe for more conversations like these: likeandsubscribenews.substack.com
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Like sand through the hourglass, so are the mergers of our lives. With the Warner Bros. board now in a 10-day window to respond to Paramount’s newly hostile counteroffer, Hollywood is nearly guaranteed to be mired in this soap-operatic saga for months to come. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the latest — including the introduction of Jared Kushner and Middle East money as the majority financial backing of the new Paramount bid, how the industry and unions are looking to fight off this merger (and whether public sentiment matters), and the likely chill this is going to have on the day-to-day business of television and film until there’s resolution. Plus, Katey Rich offers the lay of the land now that Golden Globes nominations are out: who got snubbed, who got some love and how a combined HBO-Netflix would dominate awards season.
And don't forget to take The Ankler's Hollywood in 2026 survey here!
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WGA West president Michele Mulroney has a message for Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav: “We want there to be consideration of industry workers in these conversations… We don’t believe it was inevitable that Warner Bros. needed to be sold.” The guild leader sat down with Elaine Low on Monday morning as the town was still digesting the news of Netflix’s winning $82.7 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. studio and streaming assets, not to mention the fresh shock of Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery.
In looking at the impact of past mergers (Disney-Fox, Warner Bros.-Discovery, etc.) on writers, Mulroney says, “We sadly know how this movie ends,” and that the Disney-Fox merger didn’t increase employment or content production among writers. “We are doing a lot of advocacy at the congressional level and with attorneys general to outline what we see as the dangers for our industry, and for the wider, wider economy of the U.S., and they are hearing us.” Guild leaders urge members also to reach out to their elected officials about their concerns — and to lean into their creativity to navigate the current challenges. “This is a time to dig deep and be entrepreneurial where you can try and make things happen for yourself, rather than waiting around,” Mulroney says.
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Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey, Sean McNulty and Lesley Goldberg all gathered Friday morning for a special live episode of Ankler Agenda to break down the repercussions of potentially the most significant piece of show business news this decade: Netflix's acquisition of Warner Bros. Top-line concerns include:
“Everybody is just shell-shocked,” Elaine said of the calls and texts she fielded all day. “The main reaction that I’ve been getting is that people are scared. People are nervous.”
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One studio to rule them all and in the darkness bind them: Netflix, Paramount Skydance and Comcast have submitted new bids to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, part or parcel. One’s got cash (Netflix), another’s got Saudi money (PSKY), but the question is: Who needs whom more? And which studio exec would be most palatable to the town as the new head of Warner Bros.’ TV and film studios — Ted Sarandos, David Ellison or Donna Langley? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey suss out the latest (binding) bids for WBD and which combos make the most sense for the studios and for the health of Hollywood. Plus, the battle between idealistic Patreon and heavy-hitter Substack for writers and creators, and Richard Rushfield’s take on why anyone but a Hollywood studio should buy WBD.
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After ignoring weeks of theatrical disappointments, moviegoers fell under the spell of Wicked: For Good last weekend to the tune of almost $150 million in North America. Who does the industry have to thank for that total? Women, who made up 70 percent of the opening audience. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey examine how the fairer sex have been largely underserved at the box office this year, while Vanity Fair’s all-bro Hollywood cover boys like Glen Powell (The Running Man) and Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere) struggled to pull their weight as movie stars. Plus, Prestige Junkie’s Katey Rich lays out the key storylines as the Oscar race heats up — including what she’s hearing from voters (nope, they still haven’t seen all the movies) and why Warner Bros. is sitting pretty with best picture frontrunners One Battle After Another and Sinners.
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How long before Warner Bros. becomes another studio swallowed up by David Ellison? With final bids for WBD due this week, all eyes remain on Paramount Skydance — despite the Comcast and Netflix red herrings. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down why a Paramount–Warners mash-up now feels less like speculation and more like destiny. Then Richard Rushfield reveals the whispers starting to circulate within the creative community about Ellison’s cozy ties to Donald Trumpand how it might push back. Plus: As Disney becomes a luxury brand and even monthly streaming bills seem like an extravagance, has the middle-class been priced out of entertainment?
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In this special bonus Ankler Agenda episode, Richard Rushfield chats with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy about their journey to Warners, their record-breaking year at the box office and why their strategy paid off on hits from ‘Sinners’ to ‘Superman’ — all in the face of relentless negative headlines about their bold and risk-taking slate. With a combined 70 years of making movies, these two have seen it all — hits and flops, unexpected wins and surprising losses. But even now, with so many signs pointing to the contrary — and the fate of their studio in doubt, as it's officially up for sale — they both retain a sense of hope and wonder for the best that Hollywood can be.
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Hollywood had its eyes on Web Summit Lisbon this week — where Tilly Norwood creator Eline van der Velden joined Ankler Media EIC Janice Min to showcase her AI “actress.” But Wild Sheep Content CEO Erik Barmack, our Reel AI columnist, tells Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey that the fixation on Tilly misses the far more consequential story: the unmistakable warning signs of AI’s encroachment and the decades of strategic drift that have left Hollywood uniquely exposed to Big Tech’s ambitions. Which jobs remain genuinely AI-proof? Which ones are already dissolving beneath us? And what does it mean for a creative economy when the apprenticeship ladder that produces future writers, directors and executives is sawed off at the base? Barmack offers a rigorous, unsentimental map of a crisis now unfolding faster, and more decisively, than the town wants to acknowledge. Plus: David Ellison hosts Paramount Skydance’s debut on Wall Street, and Richard Rushfield charts the steady disappearance of dramatic films from America’s movie screens.
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Election Day had New York City’s Gen Z cheering in the streets as proud socialist Zohran Mamdani crushed the Democratic establishment (in the form of disgraced state governor-turned-flop independent candidate Andrew Cuomo) in the mayoral race. But as election results from New York, New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere poured in Tuesday night, who was really watching TV? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey examine the rising tide of “newsfluencers” trumping old-school cable news as viewers get older (average age: 70-72), MSNBC becomes MS Now, and trust in media plummets. Then, Lachlan Cartwright of buzzy media newsletter Breaker joins with to relay his scoops about new CBS News chief Bari Weiss: her beefy bodyguards, the (surprisingly!) hopping NYC election night party hosted by Bari’s The Free Press and what’s actually happening inside the halls of CBS News. Plus: Richard Rushfield on the dire state of diversity in Hollywood’s film director ranks.
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Thousands of jobs lost at Paramount Skydance and Amazon, quiet panic on the Warner Bros. Discovery lot, shoot days in L.A. on a continued decline — all while streaming churn, anecdotally, is becoming worse than ever as subscription prices skyrocket. As Hollywood embraced the most terrifying part of the industry during Halloween week — mass layoffs — Ankler Agenda host Elaine Low, along with Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey,take a look at the local economic indicators and how many are pointing south as we barrel toward next year. Then, to celebrate our big flagship podcast rebrand as Ankler Agenda, Richard Rushfield debuts his new weekly segment, Rushfield’s Rant, and rings the alarm about the grim reality facing female directors.
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This Thursday, "The Ankler Podcast" relaunches as "Ankler Agenda," hosted by Elaine Low. Elaine, author of Ankler Media’s popular “Series Business” newsletter, will be joined weekly by her Ankler colleagues Sean McNulty, Natalie Jarvey and Richard Rushfield, in addition to a variety of expert guests, to break down the headlines, trends and creativity shaping the evolution of Hollywood, the creator economy and entertainment. Episodes will also be available every Thursday on YouTube.
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Another week, another industry-warping Hollywood shake-up. As Warner Bros. Discovery plants a “For Sale” sign in its yard, a Streaming Wars endgame is being unleashed. Is the billionaire class going to snap its fingers, Thanos-style, and squeeze the number of major studios through another round of M&A? Or is salvation coming instead for a storied studio? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down which suitors make sense, why a Paramount-Warner Bros. mashup would become the rival Netflix has never had, and which assets are most enticing, fantasy-draft style. Plus: Richard Rushfield stops by to weigh in on Zazpocalypse Now.
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A show filmed in real time, airing almost daily, and pulling in billions of viewing minutes a week? Prestige TV could never. But Love Island USA and other reality juggernauts are proving America is enamored again with the once declining genre. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty break down the market forces leading to this TV plot twist worthy of The Traitors: the genres working, what Netflix has to do with it and why it’s thriving when scripted isn’t.
Plus: Ankler writer Matthew Frank joins to preview Crowd Pleaser, our upcoming Letterboxd collaboration, and his ambitious plan to visit more than 50 movie theaters across the country in just two weeks. And Elaine and Natalie unpack what SAG-AFTRA’s new microdrama contract could mean for the booming world of vertical video.
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The strangest thing about the new iteration of ChatGPT? The sudden and full-throated embrace by once-squeamish execs and writers, says Reel AI columnist Erik Barmick (just ask around about the “GPT-5 pass”). Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey dig into how writers and producers are using GPT-5, which jobs likely will vanish, and how guilds are gearing up for the next AI fight (after missing on the last agreement). Then, Lesley Goldberg joins to reveal the 10 most influential showrunners right now, according to top execs and agents, and the surprising names who didn’t make the cut.
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Forget the government shutdown — President Trump is back to targeting entertainment, from YouTube’s $24.5 million settlement with him to a floated “100 percent tariff” on foreign-made films. Host Elaine Low, Sean McNulty, and Natalie Jarvey parse what a “Made in America” movie even is anymore, while Gen Z correspondent Matthew Frank (writer of our coming Crowd Pleaser newsletter about audience), unpacks how under-25s are actually discovering shows in the fast-twitch age of clips and feeds. And finally: Taylor Swift takes on Leonardo DiCaprio and Dwayne Johnson at the box office, exposing the industry’s Gen Z blind spot in real time.
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Six days. That’s all it took for Jimmy Kimmel to be yanked off the air by Disney under FCC pressure — and then rushed back after Hollywood revolted. Now Trump is circling, affiliates are defying ABC in a game of chicken, and Disney’s succession drama involving negotiators Dana Walden and Bob Iger is suddenly back in the spotlight. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty, Natalie Jarvey, and Richard Rushfield unpack the week that shook late night — and what it means for free speech, politics and the future of Hollywood. And no, this is nowhere close to being over.
For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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Late on Sept. 17, the news broke: Disney’s Bob Iger made the decision to “indefinitely” suspend one of its marquee stars, Jimmy Kimmel of Jimmy Kimmel Live! from ABC. The news followed FCC chair Brendan Carr’s suggestion that the federal agency would move against the company if its leadership didn’t take action against the host’s remarks about Charlie Kirk. In this emergency pod, host Elaine Low is is joined by a rotation of our best and brightest to break down the shocking news and its chilling aftermath: Sean McNulty on Nexstar and Sinclair’s decision to not air Jimmy Kimmel Live on affiliate stations; Lesley Goldberg with a play-by-play on Disney’s decision to pull Kimmel off ABC; Katey Rich on the historical precedent and impact to the creative community; and Natalie Jarvey on how political creators on YouTube and elsewhere might react.
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There’s a multibillion-dollar business growing right under Hollywood’s nose: microdramas, those soapy, 60-second episodes Gen Z binges on their phones with storylines that can sound like bad 'Twilight' fan-fiction. Vertical dramas are a booming market in China, and now entertainment vets stateside like Lloyd Braun and Susan Rovner are getting in on the action. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty tackle the big questions for the micro-curious: How seriously should Netflix view microdramas as a rival? Can anyone actually make a profit? And will it take household names to make them succeed — or is this another Quibi-in-waiting? Plus, Richard Rushfield makes his glorious return to the podcast with tales of TIFF: the best films, the Criterion Closet and his all-important Sydney Sweeney selfie.
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From Telluride mountaintops to Toronto’s Tim Hortons, awards season is officially here. Before jetting to TIFF, Prestige Junkie’s Katey Rich joined Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey to dissect the quirks of each fest and how they influence not just Oscar voters but box office, too. Plus: the crew autopsies a limp summer box office that fell behind last year, and looks ahead to whether Nolan, Spider-Man, Baby Yoda and even the Minions can save summer 2026 — or if movies are still stuck in a death spiral.
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And here you thought Hollywood might coast into Labor Day. Instead, summer’s final days delivered both the inevitable — Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement — and the unexpected: Netflix OG veteran Peter Friedlander’s exit after 14 years. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty break down the business stakes of both before running through the five biggest stories of the summer you need to know into the fall, from the ongoing rise of microdramas to Paramount’s high-stakes reboot with Cindy Holland, to Gen X as Hollywood’s Rodney Dangerfield generation.
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Comedies, dramas, animation and reality may be Hollywood’s bread and butter, but when it comes to what Americans actually watch the most, it’s live sports — and now, an avalanche of shoulder programming to support it. As ESPN, NBCU and Amazon spend $76 billion on NBA games alone over the next 11 years, Manningcast spawns imitators and sports docs and series eat up space once reserved for scripted, Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey reveal the aftershocks to traditional TV (hint: grab the hot dogs and peanuts). Then Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins dives into the wild state of entertainment M&A right now, including why insiders are hyped about Hailey Bieber’s $1 billion Rhode sale, and what they’re saying about investors’ sudden interest in management companies, who’ll win the old media Hunger Games, and what in the world happens with Lionsgate.
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It’s the end of an era — again — as the surprise finale of And Just Like That has fans bidding farewell (once more) to Carrie Bradshaw & Co. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey share their takes on the messy send-off (spoiler warnings!), and why Hollywood romance isn’t going away like Aidan just yet. In fact, the once-dormant rom-com is in the midst of a 2025 shopping spree, with Netflix, Amazon and others stocking up on meet-cutes to satisfy comfort-craving audiences. The team unpacks what the divisive Sex and the City spinoff says about the market, the genre’s economic appeal, and the next gen of rom-coms headed for your queue. Plus: They go inside Hollywood’s big four agencies’ war to rep digital creators like MrBeast, Alix Earle and Addison Rae, and the brutally honest scoop on whom digital stars choose (and don’t) when internet fame tips into “call my agent” territory.
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Brad Pitt, fast cars and Expensify receipt management software logos: Three things that go great together… when you’re shoring up millions to fund your F1 movie. On this week’s episode, Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins breaks down how ad viewing is down but brand spending is up in hits from F1 to Superman to Jurassic World Rebirth in ways that go far beyond the usual logo slap: They’re narrative tie-ins where the ad is part of the story (host Elaine Low likens it to “hiding the pill in the peanut butter” for dogs, though, yes, Superman’s mutt, Krypto, hawks Milk-Bones). Plus: Elaine, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey unravel Disney’s latest moves — including a farewell to the Hulu app, a hello to ESPN’s standalone streamer and other shakeups from the company’s mic drop earnings call.
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After just three years, the newlyweds known as Warner Bros. Discovery are headed for splitsville. Who gets the house? The dog? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down the Hollywood divorce — including the surprising answer to which new company (Warner Bros. or Discovery Global) is making more money, why the film studio is laying off staff after a blockbuster summer, and what happens next. Then, the gang bops to the soundtrack from KPop Demon Hunters and dives into how this unexpected Netflix hit rewrote the rules for animation, fandom, and original IP — and why its lack of A-list stars should send a shudder down Hollywood’s spine.
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What do Stephen Colbert and an entire generation of Hollywood veterans have in common? They're both facing abrupt career disruption. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey explore the existential crisis facing Gen X, as careers stall out amid consolidation, AI and a Boomer blockade — and reveal what’s coming next for millennials. Then, Lesley Goldberg breaks down the shocking cancellation of The Late Show, revealed days after a $16 million Paramount settlement with President Trump. Was the ouster of late night’s highest-rated star really just a matter of money? And why didn’t his manager tell him about it for weeks? Plus: Sean checks in on summer box office, where The Fantastic Four is about to face the audience.
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Elaine Low and Lesley Goldberg dive into the world’s biggest media swap meet about to start: the great cable TV sell-off. They reveal who’s selling the declining assets, who’s actually buying them and why. Elaine is also joined by Natalie Jarvey, Sean McNulty and Katey Rich, who keep score of the recent Emmy noms including the triumphs, snubs and why, despite heavy campaigning, YouTube couldn’t get voters to “like” them. Also, the team breaks down Superman’s opening weekend and its impact on the summer box office.
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As the Paramount–Skydance merger lurches toward an Oct. 4 deadline, Elaine Low, Sean McNulty, Lesley Goldberg and Ashley Cullins break down the latest on who’s in, who’s out, what Cindy Holland will do when she takes creative control of Paramount+ as expected, and Hollywood buzz about “New Paramount”: Who’s actually buying shows and who’s riding out the clock, and what the new org chart and spin-offs will look like. Plus: is a Peacock–Paramount+ hookup still on the table, is Skydance really calling the shots, and can any streamer survive without merging?
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We kick off this holiday weekend on The Ankler Podcast with Matthew Frank exposing a rebellion brewing in film schools, where young cinephiles are shunning AI, while their mentors encourage them to embrace the new technology. Later, Sean McNulty breaks down the box office battles this July 4th, with Jurassic World Rebirth trying to take pole position away from Brad Pitt’s F1. But the real bombshell? Lesley Goldberg’s exclusive scoop: Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us games and the Emmy Award-winning HBO series, is abandoning the TV adaptation ahead of season three. Lesley, Elaine Low and Natalie Jarvey dissect how Druckmann helped shape The Last of Us, why he’s leaving now, and where that leaves the show and co-creator Craig Mazin ahead of its next chapter.
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This week: Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey unpack a wave of moves shaking up Hollywood. First, the team dissect Spotify’s latest push into video, including a leaked pitch deck showing the platform’s aggressive play to lure creators from YouTube — and what it means for the future of podcasts, revenue models, and digital windowing. Then, six months after the L.A. fires. Elaine talks to Nicole LaPorte about her wrenching interviews with the displaced from Hollywood, now struggling, surviving and rebuilding. Then: the California legislature signed off on a $750 million tax incentive expansion for film and TV production. What’s in the deal, who benefits, and will it really bring jobs back to the state? Plus: a look at the summer box office’s first big flop: Pixar’s Elio, and if Brad Pitt’s F1 can defy the haters.
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Live from Cannes Lions, Like & Subscribe editor Natalie Jarvey interviews creator Josh Richards and CrossCheck Studios CEO Chris Sawtelle about building a Gen Z media empire on the back of TikTok stardom. “I don’t mean to be dramatic here, but broadcast television is dead,” Sawtelle, a former ICM agent, said to a packed crowd at ADWEEK House at Le Majestic Hotel. These days, reaching young audiences means partnering with creators like Richards, who talked about how he helped Amazon drum up excitement for Thursday Night Football and is developing series aimed at Gen Z. Other highlights: Richards’ plan for outlasting his 15 minutes of social media fame ("You'll get lightning in a bottle, but you don't know how long you're gonna be able to hold that there"), how he's building his own IP and the investment advice Ashton Kutcher gave him.
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On the ground at Cannes Lions, Janice Min and Natalie Jarvey join Elaine Low to break down the big Rumble(s) on the Riviera. First up: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan fired back at Netflix's Ted Sarandos in Janice’s newsmaking interview (come for the fight, stay for the sports, pod and AI talk); then it was all those creators stealing the thunder (and money) from traditional celebrities as they sped-dated with brands amid a historical shift in ad spend. Plus: Is “authenticity” the most overused word of the era?; a spicy moment onstage with Alex Cooper; and Amazon and Netflix go back to TV basics.
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In the final edition of this season’s Hollywood Stories, Richard Rushfield got to talk about "The Traitors"— a show of which he is an unapologetic superfan — with executive producer Mike Cotton, the man who brought it to both the U.K. and U.S. Originally a Dutch format, Traitors landed in Cotton’s hands when he snapped up the rights and then “took that idea and helped supersize it for a U.K. and U.S. audience,” as he puts it. Cotton shares how the show’s contestants get sucked into the game, why his team takes a “hands-off approach” to let the drama develop — and what might lie ahead for Peacock’s breakout hit. “What I love about this show is it’s a really rich world,” Cotton says. “We can take inspiration from murder mysteries, from thrillers, from horror movies, and we’re constantly thinking of what we can do different.”
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Live from Cannes Lions, Ankler Media CEO Janice Min hosts a rollicking, wide-ranging conversation with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan about the platform’s growing dominance — both on TV screens and across culture — as ad dollars and audience swing decisively toward creators and away from traditional entertainment. Now that YouTube claims a larger share of TV viewership than Netflix, Mohan responds to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ swipe that YouTube is for “killing time” while Netflix is for “spending time.” “Who am I to say what’s spending time, engaging time, quality time, killing time?” Mohan told a packed audience at ADWEEK House. “It’s all of us as consumers — the 2 billion people that come to YouTube every single day — we get to decide how to spend our time.” (YouTube Originals shut down in 2022 before Mohan took the CEO seat.) Other highlights: Mohan answers whether YouTube’s reported $2 billion per year NFL Sunday Ticket deal is paying off; teases plans for global sports rights expansion; and breaks down how the company has quietly captured massive podcast market share from Apple and Spotify. And stick around until the end — for his final swipe back at Netflix.
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Green shoots are rare in Hollywood these days, but some writers and actors are cashing six-figure checks in a format as questionable as its new Luigi Mangione series. Welcome to the world of microdramas: 60-second, phone-first serialized soap operas. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey unpack the sudden rise of white-hot vertical series. How is it not a punchline like Quibi? And what does it say about the other dreaded Q-word holding back Hollywood: quality? Plus, Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins joins with a scoop on Apple’s new competitive performance-based pay model — and why Jon Hamm is competing with... Jon Hamm.
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In this week’s Hollywood Stories, Richard Rushfield sits down with TV comedy legend Nell Scovell — creator of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and writer for everything from The Simpsons to Late Night with David Letterman.
Before breaking into TV, Scovell sharpened her voice at Spy and Vanity Fair, where editors Kurt Andersen and Graydon Carter taught her to “be funnier, go harder, be meaner.” She shares how she defied her agent to leave Vanity Fair and dive into the boys’ club of TV writers rooms, a dynamic she was still battling decades later — even on The Muppets in the 2010s.
She also opens up about her sharp, hilarious memoir Just the Funny Parts, which she jokes she really wanted to title, “Penis, Penis, Penis, Penis, Me, Penis.” (Scovell: "It would have sold more.") Richard calls it “one of the best memoirs of working in television I’ve ever read.”
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In this bonus episode of The Ankler podcast, the second of two recorded live on May 18 at L.A.'s DGA Theater, The Ankler and the Directors Guild of America bring you a series of insightful and memorable conversations — presented by Threads — about the art of directing for television. You’ll hear Lesley Goldberg’s interview with Liz Garbus, who directed the pilot and the pivotal fifth episode of Hulu’s limited series “Good American Family,” and Elaine Low’s conversation with Jessica Lee Gagné, who made her directing debut on the second season of Apple TV+’s “Severance.” Katey Rich leads two Q&As — one with DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter, who helmed all six episodes of Netflix’s political thriller “Zero Day,” and a second with Damian Marcano and Amanda Marsalis, who each directed four episodes of HBO Max’s medical drama “The Pitt.” In addition to unpacking their process and craft, these five pros also share advice with the live audience about how to build a career as a director. “Be very drunk in yourself,” Marcano tells the crowd. “Don’t rob us of what you have to offer.”
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In this bonus episode of The Ankler podcast, recorded live on May 18 at L.A.'s DGA Theater, The Ankler and the Directors Guild of America bring you a series of funny and memorable conversations — presented by Threads — about the art of directing for television. Lesley Goldberg interviewed Alethea Jones, who helmed the pilot for ABC freshman hit “High Potential”; Elaine Low spoke with Yana Gorskaya of FX's “What We Do in the Shadows”; and Katey Rich sat with Lucia Aniello of “Hacks” (who’s also co-showrunner of the HBO Max comedy). Despite the often loose tones of their shows, each of the directors emphasized the extensive prep on their end that’s required to make the storytelling work. “I write a novel on every episode of television I have ever done,” Gorskaya admits, “that tracks every character's wants, needs, desires, where we've been — and where we’re going.”
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L.A. may have lost its crown as the world’s production capital, but it’s still sitting on 8 million square feet of sound stages. So what to do with all that excess space? Think bar mitzvahs, weddings, YouTubers and cover shoots. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey explore how L.A.’s sound stages are the new dead malls and what that means for the future of production in LA., and who’s still filming locally (shoutout to Abbott Elementary and Grey’s Anatomy). Plus: What new layoffs at Disney and WBD mean.
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In this episode of Hollywood Stories: Tales From Television, Richard Rushfield takes us back to the heyday of the original “American Idol” in the aughts and early 2010s, when the Fox juggernaut dominated conversation everywhere from “Howard Stern” to the “Today” show and produced megastars like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. But there was one powerful figure behind the scenes whose quiet devotion touched future superstars from Katharine McPhee to Jordin Sparks: Pastor Leesa Bellesi. Through her American Idol Ministry, Bellesi not only prayed for the success of these contestants, but she also helped them and their families navigate the harsh spotlight of sudden fame that glared upon even the ones who didn't make it far. Richard chronicled Bellisi’s incredible journey in his 2011 book, “American Idol: The Untold Story,” and now, more than two decades later, they revisit it together as she recalls her spiritual connection with the show and its stars — from the Bible passage that bonded her with McPhee to a fateful prayer circle with judge Paula Abdul. "It was such a God thing," she tells Richard. "The prayers that I prayed in that room are living themselves out still to this day."
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Big-name agents haven’t been this bullish on indie film in years, while Marvel can barely crack $450 million per movie. So what’s changed? Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins joins Elaine Low and Sean McNulty to dissect why optimism surged out of Cannes, and how Mubi, fresh off a splashy $24 million acquisition for Jennifer Lawrence’s latest, is viewed as a market signal. Meanwhile, Sean weighs the quality issues and audience shifts plaguing Marvel and its budget catch 22. Plus: Why directors are the new IP, and whether Fantastic Four reboot can turn the Marvel tide.
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For the second episode of Hollywood Stories’ sophomore season, Richard Rushfield talks to the brilliant and bawdy Bruce Vilanch, known as the longtime joke purveyor extraordinaire for the Oscars (plus the Emmys, Tonys and more). But before he became the go-to for Hollywood galas, Vilanch got his start in writing for the big variety shows and specials that peppered the network schedules of the 1960s and ’70s and represent the height of television’s most flamboyant and unhinged period. Expanding on some of the wildest misadventures chronicled in his new book, “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time,” Vilanch takes Richard through three of those song-and-dance spectaculars — the “Star Wars Holiday Special” that George Lucas famously disowned, the “Paul Lynde Halloween Special” and the short-lived series “The Brady Bunch Hour.” From writing material for graceless Wookiees to putting Robert Reed's Mike Brady in Carmen Miranda drag, Vilanch revels in how right it felt when everything went fantastically wrong. “It was ridiculous, but I had fun,” he recalls. “A lot of these things were conceived in clouds of smoke.”
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Netflix just picked up Sesame Street, but this isn’t just about Elmo. It’s a calculated move in the high-stakes fight for kids’ attention — and future subscribers. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty dig into why streamers like Netflix and Disney+ are doubling down on branded kids content while others quietly exit, and why Paramount+ has untapped potential. From Miss Rachel to Bluey to Gabby’s Dollhouse, Paw Patrol to PBS, this episode unpacks how the battle for the youngest viewers is reshaping strategy — and why it matters more than you think.
Also: final thoughts on Final Destination, and a few bold and likely-to-be-regretted weekend movie plans, including Lilo and Stitch side-eye.
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Hollywood Stories is back! The Ankler pod series returns, this time focusing on untold tales from the world of TV as shared by the people who work in its trenches. In this debut episode of season two, Richard Rushfield hosts a revealing, in-depth interview with four creative minds behind Netflix’s hilarious, animated (but decidedly not-for-little-kids) hit, ‘Big Mouth,’ whose eighth and final season drops on May 23. Comedians and co-creators Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg swing by to discuss their silly, simpatico partnership that dates back to first grade, their own anxieties from puberty, and how they used their celebrity pull to get Hugh Jackman, Jordan Peele, Paul Giamatti and others to sign on for appearances. Richard also sits down with veteran writers and fellow co-creators Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, who explain why you can never go too far in pushing the risqué envelope and why ‘Big Mouth’ could never in a million years have happened at a network. Says Flackett, "It would have been a different show."
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Ad fab? Not quite. Still, even as the Upfronts lose glitz, stakes remain sky high. Ad buying happens year-round now, sure — but with Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube crashing the party and sports commanding ever-higher premiums, TV’s annual dog-and-pony is still a spectacle, drawing Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey to the scene in New York. In this episode: their first-ever “Uppie Awards”; best (and worst) celebrity cameos (hello Lady Gaga and Snoop Dogg); who liked Netflix’s big pitch; HBO Max name-change whiplash; and whose afterparty delivered.
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Really believe Trump wants to bring production back stateside? Or that California Gov. Gavin Newsom can work with him to do it? Think again, says Richard Rushfield, who joins Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey to break down the fantasy of a tariff or federal incentive, the impact already from the trade war, Newsom’s failings that precipitated all of this — and why Richard thinks any action to bring production back is 25 years too late.
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Overalls, first-look pacts and original films are making a comeback — on paper, at least. Deal volume is up, but value is down. And that original film revival? It’s starting to come from outside the studios. Ashley Cullins joins Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey to unpack her two-part series on current deal trends, from Sinners’ mid-budget model to the studio execs evangelizing for self-releasing on YouTube.
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Natalie Jarvey, author of Ankler Media's creator economy newsletter, Like & Subscribe, sits down with Webtoon Entertainment COO David J. Lee and Wattpad Webtoon Studios' global head of entertainment, David Madden at NAB Show in Vegas. In this bonus episode they explore how Webtoon plans to expand the market for digital comics in the U.S. through Hollywood adaptations. Netflix's "Heartstopper" and "All of Us Are Dead" originated from Webtoon, and the company's studio is now making its own projects including Tubi's hit film "Sidelined: The QB and Me" and its upcoming sequel. Hear how Webtoon is capitalizing on global fandoms to amplify creators who can make up to $1 million a year on its platform.
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The rare creative exec job posting inspires a mad scrum, and TV writers are scrambling to get staffed. So Hollywood, why not consider the creator economy next door? Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey discuss both how to stand out in traditional Hollywood, and how to stand out if sliding over to one of the many proliferating creator studio businesses, and the opportunities in and out of L.A. Plus: The deeply warped Sinners discourse and Comcast’s “who dis?” earnings call when it came to Hollywood.
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Hollywood writer and producer David Goyer — known for “Blade,” “Foundation” and his writing on Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” Trilogy — explores new formats of storytelling that are bridging the gap between AI and traditional entertainment through his latest franchise project "Emergence" and the AI-powered platform Incention, powered by the Story blockchain. Live from NAB Show in Las Vegas, in conversation with Reel AI columnist and producer Erik Barmack (plus a lively audience Q&A), Goyer unpacks how technological and narrative innovation can activate fandoms and transform traditional IP structures to reach new audiences everywhere. The self-described "tech-adjacent" creative describes his experiment with AI in part as a mission to "build some guardrails and some use cases that aid the creator."
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The Ankler gets real about what’s happening in nonscripted TV, a diverse and thriving industry that includes documentaries, talent/competition/game shows and of course, reality TV. Boardwalk Pictures founder Andrew Fried, Pantheon CEO and Velvet Hammer co-founder Jen O’Connell, Propagate founder Howard Owens and Wheelhouse president of entertainment Courtney White join Series Business writer Elaine Low to dissect the challenges and bright spots of the market on stage at NAB Show in Vegas. These top players — responsible for shepherding projects as varied as FX's "Welcome to Wrexham," Netflix's "Untold," A&E's upcoming "Duck Dynasty" reboot and the digital-first "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" — reveal their strategies for finding new audiences as cable's reach dwindles, their secrets to great storytelling, and their tactics (including AI) to compete in a disrupted landscape.
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Yes, Netflix is huge, but apparently it’s not huge enough for co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, whose recent earnings call revealed a road map for total market domination. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey break down its plan to capture the 80 percent share of TV consumption not already happening on Netflix or YouTube (think creators and podcasts to eating the rest of cable’s programming). Plus: What to make of the Gen Z antics driving A Minecraft Movie, and Sean quizzes the crew on Netflix’s 2025 original movies.
For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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Live from Las Vegas! Exec editor Alison Brower headed into the ring with WWE president Nick Khan, and chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque for The Ankler’s Business of Entertainment program at NAB Show, where the sports execs revealed why Netflix was strategically the right home for RAW, its flagship weekly showcase; how Triple H’s writers create distinctive and memorable characters and stories across shows (and platforms); what draws talent from the late Betty White (“a badass”) to Bad Bunny into the ring; and the physical and mental trials in auditions that reveal who can be a megastar. As Triple H puts it, “You cannot teach charisma.” Khan and Levesque also preview WrestleMania 41, going down April 19-20 in Vegas. “It’s our Super Bowl,” says Khan. But minutes after it’s over, “a writer’s assistant will walk in and put Monday Night RAW in front of me,” Levesque adds. “We are the story that never ends.”
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Live from the stage at NAB Show in Vegas, Elaine Low talks with ‘Fire Country’ co-creators Joan Rater and Tony Phelan as well as CBS executives Bryan Seabury and Yelena Chak about the new boom in TV procedurals on broadcast and streaming. Hear about the inner workings of CBS Studios’ development process, what it takes to expand a storytelling universe and Rater's gentle but firm method of raising the creative bar. Says Phelan, who's her husband as well as her co-EP, "Joan is notorious in the writers room for saying things like, 'It's just not awesome.'"
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Storytelling remains fundamental to entertainment. But who tells those stories and how is shifting. A new era of influence revealed itself at The Ankler’s just-wrapped Business of Entertainment program, in partnership with NAB Show in Vegas. Execs, creators and stars behind WWE (Nick Khan and Paul “Triple H” Levesque), Tribeca Festival and Sphere (Jane Rosenthal), Universal Music Publishing Group (Jody Gerson), Webtoon (David J. Lee and David Madden) and AI startup Incention (David S. Goyer), among others, took the stage to reveal an optimistic view of opportunity outside the traditional studio system. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Janice Min break it all down. Plus: How Trump’s tariffs plague Hollywood.
For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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Original movies in theaters? It’s true! Sean McNulty dials in from CinemaCon to tell Elaine Low about his reaction to Amazon’s bold film slate kickstarting a new era of studio leadership. Meanwhile, in L.A., Lesley Goldberg dishes with Elaine and Natalie Jarvey about the mess left in the wake of Jen Salke’s exit from Prime Video, and what agents and showrunners expect from TV head Vernon Sanders.
For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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TV shows take longer to develop, writers rooms are shorter and naturally “no one wants to continue to work for free,” says Lesley Goldberg, who joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to share her survey of top writers on how they’d fix TV. There’s Shawn Ryan’s proposal to better train showrunners in writers rooms; details on how Zoom pitching creates opportunities; and why once-loathed mini-rooms need to return. Plus: Amazon’s curious theatrical push.
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First, streamers wanted YouTube and TikTok’s screen time. Now they’re gunning for their talent. Like & Subscribe’s Natalie Jarvey joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to talk about MrBeast and Ms. Rachel’s streaming hits, whether Jake & Logan Paul and Benito Skinner are next — and what Hollywood has to give up for its shot at digital cred. Plus: Apple TV+’s just-revealed staggering losses and Snow White’s fake controversy.
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Can Jeff Bezos be trusted with 007? Is James Gunn the hero DC needs right now? Will Casey Bloys help Harry Potter make it safely to TV? All of Hollywood’s signature IP franchises face uncertain, perilous paths forward, and Richard Rushfield, Elaine Low and Sean McNulty decide whether they’d buy, sell or hold these tentpoles plus Marvel and Star Wars. Plus: The crew guesses which five series earned the coveted writers’ streaming performance bonus.
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With the debut of Netflix’s With Love, Meghan, longtime royal observer Tina Brown and Ankler Media CEO Janice Min joined forces for a rollicking Substack Live conversation over at Brown’s Fresh Hell. Brown and Min appraise the Duchess of Sussex’s new career act (“always brilliantly behind the curve,” says Brown), debrief on the Academy Awards and Demi Moore, and analyze Conan O’Brien’s onstage nod to film craft that gave Hollywood “a real shot in the arm,” Min says. Plus: Why NYC’s 10 percenters are still all in on Trump and Elon Musk. “They love what he’s doing,” says Brown. “When billionaires get together, all they talk about is how many people they want to fire.”
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Hollywood execs want more “aggression” out of their young proteges, but Gen Z — raised in remote work and new rules — came to age without traditional role models. The Ankler team shares advice from their interviews with Greg Berlanti and Ted Hope for young creatives to stand out, something even more essential as the state of showbiz is begging for a new round of visionary leaders.
If you’re a Gen Zer in Hollywood yourself, apply to The Ladder, our members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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Broadcast TV may be what “your uncle and your mom watches,” but it’s a bright spot for the studios. Series Business’ Lesley Goldberg joins Elaine Low to discuss her interview with CBS President Amy Reisenbach, why all those spinoffs and reboots give producers an “edge” and how year-round development helps “get the creative right.” Plus: Elaine, Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield discuss what the earnings of CBS parent Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery portend — no need for more sports, says Zaz! — and final Oscar thoughts before the big show.
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The New York Times gave author Michael Wolff’s new book a glowing review, but President Donald Trump disagrees, calling it a “total FAKE JOB, just like the other JUNK he wrote.” As with Wolff’s three earlier books about the president, All or None is filled with juicy tidbits with fly-on-the-wall accounts from the chaos inside Trump’s orbit. In unsparing words, he talks to Janice Min about woeful Democrats, Elon Musk, Melania, media’s current panic and the threatening phone call he received from Trumpworld.
Read the interview in an abridged Q&A format here. Subscribe to The Ankler for more entertainment and media news here.
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Budgets for studio theatrical slates and TV lineups are disappearing as fast as federal agencies these days. But there’s hope! Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins joins to break down the new rules for landing a greenlight for an original film today, while Elaine Low reveals ways to navigate new small screen realities, from acing that Zoom pitch to turning that blinking yellow light green. And despite the industry’s collective surrender, Sean McNulty explains why more data could flip the narrative of an industry perceived to be in decline.
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As President Trump seeks to banish diversity, equity and inclusion, Disney buried its initiative this week, and Amazon continues to “evolve” its own. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low, Richard Rushfield and contributor Nicole LaPorte dive into whether Hollywood was ever committed to the cause — as Nicole says, “the erosion of DEI here has been going on for a quite a while” — and how to tell a real pronouncement from a fake one. Plus: How the L.A. wildfires have fueled a real estate frenzy while TV workers debate whether to flee the city altogether.
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Disney started its latest earnings call with an uncharacteristically terse Bob Iger avoiding a trio of unpleasant topics: linear TV, declining Disney+ subscriber totals and Donald Trump. What wasn’t said spoke volumes, but a few messages rang clear: film keeps churning out hits, ESPN has good/less good news, and the streaming division is firmly in the black. Meanwhile, SEC filings paint a bleak start to the future SpinCo, and a look inside the do-or-die #StayinLA movement. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield break it all down.
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Just two deals and Sundance is almost over? Ouch. Richard Rushfield, on the ground at the fest, gives his report on indie malaise and how to fix it. Plus: Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard on Peacock and NBCU’s troubling Q4, and Netflix’s showy 2025 slate, while Natalie Jarvey, author of the new Like & Subscribe newsletter, on why Hollywood absolutely should “work with” the creators upending entertainment.
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Natalie Jarvey, author of Like & Subscribe, Ankler Media's new newsletter about the creator economy, speaks with YouTube stars Sean Evans, host of Hot Ones, and Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal — aka Rhett & Link, hosts of Good Mythical Morning. With 40 million subscribers between them, these digital innovators unpack the opportunities — creative, collaborative and financial — that come with betting on themselves. "If we can be even a small part of the story of another creator taking back something that they initiated and then taking the reins and leading, that’s the type of story that we love and we want to champion," says Neal. "We believe creators should be in charge." The trio also map out the next moves for their brands. Boneless Hot Ones, anyone?
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The entertainment industry for years turned its nose up at brand-backed film and TV, but in a disrupted Hollywood scrambling for new business models and fresh voices, the tide is turning. Natalie Jarvey, the writer of Like & Subscribe, Ankler Media's new standalone newsletter about the creator economy, moderates a discussion with four top stakeholders — Oscar-winning producer Dan Cogan (“Icarus”), Adobe Chief Brand Officer Heather Freeland, creator Jordan Howlett and UTA Entertainment Marketing Co-HeadJulian Jacobs — about how marketers, filmmakers and creators are collaborating on innovative and meaningful storytelling. “Everybody loves a good story, and brands are aligning with that in a lot of interesting ways,” says Howlett, who as Jordan the Stallion boasts nearly 14 million followers on TikTok. Adds Jacobs, “The rule book is being unwritten and written as we speak.”
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Who loves doing free work? No one. Who loves getting free work? The studios. “If-come” deals — where a writer develops a show under contract but only sees money if the show sells — are on the rise post-Writers Guild strike and have led to a new “involuntary servitude,” even among big-name scribes. Ashley Cullins joins Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield to outline what’s happening and who’s fighting back. Plus: Katey Rich breaks down Oscar nominations, and Elaine shares the state of the unscripted market.
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Can Jon Voight save Hollywood? Probably not. But President Trump’s announcement that the Midnight Cowboy, Mad Max (Mel Gibson) and Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) would be his “special envoys” in L.A. on the eve of his inauguration followed the latest report on L.A.’s continued production exodus. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield dissect the numbers and where the industry is heading in 2025. Plus: How isGen Z outfoxing studio and streaming marketers? Matthew Frank explains.
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“Everybody was feeling really optimistic going into this year,” says Elaine Low — and while there are encouraging signs for Hollywood, from new business models to a return to the fundamentals, she and Richard Rushfield tell Sean McNulty about friends who have lost homes, Richard’s memories of growing up in Pacific Palisades, and Elaine’s anxiety over suddenly preparing a go-bag. On a lighter note: They also dissect their night at Netflix’s WWE Raw premiere — with Richard announcing whom he’ll be fighting at the next WrestleMania.
We’re collecting stories of how the entertainment community is coping with the Los Angeles fires. Submit yours here.
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For the capstone of his Hollywood Stories series exploring the 1990s — an era of explosive creativity and innovation in the entertainment industry — Richard Rushfield talks to two execs who helped New Line Cinema become the movie studio of that golden moment. Mike De Luca is today the co-chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, but in the ’90s he was the head of production at New Line, a powerful role he stepped into at the tender age of 27. Richard Brener started as a temp at New Line in 1995 and never left, working his way up to run the studio (now a division of Warner Bros.) as its president and chief creative officer. Together they recall how the indie house launched by Bob Shaye in 1967 struck gold nearly 30 years later with comedy blockbusters (Austin Powers, Dumb and Dumber, Rush Hour, The Wedding Singer) and revered auteur-driven dramas (American History X, Boogie Nights, Se7en). As an indie, "you were kind of locked into lower-budget acquisitions and films — that all coalesced into a business plan of sleeper hits," De Luca says. “We were not afraid of trying things that we liked, even if other people had passed on them.”
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Blake Lively alleges a full-on smear campaign aimed against her. Justin Baldoni claims the star of his It Ends With Us used the New York Times to destroy his reputation. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield discuss the fallout of the feud heard round the world, the YouTube journalist roped into the ruckus, and why Richard boils it all down to typical Hollywood bluster. Plus: The crew breaks down how animation and IP defined the 2024 box office.
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At the dawn of the internet as we know it today, long before social media exploded the Hollywood hierarchy, there was Ain’t It Cool News, an in-your-face site, launched in 1996, that covered the movie business — passionately, disruptively and absolutely without fear or favor. Drew McWeeny, who joined Harry Knowles’ Austin startup in its earliest days, writing from L.A. under the pseudonym Moriarty, tells Richard Rushfield how Ain’t It Cool News remade entertainment journalism, confounded the studios and enraged execs from Tom Rothman to Rupert Murdoch. Among other breaks with industry-coverage norms, McWeeny and his colleagues were the first to publish reports and reviews from test screenings, changing the fortunes of films including Batman & Robin and, most famously, Titanic. “I was addicted to Premiere, Movieline, all those magazines,” McWeeny recalls. “But it was all very carefully stage managed with the studios, and it had to be. We were the response to that, which was the most punk rock version of: No, not only do we not deal with the studios, but fuck the studios.”
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One sure precursor to any Golden Age in Hollywood? A long fallow period preceding it, not unlike the one we’ve been in. Now, with a spec market for originals coming back to life, and fresh opportunities for producers and writers to make money through YouTube, branded content, podcasts and yes, AI, Sean McNulty, Elaine Low, Richard Rushfield and Janice Min take stock of where the industry is heading in 2025 with cautious optimism. Plus: The gang dissects the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni smear campaign revelations.
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From founding CAA to leading Universal Studios, Ron Meyer built one of the entertainment industry’s most storied careers. The high school dropout and former Marine talks with Richard Rushfield about his entire legendary run, especially the events surrounding the pivotal moment in 1995 when he successfully executed a maneuver that has stymied other sharks — leaving the talent ecosystem (and ending his partnership with CAA cofounder Mike Ovitz — "a marriage gone kind of sour”) to become a studio head. He also recalls what lured him to Hollywood ("I want to be the guy in that fast car with beautiful women"), the “ferocious” competition between his agency and William Morris, his “tug-of-war” with Barry Diller at Universal (where he lasted 25 years and survived six owners), the movies he’s proudest of and why he’s still an optimist about showbiz. “To the day I left Universal, I pinched myself,” he says of his Hollywood journey, which ended with his exit from the studio in 2020. “I always thought it was a miracle.”
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Writers are getting paid $1 million or more on so-called “naked” scripts — no IP, actor or director attached. It may sound like Shane Black’s 1990s, but it’s happening right now as Nicole LaPorte joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to reveal a fast change in the market (thanks, Dan Lin!), and the kinds of scripts selling (think Sherry Lansing). Plus: Lachlan Cartwright talks his massive scoops from TV news, including MSNBC’s plan for more conservative voices, pay cuts for big on-air faces, and fears over ABC News’ Trump settlement.
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Richard Rushfield sits down with Winnie Holzman, creator of the beloved but short-lived teen drama My So-Called Life, which ran for one 19-episode season from 1994-95 and later became a cross-generational cult hit. The show that launched Claire Danes and Jared Leto also captured adolescent angst onscreen in a totally new way — “School is a battlefield for your heart,” anyone? — that made ABC execs “deeply nervous,” says Holzman, though she was fiercely protected by her EPs and mentors, Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick. A student of poetry and the Stanislavski system, Holzman, in a candid, hilarious and nostalgic conversation, unpacks the emotion and humor that propelled her through multiple 1990s TV successes to the Broadway hit Wicked (she wrote the book of the musical) and its two-part film adaptation, whose first installment is in the Oscar hunt.
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Pro-free speech, anti-trans, anti a lot of things, the standup comedians who made their bones on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast — from Theo Von to notorious Trump rally opener Tony Hinchcliffe — are rewriting how big comics can get without movies and TV. Ankler contributor Lachlan Cartwright joins Sean McNulty to discuss why Gen Z loves these guys and how these comics’ reps are building multi-million-dollar constellations around these dark stars. Plus, Elaine Low, Richard Rushfield and Sean explore WBD’s “enhanced strategic flexibility” as studios decide now is finally the time to “see what we can do with our cable networks.”
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In this new Ankler series, Hollywood Stories, we are starting with wild untold showbiz tales from the '90s. For our debut episode, Richard Rushfield sits down with Adam Leff and Zak Penn, the original screenwriters behind one of film's most iconic flops, Last Action Hero. Speaking publicly together for the first time about the screenplay they sold when they were just out of college 30 years ago, they recall the highs — a heady bidding war, a yes from megastar Arnold Schwarzenegger — and the cascading humiliations of the misbegotten project, which became a superlatively excessive and lousy product of the bloated Hollywood machine it was originally meant to parody.
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What is HBO heading into 2025? A major prestige cabler that can attract any talent it wants? An empire in decline? A little bit of both? Series Business writer Manori Ravindran was at the intimate London gathering where HBO chief Casey Bloys revealed plans for a Harry Potter series, and joins Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield to talk the storied brand’s changed TV buying mandate, new frugality and if it needs a megahit to restore luster. Speaking of! Manori explains the new trick for selling series and getting them made: international co-productions, the kind of deal used on shows from The Day of the Jackal to The Night Manager.
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When The Good Wife co-creator Robert King saw that 139,000 produced TV and movie scripts — including his — were used for AI training, it “personalized” the AI issue for him. “There’s something very offensive of someone just walking into your house, checking into your computer, grabbing everything and saying, Well, it’s for the better good of training,” says King, who joins Elaine Low to discuss writers’ reaction, why studios must take action and no one should believe Big Tech’s assurances. Plus: Katey Rich joins Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine to game the Oscars race as it now stands, post-#Glicked.
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Ratings are down 40 percent, Morning Joe’s hosts are being ridiculed and the network’s anchors and shows are soon to be ruthlessly reshuffled. Turns out it’s time for MSNBC to take its $125 million “ratings Viagra.” Ankler contributor Lachlan Cartwright joins Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Janice Min to discuss his scoopy, blockbuster about MSNBC, Rachel Maddow’s pay cut and who’s likely to be on air and off (even before Comcast spins-out the channel). Plus: Richard Rushfield’s exclusive on the Attorney General’s investigation into the not-yet-closed deal to buy the Golden Globes and what it could mean for CBS’ broadcast.
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Don’t mind the $430 million revenue drop in linear over the last two years — Bob Iger would like to shift your attention over to streaming, where price hikes have proven a magical Disney attraction. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield break down all the news from Disney’s Q3 earnings call, new turns in the company’s succession drama — and why Richard worries we’re headed back to 1993, only worse. Plus: The crew predicts which films will top the holiday box office.
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In this bonus episode recorded live at the Montclair Film Festival, Sean McNulty — author of The Wakeup newsletter at The Ankler — leads a discussion about the state of the movie industry. Neon executive Dan O’Meara, WME partner Maggie Pisacane and AMC Networks film head Scott Shooman join McNulty to break down the box office realities of 2024 and beyond, from how to reach audiences to changes in dealmaking to the broader consumer behavior shifts and cultural trends disrupting filmed entertainment.
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In this bonus episode recorded live at the Montclair Film Festival, Ashley Cullins — author of The Ankler’s Dealmakers newsletter — leads a discussion about artists, audiences and artificial intelligence. Attorney James Grimmelmann, tech investor and advisor Greg Kahn, EDGLRD executive Eric Kohn and filmmaker Michaela Ternasky-Holland join Cullins to unpack AI’s creative possibilities and limitations, the megadeals it’s driving, the guardrails for Hollywood and the legal implications for artists and IP. Plus, how to conquer your fears and build your tech literacy with tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Runway and more.
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Hollywood usually loves a sequel. Trump’s reelection? Not so much. His forthcoming second term has the town feeling “resigned,” says Richard Rushfield (even if James Carville thinks he won’t survive all four years). But M&A-obsessed CEOs aren’t so downtrodden. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty, Richard and David Lidsky break down potential winners and losers, and deal scenarios — including a pro-con debate over Big Tech buying studios — and why the industry needs to learn the value of authenticity.
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FAST services are heralded for stratospherically high subscriber totals. Tubi has 80 million monthly active users, Roku’s got 85.5 million — Samsung is even at 88 million. So how come none of them are turning a profit? Elaine Low, Richard Rushfield and Sean McNulty evaluate free TV’s struggle (and how paid streaming compares). Plus: What Harris or Trump would mean for industry M&A; and NBCUniversal’s mysterious “study” of whether to spin off its cable networks.
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Hollywood is a relationship business. So can you learn from your bosses, network and get promoted if you’re working from home? Nicole LaPorte talks to Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield about the divide over remote work as Lionsgate and Amazon mandate five days in office, and agents and execs warn that young Hollywood’s work-life balance may come at a professional cost. Plus: What Disney’s buying for Hulu, FX and ABC while the company’s Iger succession drama takes another turn.
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Janice Min interviews Tina Brown, a sharp observer of the seismic social changes that have led to our chaotic new politics, in a wide-ranging and often hilarious conversation about the journalists impressing her, the frustrating state of cable news punditry, what celebrity she’d put on the cover of a magazine in 2024, her maternal rage after Trump supporters ridiculed Gus Walz, andHarryand Meghan (buckle up for one big anvil drop of ouch). That’s on top of a lot of talk about Trump, Harris, Elon Musk and the forces and figures driving our anxiety.
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An unprecedented election, two wars, deadly hurricanes. Yet CNN’s average primetime TV audience dropped to just 853,000 total viewers during September. Ankler contributor Lachlan Cartwright joins Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and David Lidsky to discuss his scoop-filled blockbuster about sweeping changes coming to CNN, chief Mark Thompson’s pay cut on the table for Chris Wallace, star salary “beheadings” and a digital makeover inspired by . . . Vice?! Plus: WBD fills its NBA-sized hole with every random league under the sun.
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Nobody is arguing Joker: Folie à Deux was a success. But it took a ballsy, director-led swing, followed up on a rare R-rated smash hit and — oh yeah — fought to shoot in L.A. Does it really deserve the pile-on? Elaine Low, Richard Rushfield and David Lidsky break down why cinema’s sudden “Flop Era” is actually a positive (seriously), and what it has to do with a new report that reveals how drastically production is down, particularly in L.A. Plus: Manori Ravindran surveys brand-funded series beyond Chick-fil-A, and Richard dives into his exposé of the Golden Globes’ questionable under-the-radar Sharon Stone gala in Turkey, a country with a wildly antisemitic Trump-buddy dictator. Where could you read about it? Not in Jay Penske’s many trades. Ooof!
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At its peak, Vice had a valuation of $5.7 billion, two shows on HBO, 2,600 employees in more than 30 countries, and was the 10th most valuable private company in America. Its cofounder and CEO, Shane Smith rode the wave of digital media, until it crashed and burned. He talks to Janice Min about what went wrong, if he has regrets and his thoughts on the future of media — which now includes his new podcast, produced with Bill Maher.
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In business, there is a new power hierarchy now, reports Dealmakers columnist Ashley Cullins: AI companies flush with cash at top; next, the studios that have the content AI players crave; and at the bottom, talent. Ashley dives into how agents, reps and execs are scrambling to protect clients and IP — all while fighting for a piece of the $10 billion in AI fees projected to flood entertainment in 2025. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield also talk what Disney’s studio contraction signals about a potentially more entrepreneurial future in TV, and how Sony pulled off its drama-free CEO transition.
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Sept. 27 marked the first anniversary of the end of the writers strike and while pay bumps and streaming bonuses (for two blockbuster shows) are great, the business remains in a world of hurt. Elaine Low, Richard Rushfield and David Lidsky explore the seismic production pullback, newly instated minimums as maximums — and why Richard wants negotiators from both sides in a penalty box for three years. Plus: John Malone’s master plan for WBD, and the gang tries to make a movie using AI.
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How do you follow the all-mighty Bob Iger? In the case of Bob Chapek, you don’t. The current public bake-off for whoever’s next already has been unsettling, as Richard Rushfield dispels the superhero CEO myth and evaluates how the perception of such actually harms his eventual successor and Disney itself. Plus: Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard analyze the upcoming box office slate and hit the lido deck for a bit of fall TV nostalgia.
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David Zaslav, on a break from sitting courtside at elite sporting events, has a new idea to help save WBD: Give HBO away for free to Charter cable subscribers. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield analyze why and what it means amid growing warnings of “chaos” and industry consolidation from leaders including Sony CEO Tony Vinciquerra and Ari Emanuel. Plus: Katey Rich previews the Emmys and early Oscar buzz, and Matthew Frank tips everyone to Hollywood’s new Wild West: legal gambling on movies.
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As everywhere from Alabama to Bulgaria battle to attract productions with tax incentives, studios are saying bye, y’all to Hollywood. With shoots being exported all over the globe, what happens to those who came to Los Angeles to have an entertainment career? Ankler contributor Ashley Cullins joins to break down the production location war — and L.A.’s plan to fight back. Plus, Sean McNulty and Elaine Low explain the Disney-DirecTV carriage dispute, and Richard Rushfield reports from the scene as TIFF begins.
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Apple is the most valuable company in the world. There are more than 2.2 billion Apple devices in use worldwide. Remind us why it’s in the (often) money-losing entertainment business again? Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield explore why Apple is retreating from its blockbuster theatrical ambitions — sorry, George and Brad — why it had them in the first place and what happens next. Also: Prestige Junkie’s own Katey Rich joins to discuss the start of fall film festival season and aces some Oscars trivia.
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Hollywood’s forays into politics are often elitist, counter-productive, and sometimes just plain cringey. But at the DNC, it wasn’t just Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who seemed to nail it, but the entertainment industry as well. Ankler contributor Alison Brower joins Sean McNulty and Janice Min from Chicago, where she explains the vibe shift in Hollywood’s approach, the Hollywood producers who put on the show, and the celebrity moments that worked and why. Also: Elaine Low, David Lidsky and Sean dissect the Bronfman vs. Ellison title fight for control of Paramount and how Iger will finally pass the baton at Disney.
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People like free. And in an age where CEOs are raising streaming prices faster than you can say gallon of milk, FAST services like Tubi and Pluto TV have doubled in size in the past couple years — ads and all. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and David Lidsky break down the success of the new FAST players and what they could mean for the next chapter of the Streaming Wars. Plus: Paramount shutters a TV studio as layoffs begin; Sony’s steady “arms dealer” strategy; and a box office trivia throwback.
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First, Disney films may have buoyed its Q2 earnings — thanks Inside Out 2! — but theme park struggles led Anxiety to overwhelm Joy. Then Warner Bros. Discovery delivered its disastrous report, with a 5 percent drop in revenue, a $9.1 billion write-off on its cable assets and yeah, Furiosa. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield break it down and the need for a plan in a moment where entertainment’s diminishing cable workforce is in a full-fledged freakout.
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Yet another round of layoffs hit Hollywood this week, this time at Disney, as the company preps to let go of 140 people at National Geographic, Freeform and other struggling areas of the largely linear business. Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low evaluate how much studios can keep cutting — save for the Olympics, of course — before they hit bottom. Plus: Shawn Levy and Deadpool & Wolverine bring comedy back to multiplexes; IATSE’s ominous warning to its members; and a reflection on the strikes, a year later.
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Entertainment execs are paid to find tomorrow’s stars today — and that applies to politics too. Matthew Frank joins Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield to name names of who identified Kamala Harris’ talent early — from Disney’s Dana Walden to legend Sherry Lansing — and what her win could mean for Hollywood. Plus: David Lidsky breaks down the implications of the new NBA rights deal on scripted TV and the business prospects of Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery, and we preview Deadpool & Wolverine.
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Paramount isn’t the only legacy studio struggling with tough choices and crushing debt these days. Warner Bros. Discovery, after laying off 2,000 people over the last year, will now be cutting another 1,000 jobs. All while Wall Street tells David Zaslav that WBD isn’t working and he should explore a breakup of the company. Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low analyze the latest job cuts and where WBD and other studios actually are still hiring. Plus: Peter Kiefer joins to discuss the reboot epidemic; the divide between what’s selling today and what gets Emmy noms; and a tribute to the late Bob Newhart.
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The (seeming) finale of the Paramount sale drama brings closure to some questions but raises more. How is David Ellison’s promise of a rejiggered tech stack going to stem linear TV losses? Where is the additional $3 billion in revenue he is projecting coming from? And wait, is that Jeff Shell? Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low break down the next phase of the drama to come. Also: how people are vacationing right now (if at all), and the reinvigorated summer box office.
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HBO and A24 are two of the only Hollywood brands left that signal prestige. But for better or worse, both are now leveling up — or is it down? Sean McNulty, Elaine Low, and Richard Rushfield break down HBO’s incorporation of Max’s upcoming tentpole Warner Bros. IP series, like the Harry Potter and Green Lantern adaptations, and A24’s massive investment round led by Josh Kushner. Also: what’s selling now in unscripted and Hollywood’s lost Latin opportunity.
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What’s the one common trait across every studio executive with greenlight power? They’re all old enough to remember the launch of the first Mac. And what they give the go-aheads to on their film slates shows it (looking at you, St. Elmo’s Fire sequel). Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield break down what remake fever means to the box office, why Paramount and AMC stocks are the opposite of Nvidia, and how showrunners have adapted to the world of brand-building.
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Over four decades, legendary director, writer and Oscar-winning producer Ed Zwick built an enviable body of work, from acclaimed films (Courage Under Fire, Legends of the Fall) to zeitgeisty TV series (Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life). Ankler CEO Janice Min spoke to Zwick about his best-selling memoir, Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions, a page-turner that’s packed with revealing stories about what it took to bring his iconic movies over the finish line, including his battles with Julia Roberts, Matthew Broderick, and Hollywood bigwigs who “messed with the wrong hippie.”
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It feels like 2019 all over again — for a lucky few, that is. The Night Agent creator Shawn Ryan this week inked an eight-figure overall with Netflix, the latest in a flurry of recent announcements bucking the slash-and-burn trend in overall deals and first looks. Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low discuss who is getting these deals (and not), how Paramount can turn around four straight years without growth, and why are movie theaters nice everywhere but L.A.?
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The state of careers in entertainment is shifting radically. As a new college major takes over the industry, the latest class of graduating seniors also is being told by their screenwriting and film professors, “Nope, find another line of work.” But how do these shifting tides impact those already mid-career? The team talks about Elaine Low’s new Salary Confessions series, where one development exec bares their full rage and grief as their ambitions — and pay — hit a dead end.
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Maypocalypse Nowjust came to a close,endingwith the worst box office since 1995. The timing happens to coincide with Paramount’s uncertain future as Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low talk through the current state of play — and best and worst case scenarios. Meanwhile, in TV land, the team dive into Elaine’s stunning interview with a big name TV studio exec who, anonymously, explains their private thoughts and intel on what’s selling, what’s not and why the market is in such chaos.
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At the Cannes Film Festival, the active buyers’ market and (largely) applauded indies had everyone in the market, from haute couture hangers-on to cinema’s swells, feeling festive says Claire Atkinson. But back in L.A., an early June gloom has descended, with Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield talking movies’ early signs of a summer bummer — and a release calendar that looks like it’s on Ozempic.
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Hollywood descended upon New York Citythis week for the Upfronts, the traditional TV showcase, to promote almost everything but as sports, live events and movies dominated the stage and star power. The crew breaks it down while Richard Rushfield and Sean McNulty dive into Hollywood’s new, possibly misguided belief that sports will save Hollywood.
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Earnings season has been a rough go as Disney, Paramount, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery deliver their Q1 results. And if you thought “Sports Hulu” was a surprise, just wait for the new bundle of Disney+, Hulu and . . . Max?! Sean McNulty dives into Disney and Warners tepid earnings, their new streaming bundle, and the urgency in joining forces. Plus:Do you have to befrom an Ivy League school to rise to the top of Hollywood? Maybe the opposite, says Richard Rushfield, who breaks down alma maters of the industry’s bold-faced names.
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RSVP to the upcoming event at the link below:
May 13th – The Ankler x Backstage Screening Series: Expats
May 14th – The President & The Podium
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What to do in this moribund market? Elaine Low outlines TV writers’ post-strike challenges — including the rickety staffing ladder — while our new Dealmakers columnist Ashley Cullins dives into the deterioration of the overall deal — and her news that Amazon and Apple are presenting new terms to industry agents and lawyers that sound a lot like . . . backends! (Remember those?) Plus: Peter Kiefer assesses agency efforts behind the celebpreneur boom, while the crew breaks down Paramount’s ongoing drama and previews summer box office.
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Link here to live stream the Milken Institute: Journalism Today: New Voices, New Models, New Methods where Janice Min (Ankler Media, CEO) will be speaking on May 7th at 4p PST.
RSVP to the upcoming events at the links below:
May 10th (Waitlist Only) – Ed Zwick and Janice Min: In Conversation
May 13th – The Ankler x Backstage Screening Series: Expats
May 14th – The President & The Podium
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Reacher, The Terminal List and Jack Ryan may not win Emmys, but Dad TV has become a juggernaut for a TV business desperately needing one. Entertainment Strategy Guy joins Sean McNulty to break down the truth behind Prime Video’s Dad TV crown, streaming’s corresponding Mom TV — and what the abundance of both mean for prestige TV. Also: the crew on the state of Peacock after Comcast’s earnings call; what five TV agents told Elaine Low about the state of the business; and Richard Rushfield’s marketing stunts that worked.
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Though the strikes ended, the fight around AI is far from over. Following the debut of her Dealmakers newsletter, new contributor Ashley Cullins joins to reveal her conversations with powerhouse entertainment lawyers and CAA, their behind the scenes maneuvering to protect Hollywood talent, and the agonizing Sophie’s Choice actors will face when deciding to allow AI replica rights (a choice the A-list can reject more easily, but not up-and-comers). Also: Elaine Low details five TV agents’ assessments of what streamers want to buy these days, and Richard Rushfield foretells A24’s dangerous trajectory.
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There’s plenty of worry about AI writing scripts . . . but let’s see AI come up with a story about two billionaire families negotiating a complex sale of an iconic, troubled entertainment conglomerate — and wreaking havoc in their wake. Sean McNulty and David Lidsky weigh just what David Ellison’s buying, why every shareholder not named Shari Redstone is mad and what AI has to do with it. Speaking of, Sean welcomes producer Erik Barmack to discuss his new Reel AI newsletter for The Ankler and how the technology can be a “cheat code” in script coverage. Also: Elaine Low on laid-off execs starting their own companies, and Richard Rushfield from CinemaCon.
Also, we’ve been nominated for a Webby Award, vote for us here by April 18th!
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When Endeavor went public in 2021, the agency pulled out all the stops to present itself as innovators and a disruptor — the kind of terminology Wall Street loves from tech companies. But, as it often goes with the media companies that try the same tack, “investors never fully bought it,” says David Lidsky, who joins to evaluate Endeavor’s recent decision to go private again. Also: Sean McNulty and Elaine Low discuss the culmination of Disney’s proxy war, and Peter Kiefer joins to break down his story on Silicon Valley’s new ideology around AI and why Hollywood should pay attention.
Also, we’ve been nominated for a Webby Award, vote for us here by April 18th!
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Hollywood is filled with, er, colorful personalities. The one of the moment: Michael Kassan, the former MediaLink connector-in-chief now in dueling lawsuits with UTA. David Lidsky joins to reveal The Ankler’s investigative reporting into Kassan’s curious legal and financial history, including a $3.3m IRS tax lien taken out on his Beverly Hills home the week before he went to war with UTA. Also: Elaine Low on TV workers’ struggles as unemployment outpaces series cutbacks, and Richard Rushfield on the current studio merger landscape.
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Wall Street likes surefire bets — growth companies that deliver predictable returns for infinite quarters. But in Hollywood, “you’re in the failure game,” says Richard Rushfield. Yet when the alchemy works, hits power the industry. Still studio leaders are mired in machinations to appease investors, often with disastrous results: a studio for sale (Paramount); activist investors (Disney); and open jobs at Netflix and NBCU that have almost nothing to do with creativity. Despite it all, when Sean McNulty and crew evaluate the upcoming box-office slate, they find cause for hope. After all, Ankler Rule No. 1: this is a business of hits.
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One of the most plum jobs in entertainment historically has been that of the creative exec. But now, with data informing programming choices more than ever, and advertisers hungry for user information, Elaine Low examines how the job market is revealing those shifted priorities through the lens of the two most storied legacy studios, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery (while sharing a peek at Amazon Studios). Meanwhile, Sean McNulty lays out the current streaming advertising landscape, and Richard Rushfield opines on the lingering puzzles from the Oscars.
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Richard Rushfield assessed the State of the Industry this week, and we have questions: Why is there reason for hope? Why is Netflix suddenly so into sports? What are its live TV ambitions? Is there really no superhero fatigue? Or do we just need better superhero movies, as Disney's Bob Iger says? Will the Oscar telecast be less than four hours? And will anyone watch? As always, Sean McNulty and Elaine Low join Richard to answer these questions and more, including perhaps the biggest one of all: Who will Richard be wearing at the Academy Awards on Sunday?
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This week featured two huge film jobs finding their man: Netflix and Disney. Over at Netflix, seasoned producer Dan Lin is set to replace Scott Stuber, and Disney promoted David Greenbaum from Searchlight head to Disney Studios head. Do these moves mean a return to more original fare? “There’s reason for hope,” says Richard Rushfield. “I mean, normally when you get these kinds of announcements, it’s like, ‘Ok, well, another person like that to a different person like that.’ But these are people you’re genuinely excited to see what they might do, so go figure.” Also: the crew discusses the Paramount and Endeavor earnings calls, and what the takeaways were from the whole earnings slate.
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As Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav pours money into reconstructing Robert Evans’ legendary estate, a far more daunting reconstruction awaits: his company. On Friday, WBD had its Q4 earnings report, and it wasn’t pretty. Zaslav’s company missed on both earnings and revenue, and the stock went down roughly 12 percent. The crew looks at what WBD’s head honcho's plan to remedy the disaster. Also: Richard Rushfield breaks down his five-part field guide for how to navigate Hollywood types, and Elaine Low gives an update on the upcoming IATSE negotiations.
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The gods of Hollywood never give with both hands. Just ask Paramount who, in one week, delivered a record-shattering Super Bowl and Jon Stewart’s triumphant return. But currently for sale, the debt-laden studio within days was laying off three percent of its workforce — roughly 800 staffers — and Warren Buffett shed a third of his stock in the company. The team weighs in on what appears to be a shortage of interested buyers, why, and what happens next. Also: Elaine Low on how to read the TV tea leaves from her chat with FX chief John Landgraf.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger dropped one bombshell after another this week: a new ‘sports Hulu’ with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, a gaming splurge, and, yes, of course, news about Taylor Swift. As the Q4 earnings call revealed, theme park revenue continues to lead, as linear TV profits sunk, and streaming and the movie studio suffered nine-figure losses. What does it all mean? Elaine Low, sitting in as host of this week’s podcast, also shares her findings on where the jobs are (and aren’t) around the TV industry; Peter Kiefer joins to break down his big stories on the drama behind L.A.’s private school scene and the spiraling doc market. Transcript here.
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A film executive with a TV metabolism. Relationships with top talent. A culture fit in a challenging company. If you can manage all three, you might have a shot at the Netflix film chief role recently vacated by Scott Stuber. There’s lots of names in competition, but more reasons for boss Bela Bajaria to be picky. “If you judge power in film by how much you can green light, there’s no film job that’s even close to this,” says Richard Rushfield. Also: Elaine Low on the new reality in the unscripted space, and Peter Kiefer delves into Westwood’s historic Fox theater’s new ownership group, led by none other than Jason Reitman.
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Netflix’s head of film, Scott Stuber, stepped down from his post after seven years in a perfect ankling (meaning, it was unclear who left whom and why). That shocker was followed by one bombshell after another: a massive 10-year, $5 billion deal for WWE Raw in its first move into live sports, the most Oscar nominations out of any studio, and a record subscriber count reported on its earnings call. All of it portends a different Netflix than the one we’ve known. “Who else is making giant moves like this right now?” asks Richard Rushfield, who earlier examined the Stuber departure. Also: Claire Atkinson joins to break down her buzzy story on Hollywood’s overworked, often abused PR chiefs to the CEOs.
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Inside the gleaming towers of marble and modern art containing Hollywood’s storied agencies lays the beehive of Hollywood: 10 percenters rolling calls and doing deals (that close slowly), and fresh faces filing the mailroom. But agencies aren’t immune to industry upheaval. Consolidation is just one reason more agents are leaving for management(resulting in a new class of manager superstars) as the team dives into our weeklong series about the representation business. Also: Elaine Low returns from TV conference NATPE, and Richard Rushfield and Peter Kiefer check in from Sundance.
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Toast the New Year with RC Cola? It’s the kind of subpar beverage apropos to the first days of 2024, where a dreary Golden Globes (the RC Cola of Awards Shows) was celebrated for not being the lowest-rated in history; one of the most valuable companies in the world (Amazon) laid off hundreds in Hollywood, and one of the most storied studios (Paramount) has perched a semi-permanent “For Sale” sign out front. “It’s not a great way to start off the year,” says Elaine Low, who’s joins Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield to survey the worsening landscape that — surprise! — may yet deliver some silver linings.
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Five years ago, Hollywood rose up in protest over Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, which U.S. intelligence found was approved by the country’s leader, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Now, with Hollywood in lean times and in need of new markets, the Kingdom and its $776 billion sovereign wealth fund appear back in favor, reports Claire Atkinson, with one movie producer likening it to "California in the 1920s." Meanwhile, political waters also are churning around the Golden Globes, where a ribbon-wearing campaign for Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas may or may not bear out, explains Peter Kiefer, who broke news of the efforts. Also: Andy Lewis delivers George Santos’ thoughts on an upcoming HBO film, and Richard Rushfield expounds on his New Year resolutions for Hollywood.
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From mass layoffs to major strikes to multiplex disasters, the entertainment industry isn’t likely to forget 2023. Richard Rushfield runs through his annual Ankler 100, Hollywood’s most miserable moments of the year, as 2024 looms with even more possible disruption as a Warner Bros. Discovery-Paramount merger raises myriad questions: Would a hypothetical deal even pass DoJ and FTC muster? What would HBO/Showtime and CNN/CBS News combos look like? And will any of these efforts even matter against Big Tech? Says Claire Atkinson, who joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low: “It feels to me like they need to do these huge acquisitions or else the tech guys are just going to run away with the show.”
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Note: The Ankler Podcast will not be releasing an episode next week. See you in 2024!
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Hollywood officially entered the upside-down this week: streamers flexed like it was 2019 again with a flurry of new deals; Disney about-faced by licensing shows to one-time nemesis Netflix; and then Netflix, in the never-say-never category, dumped 10,000 pages of viewership data onto reporters. With Richard Rushfield and Sean McNulty breaking down the press call with Ted Sarandos, the team talks takeaways, good and bad, and why Netflix did it. Also: Penske Media’s conflict(s) of interest with the Golden Globe, and Narcos and upcoming Hotel Cocaine creator Chris Brancato joins Claire Atkinson to discuss how to responsibly make shows involving drugs: “If drugs [are] a centerpiece of the criminal activity, it’s very important to show that the outcome for most is jail or death.”
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The passing of Norman Lear coincides with a new TV era where, quite likely, not a single one of the legendary producer’s famous sitcoms would pass muster in a pitch meeting of today. While Elaine Low talks specifics about what’s selling and who’s buying in the contracted post-strike TV market, Martini Shot host Rob Long pays homage to Lear’s immense legacy (“his shows were’t about politics, they were about characters”). Also: Janice Min shares her scorcher of a live interview with Andrew Cuomo’s former top advisor Melissa DeRosa, who declares that President Biden should dump Kamala Harris, zings RFK Jr.’s “ego”, and decries the “total lack of leadership” over antisemitism in New York City.
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As Hollywood reels from a string of high-budget box office flops, Kevin Goetz, says, sure, contraction is coming. But, “every movie — if made and marketed for the right price — should make money,” says the CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, long considered a top expert on audience. Goetz joins to talk about recent changes he’s seeing in theater-going, what’s working (and not), and what films can learn from TV. Also: Sean McNulty, Peter Kiefer and Elaine Low talk Elon Musk’s F-U; Bob Iger’s flip-flop on Disney’s linear TV assets; and Israel-Gaza and the worrisome WhatsApp wars of Hollywood.
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‘Oh Judy, baby.’ That’s Judy Blume impersonating the many male producers who had approached her decades ago to bring her legendary book about a girl traversing puberty, family and friends to the big screen. She wasn’t having it and followed advice from her son: Wait for the girls who grew up with the book to be in power. Enter director Kelly Fremon Craig. In a poignant, fun and revealing conversation, the two women tell the story of how they met, what happened after, and the power of “small” stories, as part of The Ankler’s In Conversation series, hosted by Janice Min.
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Back from the golf-F1 mashup Netflix Cup, Richard Rushfield joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to reveal that what happened in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas as the team talks Ted-spotting, celebrity entourages, and what it all has to do with the sports-ification of today's entertainment. Also how the streamer may be the only one left to take big swings (no pun intended).
Also: the Globes have a TV partner after a year of brutal rejection; Peter Kiefer reveals who's battling for Britney Spears' book rights; and SAG's new rules around "synthetic" performers.
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Hollywood’s dystopian-sounding future is here, with AI the overriding issue for actors as they negotiated their new deal with the studios. Today, two actors on that SAG negotiating committee, Picard’s Michelle Hurd and actor Kevin E. West, walk host Elaine Low through new guardrails around “synthetic” performances, and how an actor can still get paid even when their replica is the one at work. The pair also unpack the new streaming residual “fund”, new intimacy coordinator rules, and what hair and makeup provisions mean for performers of color. As for criticism of the deal by some as it goes to a vote? “Everybody take a deep breath.”
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“None of the workers in this industry are going to let themselves be dictated to anymore by big companies,” says SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, who sat down, along with chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, with Elaine Low on Nov. 10, in the wake of a new contract with the AMPTP. They detail the drama around AI that took talks to the “last minute, literally the last day.” Drescher says the studios first said of proposed AI guardrails, “You'll have to trust us, but we’re not going to put it in writing… come on, do I look like I was born yesterday?’” And while never naming her, they spare no words for AMPTP president and negotiator Carol Lombardini: “I never want to go back to… a middleman. Now I want to talk to your boss.”
Transcript here.
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The longest actors strike in history is over, but a scarred landscape of reduced spending, fewer shows and a shrinking job market now awaits. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield reveal what executives are privately saying, and how to interpret those messages coming from Disney’s Bob Iger to WBD’s David Zaslav.To top it off, labor discontent is still afoot: Elaine interviews former Love is Blind alums Nick Thompson and Jeremy Hartwell, who detail “inhumane” treatment on the show as advocates for reality TV’s unionization; and, on a lighter note, the team offer a round of winter box-office predictions.
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Swifties follow their favorite pop star from stadiums to theaters, even to NFL games. Now, Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper — founder of new multimedia company, Trending, with producer-fiancé Matthew Kaplan — hopes her fan army (known as the “Daddy Gang”) does the same. With her $60 million Spotify deal expiring soon, and plans to further activate her fanbase through a tour, an Alex Cooper multiverse of other shows, and, as the pair exclusively reveals, a detour into music with Unwell Music, the duo talk details of their budding media empire (which recently produced Netflix hit Love at First Sight) in clips shared by interviewer Nicole LaPorte. Also: HBO chief Casey Bloys’ bizarre Twitter exploits, what Condé Nast layoffs portend, and a game of “let’s guess the broadcast TV advertising rates!"
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The dramatic story of how high-flying CAA agent-to-the-stars Maha Dakhil ended up grounded as who-said-what about conflict in the Middle East inflames Hollywood.
Also; real-life Hollywood horror stories, Peacock’s losses peak, and Ralph Nader’s apocalyptic AI warning to Hollywood.
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The pivot into advertising is off to a rough start: Journalist Sahil Patel on the shuffle inside Netflix as it misses first-year ad goals by half.
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The world has no shortage of villains, and according to Jonathan Taplin, author of The End of Reality, Hollywood is currently up against four: Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk. “We have right now a culture of dystopia and nihilism,” says Taplin, who argues that ‘The Four’ are wreaking havoc yes, on politics and economics, but also popular culture by creating their own model of escapism, a role once filled by Hollywood.
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Post-strike, writers have returned to a vastly changed industry. “A big theme I’m hearing from a lot of studio people is that the bar for a greenlight has just gotten much, much higher in the last few months,” says Richard Rushfield, who joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to evaluate the worrisome post-strike landscape.
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For years, CAA agents were promised a pot of gold. Now as the behemoth sells, the 10 percent crew cries foul over its own 10 percent.
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What went on during those last five crucial days of negotiations between the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers? Showrunner and WGA negotiating committee member Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything) takes us behind-the-scenes of the talks.
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Looking for signals and signs that the end is near for the WGA strike. Plus, Peter Kiefer talks about one of the other casualties of the shutdown — Democratic political fundraising — as President Joe Biden faces the fight of his career.
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Since the last round of talks between the WGA and AMPTP on Aug. 22, the deafening silence that fell over Hollywood kicked the rumor mill into overdrive. “This is a function of this stage of the strike where there's a vacuum of information… coupled with a deep sense of distress and desperation to try and figure this thing out,” says Peter Kiefer, who, together with Elaine Low, unraveled the real story of a proposed meeting between showrunners Kenya Barris, Noah Hawley and WGA leadership — and the agent-led whisper campaign behind it. Also: Richard Rushfield calls both sides to task for squabbling over process and procedure: “The rest of the industry should not be asked… to give up a year of income over a fight over whose turn it is to present something.”
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CNBC's Alex Sherman goes behind the scenes of Disney's succession plan disaster and the 'disintegration' of his inner circle.
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Why a next-year end to the strike looks possible, what the Charter-Disney debacle has to do with it, and Richard Rushfield's TIFF report.
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After making bold summer box office predictions at Memorial Day, Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield return to talk about the titles that took in $4 billion stateside, and crown one winning workhorse studio with the highest return on summer movie investments.
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Labor contagion keeps spreading as union actions across the country catch fire. That's no coincidence, says labor journalist and Work Won’t Love You Back author Sarah Jaffe, who joins Elaine Low to discuss what disparate industries, from teaching to health care to Hollywood, have in common, but also what’s unique to creative people in entertainment and the arts.
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Former hotshot TV writer Patty Lin, who quit Hollywood in 2009 when industry toxicity overwhelmed her, discusses her dishy new memoir, 'End Credits'.
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Before the strike, actress Addie Weyrich had an FX pilot. Today, she is waiting tables.
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After months of silence, studio heads seem newly committed to reaching an agreement with the WGA.
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FTC Chair Lina Khan on the agency’s views on the various crises roiling entertainment.
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Dickinson creator Alena Smith joins to discuss the destructive effects of streaming and the corporatization of entertainment.
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Three earnings calls on the same day reveal how entertainment companies are no longer playing the same game.
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The WGA accuses the studios of being in a ‘mutual suicide pact.’
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As Week 1 of the actors strike draws to a close, an interview with SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland on Wall Street’s impact on the impasse, the stickiest issues on the table and more.
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Entertainment Strategy Guy joins to discuss perhaps the most existential of issues at the heart of the current SAG-studio impasse: profit sharing.
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For the first time in over 60 years, Hollywood is in the throes of a double strike.
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As streamers remove series and unions fight over residuals, agreeing on metrics is near impossible.
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Who had the worst week in Hollywood? Was it Bob Iger, whose Disney headaches keep mounting? Or The Flash hype man David Zaslav, who watched his superhero film sputter just days before Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese scolded him? Hard to say, yet both CEOs face the same conundrum: “It starts with stopping the bleeding, to the best they can,” says Richard Rushfield, who joins Elaine Low and Sean McNulty. Also: how Taylor Sheridan became writers’ public enemy this week; Ryan Murphy’s decision to boomerang back to Disney; and why, with one week left in contract talks, it’s impossible to predict SAG’s next move.
Full transcript here.
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The most-watched entertainment company in the world, Disney lately is roiled by major exec changes, an animation eclipse from other studios, layoffs and a CEO racing to both name a successor and right the ship at the same time. CNBC media reporter Alex Sherman joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to talk the perfect storm facing the company with less than 18 months left in Iger’s second term. Also: the PGA-LIV anti-trust problem (2:27), latest on the strike, and what’s next on the Sun Valley agenda (43:52).
Full transcript here.
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Turning Tiffany into Walmart: that’s how Ari Emanuel recently described Bryan Lourd’s stewardship of CAA, putting some harsh, eyebrow-raising words behind the heated rivalry between the Endeavor and CAA chiefs. Peter Kiefer joins Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield to discuss his juicy profile of the war between the two agenting titans (21:26)— and why it explains Hollywood’s dilemmas of the moment. “We’re in the era of Ari and Bryan… and they really don’t like each other very much,” says Kiefer. Also: the PGA’s questionable decision to merge with the Saudi-backed LIV (4:05), how Jeff Zuckeroutplayed (former) CNN chief Chris Licht (7:43), and the state of the writers strike amid the DGA’s tentative deal and SAG’s negotiations (40:05).
For a transcript, click here.
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In-between thewriters and studio/streaming chiefs are Hollywood’s day-to-day working executives, who find themselves in a rare slowdown — and assorted existential crises.
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The box office drought is over. But there are only so many slots for winners.
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What the death of cable TV has to do with the writers strike.
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How writers have leveraged themes around the gig economy, CEO pay and suspicions about Silicon Valley to their benefit.
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With an impasse over everything from quotas to AI, the first week of the strike has revealed an entirely different playing field than the one from 2007-2008. Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low join Sean McNulty to talk what they’ve seen on the pickets, the particular ire at Netflix, the AI arguments, and the tenuous, shifting solidarity from the other guilds. And, the how and when this possibly ends. Also: David Zaslav’s optimistic earnings call and its impact on the strike (1:37), and the upcoming DGA negotiations (23:25).
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In a special Strikegeist episode, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield join Sean McNulty to report back what they are seeing and hearing (and the who’s who) at the picket lines across town. “Upbeat but not combative,” says Rushfield, who took in the scene outside Paramount. Also: why a short-term resolution doesn’t seem likely (10:36); takeaways from Elaine’s interview with WGA lead negotiator Ellen Stutzman (11:24); awkwardness surrounding FYC events (22:18); and why AI has more than just writers worried (13:21).
For by-the-minute coverage of the WGA strike, please subscribe to our free Strikegeist newsletter. And if you enjoy this podcast, please click here to subscribe.
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If the theme of last year’s CinemaCon was “movies are back,” then this year’s is “movies are really back.” Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low join Sean McNulty to report what they saw during their three dizzying days at the Vegas pep rally.
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As Hollywood braces for a writers strike, one genre of television will remain unscathed: unscripted. But reality has its own pitfalls: recently Netflix juggernaut Love is Blind whiffed in its attempt to livestream its reunion episode. Today, Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield are joined by Insider’s Katie Warren, whose recent piece exposed horrifying work conditions on the show for contestants — a reminder of how inexpensive costs and inexperience make unscripted so budget-friendly to make. Also on tap: how the DGA is entangled in WGA negotiations (1:22), the migration of entertainment execs to the gaming world, as reported by Low (25:22), and what to expect at CinemaCon next week (38:21).
For a full transcript, click here.
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Sean McNulty and Elaine Low analyze what the co-CEOs said (and didn’t) in its Q1 earnings report about the strike, subscribers, the ad tier and passwords.
For a full transcript, click here.
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For the first time in 13 years, the iconic HBO moniker will not headline a platform as HBO Max becomes Max. Was the brand that snobby?
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Elaine Low and Sean McNulty discuss the implications of HBO Max's rebrand.
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Entertainment was once dominated by brash young executives (Barry Diller, Sherry Lansing, Dawn Steel and Robert Evans all ascended in their thirties). Now? Nearly every top job in town belongs to someone with decades (and decades) of experience. “When there’s a storm, you turn to the steady captain who’s been at the helm before,” says Peter Kiefer, whose piece about Hollywood’s Grey Ceiling — frustrating to those waiting their turns at top — got the town talking (15:11). Also: Endeavor’s potential for middle America domination with its WWE-UFC merger (5:48), confusion around Amazon’s streaming strategy (11:04), and the surprising lack of kids movies in theaters (39:18).
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Hollywood’s tectonic plates are continuing their steady shift, this time with Netflix’s decision to part ways with longtime film execs Lisa Nishimura and Ian Bricke. The move raises the broader question of what other senior-level anklings are coming, an issue Elaine Low hit on in her reporting on Hollywood’s new workplace culture: “It's making people question, ‘what am I doing with my career?’” (32:25) Also: Martini Shot host and OG WGA member Rob Long explains why he flip-flopped and now supports the Guild’s demands (1:08); how a strike could affect release strategies and content creation pipelines (17:54), Richard Rushfield’s apocalyptic vision of the streamers’ strike game plan (34:47); and why the team is split on an analyst’s new recommendation that Apple should buy Disney (43:57).
For a full transcript of this episode, click here.
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This is last in a series of conversations from NXStream Global, the March 8 summit from Advertising Week and The Ankler at UTA. The first three were with Tony Vinciquerra, Jeremy Zimmer and Rich Paul.
When Tom Ryan launched free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service Pluto TV in 2013, he defied the widely held belief that the future lay in on-demand, ad-free paid subscription services such as Netflix. Then, in 2019, he sold Pluto TV to Viacom for $340 million, becoming part of Paramount Global. “We've got the broadest possible content offering, and the broadest possible business model,” says Ryan. In conversation with Sean McNulty, Ryan, now president and CEO of Paramount Streaming, discusses the combination of Paramount’s assets with Pluto’s, now in 35 markets (8:54), the critical importance of “best of breed” partnerships around the globe for growth (16:57), and how Paramount+ added 10 million subscribers in Q4 — more than any other streamer (19:35).
For a full transcript of the conversation, click here.
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With a strike looming, will Apple, Amazon and Netflix decide to make real concessions.
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Amid a looming writers strike, cutbacks across the board, price increases and layoffs, Hollywood is at an inflection point, both in terms of how Wall Street sees it and how Hollywood sees itself. New Ankler reporter Elaine Low joins Richard Rushfield and Sean McNulty to dissect the existential crisis around town, as people wonder, what does it even mean to work here anymore? “This year you're really gonna have both creatives and studio execs taking a good hard look at themselves,” says Low. (5:52 The trio also discuss what the average entertainment consumer wants and expects (22:50), whether Apple and Amazon will quit streaming if their core businesses fail to drive independent revenue (30:25), and the soon-to-begin WGA strike negotiations (45:10).
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Sports agent Rich Paul shares his strategy for keeping clients like LeBron James and Jalen Hurts in the money.
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Bruce Vilanch spent 14 of his 24 years on the Academy Awards as the show’s head writer (2000-2014), collaborating with hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, David Letterman and Steve Martin. Today, he breaks down why this year’s Oscars worked — from the use of live TV producers, to heartfelt speeches, to Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes.
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With the entertainment business in chaos, and a potential WGA strike looming, UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer comes out swinging in support of better economics for writers, and delivers sometimes scathing opinions about the unprofitable state of streaming, the great un-ordering of series, and stardom (including Leonardo Di Caprio's advice to Timotheé Chalamet).
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As the one-year anniversary of the Great Netflix Correction approaches, the town’s streaming future sure looks a lot more uncertain as Bob Iger, Jeremy Zimmer, UTA CEO, and Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra make pointed remarks about the un-sustainability of the current streaming economy.
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Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra talks to Janice Min about The Woman King’s Oscars snub; PlayStation and The Last of Us; the decision to work with Will Smith again, and Spider-Man and Kevin Feige.
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For decades, the prevailing narrative around Gone With the Wind has been that it romanticized slavery and the antebellum south. But, as David Vincent Kimel learned when he discovered one of the film's few remaining shooting scripts, it almost did the exact opposite. The Yale grad student joins the podcast to talk about his groundbreaking story, which exposes the film's warring screenwriters and deleted scenes depicting the horrors of slavery (23:48). “It really is shocking how gritty and uncompromising that early material was,” he says. Also: Richard Rushfield's dire takeaways from talking with 20+ writers against the backdrop of a looming WGA strike (13:18), and the NBA agent joining our IRL Oscar week streaming summit (0:43).
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Today, Richard Rushfield dives deeper into his high school classmates growing up in L.A. (names include Matthew Greenfield, Jay Sures, Brett Morgen, Jason Blumenthal, Maya Rudolph and Jack Black),part of the many revelations from his profile in the Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair. Get ready to learn what car Sures drove, who carpooled with his sister, and which of the names above was his prom date (albeit group date). Also: the forces driving a near inevitable writers strike (19:02), how to interpret David Zaslav’s earnings call (10:11), and more on our IRL Oscar week streaming summit (39:04).
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“It’s a terrible place to make creative decisions when fear seeps into the process,”Peter Kiefer tells our hosts, as he explains what he learned from interviews with a dozen of the town’s senior executives (13:39). Some culprits? Underwater stock options, a top-down obsession with optics, the ruthless demands of Wall Street and private equity, and a relentless mining of old IP. Oh yeah, and the constant threat of layoffs. Also: our IRL Oscar week streaming summit (1:00), the new nepo-ex atop AMC Networks (4:13), Don Lemon’s bad behavior (11:06), and Richard Rushfield’s advice (34:43) for Jenna Ortega and all stars.
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Few technological disruptors to the entertainment industry have appeared quite as fast, or as existentially forebodingly, as artificial intelligence. After ChatGPT, DALL-E and other new AI technologies became publicly available in recent months, Cornell Law professor James Grimmelmann says, “I could feel the ground shifting.”Today, he walks our hosts through samples of AI music, script-writing and visual effects, and the ways in which the industry may be forced to evolve. “I don’t think Hollywood should be afraid. But every person should be thinking how every creative job… is going to look different as a result of this.” Also on tap: what’s coming under Bob Iger’s second shot at Disney.
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In what Mark Zuckerberg has deemed the “year of efficiency” — corporate-speak for layoffs and cost-cutting — economic pressures are being felt across Hollywood, from writers to producers to below-the-line workers and, of course, actors. Joining today, seasoned actress Rebecca Metz (Better Things, Shameless) reveals how unique circumstances for performers (shorter seasons, exclusivity windows, the disappearance of residuals) have taken a toll, even for those on hit series. As actors, making less now, leave L.A. (“I have a lot of friends who have left town”), Metz puts forth a straightforward career goal for the streaming era: to “like my life while being able to support myself.”
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It's certainly not the soap opera that went down at Disney, but Netflix’s new succession plan might turn out to be just as earth-shaking. Prior to the streamer’s Q4 earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings announced Greg Peters, current COO and CPO, as his replacement. Insider’s Elaine Low joinshosts Sean McNulty and Janice Min to discuss her reporting on the little-known Peters, breaking down who he is (physics and astrophysics major at Yale, foodie), how he complements co-CEO Ted Sarandos (Peters isunaffected by Hollywood glamour), and what it portends for the world’s biggest streamer.
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Host Sean McNulty sits with Josh Greenstein, president of Sony’s Motion Picture Group, to break down the studio’s latest theatrical success, Tom Hanks’ A Man Called Otto (a $15 million opening weekend). The two dig into Greenstein’s out-of-the-box marketing campaigns that reached Otto’s broad demographic — from AARP screenings, to an advent calendar, to Hanks’ TikTok debut. Greenstein also talks the studio’s new deal with Legendary, the upcoming Spider-man movie and CEO Tom Rothman’s strategy for making movies. Says Greenstein, “We’re really trying to bring all audiences into the tent.”
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This week, the Disney soap opera took even more twists with a board shake-up and vocal misgivings from today’s Hollywood bogeyman: the activist investor. Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield unpack the welts from Nelson Peltz (which include a finger wag for the $71 billion purchase of Fox), and why Disney attracts so much drama. Also: Richard shares his view from the inside of the Golden Globes, its predictable ratings collapse, and what it augers for awards season. Lastly, with Richard jetting off to the Sundance Film Festival, the team talks about the indie sector’s theatrical wing all but in collapse, and what might come out of the confab. (Note, click here for a special invitation to an Ankler event for readers and listeners in Park City.)
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Host Sean McNulty wanted to start the New Year with stories of success in a new Ankler podcast series, Why it Worked. First up: horror’s top hitmakers, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Atomic Monster’s James Wan, the powerhouses behind low-budget smash M3GAN. The two talk the viral TikTok dance trend, what made the movie and campaign work, how they look at tracking (or don’t), and why the studios and streamers struggle to produce their own low-budget, high-margin hits. Will there be a M3GAN sequel? The duo answer, as well as questions around how they work together, the status of their merger, and future plans. As Blum puts it: “Thank God this one part of the business is still working!”
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When Buffalo Bill Daram Hamlin awoke in the hospital following his dramatic medical crisis during Monday Night Football, his first words in the hospital were “Did we win?” On today’s pod, Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Janice Min, joined by The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch, contrast the NFL’s high-stakes dramas to the deterioration of the public’s interest in Hollywood’s own competitions: awards shows (of the top 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2022, 82 were NFL games; the Oscars were 77th on the list). With the Golden Globes just days away (and likely programmed on Tuesday to no go opposite football), the four discuss the void of anticipation, who and what is owning the public mindshare right now if not for movies and TV, Avatar: The Way of the Water, and if the audience should feel optimistic about movies in this year ahead.
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In the final pod of the year, The Ankler looks back on Hollywood’s tumultuous 12 months and what lies ahead in 2023. Hosts Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield are joined by Jason Hirschhorn, CEO of digital content and curation company REDEF, for a probing discussion around the state of Hollywood and the Streaming Wars. Hirschhorn discusses hard choices facing media giants as they pivot from customer acquisition to retention, and what the implications are for programming (12:42). The trio also talks which companies are best positioned for next year (28:36), the changes ads bring (15:25) and whether anyone will ever be able to unravel the apps and services jungle that viewers must navigate to watch shows (32:42). Topping it off: their picks for best of 2022 (60:55).
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Is anything more dramatic than the DC Universe (16:19)? With a history that includes off-screen ups and downs around Henry Cavill, Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon, Christopher Nolan, Ben Affleck and Amber Heard, “it’s like a soap opera in its 11th season,” says Richard Rushfield, who joins hosts Sean McNulty and Tatiana Siegel. The group unpacks the controversial decisions from new chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery’s adjacent HBO Max library purge (23:52). Also: Ankler contributor Nicole LaPorte discusses her buzzy grim story about the new hustle life for Hollywood writers, and if Bob Iger was the hidden hand behind Disney movies suddenly landing China releases (37:41).
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In recent years, Hollywood embraced the “authorship” principle — the belief that writers and filmmakers best share the “lived experience” of their subjects to be authentic. As relayed by Peter Kiefer, the Ankler contributor whose bombshell Elisabeth Finch interview has rocked the town, the producers of medical soap opera Grey’s Anatomy, Shondaland, wholly embraced this belief system. Kiefer explains to hosts Sean McNulty, Janice Min and Tatiana Siegel not only how he ended up with Finch’s confessions, but how the current climate may have aided and abetted her staggering series of lies. In five hours of taped interviews, Finch confesses: “It was absolutely dead wrong to do that… Culturally it became cooler if [the pitch] was based on something in reality.” Even if the reality was fiction.
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Three months into the job as AMC Networks, CEO Christina Spade was shown the door — a shorter tenure than even ousted Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s (26:42). “Not even a word from her. It was literally an announcement in a SEC filing,” notes host Sean McNulty. “Then, the next day they announced 20 percent of the staff is being let go.” This comes on the heels of a week of stunning reorgs at CNN, Paramount and Amazon. McNulty, joined by Richard Rushfield, Tatiana Siegel and Ankler contributor Nicole LaPorte also discussed the increasingly bleak outlook for producers (14:59) and the curious case of the Emancipation red carpet where no reporter dared breathe a word of The Slap (2:59).
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Watching the fiasco consuming Twitter, Hollywood might think it’s above the madness. But the mood of workers in entertainment feels more like the spiraling social media platform than anyone wants to believe. Amazon is laying off 10,000 people, Roku is cutting 200, John Malone said streaming economics have lead to “blood running down the gutters” and Vice Media seeks to cut 15 percent of its budget — which won’t come from “saving paper clips,” says Janice Min, joined by host Sean McNulty. Also: the role of tech-driven economics on Hollywood chaos (10:28), Twitter’s Elon Musk-fueled descent (13:46), the future of crypto stories in film and TV (23:41), and Marvel’s snowballing franchise fatigue (37:30).
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Jennifer Aniston declared the movie star dead. Now hosts Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel, joined by Rob Long, offer their condolences as Hollywood scatters the ashes of its once-mighty creation (21:02), destroyed by self-inflicted wounds (and names of those who still endure). The group also talks agents and managers (7:32), and how streaming makes them — for better or worse — more valuable. “Streamers are so besieged with 2,000 shows in production that they demand any project [have] everybody attached,” says Rushfield. “They need a whole package ready to go.” Also: Early returns on The Ankler’s ruthless Agents, Managers and Attorneys poll (3:38) and schadenfreude over Silicon Valley’s woes (49:30): Says Long, “I am celebrating the humbling of our overlords.”
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Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Roku, Lionsgate. Third-quarter earnings reports are all variations on a theme: things are bad. Layoffs are hitting every corner, and streaming “clearly [is] not making money yet and will not for another two years if it even gets to that point for some of these companies,” says host Sean McNulty (30:31), joined by Janice Min, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel, as the team lays out likely scenarios coming (including the “twin apocalypse” of a recession and a writers guild strike). Ankler contributor Peter Kiefer also joins to dissect Tuesday’s election, including a town divided over Rick Caruso v. Karen Bass for mayor and a wild Los Angeles County supervisor race rife with antisemitism allegations (5:10). Also on tap: Jeff Zucker’s $1 billion comeback (32:36).
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Recession. Ad declines. Subscriber plateaus. The tides continue to shift since the Great Streaming Bubble’s implosion of 2022. In the wake of a pessimistic Q3 earnings season, hosts Sean McNulty, Janice Min and Richard Rushfield are joined by CNBC media reporter Alex Sherman to break down the town’s latest thoughts around David Zaslav (1:35); if Comcast should give up on Peacock (16:30); why Apple didn’t discuss Apple TV+ on its earnings call (spoiler: there was likely no good news, 14:59); and if it make sense for Microsoft to acquire Netflix (16:30). Lastly, Sherman hits on Wall Street’s confusion around it all: “Wall Street doesn’t love mixed messages.”
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Netflix has released more than 45 films(!) so far in 2022, the majority of which are neither loved by critics nor audience, according to Rotten Tomatoes (and as analyzed film-by-film by host Sean McNulty). Not a single one of the other streamers and studios has reached the same average level of disapproval (for the record, everyone else combined have released a total of 86 films in the same time frame). McNulty, Janice Minand Richard Rushfield discuss the quantity vs. quality debate, and if it matters for Netflix, whose Q3 earnings showed subscriber growth. The trio discuss the opposite strategy in play by David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery (see: WBD: What’s the Plan column) and why (try to contain your excitement!) not all debt is created equal.
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Netflix took a victory lap on Tuesday with its Q3 earnings report that revealed — surprise! —the company beat its revenue forecast (or, as host Sean McNulty likes to say, Netflix underpromised and overdelivered). In a special episode recorded at Advertising Week in New York, McNulty, Janice Minand Richard Rushfield break down the ad tier (9:00); the streamer’s 2.4 million subscriber growth stagnating in the U.S., but exploding in Asia (1:09); the company’s not-so-subtle roasting of its money-losing competition (5:35); the comeback of Ryan Murphy with Dahmer (6:52) and its dunk on House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power; the streamer’s theatrical plans for Glass Onion (12:26), and Netflix’s commitment to gaming but not sports (21:57).
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With a potential WGA strike on the horizon, can the chasm between studios and angry writers be bridged? Hosts Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel are joined by Martini Shot host (and WGA member) Rob Long to unpack the impending doom. “The Writers Guild continually strikes for a time machine and to go back and change the way [deals] were written,” notes Long. “‘If only I could go back and’ as we always say, kill Hitler.” The foursome also talk Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s questionable victory lap (38:55), David O. Russell’s very odd on-set antics (31:43); and Netflix’s never-say-never theatrical release of Glass Onion (5:27)
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Viewership for Hollywood awards shows is plummeting. Hosts Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty survey the rocky terrain that’s led to the Golden Globes’s shaky one-year NBC deal (far less than its once-$60 million a year license fee), and prompted the Academy’s new Hail Mary efforts to remake the Oscars (and red carpet) for ABC. “There’s no way now they’re getting $100 million a year [today],” McNulty says. In a season where Avatar 2, Steven Spielberg, Top Gun: Maverick and Elvisare in the mix, the shows are throwing everything against the wall to remain culturally relevant — with streamers likely their next home. The team also unpacks Amazon’s Thursday Night Football numbers(9:41), Apple Music’s Super Bowl steal (6:30), and Spielberg’s Toronto audience award with The Fabelmans (42:25).
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Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty take stock of a new phenomenon on the festival circuit fest: the ever-shrinking and choreographed press conference (20:34). High-profile press conferences — from Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans to Harry Styles’ period gay drama The Policeman — featured questions vetted in advance (likely a result of Venice’s Don’t Worry Darling debacle), with Styles answering just one question at the My Policeman post-premiere Q&A. “It’s an erosion of the ability to report at a festival,” says Siegel. Also on tap, the hosts tackle the arrival of Thursday Night Football on Amazon (6:19), woeful Emmys ratings (3:52) as well as Bob Chapek and Brian Roberts’ “public negotiation” over Hulu (28:41).
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Oof — well, that’s an Emmys down. Today, hosts Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield dissect the Emmys, and what it says about the streaming giants who stage their annual showdown over bragging rights with increasingly little meaning to the larger audience. Who comes out of this show stronger Diminished? And would all the streamers just be better off ignoring the Emmys altogether? The hosts also throw around some wild ideas on how to fix this awards show and others, and what lies before us on the next road to Oscar.
(Curious minds can click here to watch the Love Boat 1983 ABC Fall Preview Special referenced in the episode.)
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What does America really want to watch? In recent years, Hollywood has become obsessed with prestige content — the kind, as host Richard Rushfield puts it, that entertainment executives can talk about green-lighting to impress people at dinner parties. Richard, Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel, and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty break down surprising stats that reveal how and why Hollywood became out of touch with so much potential audience (the subject of Entertainment Strategy Guy’s “The American Viewer” series), a topic with new urgency as streaming growth in the U.S. plateaus (28:19). Also, Richard and Tatiana check in from the Toronto International Film Festival (05:26), the hosts discuss the MIA marketing heads of streaming (13:04), and Sean lays out the details of Cineworld’s unsurprising bankruptcy filing (23:36).
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For the price of just a few coffee runs, you can access the entire Peacock catalogue – Sunday Night Football, Love Island, and all – for a full calendar year right now. That deep-cut offer ($20 for 12 months) might signal red flags unique to the no-growth Comcast streamer, but drastic lever-pulling is engulfing the entire streaming marketplace (16:20) — from price slashing (Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount+/Showtime bundling) to ad tiers (Netflix and Disney+). Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty also talk House of the Dragon vs. Rings of Power (10:24), the return of monoculture (41:15), and the decline of marketing-sculpted movie stars (44:34). Plus: Richard struggles when quizzed about Netflix’s top 10 movie openings weekends from Summer 2022 (47:05).
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Rarely does an entertainment CEO become a trending topic on Twitter, but that’s exactly where Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav found himself this week as heat increases over his company’s layoffs, DEI handling, the removal of library content including hundreds of Sesame Street episodes from HBO Max, and those so-called ‘funeral screenings.’ Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, and The Wakeup’s Sean McNultyhone in on what’s happening behind closed doors and why as mounting debt puts increasing pressure on the company. Also on today’s episode, the trio play producer Dan Lin’s prophetic remarks aboutDC (11:44), and run down Entertainment Strategy Guy’s fantasy M&A picks (23:40) for an embattled industry.
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The town may finally be acknowledging the undeniable pressures unique to this industry. This week, Jonah Hill, Tom Holland and Ezra Miller all said they are modifying their behavior to protect their mental health. Hill is stepping away from promoting his movies and making public appearances due to panic attacks; Holland announced he has abandoned social media to help stay emotionally balanced; and Ezra Miller is seeking treatment for a complex mental health issue. Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty survey Hollywood’s littered emotional landscape and how an industry whose very businesses are in current disarray adds another layer of stress onto its inhabitants. Separately, the hosts dive into new headlines ranging from Netflix’s Scott Stuber interviewing at Amazon, and Brian Stelter’s firing from CNN.
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There’s nothing more stressful or exhilarating than the high-wire act of live television. The Ankler Hot Seat podcast host Tatiana Siegel welcomes one of the best in the genre: Hamish Hamilton, director of the upcoming 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 12. Londoner Hamilton has helmed some of the most memorable moments of live TV including this year’s Super Bowl halftime extravaganza, Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s VMA win, and the London Olympics Opening Ceremony when Queen Elizabeth jumped out of a helicopter (yes, she rehearsed that move 5-6 times!). Hamilton also previews his live Beauty and the Beast with H.E.R., coming up on ABC. An Emmy nominee himself this year (for the 2022 Super Bowl), he also weighs in on two live shows he didn’t direct: the Oscar slap flap and the 2004’s Nipplegate at the Super Bowl. “You want people to be talking about your show,” says Hamilton. “On another hand, you want everybody who hits that stage, for it to be a safe place.”
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Following Disney’s Q2 earnings call, many headlines declared the company’s victory over Netflix as Disney+ subscribers reached 221 million — squeaking ahead of Netflix (at 220.67 million). But in this episode, The Wakeup’s Sean McNultytells Janice Minand Richard Rushfieldthat, in this case, the numbers don’t reveal the whole story (think India, domestic stagnation and revenue per subscriber). The trio also discuss the town’s curious changing narrative around Disney chief Bob Chapek, the company's declared break-even point for streaming, and the date the company has circled in its calendar to stop losing money on streaming. All this, plus other juicy tidbits (for those who love data and analysis, that is).
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On this episode, hosts Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty take quick measure of entertainment’s giants after another day of wild Q2 earnings calls all about streaming that included Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Lionsgate. Some quantified(ish) what success looks like down the road; others stayed vague. WBD CEO David Zaslav said that HBO Max and Discovery+, which boast a total of 92 million combined subscribers worldwide, will break even as a united service when it adds another 40 million, likely in 2024 or 2025, as $3 billion in “efficiencies” (ouch), start to unroll. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish called their losses “a growth phase” (a $445 million loss last quarter against revenues of $672 million). All begged the hard question: when does streaming investment actually begin to pay off?
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Related links:
* Top Producer Sees Ruthless Future for Hollywood DEI
* What?! Netflix Just Lost its Biggest TV Show in America
* Will Peacock Exist in a Year?
* Which Streamer Has the Most Bombs in 2022?
* Who Killed the Marvel Juggernaut?
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As recession fears mount, Comcast becomes the latest to deliver a bleak earnings picture, with its streaming service Peacock stuck firm on 13 million subscribers, despite spending over $2 billion a year on content.
Hosts Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty discuss what that might mean for its future and what to expect next on the earnings front (Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Lionsgate will report their results in the coming days, and the New York Times and BuzzFeed are on deck amid the ever-shrinking digital ad spend).
Also on today’s episode, Netflix gives a limp green light to more of The Gray Man, and lands the opening movies for the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. But are those slots cursed?
RELATED:
Peacock Adds No New Subscribers or Free Users in Q2
Which Streamer Has the Most Bombs in 2022
Netflix Saved by ‘Stranger Things’
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This week, Rob Long has a confession to make: he likes agents—they’re “the friendly bacteria in the lower intestine of the dirty business we call entertainment,” he says. In defense of this controversial point of view (well, for a writer, anyway), Rob offers a cautionary tale about a past-his-prime agent who, along with his assistant, saves the career of a struggling writer with a spec sale of an old script. In the process, he reinvigorates his own career and gets the assistant promoted to agent, too. All’s well that ends well, right? But that’s not the end of the story.
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Earnings season is underway, and everyone should be taking notice of Snapchat’s dismal performance (and Twitter’s that followed). The tech company’s stock took a 27 percent nosedive immediately after reporting shocking ad sales declines. That portends a bleak near future for every ad-dependent entity — including Netflix and the streaming services increasingly pivoting to advertising to save the day. Is the chill temporary or is a new ice age afoot? Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty break it down. Also: Yellowstone is TV’s biggest hit, but Hollywood isn't rushing to replicate its success. And TCA scraps its in-person event and goes virtual. Is it really about Covid — or just a convenient excuse?
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The Netflix Q2 2022 subscriber numbers are in! And… huh. No splat. What does the lack of a collapse — but not exactly successful April through June quarter — indicate about the state of the streaming business at the midway mark of 2022?Hosts Janice Min and Richard Rushfield are joined by Ankler contributor Sean McNulty, writer of the daily morning newsletter The Wakeup to dive into the numbers beneath the headlines, including increasing clouds on the U.S. horizon, what the picture looks like in Q3, and what to expect from the rest of the streaming service subscriber reports to come in the weeks ahead.
Subscribe to The Ankler, and you also get The Wakeup included in your subscription each weekday morning among the collection of newsletters bringing you behind the doors of the Hollywood and media business.
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The Emmy noms are in. After months of posturing, positioning and the biggest glut of prestige entertainment the world has ever seen, the votes have been tallied and the final sprint towards the big night is off and running. Besides the usual snubs and surprises, this year’s crop was a barometer on the state of the streaming wars and television in general. To sift through the results, host Richard Rushfield is joined by L.A. Times Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime TV critic Mary McNamara, television writer and Martini Shothost Rob Long, and Sean McNulty, author of The Wakeup. On the roundtable today: which mogul had the worst day? Why is Yellowstone the odd bison out? And lastly, our panelists name their picks for what will win and what should win.
Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry.
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Today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast dissects this week’s move by the Disney board to extend CEO Bob Chapek’s contract for three more years. Hosts Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel are joined by Ankler contributing editor Peter Kiefer to discuss why the Twitter mob — hailing from both the right and the left of the political divide — tried (and failed) to topple the P.R.-challenged chief from his top perch. The trio also breaks down Disney employees’ internal anger over the company’s exclusion of Planned Parenthood from its corporate matching gift program (which supports many pro-life crisis pregnancy centers). And it’s time to celebrate (or rue) the 15-year anniversary of the iPhone, whereby Hollywood’s collective attention span has become so short it can no longer follow an Adam Sandler movie plotline.
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Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry.
Today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast tackles this weekend’s big studio opening, the oft-challenged biopic Elvis. Hosts Tatiana Siegel and Richard Rushfield are joined by The Wakeup writer Sean McNulty to discuss the $85 million Warner Bros. film that endured a lengthy production shutdown back in March 2020 when Tom Hanks became the first celebrity to land in the hospital with Covid. Add to that an untested star in Austin Butler, a 2-hour-and-40-minute runtime and a jam-packed marketplace with such options as holdovers Top Gun, Jurassic World: Dominion and Lightyear, as well as new horror entry The Black Phone.
But McNulty notes that the biggest problem is “Does anybody care about Elvis?” He adds: “I'm in my mid-40s and I have a mild curiosity about him. I didn't grow up on his music. So does anybody born after 1980 really care about Elvis, or really care to find out if they don't know [his music]?”
Siegel, who was on the ground for the Cannes Film Festival in May, says that Warners also didn’t capitalize on the built-in buzz of premiering at the festival because — unlike Top Gun — Elvis bowed so late in the festival that most attendees were gone by that point. Additionally, Presley songs have not remained part of the popular music canon in the way Elton John and Queen had before the releases of biopics Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody.
Rushfield also highlights that older Middle America — the most natural demo for Elvis — might be put off by director Baz Luhrmann’s take on the King. “The Baz Luhrmann treatment has him skewed in a way that's emphasizing Elvis as this sort of transgressive figure in a way that's definitely not making a pitch towards Elvis' natural fan base,” Rushfield says. “The great advantage of this film is that all the people that you might blame for it are gone. There's nobody at Warner Bros. taking the fall for this movie.”
If preview tallies for Elvis are any indication, $3.5 million doesn’t bode well for the film. (The low-budget Black Phone did $3 million in fewer theaters.)
The trio also broke down why Lightyear stumbled and what it means for beleaguered CEO Bob Chapek as well as more Netflix layoffs (and more schadenfreude).
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