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
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.
For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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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.”
For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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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.
Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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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.
Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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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.
Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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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.
Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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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.
Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals.
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