☀️ Ax Swings at WB, PEACOCK as '25 Exec Shuffle Starts
The #s NETFLIX added to WWE RAW / SPINCO gets top execs / 2025's return to basics offers hope
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, January 9, 2024.
Where there aren’t really words for me to offer to start the newsletter today, so instead I’ll hand the mic off to Jacob Soboroff from NBC NEWS who drove through the Pacific Palisades, where he was born and raised, for a piece on the evening news last night.
Obviously I’m far away from things here on the East Coast, but please know that this story is certainly at the forefront of our attention here in NYC as well (NETFLIX has canceled its NYC premiere of Back in Action tonight too).
The Ankler has also created a Google Doc for folks to share their wildfire stories here for potential future coverage of the devastating event.
I’ll also second Richard’s notion from last night that my inbox, as always, is open to reach out directly anytime — seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com — if even just for a moment of talking about absolutely anything else for a moment!
EVENT INFO CHANGES
The Critics Choice Awards will now be Jan. 26.
Oscar voting has been extended to Tuesday, Jan. 14, with nominations coming on Sunday, Jan. 19.
WGA nominations will now be Monday, Jan. 13.
The PGA Awards postponed its nominations announcement until Sunday.
The NFL is creating a contingency plan for the RAMS playoff game on Monday night, which would move it to Arizona.
AND: Just a rules change, but the Emmys is eliminating the ability for folks who were nominated for an award for a lead or supporting character in a series to be nominated again for a guest role when they return for an episode on that series.
THEN: Here are your SAG Award nominees and your DGA Film nominees.
PLUS: The Bonnaroo festival about an hour south of Nashville will be headlined by Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler, the Creator, Hozier and Luke Combs on the weekend of June 12. Tix are on sale today here at 11 a.m.
AH: Don’t worry Hollywood, AI is coming for the bankers too! According to a new Bloomberg industry poll — banking execs expect about 200k job eliminations due to AI over the next 3-5 years (or about 3% of the banking industry).
ALSO: Tiger & Rory’s TGL 🏌️ got 919k viewers for its debut on ESPN Tuesday night. The LAKERS vs. MAVS game on TNT against the TGL got 1.1M views . . . again continuing the NBA’s weekday cable TV declines this year.
Don’t be fooled by the big Christmas Day games fudging the underlying audience attrition trends for the NBA this season . . . which seem to be 100% continuing week in, week out on cable TV.
THEN: Ari’s TKO is in talks with a company owned by the Saudi PIF to create a new boxing league, according to the NYT.
OH: The NHL Winter Classic is (wisely) ditching the New Year’s Eve notion which led to an all-time low viewership this year, and the outdoor hockey game will be on Friday, Jan. 2 next year in . . . Miami. 😎 One step forward, two steps back there, NHL. #SoClose Enjoy the roller hockey game.
📽 THE SILVER TV
