☀️CANDLE Debt Concerns after HELLO SUNSHINE 90% Target Miss
Ryan Reynolds, post-strike movie pitch king / COMCAST price hikes / WWE tops NBA in TV ratings
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY Dec. 8, 2023.
Where PGA golfer Jon Rahm has found his price! Yes, the world’s third-best golfer & 2023 Masters champion, and previous staunch defender of the PGA (until it made the LIV merger deal this Summer and didn’t inform any of its top players, like Rahm) is leaving the PGA for the Saudi LIV league.
Jon’s price? Reports range anywhere from $300 Million to $560 Million 🤯. But don’t worry, pretty sure the Saudis are good for it… and Jon maintained in his announcement that he does "not play golf for the money,” but rather “for the love of the game.”
Jon then called out “line” to someone in the wings as he forgot his script at home. Golfers amirite? 🙄
BTW: The PGA-LIV merger deal has a deadline of…oh about 3 weeks, and is by many accounts is not very close to being sewn up. This doesn’t help. Have a fun golf season in a few months TV networks! 🏌️♂️
PLUS: The EMMY eligibility deadline calendar won’t change next year, despite the strikes and this year’s show happening in January. So June 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024 it is!
ALSO 🥳: ABC’s Dick Clark Rockin’ New Years Eve announced its featured performing talent for this year’s show, including Green Day, Ellie Goulding, Ludacris, Renee Rapp and 30 Seconds to Mars.
AND: Here is your 2023 AFI Awards Top 10 list for Film and for TV series.
PHEW: The LAKERS won their NBA CUP semi-final game last night, so Saturday night’s first championship game will at least have one marquee team for the ABC broadcast (they’ll play INDIANA).
THEN 🪧: The Washington Post 24-hour journalist walkout drew about 750 employees yesterday, who were protesting their POST GUILD’s lack of a contract, 18 months after their last one expired. The publication’s editors were thus in charge of at least keeping some flow of stories to their website yesterday and getting a newspaper out.
Among employee union asks are minimum salary floors for certain positions, and a 4% annual cost of living raises in the next three years.
Management is holding at 2.25% next year, and 2% in 2025 and 2026, and claims their last offer has LBFO status.
The YoY monthly U.S. inflation rate hasn’t been below 3% in 20 months.
Employee layoff/buyouts are also a point of contention - management is looking for 240 by mid-month, and only about 120 have accepted one so far. No one is certain what happens once the deadline hits.
WAPO is estimated to lose $100 Million this year, and has a new publisher starting in January.
Seemingly no word from WAPO owner Jeff Bezos on the situation, presumably from his new Miami compound that he recently bought for $147 Million, or his $165 Million Beverly Hills home (former residents: David Geffen, Jack Warner) that he picked up a few years ago.
IN THIS EDITION
CANDLE’s strike-affected year is having debt ramifications… plus Ryan Reynolds was clearly the go-to talent post-strikes, the latest NBA and NFL numbers, news at PEACOCK, NETFLIX, COMCAST, USA and a Kareem Daniel sighting in the trades! Plus a look at all the new things to stream and watch this weekend and more.
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE
New pod up this morning, with Elaine giving us color on the conversations she had around town for her post-strikes TV marketplace feature this week, as execs seem to come back to the idea of entertaining big audiences, and we celebrate Norman Lear - a man who knew a thing or 2 about that notion.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
