☀️'Civil War' Tops Predictions, Audience Scores Mixed
Which streamers are ad buyer faves in Upfronts / UNI, Emma Stone in talks / Masters get big ratings start
Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY, April 14, 2024.
Where Scottie Scheffler cemented his name into one that all sport fans should know, winning his second Masters at just 27 years old, and thus also winning 2 out of his first 5 outings at the tournament 🤯.
Scottie had 7 birdies in his final round today, just like I have on my usual scorecard 😁. For the summer 🫤. (Note for Janice: Birdie means one under par, there are 18 holes in a round of golf, and . . . eh, I’ll fill ya in at the staff meeting tomorrow)
So, enjoy that $3.2 Million Scottie! He’s got his first kid on the way very soon, so I’m sure it’ll go to good use.
BUT: As for where things stand with the whole PGA-LIV deal / recombination / reassembly . . . it’s been about 10 months since the initial announcement last summer, and there’s still not any actual deal on any horizon here, nor does anyone seem to even have a clue what the future of professional golf even should look like, as Andrew Ross Sorkin laid out well in his NYT DealBook newsletter this weekend.
But if you look at TV rights — which let’s face it is the core 💰 driver behind any future, LIV or no LIV — the PGA just signed a new TV/digital deal in 2022 through 2030 . . . so creating a new entity with a new schedule (which may be easier for casual fans to follow👋) doesn’t have a lot of flexibility anytime soon, barring the nullification of a $700M a year deal with three different entities (CBS, NBC and ESPN).
Note — rights for major golf events like the U.S. Open, Masters, etc exist outside of this TV deal.
LIV of course has a U.S. TV deal with The CW which . . . has not been reported to be lucrative, and has an option for one more year after this season.
AND: Local 728 (electrical lighting technicians) is the 10th of 13 local guilds to reach a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. Negotiations on the overall IATSE Basic Agreement begin on April 29.
OH: Add rebooting Cold Case as the latest “original” idea to come forth in Hollywood this month — CBS is in talks with WBTV to bring it back.
PLUS: Dua Lipa is gonna pull an SNL two-fer on May 4, handling the hosting and musical duties (her new album drops the day before).
🏆: Here are your WGA Award winners. Uh from 2023.
ALSO: Just a shout out to a great SNL this weekend — even if The Fall Guy hard sell was a bit much . . . a Fall Guy-centric monologue, immediately followed by big Fall Guy commercial. Can you tell the movie is from an NBC sister division?
But this Caitlin Clark guest appearance, calling out Che for his uh, questionable takes on women’s sports lately on Update was pretty great. I’m including some other Ryan Gosling highlights to round out today’s newsletter down below.
WAKEUP BOX-OFFICE POLL
A kudos to the bold 18%! I’d say “way to stick to your guns folks!” . . . but yeah, I could probably go with a better analogy here 😬.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
