☀️DISNEY's New Layoffs & Consolidation: TV Studios
CHARTER sets new NBCU deal / FOCUS gets Daniel Day-Lewis pic / FX orders Ethan Hawke series
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY, October 2, 2024.
Where let’s start the mid-week here with good news! WEWORK founder Adam Neumann has finally found a new line of work, and it appears to be . . . another WEWORK company. And they say Hollywood is out of ideas. 🙄
It’s called WORKFLOW (APPLE TV+, get working on sequel series titles ASAP), and basically sounds like a WEWORK for the millennials who lost their previous WEWORK spaces when the company went bankrupt, and are now older — instead of free beer, the spaces will have nice art and classier furniture.
As for old fans of the “elevate the world’s consciousness” mantra that WEWORK put forth — don’t you worry, Adam’s got some new greatest hits for ya: WORKFLOW’s mission is “Connection with ourselves, our neighbors, and the natural world.” Just be sure to also “Pay your rent.”
ALSO: Bon Jovi is showing up to support Jersey! Well, JBJ at least — Jon’s gonna do a conversation event with Stephen Colbert for the Montclair Film Fest on Sat. Oct. 26. Tix go on sale here today at 10 a.m.
THEN: NETFLIX will premiere an Olivia Rodrigo GUTS concert special on Tuesday, Oct. 29 (a show from her L.A. dates).
HMM: Gotta say it’s kinda refreshing to see when consultants get a recommendation from management that they may not like — MCKINSEY seems to be headed toward an increased RTO policy.
AH: APPLE is likely updating its low-end iPhone SE model next year (the $429 one) for the first time since 2022, including making it APPLE Intelligence-friendly of course (and sorry folks, no more ‘home’ button).
AND: CNN is back in the paid subscription game 💰 — this time it’s for CNN.com and not a streaming service, so the comp is really more NYT than FOX NATION (or CNN+) . . . although there is an original documentary component to the offering.
$4 a month or $30 a year gives you full access, U.S.-only. Otherwise, you’ll get a certain 🤷♂️ number of freebie articles each month before being asked to pay.
CNN+ was $6 a month in its very brief existence.
Reuters also set up its own paywall this week, $1 a week.
HUH: This stat from a new WSJ read on how America’s young men are falling behind was something:
20% of men 25-34 still live with their parents, compared with 12% of women, according to the 2023 U.S. Census.
Although the number has risen significantly for both groups since 2020.
Hours spent alone in a day is +18% since Covid for everyone 18-30, with men in the category outpacing women in “alone time” by 22%.
Clearly they didn’t include newsletter writers in the data.
WELL: This about says it all. No 2nd debate, no 60 Minutes. Oof.
REST IN PEACE: Goes out to John Amos, who died at the age of 84 this week — a career of memorable roles, but this one is always my favorite.