HBO sets Imperioli for WHITE LOTUS, TheCW up for sale
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HBO sets Imperioli for WHITE LOTUS, TheCW up for sale
DON'T LOOK UP sets NETFLIX record / All of OLYMPICS will be on PEACOCK PREMIUM / COACHELLA sets headliners
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY January 6, 2021.
Where if you’re wondering what BEAVIS & BUTT-HEAD look like in their 40’s… Mike Judge is apparently hard at work on it.
AND: SUNDANCE 2022 IRL is canceled. Fest will go the all-virtual route later this month from Jan 20-30.
PLUS: The GRAMMYS are moving from Mon Jan 31 to… some other time. (last year’s show was moved to March 14).
ALSO: YE and BILLIE EILISH are 2 of the 3 headliners for COACHELLA in April. SWEEDISH HOUSE MAFIA will also perform. 🎧
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Just 1 Thing (plus one other thing. and yes I just didn’t want to change the gif this morning)
NETFLIX said “Don’t Look Up” had the most ‘viewing hours’ of any movie in a given week in its history the week after Christmas. It’s currently ranking #3 overall in NETFLIX’s self reported first 28 days metric (“Red Notice” and 2018’s “Birdbox” are currently 1 & 2). /Deadline
CANADA’s top movie theater chain CINEPLEX lays off 5,000 part-time workers as theaters shut down in ONTARIO province for the month. That way they can get unemployment benefits - plan is to re-hire them whenever the theater biz returns. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
HBO sets Michael Imperioli in a lead role for “The White Lotus” Season 2
Jennifer Coolidge also rumored to be returning, but series creator Mike White is definitely returning to write and direct.
Michael will play a guy traveling with his father and recent college-grad son at a new TBD White Lotus property. /Deadline
PEACOCK PREMIUM will stream all WINTER OLYMPICS events live
$5 will get you all the OLYMPICS you can handle… on a 13 hour time-difference from NYC #OlympicsForBreakfast 🥣
NBC’s daily Primetime OLYMPICS show and studio programming will also stream concurrently on the app starting after the SUPER BOWL on Feb 4.
No cable subscription or COMCAST tattoo required for access to anything, unlike their approach to the SUMMER OLYMPICS which put Primetime and select events behind an… unpopular cable-subscriber-only streaming paywall on NBCsports.com.
Everything will also be available to stream as ya like after events are finished.
No mention of what or if anything will be streamed on Free PEACOCK. And yes I totally had a quick thought to combine those two words into a nickname but decided it best to refrain. /THR
TUESDAY PREMIERE RATINGS
NBC’s “This Is Us” final season premiere got 5.3 Million viewers, slightly up from last season, but far below Season 4’s premiere of 7 Million.
“American Auto” premiered before it with 2.3 Million viewers
ABC’s “Judge Steve Harvey” debut had 4.9 Million
“Abbott Elementary” followed with 3.3 Million, and the “black-ish” final season premiere had 2.6 Million
CBS once again won the night, this time with “FBI” at 8.3 Million viewers
“Avengers” directors the Russo Bros sell stake in production company to Japan gaming co NEXON
NEXON paid $400 Million for 38% of the AGBO company, and will now be the largest individual stakeholder in it.
While obviously huge names, definitely a large paycheck for entry into a company with little major IP (the NETFLIX film “Extraction” is arguably their biggest hit - MARVEL obviously has all the rights to their IP).
The idea seems to have the guys work on adapting TV & Movies from NEXON’s gaming IP, and possibly on creating new game ideas for NEXON, who may also invest additional funds in AGBO to fuel their own production ambitions.
So yeah overall - a bit broad… but hey congrats on the payday and $1 Billion valuation! /THR
ALSO IN TV
APPLE TV+ sets Tobias Menzies (“The Crown”) to star in Lincoln assassination limited series “Manhunt”. He’ll play Lincoln’s War Secretary who was driven to find assassin John Wilkes Booth and carry on Lincoln’s legacy of Reconstruction. /THR
NETFLIX orders “Bullsh*t The Game Show”… game show (🤷♂️) hosted by Howie Mandel.
FOX SPORTS snags the BELMONT STAKES race from NBCU. Sets 8 year deal beginning Summer 2023 for the final race in each year’s Triple Crown campaign, no price indicated. NBC still has the KENTUCKY DERBY and PREAKNESS STAKES. 🐎
The NYRA Bets advance wagering business will get title-sponsorship rights. Conveniently FOX has a 25% stake in NYRA Bets with options to put more $$ in. /B&C
RUSSIA enacts law requiring streaming services to stream 20 State-run networks, and will restrict LGTBQ+ content. NETFLIX and AMAZON PRIME, the 2 US-owned services operating there would both have to abide by the new laws, which begin in March. /NextTV
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
TIKTOK is testing a Repost function
It’s kinda like a TWITTER Retweet (it’s placed amongst the “Share” area options).
Though any videos you ‘repost’ will not go on your profile - the video you select to Repost will just be promoted to all your friends on TIKTOK. /Tech Crunch
ALSO: INSTA has (finally) begun ‘testing’ an option to let you switch back to a chronological feed if you like. Also testing an option to create a feed of just your ‘favorites’. /The Verge
The CW is for sale
WARNER BROS and VIACOM are looking to sell all… or at least a majority stake in it to NEXSTAR, the company that owns the most local affiliate TV stations that carry the network.
As part of the deal WB & VIACOM would still agree to produce shows for the network… which typically does not cross the 500k mark for audiences these days.
Wouldn’t effect any current streaming deals for CW shows on NETFLIX, nor HBOMAX in the future (or I guess PAR+ in some cases?). No word on a transaction price and deal still in negotiations. /WSJ
ALSO IN MEDIA
ESPN considering giving A-Rod his own “ManningCast”-style broadcast feed for a series of “Sunday Night Baseball” games this season (assuming that whole lockout thing gets resolved). ⚾️ /NY Post
Former NBC NEWS head Deborah Turness is the new CEO of BBC NEWS, at a salary of $540k. She went to run British network group ITN when she left NBC. /Deadline
No M&Ms or SNICKERS ads in the SUPERBOWL this year, parent compay MARS WRIGLEY is taking a pass after 12 years. I know you won’t believe me but I actually didn’t intentionally write that as a pun. /AdAge
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
ROKU -11% ($196.71) Due do an analyst saying user growth “appears to be” slowing due to saturation in the US, and is not high on international prospects given the competition.
Otherwise another down day for digital stocks. Hell even GOOGLE was down almost 4% (it rarely moves 1-2% in a day).
SPOTIFY -5% ($227.70)
SNAP -6% ($41.33)
ROBLOX -7% ($88.54)
VIMEO -7.5% ($15.40)
and….
AMC THEATERS -11% ($22.75) but CINEWORLD (REGAL) +13% ($0.51). I’ll let you explain that to me.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
ABC “Women of the Movement” - 6 Episode limited series about Mamie Till-Mobley, premieres at 8p
FOX ”Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer” - Premieres at 8p
TBS “Go-Big Show” - New Season premieres at 9p
PEACOCK “Joe Montana: Cool Under Pressure” - 6 part docuseries from NFL Films. Link did not come up yet in my search of the site last night.
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
HULU “Pam & Tommy” limited series trailer. First 3 episodes drop Wed Feb 2.
NETFLIX “Archive 81” series trailer - A dude is hired to screen fire-damaged video tapes from the mid 90’s at a remote location and… well let’s just say some creepy sh*t went down, and his prognosis ain’t looking to great either. Premieres Fri Jan 14
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Hey I remembered to put something here today!
Still pretty quiet on the new front… so, here’s a classic from THE CULT on my Winter playlist. What do you mean you don’t also sort your music by seasons??
If you need new tunes:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM