Transcript: Disney, WBD and Hollywood's Jobs Shift

'Help wanted' listings reveal a sea change underway

Sean McNulty (00:04):

Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty from The Wakeup newsletter here at The Ankler, here from a very balmy Jersey Shore on Thursday, March 14th. I'm joined by Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield in Los Angeles. Elaine, you doing okay there, kiddo, after the big cancellation this week?

Elaine Low (00:23):

Rip Breakpoint. We hardly knew ye.

Sean McNulty (00:25):

So Netflix, you're killing Elaine.

Elaine Low (00:27):

Yes, I know. So no more tennis show for me. But Netflix did announce to fill the gaping hole in my heart, a Carlos Alcaraz docuseries today, which explains why over the course of his time at Indian Wells, he's been writing on the cameras like N and Ta-dum. And it's like, "Okay, we get it. There's some kind of Netflix announcement coming."

Sean McNulty (00:47):

All right, so that's 2025 Elaine. So this year you're going to have to make do, I guess.

Elaine Low (00:52):

I'll somehow manage.

Sean McNulty (00:53):

You'll somehow manage.

Elaine Low (00:54):

Thank you for your condolences, Sean.

Sean McNulty (00:56):

I just wanted to acknowledge it, put it in the annals of history here. Of course, before we get going, a reminder, you can catch the Ankler crew over on LA's number one NPR station and Southern California's public radio flagship radio station. That of course is 89.3 LAist throughout the day every Thursday as part of their Entertainment Thursday programming during Morning Edition, Air Talk, and All Things Considered. And as always, you can reach us, the three of us, Richard, Elaine, myself, here at the podcast, anytime at podcasts plural, podcasts@theankler.com. Plus, Richard, we have to give a big Oscar congratulations going out to Ankler subscriber, Jordan Augustine.

Richard Rushfield (01:35):

Yay, Jordan.

Sean McNulty (01:36):

Yay Jordan, who works over at Peacock, for his big Oscar prediction skills, getting 21 points out of 23 in the Ankler Oscar pool. Richard, is he getting a plaque in the office? What happens here?

Richard Rushfield (01:46):

That's huge.

Sean McNulty (01:47):

Quite an achievement.

Richard Rushfield (01:48):

He will be our most honored reader, first among readers, here forth.

Sean McNulty (01:52):

Very nice. Very nice. So a high bar for next year for sure. That is impressive. Richard, did you win any Oscar competitions this year or not so much?

Richard Rushfield (02:01):

I won the competition of who could eat the most Junior Mints at the show.

Sean McNulty (02:04):

Okay. Wow. I did not know that was a competition.

Richard Rushfield (02:08):

That was in Jimmy Kimmel's snack packs that he put out. He had a soft pretzel and a box of Junior Mints, a full-size box. And to keep me alive and standing up through all nine hours as a show. I think I ate 15 of those boxes, and I may have been hallucinating by the end of the show.

Sean McNulty (02:30):

That sounds about right. I think you rent some sort of a coma. I don't know which one.

Richard Rushfield (02:34):

So if anyone thinks that they ate more Junior Mints than me at the Oscars, they should let me know.

Elaine Low (02:39):

Richard's going to fight you on this.

Sean McNulty (02:41):

Yeah, I don't think the Oscar crowd is really going to own up to eating 15 boxes of Junior Mints. So I think we'll give it to you, Richard.

Richard Rushfield (02:47):

They also had bowls of Hershey's Kisses at the bar.

Sean McNulty (02:49):

Oh, we don't need to know that count. That's all right, I think.

Richard Rushfield (02:52):

Just sort of chased the Junior Mints with Hershey's Kisses.

Sean McNulty (02:54):

All right. Well, we'll get all of Richard's first-person gossip a little later on in the podcast. And we're going to dive into Elaine's latest report on where the jobs are. Part two, Elaine, part two. So looking forward to finding out all the intel there.