Bakish Ousted as Paramount CEO; IATSE Lays Out Top Bargaining Priorities; Netflix Developing 'Scooby-Doo' Live-Action Series

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( April 30, 2024 What's news: Paramount+ has hit 71m global subscribers. Peacock is raising prices for its Premium and Premium Plus tiers. Amazon says Fallout has become its second-biggest show ever. Jason Kelce has joined ESPN's Monday Night Countdown. GLAAD says the number of LGBTQ characters on TV has dropped significantly for the second straight year. — [Abid Rahman]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](. Bakish Ousted as Paramount CEO ►The agony is over. Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish is officially out at the company. The entertainment conglomerate — in the middle of a sales process — is turning to a handful of top execs to run the company. Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks and Brian Robbins will make up an “Office of the CEO,” running Paramount on a day-to-day basis for now. The three execs will work with the Paramount board and CFO Naveen Chopra. Bakish will officially step down today, and has agreed to remain employed by the company through Oct. 31 as a "senior advisor." [The story.]( —"This new structure will allow us to continue leveraging the power of the entire company." In a memo to employees Monday, McCarthy, Cheeks and Robbins thanked Bob Bakish for his tenure at the company, while signaling a new strategy ahead. The company did not take any questions during the earnings call Monday, but McCarthy, Cheeks and Robbins briefly spoke, touching on the idea of “long-term plan,” but not yet specifying what that plan will entail. That idea was also mentioned in the memo. [The story.]( —BTW. On a dramatic Monday, Paramount Global unveiled its Q1 financial results. During the latest quarter, the company hit 71m Paramount+ streaming subscribers worldwide, up from 67.5m Paramount+ customers at the end of its fourth quarter, with 3.7m customers added during the past three months. And the studio shrunk its streaming loss to $286m for Q1, an improvement over a $511m loss in Q1 2023. Direct-to-consumer revenue rose 24 percent to $1.87n, as ad and subscription revenues were both up, driven by growth from Pluto TV and Paramount+. [The results.]( —Another big wrinkle. As a buyer group led by David Ellison’s Skydance Media aims to iron out a potential deal to take over Paramount Global, many eyes on Wall Street are also watching carriage talks between the entertainment conglomerate and cable giant Charter Communications. On April 30, that deal expires. [The story.]( —Make-or-break week. THR's [Alex Weprin]( writes that the Bakish exit, the home stretch of a takeover offer, a critical carriage negotiation and key advertising talks are colliding at the same time for Paramount Global — and could decide the future of the entertainment giant. [The analysis.]( IATSE Lays Out Top Bargaining Priorities ►End in sight. On Monday, Hollywood’s top crew union reentered what may prove to be the most onerous stage of its 2024 contract negotiations with studios and streamers. THR's [Katie Kilkenny]( reports that 13 of IATSE's West Coast Locals, representing an array of crafts workers from costumer designers to prop masters to editors, are resuming their general negotiations with the AMPTP. And as this tricky period of talks begins, touching on hot-button topics like compensation and AI, the West Coast Locals on Monday released their major proposals for management to members. [The story.]( —The plunder Games. Peacock plans to raise the monthly and annual fees for its Peacock Premium and Premium Plus tiers, with the changes set to take effect before this summer’s Paris Olympics. Peacock Premium will rise in price by $2 per month to $7.99, while Premium Plus will rise by $2 to $13.99. The annual fees will rise to $79.99 and $139.99 accordingly. The price changes will go into effect July 18 for new customers, and beginning Aug. 17 for existing subscribers. The Paris Olympics opening ceremony is scheduled for July 26. [The story.]( —It's free, innit. Freely, a new free streaming service backed by U.K. broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Paramount Global’s Channel 5, launched on Monday. STV and S4C, free-to-air public service broadcasters for Scotland and Wales, respectively, will also bring their channels and on-demand content to Freely. The key target audience for Freely is internet-only homes, which amount to around 4m in the U.K., but that number is growing rapidly, according to the streamer. [The story.]( Anita Hill on Harvey Weinstein Reversal ►"Our movement will persist." In a guest column for THR, Anita Hill, the workplace rights advocate and head of the Hollywood Commission, reacts to the New York Appeals Court’s ruling overturning Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction and outlines what the decision reveals about misconceptions around sexual violence and how victims and survivors can keep moving forward. [The column.]( —Not great. LGBTQ characters are falling out of focus on the small screen. On Tuesday, GLAAD released the findings of the 19th edition of Where We Are on TV, a report from the media watchdog group that analyzes the number of LGBTQ regular and recurring characters on scripted primetime broadcast, scripted primetime cable and scripted series on eight major streaming platforms that aired between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024. The study finds that LGBTQ characters are dropping considerably for the second straight year to 468 from last year’s total of 596. [The study.]( —Bravo Maer! THR’s own co-editor in-chief [Maer Roshan]( won the editor of the year award at The Daily Front Row’s Eighth Annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards on Sunday night. Maer was presented with his award by none other than Ryan Murphy, whose own Hollywood start was as a journalist. Other honorees included the legendary Bob Mackie, A-list hairstylist Adir Abergel, makeup artist Rachel Goodwin, models Elsa Hosk and Amelia Gray. [The story.]( —Have you ever noticed... Jerry Seinfeld's not loving the current climate of comedy, and feels there are some gags on his iconic NBC comedy that he could no longer get away with today. In a new interview, the 70-year-old comedian criticized politically correct culture for hurting comedy and cited some examples: "We did an episode of [Seinfeld] where Kramer decides to start a business of having homeless people pull rickshaws because, as he says, ‘They’re outside anyway,'” Seinfeld said. "Do you think I could get that episode on the air today?" [The story.]( —"If I think something will be funny, I’ll do it and deal with it later." Conan O'Brien has revealed how he felt after his iconic Hot Ones episode that went viral. In the episode, viewers were left in awe at the comedian’s commitment to an unhinged performance that featured O’Brien chugging hot sauce and rubbing it on his face and chest. On his podcast, O’Brien said that in reality, despite his bravado, he was left with “incredibly runny” eyes and a mouth that “really hurt,” and also experienced “burning” across his skin. [The story.]( 'Scooby-Doo' Live-Action Series in the Works at Netflix ►Zoinks! Netflix is near a deal for a live-action TV series based on the beloved Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon Scooby-Doo. The project has a script-to-series commitment at the streamer, meaning if the script is well received, it would trigger a straight-to-series order. Greg Berlanti and his Berlanti Productions partner Sarah Schechter will exec produce alongside the company’s Leigh London Redman. Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg — who previously adapted anime Cowboy Bebop for Netflix — are attached to pen the script and exec produce. [The story.]( —Global hit. Fallout has become one of Amazon Prime Video's biggest series ever. The well-reviewed show, based on the video game franchise of the same name, has become the second-most-watched title ever on the streamer over its first 16 days of release, the company says. Prime Video says 65m viewers worldwide have watched at least some of Fallout since its April 10 premiere, putting the show behind only The Rings of Power in the streamer’s catalog. More than 60 percent of Fallout’s audience is outside the U.S. [The story.]( —The Eagle has landed. Jason Kelce has signed with ESPN to work on its Monday Night Countdown NFL pregame show. The former Philadelphia Eagles center's landing pad has been one of the hottest questions of the NFL offseason, with multiple TV partners pursuing him. Kelce participated in last year’s NFL broadcast boot camp, where the league helps train current and former players in the ins and outs of broadcasting. Kelce was seen as a star performer in that boot camp. [The story.]( —Freshening things up. CBS is making some changes at its long-running NFL Today studio show. Matt Ryan, a former league MVP who was a game analyst for the network last year, will move to the pregame desk for the 2024 season, joining James Brown, Nate Burleson, Bill Cowher and JJ Watt. Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason are leaving the show. Esiason though he’ll remain in the CBS fold as co-host of the Boomer and Gio Show on CBS Sports Network. [The story.]( —Hungry for content. Roku is getting further into the food TV space, picking up a new series called Best Bite Wins. The food competition series will be hosted and executive produced by actor Josh Peck, with chef Monti Carlo serving as the show’s culinary expert. The six-episode series is produced by Velvet Hammer Media and Bongo Pictures. The concept of the show is to turn cocktail party food into a competition, with professional chefs competing to present the best party food to hungry judges and clientele at real events. [The story.]( —🎭 Buns in the oven 🎭 Karen Gillian and Zoë Chao will star in Let’s Have Kids!, a comedy feature from MRC. The film centers on lifelong best friends Emma and Phoebe who decide to try to have their first babies at the same time so they can navigate the great unknown of motherhood together. Adam Sztykiel, the screenwriter of DC movie Black Adam, will make his directorial debut. Sztykiel was previously set to make his directorial debut for the Warner Brothers/DC project Wonder Twins before that film fell apart. [The story.]( How MGM Remade Hollywood 100 Years Ago ►The rise of mega studios. For THR, author and Hollywood historian Chris Yogerst looks at the April 1924 deal between Metro, Goldwyn and Mayer that sought to eliminate production overlap between the companies, pooling resources to create "more pictures and better pictures." [The story.]( —Lost photos from a legendary Hollywood archive. When photo archivist Michael Ochs brokered a deal to offload his sprawling collection of 20th century iconography to Getty Images in 2007, neither seller nor buyer knew absolutely everything that was included in the transaction. Ochs amassed 3m vintage images during his career, and THR culled through some of the highlights. [The photos.]( In other news... —SiriusXM [loses 445,000 satellite radio, 64,000 Pandora subscribers]( —Rihanna [is “keeping it real simple” for this year’s Met Gala]( —Sony Pictures promotes [Tahra Grant to chief communications officer]( —Nicole Kidman [wore a one-of-a-kind gem-set Omega on the AFI red carpet]( ​​​What else we're reading... —Sarah Fitzpatrick reports that lawyers for Hunter Biden plan to sue Fox News "imminently" [[NBC News]( —Max Tani goes through the runners and riders as The New Yorker’s succession race kicks off [[Semafor]( —Kate Lyons has an interesting opinion piece on the demise of Twitter/X and how it has descended into a toxic mess under Elon Musk [[Guardian]( —Soraya Roberts reports on the ongoing troubles at the Toronto International Film Festival, with the Lightbox, in particular, becoming more and more of a financial burden [[Canadian Business]( —Another incredible Isaac Chotiner interview (seriously, why do people agree to talk to him?), this time he talks to longtime State Department official Elliott Abrams about the Israel-Gaza war and Iran Contra [[New Yorker]( Today... ...in 2010, Sony Pictures Classics released Nicole Holofcener's Please Give in theaters. The dramedy, which starred Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt and Rebecca Hall, was a critical hit, and was named one of the top 10 independent films of the year by the National Board of Review. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Jane Campion (70), [Kirsten Dunst]( (42), Travis Scott (33), Ana de Armas (36), Sandra Hüller (46), Sam Heughan (44), Johnny Galecki (49), Kunal Nayyar (43), Lars von Trier (68), Gal Gadot (39), Paul Gross (65), Dianna Agron (38), Adrian Pasdar (59), Olivia DeJonge (26), Marina Squerciati (40), Emily Carey (21), Emma Pierson (43), Henrique Zaga (31), Breeda Wool (42), Steven Mackintosh (57), Lisa Dean Ryan (52), Drew Seeley (42), Pell James (47), Jacques Audiard (72), Beau Wirick (38), Pamela Rabe (65), Joseph Perrino (42), Michael Sparaga (51) Zack Norman, the stand-up comic, actor and producer perhaps best known for his turn as a crocodile-loving antiquities smuggler in Romancing the Stone, has died. He was 83. 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