Tribune's $4.1B Sale; Time's Up's Next Phase; Glenn Beck Media Merger; 'Favourite' Big Weekend; 'Working Girl' Oral History; 'SNL' Skewers Netflix

What's news: Tribune finds a new buyer in Nexstar Media to the tune of $4.1 billion for its 42 local TV stations and other assets. Plus: The Favourite wins big at the specialty box office and the British Independent Film Awards, TheBlaze and CRTV merge to create a conservative media powerhouse and an oral history of Working Girl. — Will Robinson [The Hollywood Reporter - Today In Entertainment]( December 03, 2018 What's news: Tribune finds a new buyer in Nexstar Media to the tune of $4.1 billion for its 42 local TV stations and other assets. Plus: The Favourite wins big at the specialty box office and the British Independent Film Awards, TheBlaze and CRTV merge to create a conservative media powerhouse and an oral history of Working Girl. — Will Robinson ^Making noise: Inclusion strategies have sprung up aplenty, but how to really move the needle? Time's Up's trio — Brie Larson, USC professor Stacy Smith and Tessa Thompson — take the next step by revealing how to activate Hollywood's female networks, Rebecca Sun reports: + Standing up for diversity: "Ava DuVernay [during A Wrinkle in Time] made a mandate and tasked her crew with filling half of the positions with people of color," Thompson says. "That was hard on some departments, because you might have a DP who likes to work with the people they've worked with, and none of them might be people of color. A director like Ava says you just have to figure it out." + Inclusion rider in practice: "Warner Bros. wasn't quite [comfortable with] an actor implementing it. So Michael [B. Jordan] worked with them [as an executive producer]," Larson says of Just Mercy. "The movie was made with more than 70 percent people of color, and it was the best experience I've ever had. It was the first time in my career that I had hair, makeup and wardrobe crew that were all people of color. It saddens me to recognize that we've been segregated in this way within our industry." + Breakthrough: "I finally have figured out how we change the industry," Smith says. "It's not just old academics writing a report. You have to get the folks that are deeply ingrained in and know the nuances of the industry. And then you build a strategy of action around that and do it on behalf of everyone who is oppressed or marginalized in some way. And we're just getting started." [Full interview.]( Tribune's $4.1B Sale Power consolidation: After Sinclair's bid to buy Tribune for $3.9 billion failed in August, Nexstar Media jumps in to become the largest operator of local U.S. television stations, Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing report: + The money: Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tribune Media Co. for $4.1 billion. Including the assumption of debt, the takeover price amounts to $6.4 billion. Nexstar anticipates around $160 million in synergies from the deal in its first year, including $20 million in corporate overhead savings, another $65 million in station and digital group operating cost reductions, and $75 million in net retransmission revenue. + Nexstar's power: If the deal goes through, the Texas-based Nexstar would become the U.S.' largest operator of local TV stations with 174, ahead of Sinclair's 170. Tribune [provides]( 42 local stations that reach about 50 million viewers. [Full story.]( Elsewhere in TV... ► Neil deGrasse Tyson addresses sexual misconduct claims. In deGrasse Tyson's post, the astrophysicist goes on to explain his version of events from the various accusations against him, and he says he welcomes the investigation into his actions. [Full post.]( ► TheBlaze, CRTV merge to create conservative media powerhouse. The homes of Glenn Beck and Mark Levin are [combining]( to create Blaze Media, which insiders say will reach 165 million people via television, digital platforms and social media. ► Greg Berlanti's You moves to Netflix as Lifetime bails on season two. The streaming giant already had a SVOD deal [in place]( for season one, which launches globally Dec. 26. ► Starz picks up Dublin Murders based on Tana French novels. The series based on the best-selling mysteries, [starting]( with an eight-episode order, is due in 2019. ► Midterm elections and digital growth have advertising surging. Worldwide, advertising [grew]( a record 7.2 percent to $552 billion, thanks to the surge to politics in the U.S. as well as FIFA World Cup soccer in Russia and the Winter Olympics in South Korea. ^SNL, Claire Foy parody Netflix: The Crown star featured in parodies of HSN, AMC, PBS and local cable, in addition to the mega-streamer, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya writes. [Watch.]( * {NAME}'s Trump joins Putin, Mohammed bin Salman in cold open: Fred Armisen and Ben Stiller also made cameos in the cold open, which acknowledged {NAME}’s recent arrest. “God, I haven’t been this upset since I freaked out about that parking space,” {NAME}’s Trump said at one point. [Watch.]( * Women of SNL sing "All I Want for Christmas Is You" to Mueller: Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Leslie Jones, Melissa Villaseñor, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim all sang about how badly they wanted to see Trump brought down by the Russia investigation. [Watch.]( Digital digest... ► Verizon exploring paywalls to boost revenues. "Instead of making inroads in digital ads, Oath’s market share has shrunk: The unit is expected to capture just 3.3% of total U.S. digital ad revenue in 2018, down from 4.1% last year, according to eMarketer. In the first nine months of 2018, Oath revenues totaled $5.6 billion." [[The Wall Street Journal](] ► The failing "news for millennials" plays. Max Willens examines the big picture of Mic, Mashable and others' struggles: "Take a look at the reach of news sites among 25-34-year-old internet users, and only three millennial-focused publishers crack the top 50. Just one — Insider Inc. — cracks the top 10." [[Digiday](] ► Brett Favre, more stars tricked into creating anti-Semitic messages. The videos in question [were created]( on Cameo, which allows its users to pay for celebrities to craft personalized messages. In memoriam... ► RIP Ken Barry. The rubber-legged actor who delighted TV viewers as the blundering Capt. Wilton Parmenter on F Troop and as the accident-prone Vinton Harper on Mama's Family died Saturday at 85. [Obit.]( Amid Peak TV glut, critics now must also be curators. People don't watch TV or even read about it in the same way they used to, so catering to an overwhelmed audience is paramount, Tim Goodman writes. [Column.]( 'The Favourite' Reigns Specialty success: Yagos Lanthimos' The Favourite was a royal winner at the post-Thanksgiving specialty box office, posting the weekend's top location average, Pamela McClintock reports: + Small release boon: After posting the best opening average in two years from four theaters in New York and Los Angeles over Thanksgiving, The Favourite expanded into seven additional markets over the Nov. 30-Dec. 2 weekend. The critically acclaimed film grossed $1.1 million in its sophomore outing from 34 cinemas for a stellar location average of $32,500 and early domestic total of $1.7 million. + Awards sheen: Following its NBR win, Green Book grossed $3.9 million to sport the lowest drop of any film in wide release, or 29 percent. The film, about an interracial friendship, finished its second weekend in wide release with a domestic total of $14 million. [Full story.]( * Ralph Breaks the Internet wins again with $25.8M: Family films [dominate]( all the way around as The Grinch places No. 2 in its fourth weekend, while the horror pic The Possession of Hannah Grace only debuts to $6.5 million. Elsewhere in film... ► The Favourite wins 10 awards at British Independent Film Awards. The Oscar-tipped dark comedy won best British independent film, plus best director for Yorgos Lanthimos and best actress for Olivia Colman. [Winners list.]( ► Crazy Rich Asians bombs badly after delayed debut in China. The Warner Bros. rom-com [opened]( on 5,000 screens but earned just $1.2 million, making a dismal eighth-place start, according to Artisan Gateway. Last week's winner, the edgy local dramedy A Cool Fish, easily held onto first place, taking $24.2 million for a three-weekend total of $90.1 million. ► Robert De Niro says The Irishman set for theatrical run. The star said Netflix [will release]( his latest collaboration with Martin Scorsese "the way it should be, in a theater," but offered no definitive details. On the festival circuit... ► Paul Dano's Wildlife wins best film in Turin. The actor's directorial debut [earned]( the top prize at the prestigious Italian festival. ► Wandering Girl wins Grand Prix at Tallinn Black Nights. Best director honors went to South Korea's Jang Woo-Jin for Winter’s Night, while the film's star Seo Young-hwa [took home]( the best actress award. ► Turin paid tribute to Bernardo Bertolucci with day of screenings. The tribute was [organized]( by the Cineteca di Bologna, Minerva Raro Video and the National Cinema Museum of Turin. ^Working Girl at 30: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and more insiders tell the never-told tales behind an era-defining hit, Chris Gardner reports: + Finding stars: "[Griffith] was the girl. It was almost a visceral reaction," casting director Juliet Taylor recalls. "She was adorable, funny, vulnerable, sexy — everything. And real. But the studio was disappointed because she wasn't famous. They would have liked a star in the part. Mike and I had already kind of fallen for Alec {NAME} and wanted him to play [Jack Trainer], but the studio was catatonic about that. They did not want two unknowns in the leads." + Iconic opening shot: "Our first day of filming was actually for the first shot in the film on the ferry, and we shot it illegally," Griffith remembers. "There we were — with Joan Cusack — with the big hair and the tennis shoes with all just regular people on the Staten Island Ferry. We shot it without anybody knowing. It was like, 'Here we go, now I'm Tess.'" [Oral history.]( Musical notes... ► Ariana Grande's "thank u, next" video smashes YouTube, Vevo 24-hour records. Grande's visual [boasts]( an astounding total of 47 million views and counting, blowing past the benchmark previously established by BTS, whose "Idol" video reached 45 million views in the 24 hours preceding its debut back in August. In memoriam... ► RIP Alixe Gordin. The casting director who worked on Scarface, Prizzi’s Honor and 10 films with director Alan J. Pakula, including Klute and Sophie's Choice, died Wednesday at 96. [Obit.]( Rep Sheet Roundup: Paradigm has acquired touring business Dale Morris & Associates, signing country artists such as Kenny Chesney in the process. ... UTA has hired Spotify's Vanja Primorac to serve as an executive focusing on music innovation, a newly created role. … Sam Elliott has signed with Wolf Kasteler Public Relations, as has Haley Lu Richardson. [More here](. Making 'Mrs. Maisel' Sophomore act: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and exec producer Daniel Palladino preview what to expect from the new season of Amazon's Emmy-winning comedy, Emma Dibdin reports: + Emmy effect: "It still feels like we're shooting in a vacuum a little bit, because it's a really intense show to shoot," Brosnahan said. "We have a lot of pages in a very short period of time, really long hours, and so we do get to escape a little bit. We're so grateful that people have responded to the show the way they have, and then we get to dive back in and disappear to do the work some more." + Going upstate: "We told Amazon pretty much while we were doing the pilot that we wanted to re-create the Catskills in season two," Daniel Palladino said. "It's an emblem and a big part of Jewish cultural history here in New York and the surrounding states: the Catskills was how you got away from the heat before there was air conditioning. It's where people went to get fresh air, away from the smells and the trash and all of that." [Full story.]( What else we're reading... — "How The Sopranos Defined White America’s Cultural Shift." James Wolcott writes: "The Sopranos is a choral litany of bitching and bemoaning rooted in bad faith: a refusal to take responsibility for their own actions and instead play the blame game. It’s the Make America Great Again mentality in its dormancy, Trumpiness on training wheels." [[Vanity Fair](] — "Why the Director of Anchorman Took On Dick Cheney." Jonah Weiner profiles Adam McKay: "What is unambiguous, by the end [of Vice], is McKay’s conviction that the American right, in its post-Reagan consolidation of power, has set our country and our planet on a path to ruin — and that no single figure illustrates this better than Cheney." [[The New York Times](] — "Hasan Minhaj Invites You to Take Off Your Shoes." Mallika Rao writes: "Minhaj, for his part, also faces a choice in self-projection. He enacts complex loyalties, partnered professionally and domestically with fellow Indian Americans of Hindu background." [[The Atlantic](] — "What It Takes to Make Instagram Influencing a Full-Time Career." Aki Ito details: "Companies may end up spending $1.6 billion this year on this kind of marketing on Facebook Inc.’s Instagram alone, and as much as $6.3 billion when including other platforms like YouTube and Twitch." [[Bloomberg](] — "The Future Is Bright for the Video Games of Yesterday." Gregory Schmidt reports: "One in five new consoles sold in the United States this year has been a retro plug-and-play device, Mat Piscatella, a video game industry analyst for NPD said, contributing to the overall growth in the video game industry." [[The New York Times](] What else we're watching... + "Hasan Minhaj analyzes free speech in the social media age." [[Patriot Act](] + "PBS' Les Misérables miniseries, with no singing." [[YouTube](] What's ahead this week... Monday: UBS' Global Media and Communications Conference begins in New York... ABC airs The Good Doctor's fall finale. Tuesday: Fox says goodbye to Lethal Weapon and The Gifted for 2018. Wednesday: Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies in front of Congress... Amazon returns its Emmy darling The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for season two. ... NBC's Chicago block wraps up for fall... Empire gets its fall finale on Fox. Thursday: Golden Globs nominations are announced... ABC returns The Great American Baking Show... NBC's The Good Place comes back after a break for its fall farewell. Friday: Universal re-releases Schindler's List... Roadside rolls out Ben Is Back... Focus opens Mary Queen of Scots. Sunday: The CW begins its annual DC crossover event. From the archives... + On Dec. 3, 2003, New Line premiered in Los Angeles The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final installment in adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic. The film won all 11 awards it was nominated for at the 76th Academy Awards: "Who can resist right now a classic fantasy adventure that never drags and is simply ravishing to look at thanks to the thousands of craftsmen, performers, animals and postproduction refiners?" [Flashback review.]( Today's birthdays: Michael Angarano, 31, Amanda Seyfried, 33, Jenna Dewan, 38, Anna Chlumsky, 38, Tiffany Haddish, 39 Brendan Fraser, 50, Julianne Moore, 58, Daryl Hannah, 58, Jean-Luc Godard, 88. Enjoy reading this? Six days a week, look for Today in Entertainment in your inbox to stay up-to-date on the industry. Sign up for this newsletter (and others) at [THR.com/Newsletters](. Follow The News Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2018 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Preferences]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Use]( December 3, 2018