Late Night vs. Guns; Disney Bulletproof Backpacks; Cord-Cutting Revs Up; ABC's Live 'Little Mermaid'; Selfie Lawsuits

What's news: Late night shows grapple with tragedy, a flurry of ABC news from TCA, cord-cutting is speeding up, Toni Morrison has passed away at 88. Plus: Influencers vs. artists, and could a Happy Endings revival actually happen?!? --Alex Weprin August 06, 2019 What's news: Late night shows grapple with tragedy, a flurry of ABC news from TCA, cord-cutting is speeding up, Toni Morrison has passed away at 88. Plus: Influencers vs. artists, and could a Happy Endings revival actually happen?!? --Alex Weprin Late Night Gets Political In the aftermath of tragedy, America often turns to late night comedy shows for escapism, and occasionally to make sense of what happened. Jimmy Kimmel, speaking to at ABC's press day at the Television Critics Association press tour, argued that the late night shows have a role to play, even if he wishes they didn't have to. Quote: "I think now there's an expectation that late-night talk shows will address these horrible things," Kimmel said. "I wish we didn't have to but nobody is doing anything about it at all. We seem to forget about these tragedies nationally four days after they happen." [His comments](. Indeed, on Monday night, the late night comedy shows touched upon the tragedies over the weekend, before returning to their usual formats. --Stephen Colbert dedicated his entire monologue to the topic. "America's gun culture is melting down but the Republicans in Congress would rather maintain their power than save lives," he said. --James Corden opened his show with a montage of his comments after previous mass shootings. "And here we are again," he said after the montage ended. "Since we started this show almost four-and-a-half years ago, there have been 1,601 mass shootings, 1,820 deaths, and 6,890 people wounded in those incidents in America." --Jimmy Fallon opened his show by acknowledging that "these are the hardest nights to do a show like this. We are still grappling with what happened this weekend in El Paso and Dayton… No matter what side of the political coin you are on, we all agree this is happening too much, and has to stop." [The reactions from Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, and others](. +TV news specials: CNN's Chris Cuomo will host a town hall Wednesday at 9 pm, America Under Assault: The Gun Crisis... Univision preempted its primetime programming last night to air a special: Univision News Presents: Hispanics in the Crosshairs... +Also: Disney [seeks to shut down]( Avengers and princess-themed bulletproof backpacks... In his first public statement since mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, former President Barack Obama [says Americans]( must "soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments." A flurry of significant pickups, major new talent deals, and a pinch of controversy. ABC's day at the Television Critics Association's press tour was arguably the newsiest day of presentations yet. Here's what happened: +The view from the C-suite: ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke was grilled over a number of hot-button topics, including Afton Williamson's claims of harassment on the set of The Rookie, Constance Wu's comments in the wake of the Fresh Off The Boat renewal, and the role of Mike Fleiss on The Bachelor franchise moving forward. Lesley Goldberg's [full report from the executive session](. +The Little Mermaid surprise. Auli'i Cravalho, aka the voice of Moana, [will star]( in a live concert production of The Little Mermaid set to air on the broadcast network in November. The live action-animation hybrid event will serve as a promotional launch pad for streaming service Disney+, which will launch the following week. [More](. +Pickups: ABC [ordered two more]( Live in Front of a Studio Audience specials from Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel... Kimmel and producer Mark Burnett [are bringing]( the comedic game show concept Generation Gap to ABC, pitting multiple generations of family members against each other...The network has [put in development]( Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11, a limited series based on the best-selling book by Mitchell Zuckoff... ABC [also renewed]( The Bachelorette, and Bachelor In Paradise... +Also: Following extended deliberations, judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie [will all return]( for the 18th season of American Idol in 2020... Could a Happy Endings reboot happen?!? "I'm hearing that there's a remote possibility of something," Burke [told Lesley Goldberg](. "It's at the very beginning [stages]." ►Toni Morrison has died. She was 88. The Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author and playwright whose richly detailed, powerful body of work vividly painted a portrayal of the black experience in America died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, according to her publisher. [Morrison's obituary](. ►Andy Serkis to direct Venom 2. The filmmaker, best known for his motion capture and performance capture acting work, has closed a deal to direct Sony's sequel to the 2018 film that grossed $856 million at the global box office. The sequel, part of the company's stable of Spider-Man-related and Marvel-centric characters, will once again star Tom Hardy as the journalist who joins with an alien symbiote. [The story](. +Revolving door: Kerry Brougher, the director of the in-progress Academy Museum of Motion Pictures since 2014, [is leaving]( the project... Vanity Fair [has hired]( Jeff Giles for the newly-created position of executive Hollywood editor.... Former Paramount executive Tom Lesinski [has been named]( CEO of in-theater advertising firm National CineMedia... Former People editor-in-chief Jess Cagle [has joined]( SiriusXM as chief entertainment anchor... Elsewhere in film... --Warner Bros. has announced the name for Gavin O'Connor's Ben Affleck-starrer as The Way Back, and has also [shifted its release]( from Oct. 18 to March 6, 2020 --Village Roadshow Pictures [has optioned](Israeli writer David Grossman’s 2017 Man Booker-winning novel A Horse Walks Into A Bar for a feature film adaptation. --Caryn James[reviews]( The Art of Racing in the Rain. --The Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association, the groups behind the annual Critics' Choice Awards, [are merging]( into a single organization, the Critics' Choice Association. --Inside Game, the thriller based on the true story of the biggest betting scandal in NBA history, [is set]( for a Nov. 1 theatrical release. --Hollywood & Highland, the entertainment and retail complex that houses the Academy Awards ceremony venue, [has a new owner](, but the Dolby Theater isn't part of the deal. Cord-Cutting Speeds Up ^Cord-cutting is accelerating. A report from eMarketer released this morning finds that by the end of this year the number of pay TV households will fall by 4 percent to 86.5 million and the number of households with a traditional pay TV subscription will fall below 80 million by 2021. Pressure to improve profit margins is to blame, eMarketer suggests. [The story.]( +In other business news: Discovery Inc. on Tuesday [posted better-than-expected]( second-quarter earnings and higher U.S. advertising revenue despite drops in ratings and pay TV subscribers amid cord-cutting... Vivendi is [in talks to sell]( a 10 percent stake in Universal Music Group to China's Tencent... +Media stocks slammed: Entertainment and media companies were not immune from the stock selloff yesterday. Disney was down 2.4%, Comcast was down 2.4%, AT&T was down 2%, Fox Corp. was down 1.5%, Netflix was down 3.5%, Discovery was down 0.8%, AMC Networks was down 1.4%, Lions Gate was down 0.2%, CBS was down 1.3%, Viacom was down 0.5%. The good news: stocks appeared to be on the rebound in the early minutes of trading Tuesday. ►The Rookie star names names. Afton Williamson, the former co-star of ABC's The Rookie, identified the people who she alleges sexually harassed her and subjected her to racial discrimination on the show's set. [More](. The day in deals: Game Grumps, the popular YouTube channel and cross-platform gaming and geek comedy brand, [has signed]( with CAA across all areas... CAA [has wooed]( Fleabag's "hot priest," Andrew Scott away from ICM Partners... The video game industry is pushing back after concerns around violent content have returned. In the aftermath of the shootings over the weekend, a number of politicians, most notably President Trump, blamed violent video games for contributing to the "glorification of violence in our society." Quote: "[B]laming entertainment is irresponsible and moreover it’s disrespectful to the victims and their families," Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick (pictured above) told THR's Patrick Shanley. "Entertainment is consumed worldwide. It’s the same worldwide. Gun violence is uniquely American and we need to address the real issues." --It was a comment mirrored by the Entertainment Software Association, the industry trade group. "More than 165 million Americans enjoy video games, and billions of people play video games worldwide," a spokesperson for the ESA said. "Yet other societies, where video games are played as avidly, do not contend with the tragic levels of violence that occur in the U.S." [The story](. +In other video game news: Take-Two Interactive, which owns video game publishers Rockstar Games and 2K, reported gross profits of $299 million in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2020 on Monday. [More](. ►Pitch was almost revived. The former Fox baseball drama from Dan Fogelman will not be revived after the This Is Us creator had reassembled the core cast — including Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Kylie Bunbury — and were discussing writers as well as prepping ideas for season two for original producers 20th Century Fox TV. Lesley Goldberg [has the backstory](. ►Succession review. Tim Goodman reviews season two of the HBO drama, writing that it is "one of television's best dramas, a searing, funny, painfully true look at wealth, power and family that is at its most agile when it's able to be emotionally powerful without you expecting it to be." [The review](. Elsewhere in TV... --Amazon [is expanding]( its partnership with Paramount TV with a series based on the 1997 movie Event Horizon. --Bleecker Street has signed an [exclusive output deal](with Hulu, granting the streamer SVOD rights to all upcoming theatrical releases. --Netflix [has canceled]( the trippy drama The OA after two seasons. --Amazon Prime [unveils]( an immersive Carnival Row pop-up at The Grove in L.A. Emmy's Senior Moment From the magazine: Performers of a certain age, from Ted Danson, 71, to Catherine O'Hara, 65, are finding many opportunities to play complicated, layered characters on the small screen — and earning Emmy noms for their roles, Robyn Bahr writes. +The nominees: Ted Danson, for NBC's The Good Place, Catherine O'Hara, for Pop's Schitt's Creek, Alan Arkin, for Netflix's The Komisky Method. +Analysis: "Lifetime legacy certainly plays a part in many of these nods. In September, Winkler charmed audiences when he won his first-ever Emmy for playing slimy/avuncular acting coach Gene Cousineau on HBO's Barry. Winkler is a TV legend, and this trophy not only encompasses his multilayered performance on Barry but also his many gifts to comedy over the past 40 years, including Happy Days' ultimate cool-guy heartthrob, The Fonz." [The story](. +In other Emmy analysis: Scott Feinberg [handicaps the odds]( in the best documentary or nonfiction special and best informational series or special Emmy categories. Influencers beware! That mural you're posing in front of could get you sued. Ashley Cullins finds that influencers who pose in front of murals may find themselves in a legal fight with the artists, if the social media post is deemed to be commercial in nature. Quote: "I can very much see graffiti artists pursuing influencers in the same way they pursue brands," says Ellie Altshuler, an attorney who reps influencers in brand deals. "Deep pockets are there, and they may make the argument that even if it's not for a direct commercial purpose, their business is creating content and building their following." [The story](. In other legal news... +"A writer's agency agreement with CAA isn't enough to automatically trigger a promise to pay for an individual idea that was allegedly used by another client, a California judge ruled Monday," Ashley Cullins writes. "John Musero in March sued the agency, claiming it took his idea for a series about the U.S. Attorney General called Main Justice, redeveloped it with another writer and sold it to a major network (under the same title) and that his agents failed to adequately represent his interests." [The story](. +Also: R. Kelly [is facing]( new sex crime charges in Minnesota... Judge[rejects]( Weinstein appeal over sex trafficking charge... The Trump supporter who mailed pipe bombs to CNN and the Clintons [was sentenced]( to 20 years... Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory star Wil Wheaton says [he's been shorted]( profits from a web series... Casting roundup: Nico Tortorella has [been cast]( in a lead role in the third spinoff of AMC's Walking Dead franchise... Gemma Chan is [in talks]( to join Marvel's The Eternals... ►James Murdoch's firm is getting into the film festival business. Lupa Systems, which Murdoch founded earlier this year, has acquired a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival. Lupa partnered with former Fox executive Joe Marchese's Attention Capital on the deal, which saw them acquire the stake previously held by the Madison Square Garden Company. [More](. What else we're reading... --"When will we get a post-gun action movie?" [[Vanity Fair](] --"Trump echoes Fox & Friends on shootings. The New York Post dissents" [[NY Times](] --"Is Christina Applegate’s Dead to Me a comedy, drama or mystery? Yes." 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