TV News Leans on Nostalgia in Streaming Shift; 'Lost Symbol' Canceled at Peacock; Taylor Swift Calls Out Damon Albarn; 'Am I OK?' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( January 25, 2022 What's news: Chris Evans and Dwayne Johnson sign up for action-comedy Red One for Amazon. CBS renews Ghosts. Cheryl Hines distances herself from husband RFK Jr. following his extreme comments at anti-vax rally. Cardi B has won her defamation case against a YouTuber. Plus: Peter Dinklage has been giving his thoughts on GOT followup House of the Dragon — [Abid Rahman]( TV News Joins Streaming's Nostalgia Programming Play ►Looking back to go forward. With TV news in the midst of a transformation, increasingly shifting from cable news to streaming, THR's [Alex Weprin]( looks at how the likes of CBS News, NBC News and Fox News are beginning to lean on nostalgia and familiarity, as they seek to differentiate their services from each other. [The analysis.]( —"While we love each other, we differ on many current issues." Curb Your Enthusiasm star Cheryl Hines is weighing in after her husband, Robert F. Kennedy invoked the Holocaust and Nazi Germany in a recent speech at an anti-vax rally in D.C. Responding to users on Twitter, Hines looked to distance herself from Kennedy's extreme comments. [The story.]( —"I write ALL of my own songs." Taylor Swift is calling out Blur frontman Damon Albarn for criticizing her as an artist and claiming that she doesn’t write her own music. Swift’s swift response came after the Los Angeles Times posted an interview with Albarn on Sunday night which has since dominated the discourse on social media. [The story.]( —Win for Cardi. A federal jury has sided with Cardi B on her accusations that a YouTuber waged a “malicious campaign” to hurt her reputation, issuing a verdict that the woman had defamed the rapper and awarding the star more than $1 million in damages. YouTuber Latasha Kebe had posted videos claiming Cardi B had contracted herpes, among other unsavory rumors. [The story.]( —Extension. The entertainment industry’s top guilds and studios have again extended their COVID-19 return-to-work agreement to Feb. 13, the Directors Guild recently told members amid a nationwide omicron surge. [The story.]( —The golden age. THR's [Rebecca Sun]( has the scoop on Netflix launching Golden, an Asian Pacific Islander-focused social media channel to add to its coterie of audience and genre verticals. Golden, which launches on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok today, joins Strong Black Lead, Con Todo, Most, Netflix Film, Geeked and Netflix Is a Joke. [The story.]( 'Lost Symbol' Canceled at Peacock After Single Season ►One and done. Peacock has canceled The Lost Symbol, the drama series based on a novel by Dan Brown, after a single season. The news comes about two months after the show’s 10-episode season concluded. The show, a prequel to The Da Vinci Code, premiered in September to middling reviews. Peacock hasn't released any detailed viewing data for the series. [The story.]( —No chance of being ghosted. CBS has picked up first-year breakout Ghosts for a second season and renewed its Monday block of The Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola as well. The three series join Young Sheldon, which is in the first year of a three-season pickup, on CBS’ roster next season. The four shows are the most-watched comedies on TV for the current season. [The story.]( —Replacing the irreplaceable. Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers has found its new male lead in Josh Duhamel. The actor fills the void created by the departure of Ducks OG Emilio Estevez and will play a new character in the second season of the series. [The story.]( —This is next. Milo Ventimiglia and his DiVide Pictures banner have sold drama script Hometown Saints to NBC. The show revolves around a retired hockey player who struggles to figure out who he is now that his career is over. Grainne Godfree and Derek Elliott will pen the script and exec produce alongside Ventimiglia and Russ Cundiff Deanna Harris will produce. [The story.]( —A first. Ivory Aquino has joined the cast of Batgirl. The actress will appear as Alysia Yeoh, the trans best friend of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, the masked hero played by Leslie Grace. Aquino is known for her work in the 2017 LGBTQ rights miniseries When We Rise, which aired on ABC and saw her play trans rights activist Cecilia Chung. [The story.]( —"This isn’t a risk." Peter Dinklage has mixed emotions about the upcoming Games of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon. In an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast the actor who played Tyrion Lannister spoke about the divisive last season of GOT as well as his thoughts on HOTD. [The story.]( It's Time for the Academy to Recognize Stunt Work ►"Actors may worry about a part killing their career, a stunt actor worries about getting killed." In a guest column, talent agent Noelle Kim, who reps THR’s first-ever “Stuntperson of the Year” Tanoai Reed, puts forward the case for why specialized stunt performers and coordinators deserve a category at the Oscars. [The column.]( —Big get. Amazon Music and Wondery have acquired the exclusive rights to the hit podcast My Favorite Murder as part of an exclusive ad sales and distribution deal with parent network Exactly Right Media. Episodes of My Favorite Murder, as well as other popular true-crime shows like The Murder Squad and This Podcast Will Kill You, will drop one week early on Amazon Music and Wondery+. [The story.]( —Cap and the Rock, together at last. Chris Evans is set to star opposite Dwayne Johnson in the holiday event film Red One for Amazon Studios. Jake Kasdan will direct the film, billed as an action-adventure comedy, with a script penned by Chris Morgan. Amazon outbid other suitors for the project. [The story.]( —"Still surreal." Queen Latifah is weighing in after her The Equalizer co-star Chris Noth exited the show amid sexual assault allegations against him. During a recent interview, Latifah called it “surreal” that Noth, formerly a series regular, will no longer appear on the CBS procedural and how the writers are still trying to figure out how they say goodbye to Noth's character. [The story.]( —Stacked. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston have landed a who’s who for their whodunit sequel Murder Mystery 2. Jodie Turner-Smith, Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Kuhoo Verma, Enrique Arce, Tony Goldwyn, Annie Mumolo and Zurin Villanueva are joining the Netflix franchise. [The story.]( Sundance review: 'Am I OK?' ►"A tender, gently funny portrait of a friendship in flux." THR critic [Angie Han]( reviews Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne's Am I OK? Starring Dakota Johnson, the dramedy centers around a woman who reveals she's gay just as her best friend prepares to move abroad. [The review.]( —"The Disney name makes the film's arguments all the more compelling." THR's Frank Scheck reviews The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales. Abigail Disney bites the hand that feeds her by exploring the way Disney and other large corporations treat their employees in this documentary co-directed with Kathleen Hughes. [The review.]( —"A nail-biting crime pic strongly rooted in debtor-class realism." THR's John DeFore reviews John Patton Ford's Emily the Criminal. The filmmaker's debut feature stars Aubrey Plaza as a debt-saddled woman drawn into a life of crime. [The review.]( —"A slightly above-average genre spin." THR's chief TV critic [Dan Fienberg]( reviews ABC's Promised Land. Creator Matt Lopez attempts to explore the American Dream and give Dallas or Dynasty a Latino spin in this vineyard-set primetime soap. [The review.]( In other news... —Sundance review: Margaret Brown's [Descendant]( —Sundance review: Reid Davenport's [I Didn’t See You There]( —Sundance review: Carlota Pereda's [Piggy]( (Cerdita) —NBCUniversal [plans to return to Radio City Music Hall for 2022 Upfront pitch]( —Independence Day’s [Dean Devlin sets space drama at Syfy]( —Missing-girl drama Saint X [lands series order at Hulu]( —Podcast Academy [sets date for in-person Ambie Awards ceremony]( —[Vachik Mangassarian]( veteran character actor, dies at 78 —[Martine Colette]( founder of Wildlife Waystation, dies at 79 —[Sergei Rakhlin]( longtime HFPA member, dies at 78 What else we're reading... —Facebook internal docs show the company is charging the some of world’s poorest people to get online, despite free plans [[WSJ]( —Stephen Sondheim leaves rights to his works to a trust [[NYT]( —Mikael Wood's interview with Damon Albarn that has had the internet talking and annoyed all the Swifties [[LAT]( —Jason Heller on how Meat Loaf owned the power ballad [[The Atlantic]( —From Billy Elliot to Spider-Man: How Tom Holland won the world’s heart [[Guardian]( Today... ...in 1970, Robert Altman’s R-rated M*A*S*H premiered in New York, breaking a single-day house record at the time for the Baronet Theatre with $6,660 in receipts. The film earned five nominations at the 43rd Academy Awards, winning one for Ring Lardner Jr. for his screenplay. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Ariana DeBose (31), Alicia Keys (41), Diane Salinger (71), [Olivier Assayas]( (67), Don Mancini (59), Whit Stillman (70), Mia Kirshner (47), Tati Gabrielle (26), Christine Lakin (43), Jenifer Lewis (65), Toni Servillo (63), Stephen Chbosky (52), Claudia Kim (37), Dinah Manoff (66) Jill Gurr, a veteran script supervisor who founded the nonprofit Create Now organization that pairs mentors in the entertainment industry with at-risk youngsters, has died. She was 71. [The obituary.]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. Visit the [Preferences Center]( to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. 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