The Bachelor franchise will soon have new leadership.
Deadline understands that Claire Freeland and Bennett Graebner, who serve as showrunners and executive producers of the Warner Bros TV-produced franchise, are leaving. We hear they are currently negotiating their exit with the studio.
It comes a month after Deadline revealed allegations of a “hostile” environment behind the scenes of the franchise.
It’s been a tricky start to the year for the ABC universe; in early February, Deadline revealed that The Bachelorette would skip a cycle. That decision led to the departure of a number of crew, many who had worked on the shows for years.
Following our report, co-executive producers Michael Margolis, who is Freeland’s husband, and Keely Booth resigned. >>>Deny Allegations |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Uncomfortably Numb - Current estimates show that this weekend was in fact the lowest grossing at the domestic box office year-to-date with around $54.7M for all films, lower than Super Bowl Weekend ($55.8M). How is that possible during a spring break with kids off? Novocaine is leading with an $8.7M opening after $3.9M Friday/previews and $2.89M Saturday. >>>" It’s A Studio Problem" Lively-Baldoni Quick-Turn Docs - Investigation Discovery and 5 (formerly Channel 5) are diving deep into the Lively vs. Baldoni saga via a fast-turnaround doc from ITN Productions (ITNP). He Said, She Said: Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni will air tonight on 5 before a shorter version titled In Dispute premieres on ID and Max at the end of March. >>>Twisty-Turny Saga
CJ ENM Boosts Budget - Korean powerhouse CJ ENM has boosted its budget by 10% to $818M for 2025, in what it is calling its "first official year of global expansion." In a wide-ranging discussion, CEO Yoon Sang-hyun provided insight into this mega content warchest and CJ’s global partnerships with Warner Bros and Fifth Season. >>>Celebrating 30th Anniversary All-Female 'Glengarry' - In an intriguing move, Deadline hears that producers of the currently previewing Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Bill Burr and Michael McKean are planning to stage the play with an all-female cast once the current gang’s limited engagement ends on June 14. >>>Interest Expressed Over The Years
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BJ rollerblading in Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones looks like child's play compared to the new hobby the oddball character played by Tim Baltz picks up in the HBO comedy series’ fourth and final season. In Episode 2, BJ is seen taking a group pole dancing lesson and performing a full routine that has him in a Spider-Man-like upside-down position at some point.
There was no stunt double, it was all Baltz in the scene, and he trained hard to master the routine. It started with a call from a producer to start doing Pilates, because he would need core strength.
“I was like, what, why? Well, you gonna learn pole dancing,” Baltz recalled during a panel discussion at the Season 4 premiere of The Righteous Gemstones. “I was excited, because it felt like an evolution of the character; I felt like each season there was something more ridiculous that BJ was getting into. It made perfect sense that this was the hobby, but I wasn’t prepared for it, so I just started pounding creatine and training hard.” >>>Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Following her breakout role in the Paramount+ series 1883, Isabel May is going from the frontier to a football stadium as she is in negotiations to join David Corenswet in the Skydance Sports football drama Mr. Irrelevant.
Exclusive
Strange Darling actress Willa Fitzgerald is joining Paramount Pictures’ feature adaptation of the 2019 Colleen Hoover novel Regretting You.
A Single White Female remake is moving at Sony and 3000 Pictures with Wednesday star Jenna Ortega and Taylor Russell (Bones and All) in talks to star. The film is in the very early stages of development. Russell and Ortega would also produce.
Exclusive
Erika Alexander (American Fiction) has joined the cast of NBC‘s Untitled Tracy Morgan pilot from Tina Fey, Robert Carlock and writer Sam Means.
Jason Ritter is set for a key recurring role in Lanterns, HBO’s drama series based on the Green Lantern DC comic. He joins leads Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre and series regular Kelly MacDonald.
In Brief - Skeet Ulrich, Paris Jackson, Marcia Gay Harden & Virginia Madsen among 7 rounding out Catherine Hardwicke’s Street Smart |
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More News
🏆 Conan O’Brien impressed his Academy and Disney paymasters so much with his Oscars hosting performance that he has been officially asked to return. The comedian will be back to host the 98th Academy Awards, which will take place on ABC on Sunday March 15, 2026.
⚡ Percy Jackson and the Olympians has received a very early Season 3 renewal. Season 3 will focus on the third book in Rick Riordan’s best-selling series, The Titan’s Curse.
🤖 In a survey of nearly 100 studios focused on using artificial intelligence to get stories to screens, consulting firm FBRC.ai found they are increasingly focused more on the quality of stories than on gee-whiz tech.
🧟 Los Angeles-based sales, production, and finance company EST N8 has acquired Indonesian horror film Pabrik Gula (Sugar Mill) for North America release, our team reports from Hong Kong Filmart. |
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Trending
 Yellowjackets' Season 3 viewership is up 39% over Season 2 on Paramount+ with Showtime.
🔻 Fans of the original Looney Tunes animated shorts will soon be hunting rabbits. The cartoons, which ran during the golden age of animation from 1930 through 1969, have been scrubbed from Warner Bros. Discovery-owned Max. |
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Obituaries
🕯️ Jesse L. Kearney Jr., a playwright, a recipient of the Dramatists Guild’s Jonathan Larson Musical Theater Fellowship and the vice president of the advocacy group Black Broadway Men United, died Thursday, March 6, at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, of complications from a cerebral arteriovenous malformation. 🕯️ Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne , who first achieved fame with her 1999 Cannes d’Or-winning, big screen debut in Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s drama Rosetta, has died at age 43. 🕯️ 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Mon - St. Patrick's Day
Wed - Hakeem Jeffries' L.A. fundraiser
Thu - Disney Shareholder Meeting
Fri - Severance season finale |
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Mirror, Mirror - Gal Gadot takes a selfie with Disney villains at Disneyland. |
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