| | | | | | What's news: South Park creators have responded to the controversy around the S27 premiere episode. Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy is leaving the company. Peacock has renewed Days of Our Lives for two more seasons. Lionsgate has optioned Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. — Abid Rahman
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FCC Approves Paramount-Skydance Merger ►🤝 It's official. 🤝 The Federal Communications Commission has cleared the way for David Ellison’s Skydance to acquire Paramount Global. The federal agency, led by Brendan Carr, said on Thursday that it approved the transfer of Paramount’s broadcast licenses to Skydance, the last hurdle in the review of the $8b deal. With the FCC approving the transfer, Skydance will be able to complete its acquisition of Paramount in short order, transforming the media landscape as Ellison takes charge of the owner of CBS, the Paramount film studio, Paramount+ and cable channels like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. The story.
—"Cowardly capitulation." Though the FCC approved the Skydance-Paramount merger Thursday, one commissioner is speaking out against what she says has been an “erosion of our First Amendment protections.” “After months of cowardly capitulation to this Administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted. Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions,” commissioner Anna M. Gomez said. Gomez notes that the transfer of Paramount’s broadcast licenses to Skydance was approved by a vote of 2-1 at the FCC, which is led by Brendan Carr, and that she had dissented. The story.
—Exiting. Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy will leave the company once its merger with Skydance completes. McCarthy became co-CEO of Paramount, alongside George Cheeks and Brian Robbins, in April 2024. The trio took on the role after the ouster of Bob Bakish as the company was in its first round of negotiations with Skydance. McCarthy is also president of Showtime/MTV Entertainment and oversees the company’s streaming platforms Paramount+ and Pluto TV. The story. |
'South Park' Creators Reveal Network Battle Over Premiere's Trump Micropenis ►"We’re terribly sorry." South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a lot to say when they took the stage at San Diego Comic-Con following a recent stretch that has seen plenty of headlines about the long-running Comedy Central animated series. Parker and Stone addressed the Hall H crowd Thursday as part of a panel promoting the network’s adult animation programming. At the start of the panel, moderator Josh Horowitz addressed the elephant in the room by asking the South Park creators if they had been following the noisy reaction to the show’s season 27 premiere that aired Wednesday and included an unflattering depiction of Donald Trump. The recap.
—"This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years." The White House slammed the political left in response to Wednesday night’s controversial season 27 premiere of South Park, in which the show’s cartoon-cut-out depiction of Donald Trump took Satan as a lover and which was capped off with a deepfake of the president featuring a rendering of his exposed micropenis. White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers reacted to the episode on Thursday, suggesting it represents the hypocrisy of the political left, lobbing insults at the Comedy Central show and touting Trump’s delivery on his promises. The story.
—Talent rebellion. It's all about the presidential micropenis, seemingly. THR's James Hibberd writes that this week, South Park, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert on The Late Show all savaged the same (tiny?) thing as Paramount Global faces an uprising over its small-minded handling of its legacy properties. The story. |
Box Office: 'Superman' Is Not Flying as High Overseas ►The Trump effect. On the same day that James Gunn’s Superman opened in U.S. theaters, President Donald Trump posted a meme of himself dressed as the Man of Steel. If there was a collective groan on the Warner Bros. lot, home of DC Studios, it’s no surprise. For years, the studio’s marketing mavens have worked to downplay the very pro-American aspect of the comic book hero when peddling the movie franchise internationally. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that Superman opened to a promising $125m domestically in a major win for Gunn and the Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios, which Gunn also happens to run alongside Peter Safran. Overseas was a different story, where the July summer tentpole debuted to $95m, behind a projected launch of $100m to $125m. Two weekends in, Superman is still lopsided towards, with international running far behind. The analysis.
—🤝 Optioned. 🤝 Lionsgate, which is releasing the adaptation of Stephen King novel The Long Walk this fall, is staying in business with the best-selling super-author. The company has optioned the rights to King’s 1999 novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, setting JT Mollner, the filmmaker behind the well-regarded thriller Strange Darling, to write and direct the adaptation. The project marks a return to King country for Mollner, who wrote the script for Long Walk, which was directed by Francis Lawrence and opens Sept. 12. The story. |
'E! News' Canceled After 34 Years ►E!nd of E!ra. E!'s E! News has been canceled as a linear television show, with its official end set for Sept. 25, but will continue as a digital brand. Employees learned of the cancellation news Thursday morning. The nightly entertainment-news program launched in 1991, but had a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some E! News correspondents will follow E!'s move to Versant, the spinoff company created by the separation of NBCUniversal's broadcast and streaming business from its cable assets. E!'s Access Hollywood and Access Daily will continue on as normal from their production facility at Terrace Studios. The story.
—Aging gracefully. Peacock has renewed Days of Our Lives for two more years, which will take the long-running daytime drama through its 63rd season in 2027-28. The first 58 of those aired on NBC before the show moved to its sibling streamer in 2022. The renewal comes on the heels of Days picking up 13 nominations for the 2025 Daytime Emmy Awards, including for best daytime drama series, writing and directing for a daytime drama, and eight acting nominations. The show has won more than 60 Daytime Emmys over its tenure. The story.
—In the works. British comic writer Paul Jenkins is developing an adult animated comedy based on his superhero satire comic SideKicks. The comic ran for five issues from 2006-07, and took place in Metroville, a city in which superheroes are common, as are their underpaid and underappreciated sidekicks. It featured art from Chris Moreno. The story centers on Eddie Edison, a pizza delivery boy by day, sidekick by night. The genre-focused production company Solipsist Films is developing the project with Jenkins, who will write the pilot and executive produce with Solipsist’s Stephen L’Heureux. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Camp Half-Blood relocated to San Diego Thursday, bringing a slew of announcements about Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The cast and showrunners of the Disney+ series appeared at Comic-Con for a panel that included news about the coming second season, as well as a key piece of casting for season three, which the streamer ordered shortly after filming on season two wrapped earlier in the year. For starters, Percy Jackson author and series co-creator/executive producer Rick Riordan announced in a video message that season two, based on Riordan’s second Percy Jackson book, The Sea of Monsters , will premiere Dec. 10. The session also featured the debut of a teaser trailer for the coming season, including the first look at Daniel Diemer as Tyson, the cyclops who befriends Percy (Walker Scobell), and a very brief glimpse at a chariot race at camp. The story. |
'Resident Alien' Canceled Ahead of S4 Finale ►Donezo. Resident Alien has been canceled after four seasons. The news came ahead of the show’s intended finale, set for Aug. 8. The sci-fi comedy, starring Alan Tudyk as a crash-landed alien named Harry, notably shifted its home network from Syfy to the USA Network for its fourth season in hopes to expand its audience. Resident Alien received a bit of a viewership boost from the first three seasons of the series being available to stream on Netflix last summer. The story.
—Pilot order. CBS is eyeing a comedy from Ghosts showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman that would explore a different kind of supernatural realm. The network has ordered a pilot called Eternally Yours, about a long-married — as in, for 500 years — vampire couple and their struggle to accept the human who is dating their daughter. The project has been in the works since August 2024 and convened a development writers room earlier this year, which has since wrapped. Port and Wiseman are writing the pilot and will executive produce with Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum and Jason Wang. Eternally Yours comes from CBS Studios, where Port and Wiseman have an overall deal. The story.
—🎭 Five more. 🎭 Hulu’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot pilot is filling out its cast alongside previously announced stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Kiera Armstrong. The new series regulars include Faly Rakotohavana as Hugo, Ava Jean as Larkin, Sarah Bock as Gracie, Daniel Di Tomasso as Abe and Jack Cutmore-Scott as Mr. Burke. The reboot pilot was announced back in February. Not much has been revealed about the new show’s plot, but sources previously told THR that the new Buffy will focus on a new slayer (Armstrong). Gellar will appear in a recurring role as Buffy, which she originated in the WB-turned-UPN series that ran from 1997 until 2003. The story.
—Back on top. The final season premiere of Squid Game put the Netflix hit back at the top of the U.S. streaming charts — though with smaller numbers than it had for the show’s most recent run. The final full week of June also brought another record for Love Island USA and the premiere of The Bear’s fourth season, which like Squid Game opened with lower but still solid viewing figures. Squid Game racked up 3.2b minutes of viewing in the U.S. for the week of June 23-29; the Korean thriller’s third and final season premiered on June 27. That’s down from 4.92b minutes for the week of season two’s premiere in late December, which had an extra day to accumulate viewing time since it debuted on a Thursday rather than a Friday as the final run did (debuting during the holidays probably helped season two some as well). Season three set a three-day, worldwide record in Netflix’s internal figures. The streaming rankings. |
Broadway: 'Sunset Blvd.' Ends Run On $2.5M High ►Lucrative farewell. Sunset Blvd., starring Nicole Scherzinger, played its final Broadway performance Sunday and hit the highest gross of its run. The musical grossed $2.48m last week, with its final performance Sunday bringing in $514,515 of the total, marking the highest grossing single performance at the St. James Theatre. The show, which opened on Broadway in October 2024, also hit the highest ticket price of its run at $187.53 and played to more than 100 percent capacity. These numbers made it the highest grossing show on Broadway last week. Sunset Blvd., directed by Jamie Lloyd, won three Tony Awards, including best revival of a musical and a Tony for Scherzinger as Norma Desmond. The story.
—🎭 Switcheroo. 🎭 Andrew Barth Feldman will replace Darren Criss in the Tony Award-winning musical Maybe Happy Ending. Feldman, who starred in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway, as well as the film No Hard Feelings, will play the role of Oliver starting Sept. 2 for a nine-week run through Nov. 1. Criss originated the role of Oliver, a retired robot living in South Korea, on Broadway and won a Tony Award for his portrayal, becoming the first Asian American actor to win best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. Criss has been playing the role since October 2024. The story. |
Hulk Hogan 1953 - 2025 ►Hulkamaniacs in mourning. Hulk Hogan, the blond and boisterous body-slammer who brought pro wrestling into the mainstream in the 1980s while becoming one of the most recognizable celebrities of his generation, died Thursday. He was 71. "The Hulkster" headlined WrestleMania eight times, with perhaps his most memorable bout in the WWE's signature event coming in 1987 against the 520-pound Andre the Giant in the Pontiac Silverdome before a then-record crowd of 93,173. His over-the-top acting skills naturally led him to Hollywood, where he portrayed the wrestler Thunderlips in Rocky III (1982) in his big-screen debut. Hogan went on to star in such other films as No Holds Barred (1989), Suburban Commando (1991), Mr. Nanny (1993) and Santa With Muscles (1996) and in the 1994 syndicated series Thunder in Paradise. The obituary.
—"Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way." Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., J.D. Vance, Brooke Shields, Sylvester Stallone, Mario Lopez, Jake Paul and Piers Morgan are among the Hollywood stars and public figures who paid tribute to Hulk Hogan. On X, Vance wrote, "Hulk Hogan was a great American icon. One of the first people I ever truly admired as a kid. The last time I saw him we promised we’d get beers together next time we saw each other. The next time will have to be on the other side, my friend! Rest in peace." The reaction.
—Blazing a path. Before The Rock morphed into movie star Dwayne Johnson, and well-before John Cena traded his jorts for a Peacemaker helmet, Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea made the leap from a professional-wrestling ring to Hollywood. THR's Tony Maglio writes that Hogan was the man who put WWE (then WWF) on the map. Hogan was not a good actor, but he was also let down by bad material. Everyone starts somewhere, but Hogan never got out of the starting gate. What he did accomplish, however, was introducing Hollywood producers to the untapped (outside of wrestling) potential in the locker room. The story. |
Film Review: 'Happy Gilmore 2' ►"A whiffed shot." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Kyle Newacheck's Happy Gilmore 2. The golfer with anger management issues returns in this belated, cameo-laden follow-up to the cult comedy. Starring Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Ben Stiller, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, John Daly, Haley Joel Osment, Jackie Sandler, Sadie Sandler, Sunny Sandler, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Philip Schneider, Ethan Cutkosky, Conor Sherry, Kevin Nealon, Lavell Crawford, Kym Whitley, John Farley, Eric André, Martin Herlihy and Margaret Qualley. The review.
—"Bigger but not badder." Frank reviews Pierre Perifel's The Bad Guys 2. Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos and Craig Robinson are back, joined by characters voiced by Danielle Brooks, Maria Bakalova, and Natasha Lyonne, for this DreamWorks Animation sequel 'toon about a group of animal outlaws. The review.
—"Boomers beware." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews James DeMonaco's The Home. Pete Davidson stars as a troubled former foster kid who gets a job working at a secret-haunted care center for the elderly. Also starring John Glover, Bruce Altman, Denise Burse and Mary Beth Peil. The review.
—"Catchy concept, disappointing delivery." THR's Ethan Millman reviews Netflix's Hitmakers. The new reality series from the creator of Selling Sunset gathers top songwriters and tasks them with crafting hits for artists including John Legend, Usher, Shaboozey and Blackpink’s Lisa. The review.
In other news...
—Spinal Tap II: The End Continues trailer sees the lads reunite for one last gig
—Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy confront a changing America in Train Dreams teaser
—Coldplay’s streams surge after kiss-cam moment
—Zohran Mamdani links up with Wu-Tang Clan in viral video
—Guillermo del Toro gets Toronto soundstages renamed in his honor
—Stellan Skarsgård to receive Sarajevo at Sarajevo Film Fest honor
—Chappell Roan announces pop up shows in L.A., NY and Kansas City
—Michael Ochs, pop culture’s preeminent photo archivist, dies at 82
What else we're reading...
—William Christou and Angela Giuffrida report that frontline aid staff are fainting from hunger as starvation spreads in Gaza [Guardian]
—Another banger from the WSJ, Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo report that Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday album included letters from Bill Clinton, Leon Black, Mort Zuckerman and Alan Dershowitz [WSJ]
—In a great piece, David Shoemaker tackles Hulk Hogan's complicated legacy [Ringer]
—Elizabeth Nelson writes that the rock legends of the past were messy in public and private, but you’d never know that from today’s tame biopics [NYT]
—Here's your Friday list: "The 25 best horror movies of the 21st century, ranked" [THR]
Today...
...in 1973, Warner Bros.’ Paul Newman thriller The Mackintosh Man opened in New York at Loews theaters. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Matt LeBlanc (58), Iman (70), Meg Donnelly (25), Shantel VanSanten (40), David Denman (52), D.B. Woodside (56), Illeana Douglas (65), James Lafferty (40), Miriam Shor (54), Zawe Ashton (41), Michael Welch (38), Jay R. Ferguson (51), Dallas Jenkins (50), Preston Bailey (25), Grace Dove (34), Juan Pablo Di Pace (46), Katherine Kelly Lang (64), Darren Star (64), Pierce Gagnon (20), Regina Blandón (35), Jaafar Jackson (29), Wendy Raquel Robinson (58), Ana Lily Amirpour (49), Mason Cook (25), Andrew Lewis Caldwell (36), Zeki Demirkubuz (61), Gülçin Santircioglu (48), Katie Gill (40), Rowbie Orsatti (34), Anthony Tyler Quinn (63), Michael C. Williams (52), Matthew Helderman (38) |
| Two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione, who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-flavored single “Feels So Good” and later became a voice actor on the animated TV comedy King of the Hill, has died. He was 84. The obituary. |
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