| | | | | | What's news: LA28 guru Casey Wasserman is the second cover star of THR's Sports Issue. Lifetime is cutting back its unscripted programming division. Fox has launched streamer Fox One. South Park's latest episode took on the tech oligarchs. The Pitt swept the Television Critics Awards. Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle will make their Broadway debuts in a revival of Proof. — Abid Rahman
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Lord of the Rings: Casey Wasserman's Olympic Odyssey ►On the cover. These are not normal times for Casey Wasserman. The hard-driving Hollywood scion oversees a sports marketing empire, runs a massive foundation, donates millions to politicians and charities, and chairs multiple civic institutions. Yet his most precarious role might just be his latest — steering the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics while navigating a president intent on putting his own inimitable stamp on the Games. Calls already have come from columnists at the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle for LA28 to push back against the Trump administration, even to cancel the event if necessary. THR 's Peter Kiefer profiles Wasserman, and looks into whether he can navigate political land mines, relentless fundraising and a showboating president to deliver Olympic Games glory to L.A. The cover profile. |
Can Film and TV Sets Be Made Safer … With Surveys? ►"It starts with listening." It’s no secret that Hollywood’s unique cocktail of high-pressure sets, big egos and freelance workers can produce some pretty toxic work environments. In recent years, news reports have emerged about talk shows, reality shows and scripted TV productions alike that allegedly made cast and/or crew miserable. THR's Katie Kilkenny looks at whether QR codes and anonymized survey responses help change that. That’s the conceit behind Talent Trust, a consulting company that is taking the approach of partnering with employers to improve their work environments by polling their rank-and-file workers at different stages of production. The story.
—Layoffs. Lifetime is cutting back its unscripted programming division, a decision that resulted in layoffs on Wednesday. Aside from Brie Miranda Bryant, senior vp unscripted development and programming at the cable network, the rest of the small unscripted team was let go. The layoffs at the A+E Networks-owned channel include Nicole Vogel, vp programming and development. Going forward, Lifetime will focus more on its original movie business — although the network still has a number of unscripted titles airing and set to premiere in the coming months. The story.
—Who is this for? Today, Fox is launching Fox One, a new streaming service that the company hopes will make a market impact, while also trying not to cannibalize Fox's large cable audience. THR's Caitlin Huston writes that Fox One will bring the company’s live news programming, sports and entertainment together in one streaming app. In October, it will also offer Fox One consumers the option to bundle with ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer app, which also launches Thursday. Fox One is launching at a price of $19.99 a month, or $39.99 for the bundle with the new ESPN streaming app, which will launch Oct. 2. Cable and pay TV subscribers can also authenticate into the app. Subscribers can also add in Fox Nation, Fox’s existing streaming service that includes original shows from Fox News hosts, docuseries and more, and documentary-style programs featuring Fox News personalities for an extra fee. The story.
—For sale! Just as major Hollywood studios are in a moment of belt-tightening, so too are soundstage operators, which are making tough choices about locations to keep during a film and TV production slowdown and facilities that could be cut loose. Hackman Capital Partners has placed a “For Sale” sign on a Raleigh sibling location, Saticoy Studios in Van Nuys, at an $18m price tag for the location with two soundstages in a 59,669-sq-ft building in the San Fernando Valley. Saticoy had been the home of Let’s Make a Deal for a multiyear run, but the long-running Fremantle-produced game show now films in Glendale at Haven Studios. The story. |
Will Trump's Kennedy Center Honorees Actually Show Up? ►Worth the backlash? Traditionally, the announcement of the Kennedy Center Honors is a low-key affair — recipients are normally revealed each summer with a no-frills press release. Not this time. Shattering precedent (yet again), Donald Trump — who earlier this year anointed himself chairman and fired much of the center’s advisory committee, replacing them with allies like ex-spy chief Richard Grenell and MAGA publisher Sergio Gor — staged an Apprentice-style spectacle, unveiling his picks with an unwieldy, nearly hourlong press conference that, as usual, raised more questions than it answered. For starters, will Trump, as he sort of hinted, really be hosting the ceremony in December? Was he serious when he claimed to be “98 percent involved” in the selection process? THR's Rambling Reporter wonders who among the chosen will actually show up for the ceremony. The story.
—Tech bro skewering. The third episode of South Park‘s 27th season, which aired on Comedy Central on Wednesday, took a break from its sharp satire of the MAGA movement, instead taking a scathing look at the culture that has emerged out of the Silicon Valley tech boom, including nonsense lingo and ketamine microdosing, the pervasive reliance on ChatGPT, as well as the ongoing crisis for immigrants in America. Episode of the series’ ratings-shattering 27th season sees Randy Marsh’s marijuana farm, Tegridy Farms, faces an existential crisis when ICE agents round up it’s Mexican migrant work force, leading the Marsh family patriarch to contemplate ending his business and leaving farm life behind, much to the delight of the rest of the family. The recap. |
'The Pitt' Takes Top Honors at TV Critics Association Awards ►🏆 Sweep! 🏆 The Pitt dominated the 2025 Television Critics Awards, taking home four honors including program of the year. The HBO Max series also won awards for outstanding drama, outstanding new program and the individual award in drama for star and executive producer Noah Wyle. The Pitt swept every category in which it was nominated. With the summer’s TCA press tour canceled this year, the group did not have an in-person awards ceremony. Instead, the TCA’s YouTube page features recorded acceptance speeches from the winners. The winners.
—Back of the net! NBC Sports is Thierry Henry knee-sliding towards the corner flag as the opening weekend of the 2025-26 English Premier League season was the most-watched ever in the U.S. According to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, the EPL opening weekend averaged 850,000 viewers across six matches aired live on NBC/Peacock, USA Network and NBC Sports‘ digital platforms (in the period Aug. 15-17). The figure is up 4 percent from the 820,000 viewers from the 2024-25 season. Sunday’s big match between Manchester United and London-based powerhouse Arsenal, which aired on NBC, Peacock and NBC Sports’ digital platforms, averaged a healthy 2m viewers, making it the most-watched opening weekend match on record in the U.S., as well as the second most-watched match in the U.S. ever, just behind the 2.1m viewers who watch Manchester City-Arsenal on March 31, 2024. The ratings.
—Finishing move. Some bad news for Peacock now, with ESPN moving up its rights-takeover date for WWE’s premium live events (PLEs) from 2026 to one month from today, Sept. 20, 2025, beginning with a whole new PLE, Wrestlepalooza. WWE personnel currently are in Indianapolis, the site of the first-ever Wrestlepalooza, to announce the news of the event on Thursday — the same day the new ESPN direct-to-consumer app launches. Peacock, which had to give the “OK” for this to happen, will live stream its last WWE PLE later this month. The story. |
The Summer Box Office Is Quickly Going South ►Fizzling out. Heading into the start of the season, hopes were running high that Hollywood would make a roaring comeback and be able to best or at least match the $4b-plus earned in 2023 at the domestic box office, when the combination of Barbie and Oppenheimer turned into a cultural phenomenon. The 2025 May-to-August calendar was certainly promising on paper in terms of marquee tentpoles, led by Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth and The Fantastic Four: The First Steps. THR's Pamela McClintock reports that by the end of the Aug. 15-17 weekend, year-over-year revenue was down 6 percent amid a slowdown in event titles. Worse, it lagged more than 11 percent compared with 2023. The box office report.
—It's been too long. THR's second-nicest man Aaron Couch has the scoop on Ed Zwick booking his next directing gig, taking on The Creed of Violence, a new feature adaptation of the 2009 Boston Teran novel in the works. The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond filmmaker, who last directed Trial by Fire in 2018, will direct, and will also write and produce with creative partner Marshall Herskovitz for High Top Productions, the banner owned by Creed of Violence publisher High Top Publishing. The novel is a revisionist Western set amid the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution. Per High Top, it follows “the unlikely partnership between a ruthless assassin and a young government agent — who share a hidden past — as they navigate a violent, treacherous landscape that mirrors the brutalities of empire and corruption.” The story.
—Heinlein heads rejoice! Aaron is back with another scoop, revealing that an animated feature adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1957 novel Citizen of the Galaxy is in the works. The project hails from prolific animation director Jay Oliva and his Lex+Otis banner. Oliva, a veteran of both DC and Marvel animated features, will helm after working on projects as disparate as Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods and creating storyboards for Deadpool and Wonder Woman. Citizen of the Galaxy is an interstellar coming-of-age action-adventure story that centers on Thorby, an orphan boy auctioned into slavery until an encounter with Baslim the Beggar changes his life and sets him on a journey that will shape the fate of the galaxy. The story.
—Together again. THR's Borys Kit has a scoop on two players in the geek space have teamed up to put a Hex on 20th Century Studios. Dave Green, the director behind the infamous Coyote vs. Acme, and BenDavid Grabinski, the creator of the animated Netflix series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, have sold a pitch titled Hex to the studio. Green is attached to direct, while Grabinski will write the script. Andrew Lazar will produce the feature, with Mal Smith acting as co-producer. Grabinski will be an exec producer. Details are being kept under wraps, but does involve dark magic coming to an already unusual town. The gathering of Grabinski, Lazar and 20th is a reteaming of the squad behind Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, a unique buddy action movie that has a time travel element. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 A24's Friendship is about to start streaming, and it’s supposed to be nuts. After hitting theaters in May, writer-director Andrew DeYoung's black comedy feature is set for its streaming launch Sept. 5 on HBO Max before debuting on HBO linear the next day. The film, which debuted on digital formats a month after its theatrical release, stars Tim Robinson, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer and Paul Rudd. Friendship centers on Robinson as Craig, a socially awkward marketing executive who seeks out a friendship with his neighbor Austin (Rudd), a charming weatherman. The story. |
Broadway: 'Gypsy' Climbs to $1.6M In Final Week ►Going out with a bang. Gypsy soared to $1.6m last week as the revival finished its Broadway run. The musical, starring Audra McDonald, played to 94 percent capacity at the Majestic Theatre and brought in an average ticket price of $134.58. The show, which opened in December, but announced an early closing Aug. 17, has not seen those ticket prices and box office tally since the winter. The $1.607m tally made the show the fourth highest grossing show in the industry last week. Mamma Mia! opened at the Winter Garden Theatre Aug. 14, and brought in $1.606m across its first eight-show week (which also included the comped opening and comped tickets for press preview performances). The show played to 100 percent capacity and ranked as the fifth highest grossing show last week. The Broadway box office report.
—🎭 Double debuts. 🎭 Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle will make their Broadway debuts next spring in a revival of Proof. The Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, written by David Auburn, will be directed by Thomas Kail, a Tony Award winner for his direction of Hamilton. The show is set to play a strictly limited engagement at a Shubert theater to be announced with preview starting March 31, 2026, ahead of an April 16 opening night. Proof originally ran on Broadway from 2000 through 2003, starring Mary-Louise Parker and Larry Bryggman, and won three Tonys including best play and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was also adapted into a feature film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal. The story.
—🎭 Family affair. 🎭 Carrie Coon will star in the Broadway premiere of Bug this winter, written by her husband Tracy Letts. The play, which will be directed by The Band’s Visit 's David Cromer, follows a surprise and intense romance between a lonely waitress, played by Coon and a mysterious drifter, played by Namir Smallwood. The production begins performances on Dec. 17 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, with an opening night set for Jan. 8. The play transfers to Broadway from a Steppenwolf production that began in 2020 and resumed in late 2021, after being delayed by the pandemic. The show was staged in London 30 years ago, and has had several iterations since, including an Off-Broadway production in 2004 and a film adaptation in 2007, with Michael Shannon starring in both. The story.
—🎭 Can't keep away. 🎭 Darren Criss announced that he is returning to the lead role in Maybe Happy Ending this fall. Criss, who originated the lead role of Oliver on Broadway and won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the robot, was originally announced to be departing the production after Aug. 31, with Andrew Barth Feldman taking over his role from Sept. 2 through Nov. 1. The casting of Feldman, who is white, raised alarms among members of the theater community, as the production takes place in South Korea and features a predominantly Asian cast. Criss also made history in the role as the first Asian American actor to win best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. However, the creators of the musical have said that the story is universal and that the lead roles, both of whom are robots, can be played by actors of any race. The story.
—📅 Get excited. 📅 The Muppets, and one human performer, are coming to Broadway. The illusionist Rob Lake is staging a holiday show, Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets at the Broadhurst Theatre starting Oct. 28. The show is scheduled to open Nov. 6 and run through Jan. 18. Kermit the Frog is promised to appear on stage, alongside “some of his friends from The Muppets” for the show. This would be the first time The Muppets have appeared on Broadway – though they do attempt to stage their own Broadway show in the 1984 film, The Muppets Take Manhattan. There was also previously a Sesame Street musical that ran Off-Broadway in 2023. The story. |
TV Review: 'Hostage' ►"Entirely forgettable." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Netflix's Hostage. Creator Matt Charman follows Treason with another five-part London-set show, this one tracking a high-stakes summit between the British prime minister and the French president. Starring Julie Delpy, Suranne Jones, Ashley Thomas and Lucian Msamati. The review.
—"Stunning but chaotic." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Jiaozi's Ne Zha II. The Chinese blockbuster sequel, the highest-grossing animated film ever, returns to theaters in a new version courtesy of A24. Voice cast featuring Crystal Lee, Griffin Puatu, Aleks Le, Vincent Rodriguez III, Michelle Yeoh, Rick Zieff, Daniel Riordan, William Utay, Christophe Swindle, Karl Wahlgren, Fred Tatasciore, Michael Yurchak, Damian Hass. The review.
In other news...
—Will Sharpe is Mozart and Paul Bettany an envious court composer in first-look at Sky’s Amadeus
—Carol Altieri, former CBS executive, dies at 76
What else we're reading...
—Another great piece from linguist Adam Aleksic, who posits that people are starting to talk like ChatGPT [Washington Post]
—Uh-oh? Mike Isaac and Eli Tan report that Meta is restructuring its artificial intelligence division amid internal tensions over the technology [NYT]
—Chavie Lieber goes inside The Hunting Wives, the Netflix show about sex, guns and murder that pokes at woke and conservative culture in Texas [WSJ]
—Adam Wren looks at how Gavin Newsom trolled his way to the top of social media [Politico]
—Laura Millan, Jinshan Hong, Henrique Almeida, Alberto Brambilla, and Tom Fevrier have a piece on how hotter summers and overcrowding is threatening Europe’s tourist economies [Bloomberg]
Today...
...in 2013, Entertainment One released Harald Zwart's The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones in theaters. The feature adaptation of the first book in Cassandra Clare's fantasy series starred Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, Kevin Durand, Aidan Turner, Jemima West, Godfrey Gao, CCH Pounder, Jared Harris, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, but was a box office disappointment. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Kim Cattrall (69), Carrie-Anne Moss (58), Peter Weir (81), Bo Burnham (35), Hayden Panettiere (36), Alicia Witt (50), Laura Haddock (40), RJ Mitte (33), Kate Robbins (67), Aubri Ibrag (24), Loretta Devine (76), Cleo King (63), Patty McCormack (80), Marc Evan Jackson (55), Nathan Jones (56), Elarica Johnson (36), Mustafa Shakir (49), John Brotherton (45), Isabella Pappas (23), Christian Navarro (34), Cody Kasch (38), Will Harrison (29), Richmond Arquette (62), Dallas Liu (24), Kevin Janssens (46), Bryony Corrigan (33), Jonathan Lajoie (45), Jacqueline Emerson (31), Greg Cromer (54), Anne-Louise Lambert (70), John Hollingworth (44), Thomas Beaudoin (44) |
| Frank Caprio, the colorful municipal judge who presided over cases in his Rhode Island courtroom on Caught in Providence, died Wednesday. He was 88. The obituary. |
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