| | | | | | What's news: Savannah Guthrie has put her Winter Olympics coverage plans on hold. The Grammys averaged 14.41m viewers. Netflix has renewed A Man on the Inside. RCA is reviving Jive Records. French prosecutors raided the Paris offices of X. And Trump will sit for an interview with NBC News, a portion of which will air during the Super Bowl pregame show. — Abid Rahman
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Inside Disney's Succession ►"We could have had more than one CEO here." When James Gorman joined Disney's board of directors a little over a year ago, succession was top of mind. "The most important thing boards do is figure out the CEO, and transition," Gorman tells THR's Alex Weprin in an interview. And, the veteran finance executive says, Disney happened to have what he called “an embarrassment of riches,” in its C-suite. Ultimately, of course, Disney chose Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of its experiences division, to succeed CEO Bob Iger next month. The interview.
—"I’m a big risk taker." As Josh D’Amaro prepares to step into the Disney CEO shoes, succeeding Bob Iger, he’s now opening up about his vision for the media and entertainment empire’s future. THR has put together excerpts from D’Amaro and Iger’s sit-down interview with David Muir for ABC World News Tonight about the future of Disney, the company’s legacy, taking risks, protecting actors while embracing AI and more. The recap.
—Cha-ching! As he takes on the job of Disney CEO, Josh D’Amaro is set to receive a pay package of about $38m. The compensation breaks down into an annual base salary of $2.5m as well as a one-time award of $9.75m upon taking the new role. In addition, per his new contract, for each year D’Amaro serves as CEO he is set to receive a long-term stock incentive of $26.2m. Each year, he is eligible to receive an annual bonus of 250 percent of his base salary, provided he meets certain performance goals. The story.
—Ticking along. Fubo closed its first quarter with 6.2m North American subscribers, down from a year-ago 6.3m North American customers, the sports-first streaming service reported on Tuesday. The overall subscriber base now represents customers for its live TV streaming services, including Fubo and Hulu + Live TV, after closing a merger deal with Disney. Unveiling its latest financial results including on a pro forma basis after closing Disney’s Hulu merger, Fubo saw its overall revenue rise 40 percent to $1.55b, while on a pro forma basis the first-quarter revenue was up 6 percent year-on-year to $1.68b. The results. |
FBI Joins Search for Savannah Guthrie's Missing Mother ►The latest. The search for Nancy Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of NBC News‘ Today co-host Savannah Guthrie, who disappeared from her Arizona home over the weekend — entered a third day on Tuesday. The FBI has joined the investigation now as “hundreds of leads” from the public are being followed, including a ransom note sent to entertainment news outlet TMZ. On Tuesday afternoon, TMZ reported that in the morning, a ransom note had been sent to its offices seeking funds in cryptocurrency and included an “…or else” element. The alleged ransom note reportedly also mentions an item the sender says was damaged at Gutherie’s Tucson-area residence. The story.
—"Our hearts are with her and the entire Guthrie family as the search continues for their mother." Savannah Guthrie has put her Winter Olympics coverage plans on hold amid the search for her missing mother. Guthrie had been due to fly out to Italy on Monday to co-host NBC’s coverage of the Olympics opening ceremonies on Friday at the San Siro Stadium in Milan alongside Terry Gannon. She was also set to anchor NBC’s first night of primetime coverage. “Savannah will not be joining us at the Olympics as she focuses on being with her family during this difficult time,” an NBC Sports said in a statement to THR. The story. |
Epstein Files: Is This the Real-Life "Christmas Adventurers Club"? ►Fact and fiction blurring. The unfolding Jeffrey Epstein saga has galvanized the public for the breadth of its revelations into elite power, from the financial to the political, the cultural to the sociological. THR's Gary Baum writes that one email in the latest batch of case files the U.S. Department of Justice has released provides a rare look at the old-line social striving recently dramatized, to satirical effect, in the Oscar-nominated One Battle After Another. The story.
—Pulled. CBS has pulled a 60 Minutes segment featuring longevity researcher (and recently named CBS News contributor) Peter Attia from a repeat of the newsmagazine. The decision comes a few days after the latest release of documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein included a host of correspondence between Attia and Epstein. The 60 Minutes piece first aired in October, well before CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss announced Attia would be among a slate of new contributors to the division. It was set to be part of a rerun airing opposite the Super Bowl on Sunday, but in the wake of the newest Epstein files release from the DOJ, CBS News will replace it with another piece. The story.
—Speaking of people mentioned in Epstein Files. Donald Trump will sit for an interview with NBC News, a portion of which will air during the Super Bowl LX pregame show this Sunday. NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas announced the interview on the broadcast Tuesday. The interview will be taped Wednesday at the White House, with the first segment airing on Nightly News that evening. An extended version will also be released on Llamas’ NBC News Now show Top Story. It will be Llamas’ first interview with Trump since taking over the evening newscast. The story. |
Mr. Sarandos Goes to Washington ►Ted talk. Inside the Capitol Building on Tuesday during Ted Sarandos’ appearance before the U.S. Senate’s antitrust subcommittee sat the Monopoly man, complete with a white mustache, top hat and red bowtie. The message, shared by some consumers and large swaths of Hollywood, to lawmakers was unmistakable: Netflix is poised to become an entertainment behemoth if it’s allowed to complete a $82.7b deal for Warner Bros. and HBO. Just ahead of him was a cadre of Warner Bros. Discovery executives and lawyers in attendance to observe Sarandos’ testimony on the impact of the merger. In a precursor to Netflix's arguments if the deal lands in court, the co-CEO argued that the company's main rival is YouTube as it competes for the time and attention of viewers. The story.
—Ça part en vrille! French prosecutors on Tuesday raided the Paris offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, for questioning as part of a widening investigation into alleged cybercrime and the dissemination of illegal content. In a statement posted on X, the Paris prosecutor’s office said the search was being carried out by its cybercrime unit alongside France’s national police cyber division and Europol, Europe’s central crime intelligence agency. The prosecutor’s office added that it would cease publishing updates on the platform. The story.
—Meh. Tubi was a bright spot for Fox Corp. during its Q2, as digital growth at the AVOD service helped lift overall revenues, despite a profit drop. Fox saw quarterly revenues rise 2 percent to $5.18b, lifted by advertising demand at its ad-supported streaming platform Tubi, NFL games and higher news and sports pricing. Advertising revenue came to $2.45b, compared to a year-ago $2.42b, while distribution revenue rose to $2.02b due to contractual price increases, against $1.93b in the same period of 2024. The results.
—Jive talkin'. Sony Music’s RCA is reviving the iconic record label Jive Records that served as the home for a wide range of acts from A Tribe Called Quest and Outkast to Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. RCA has tapped former UnitedMasters executives Mike Weiss and David Melhado to run the label as co-presidents. Jive will exist as a standalone label, RCA said, and Weiss and Melhado will report to RCA chairman and CEO Peter Edge and COO John Fleckenstein. The story.
—All set. Ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards, executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor and executive producer Katy Mullan have announced their production team. Rob Paine will once again return as co-executive producer and Hamish Hamilton as director, along with Taryn Hurd and Sarah Levine Hall as producers. Writers for this year’s show will include Amberia Allen, José Arroyo, Josh Comers, Dan Cronin, Jessie Gaskell, Skyler Higley, Berkley Johnson, Ian Karmel, Brian Kiley, Laurie Kilmartin, Carol Leifer, Todd Levin, Jon Macks, Conan O’Brien, Matt O’Brien, Agathe Panaretos and Mike Sweeney. As previously announced, Sweeney is also returning as a producer for a second time, along with Jeff Ross. The story. |
Apple's Big Day ►"Stay tuned." Apple TV held its inaugural press day in Santa Monica on Tuesday, revealing a slew of first looks and release dates for its 2026 slate of films and shows. At the end of the event, Eddy Cue, Apple's svp of services, welcomed Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali on stage to discuss the streamer becoming the exclusive U.S. broadcast home for F1 races. The pair also discussed the stunning success of F1: The Movie and dropped heavy hints about a sequel. The story.
—"It takes a long time to come up with these episodes." Attention Pluribus fans: Season 2 is in the works but don’t expect The Pitt-level of swiftness in between seasons. Vince Gilligan joined his star Rhea Seehorn and members of the ensemble Karolina Wydra, Carlos Manuel Vesga and Samba Schutte for a panel conversation during Apple's press day. Naturally, Gilligan was asked about the progress of Pluribus' second season. The story.
—"Where do you go from here? The kind of work that we’re able to do is remarkable given the tools we have to work with, and the notion that lies behind this series. And if it was all over here, that would be sufficient." Shrinking just started rolling out episodes of its third season and a fourth has already been ordered so there’s no end in sight for the Apple series as of right now. At the Shrinking panel on Tuesday, star Harrison Ford said that if his career ended with the critically acclaimed hit show, the iconic actor would be cool with it. The story.
—📅 Emmy bait. 📅 Apple confirmed Tuesday that the 10-episode series adaptation of Cape Fear, created by Nick Antosca and starring Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem, is set for a global debut on the streamer June 5. Two episodes will drop that day with new episodes dropping every Friday through July 31. The story.
—📅 Odd couple. 📅 Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh are teaming up for Mayday, with Apple releasing a first-look image. The movie, which premieres Sept. 4 on the streamer, is described as a genre-bending, action-packed buddy comedy that flips the spy thriller on its head. The story.
—📅 Unrecognizable. 📅 Jonah Hill, who has largely been on a Hollywood hiatus in recent years, is back both in front of and behind the camera for the new Apple original film Outcome. The streamer unveiled the first-look images from the upcoming dark comedy — starring Hill alongside Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer. The story.
More from Apple TV's press day...
—Margo’s Got Money Troubles teaser shows Elle Fanning’s character crashing out
—McG’s Way of the Warrior Kid starring Chris Pratt reveals first look, release date
—Kong and Godzilla unite to fight in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S2 trailer
—John Cena is on the run in Mattel-inspired Matchbox movie
—Jennifer Garner once bit a chunk out of an actor’s ear during a fight scene |
Grammys Draw 14.4M Viewers ►Trending down. The final Grammy Awards on CBS took a small ratings hit compared to the previous year. Sunday’s telecast of the 68th Grammys averaged 14.41m viewers, according to big data plus panel same-day ratings from Nielsen. That’s down a little more than 6 percent from the 15.4m who watched the 2025 show. The Grammys audience shrank some for the second consecutive year since hitting a post-pandemic high of 17.09m viewers in 2024. CBS has aired three of the four EGOT awards shows in 2025-26, starting with the Emmys in September, and has had mixed ratings results. The ratings.
—"Part of it was the amount of control that Apple was willing to offer." Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson is giving some behind-the-scenes details concerning his blockbuster deal with Apple TV to adapt his best-selling Cosmere books. Sanderson took to his YouTube channel Tuesday to answer some of his fans’ burning questions following THR's scoop last week that the streamer picked up the rights to Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive. Sanderson explained why he went with Apple TV and revealed that the streamer beat out multiple rival offers. The story.
—Vote of confidence? Netflix will send Ted Danson in search of a new mystery with A Man on the Inside, after renewing the show for a third season. In contrast to the relatively quick pickup for the show’s second season — which came about three weeks after its premiere — Netflix waited more than two months to decide the show’s future this time around. The renewal comes despite a drop in viewership for season two of the comedy, which stars Danson as a retired professor who goes to work for a private investigator (Lilah Richcreek Estrada). The story.
—🎭 Recasting. 🎭 A shelved episode of Law & Order: SVU that was originally set to feature Timothy Busfield in a guest role will see the light of day after a recasting. Dexter's David Zayas will step into the guest role in the episode, titled “Corrosive.” It had initially been set to air Jan. 15. NBC pulled the episode after police in New Mexico issued a warrant for Busfield’s arrest on allegations that he sexually abused two child actors on the set of The Cleaning Lady. The SVU episode also has an airdate of Feb. 26, which will be the first episode back for the show after a break for NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage. The story. |
Film Review: 'Once Upon a Time in Harlem' ►"A triumph of DIY filmmaking and an act of cinematic resistance." For THR, Jourdain Searles reviews William Greaves and David Greaves' Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Premiering at Sundance, the documentary is compiled from footage taken by Greaves and his late father, William Greaves, of a gathering of Black luminaries in Duke Ellington's home. The review.
—"Let them eat cake." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Natalie Erika James' Saccharine. The Aussie writer-director hitches eating disorders and corporeal revulsion to the East Asian cultural concept of the Hungry Ghost. Starring Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden, Robert Taylor, Showko Showfukutei, Emily Milledge, Joseph Baldwin, Louisa Mignon and Annie Shapiro. Written by Natalie Erika James. The review.
In other news...
—BBC Studios ups Eve Frederick to lead unscripted production in L.A.
—M3GAN director Gerard Johnstone signs with UTA
—Tim Tebow, Demi-Leigh Tebow sign with UTA
—Robbie Daymond and Ray Chase’s Sassy Chap Games signs with CAA
—Christa Lang, actress, producer and widow of Samuel Fuller, dies at 82
—Chuck Negron, Three Dog Night singer and co-founder, dies at 83
What else we're reading...
—Spain and Greece are weighing joining Australia in bringing in teen social media bans [Reuters]
—Peter Walker writes that Jeffrey Epstein's relationship to former U.S. Ambassador Peter Mandelson could bring down Keir Starmer in what the British are describing as the "scandal of the century" [Guardian]
—Faiz Siddiqui, Nitasha Tiku and Elizabeth Dwoskin go inside Elon Musk’s strategic bet to hook users on X that ended up turning Grok into a porn generator [WaPo]
—Joe Tidy writes that AI slop is transforming social media, and a backlash is brewing [BBC]
—Darryn King looks at how Miss Piggy went from minor Muppet to TV’s top hog [NYT]
Today...
...in 2011, Sony released Christian E. Christiansen's The Roommate in theaters. The psychological thriller film starred Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly and was a big box office success. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Alice Cooper (78), Mari Yamamoto (40), Rob Corddry (55), Hannibal Buress (43), Natalie Imbruglia (51), Gabrielle Anwar (56), Lauren Ash (43), Eric Guilmette (32), Michael Beck (77), Ben Robson (42), Lewis Tan (39), Jenette Goldstein (66), Brandy Ledford (57), Edvin Ryding (23), Jason Veasey (46), Linda Bassett (76), Charlie Barnett (38), Patty Guggenheim (42), Patrick Bergin (75), Andrew Terraciano (23), Kyla Kenedy (23), Ashley Thomas (41), Asif Ali (40), Ella Rumpf (31), John Gordon Sinclair (64) |
| | Kenneth Hyman, who produced Sidney Lumet’s The Hill and Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen and as a Warner Bros.-Seven Arts executive gave Gordon Parks the opportunity to direct his first feature, has died. He was 97. The obituary. |
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