Broadcast TV Ad Sales Pioneer Jo Ann Ross Ends Decades-Long Run At CBS And Paramount Global

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor UPADTED: After months of M&A talks, Paramount Global and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone might be going it alone after all — for now. Insiders tell Variety that the expectation at the company is that neither of the two offers in play — Skydance Media-RedBird Capital Partners and Sony Pictures Entertainment-Apollo Global Management — will come to fruition. And Redstone is said to have reluctantly concluded that a deal with David Ellison’s Skydance, a longtime partner of Paramount Pictures, will not be possible.

Foals‘ Yannis Philippakis has shared the first music video from his new project, Yannis & The Yaw, featuring the late Tony Allen – watch the visuals for ‘Walk Through Fire’ below.Last night (May 2), Philippakis released the music video for ‘Walk Through Fire’, the first track to be released from Yannis & The Yaw’s upcoming EP, ‘Lagos Paris London (feat. Tony Allen)’ – the record is due out on August 30 via Transgressive Records.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Hannah Marks started acting when she was 6 years old, after seeing her mother’s acting reel. And she’s pretty much worked nonstop, from roles in the films “Accepted” and “The Runaways” to the cast of “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.” In fact, just last year she took her first vacation — though she confesses to recording several self-tapes during it.

Three days after he was named to the newly formed Office of the CEO of Paramount Global, George Cheeks, President and CEO of CBS, faced reporters at the unveiling of the broadcast network’s fall 2024 schedule.

Louis Leterrier (Fast X) will direct and produce 11817, a sci-fi horror film scripted by Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying) that is being presented to buyers at Cannes by Rocket Science.

EXCLUSIVE: Linda Hamilton (The Terminator) and Abbie Cornish (Three Billboards) have come aboard to star opposite Kal Penn in Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, a new film from writer-director Thane Economou (The Wedding Party) that will launch sales at the Cannes Market.

Paramount Global, which is in the midst of corporate upheaval on a number of fronts, got a slight reprieve in one key area, extending carriage negotiations with Charter Communications.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amid Paramount Global’s removal of Bob Bakish as CEO and the ongoing uncertainty of a company sale, it was business as usual for the first quarter at the media conglomerate — which included a $1.3 billion charge for content write-offs as well as layoffs. Paramount Global reported Q1 2024 earnings Monday, announcing Bakish’s exit and the installation of an unusual three-in-a-box “Office of the CEO”: CBS’s George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, and Paramount Pictures’ Brian Robbins.

Naman Ramachandran “Joyguru,” a fictionalized account of the life of Indian mystic artist and music icon Parvathy Baul, will launch sales at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Parvathy Baul is a leading exponent of the syncretic Baul minstrel music tradition that is hugely popular and culturally influential across eastern India and Bangladesh. Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Soumyajit Majumdar (“#Homecoming”), the film will follow folk music icon Radhika Das Baul and popular Bollywood film music director Ritwik during their unlikely collaboration for a pioneering music album of Baul songs transcreated in Hindi, where they form a unique bond, a few days before her sudden and mysterious disappearance from her ashram near Shantiniketan, India.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The three Paramount Global executives installed to run the company after Bob Bakish was removed as CEO sought to reassure employees that they have a long-term strategy. On Monday, Paramount Global said Bakish was stepping down as CEO and leaving the board. In his place, the company established an “Office of the CEO” committee led by three divisional heads: George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer As turmoil continues to surround the future of Paramount Global, details surrounding interim leadership and its proposed Skydance deal are coming to light, multiple sources told Variety. Sunday was a consequential day in Shari Redstone’s ongoing exclusive bargaining window with David Ellison‘s Skydance, one that would see the Hollywood scion take majority ownership of Paramount Global and its owner National Amusements Inc. Skydance offered its “best and final” offer to Redstone on Sunday, sources added.

Alex Ritman Having won a BAFTA (and landed an Oscar nomination) for her role as Colin Farrell’s kind-hearted but cynical — and distinctly less donkey-friendly — sister in Martin McDonagh’s darkly comic “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Kerry Condon is back in her native Ireland for her next film role. Set in the height of the Troubles in the mid-1970s, Robert Lorenz’s Irish Western “In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” which launches on Netflix Friday, sees the actress ditch all niceties to play a hard-nosed, mean-as-hell, extremely potty-mouthed and very violent IRA gang leader trying to lie low in rural Donegal following a deadly pub bombing.

EXCLUSIVE: No decision has been made official, but sources tell Deadline that New Line is the favorite to land the package that is based on the biography The Chris Farley Show with Paul Walter Hauser attached to play the legendary comedian. The pitch is based on the book by Farley’s brother Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby and will be adapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber with Josh Gad directing. Lorne Michaels, who found and cast Farley in Saturday Night Live in the ’90s, is producing through his Broadway Video.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor From “Glee” to “The Golden Bachelor,” “Empire” to “The Dropout,” “Arrested Development” to “Abbott Elementary” and “24” to “9-1-1,” Shannon Ryan has played a critical role in the launch of countless TVseries over the past three decades. Now president of marketing for Disney Entertainment Television, Ryan oversees marketing, publicity and communications for an unprecedented portfolio of more than 200 active series at any given time across Disney+, Hulu, ABC, Disney Channel, Onyx Collective, Freeform and other platforms. In recognition of Ryan’s track record at Fox and Mouse House, as well as her commitment to mentorship programs for girls and young women, the executive received Variety’s inaugural Entertainment Marketing Icon Award, which was presented April 24 as part of Variety’s annual Entertainment Marketing Summit presented by Deloitte at the Beverly Hilton.

Jim Halterman Annie Potts is no stranger to series finales, having experienced several through the years (“Designing Women,” “Any Day Now” and “GCB,” to name a few). But there’s something different about the end of “Young Sheldon,” the “Big Bang Theory” prequel that concludes on May 16. “I still don’t understand why they canceled it,” she says.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Jo Ann Ross, the first woman to run a broadcast TV network’s ad-sales efforts and one of the last senior ad-sales executives in the TV industry to hold direct relationships with advertisers when primetime broadcast programs were seen as the primary venue for Madison Avenue’s dollars, is leaving the industry, stepping down from her role as chairman of Paramount Global‘s ad sales division at the end of April. Ross had already stepped back from day to day duties, ceding that role to John Halley, who was named president of ad sales for the company in 2022.

Strictly's Dianne Buswell looked incredible in a black swimsuit as she and boyfriend Joe Sugg cosied up in hot tub on a romantic spa break. The 34 year old professional dancer shared a selection of snaps to Instagram as she and Joe relaxed in an outdoor pool at the spa. Dianne and YouTuber Joe, 32, first met in 2018.They struck up a relationship months later and are still going strong five years on.They looked more loved-up than ever in their latest snaps, with Dianne sporting a black swimsuit that was cut low at the back.

One of ITV‘s longest-running drama series is coming to an end after 14 seasons.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management are considering a possible joint bid for Paramount Global. News of the discussions was first reported by the New York Times. Sources close to the situation confirmed the conversations but cautioned that there are numerous obstacles that would need to be overcome before the sides could formally submit an offer.

Remember those rumors, oh, eight years ago about how Sony was a target for acquisition?