Comedy Central, MTV News, CMT, TV Land Online Archives Purged By Paramount Global

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Zeki Demirkubuz’s “Life” was awarded the Golden Bee for Best Feature Film at the second edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival. Mahdi Fleifel’s Un Certain Regard breakout “To a Land Unknown” took the Jury’s Choice prize, while Brandt Andersen’s “The Stranger’s Case” won Golden Bees for Best Director for Andersen and Best Acting for Yasmine Al-Massri.

Alex Ritman “Derry Girls” creator Lisa McGee has started production on her upcoming comedy thriller series “How to Get to Heaven From Belfast” in Northern Ireland and has revealed the lead cast for the Netflix show. Roísín Gallagher (“The Dry,” “The Lovers”), Sinéad Keenan (“Little Boy Blue,” “Unforgotten”) and Caoilfhionn Dunne (“A Thousand Blows,” “Industry”) will play Saoirse, Robyn and Dara, three childhood friends, now in their late 30s, who come together over news of a fourth friend’s death, leading them on a what’s described as a “dark, dangerous and hilarious odyssey” through Ireland and beyond as they try to piece together the truth of the past.

Refresh for latest…: Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One not only set a domestic opening record for the franchise, it also did it at the international box office. Of the $98.5M global start, $45.5M is from 59 overseas markets, well exceeding expectations.

Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 has reached $863.1M worldwide through Thursday, overtaking the original film’s lifetime of $859M global. The sequel got there in just 16 days of release and already is the No. 19 animated film ever worldwide.

Michael Alex Michael Michael Alex joined MTV News in 1989, where he produced hundreds of segments of “The Week in Rock,” the Peabody-winning “Choose or Lose” series, documentaries and over a thousand daily news television reports. He founded and led MTV News’ digital organization from 1994 until 2007. Variety welcomes responsible commentary — contact [email protected] if interested. Twenty five years of entertainment history, as reported by MTV News, disappeared from the internet a few days ago, when its parent company, Paramount, removed the site’s archives, along with those of CMT and other outlets — without warning, explanation or comment.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Barefoot Contessa” star Ina Garten has signed a new exclusive multiyear deal at her longtime home Food Network that includes a Season 5 renewal for her latest show, “Be My Guest With Ina Garten.” The next season of Garten’s Emmy-award-winning cooking talk show set at the East Hampton home she shares with her husband Jeffrey will launch in the fall and boast a guest list that includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert and fellow Food Network star Bobby Flay, among others. Previous seasons of “Be My Guest” have featured Emily Blunt, Jennifer Garner, Nathan Lane, Laura Linney, Stanley Tucci, astronaut Nicole Mann, ballerina Misty Copeland, restaurateur and author Danny Meyer and journalist Frank Bruni.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The family drama “How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies” has become the highest-grossing Thai film of all time in The Philippines, distributor Westec Media claims. The company, which released the film, does not quantify the receipts or the record. But there is little doubt of the film’s hit status across Asia.

Andrew Lincoln, famed for his role in The Walking Dead, is set to star in the new ITV thriller Cold Water.

Singapore Turbulence Doc Sells Around The World

EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Lincoln is returning to British TV.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The vast repository of content on Comedy Central‘s website — dating back 25 years — has been removed by parent company Paramount Global, in a move to push fans to Paramount+. The site, at comedycentral.com, has until now hosted clips from all episodes of “The Daily Show” since 1999, as well as segments from the full 11-season run of Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report,” among other video content.

After rejecting Skydance’s offer to merge two weeks ago, Paramount Global new co-CEO troika of Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy told a packed company town hall of 500 at the studio’s Melrose Lot Paramount Theater what progress has been made since the annual shareholders meeting three weeks ago, and what the company’s path will be going forward. In sum, bankers have been hired to explore the sale of “certain Paramount owned assets” per Cheeks, while layoffs are on the horizon as the conglom looks to achieve a half billion in cost savings.

Paolo Nutini will play a gig at his hometown in August it has been announced.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paramount Global‘s trio of co-CEOs provided an update Tuesday at a town hall for the company’s more than 20,000 employees on where things stand with their plan to cut costs, boost revenue and pare down debt after a potential merger with Skydance was called off. The three execs — 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 — were installed as co-CEOs after Bob Bakish’s dismissal in late April.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Greg Gutfeld is going to get a workout during the Republican National Convention. The Fox News opinion host will hold forth in front of a live studio audience at 11 p.m. on each night of the RNC, slated to take place in Milwaukee from July 15 to July 18.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor More than two decades’ worth of content published on MTVNews.com is no longer available after MTV appears to have fully pulled down the site and its related content. In 2023, MTV News was shuttered amid the financial woes of parent company Paramount Global. As of Monday, trying to access MTV News articles on mtvnews.com or mtv.com/news resulted in visitors being redirected to the main MTV website.

BBC Adapting Jacqueline Wilson‘s Ode To ‘The Railway Children‘

Paramount Global and its predecessor companies have gone through several tumultuous decades. Here’s a timeline of key events that led up to the company’s most recent M&A drama, in this week’s cover story: What Went Wrong: Inside Paramount’s Failed Merger Talks and the Battle to Salvage the Company. MARCH 4, 1987: Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements Inc.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Christa D’Alimonte, Paramount Global‘s EVP, general counsel and secretary, is exiting at the end of the month after 12 years at the company and its predecessor Viacom. D’Alimonte on Tuesday informed her team that she will be leaving the company on June 28 (read the memo below).

Paramount Global General Counsel Christa D’Alimonte has told colleagues she will be exiting the company at the end of the month.