Deadline’s Contenders Television Gets Underway Today; 49 Shows, 21 Networks And Studios

K.J. Yossman Sony Pictures Television has hired Michaela Fereday as senior VP of scripted production.Based in the U.K., she will begin her new role next week, reporting into senior VP of international co-productions, Brendan Fitzgerald.As senior VP of scripted production, Fereday will focus on productions coming out of Sony Pictures Television International Production, as well as overseeing premium scripted series commissioned abroad and produced in the U.K.

Antonio Ferme editorA small fire broke out at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near the “Despicable Me” attraction on Tuesday night.According to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, a Conex cargo box ignited around 11:40 p.m. on Tuesday.

Sam Taylor-Johnson is sporting some new ink!

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIt pays to pull off a massive media merger.Discovery chief David Zaslav is certainly being handsomely rewarded for his role in pulling off the merger agreement between his company and WarnerMedia. A day before AT&T announced it was spinning off WarnerMedia and combining it with Discovery, Zaslav received 14.8 million stock options on Sunday as part of a contract extension, which the Wall Street Journal reports are worth $190 million.

Perth next week.

Tyler Joseph is talking fatherhood!

Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for its Contenders Television awards-season event, which this past weekend shined a light on 49 buzzy scripted programs from 21 broadcast and cable networks and streamers in our biggest Contenders showcase yet.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery CEO David Zaslav is, by his own definition, a “fighter.”He’s poised to record quite a knockout if he pulls off a merger with AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit in a pact that will leave him as the ultimate keeper of the keys to HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros., Turner channels and a growing global suite of direct to consumer streaming businesses.News of Discovery’s pursuit of a union with the erstwhile Time Warner assets came on so fast that executives and recent

Dr. Dre is getting real about his quarantine body.

EXCLUSIVE: Production is getting underway on Evolution, a drama directed by BAFTA winner Nick Hamm (Driven) from a screenplay by David Hudgins (Friday Night Lights).

Prince Harry spoke about what life in the Royal Family was like with Dax Shepard for his “Armchair Expert” podcast.

EXCLUSIVE: PBS has acquired U.S. domestic broadcast and digital rights to Icon: Music Through The Lens, a six-episode original series from FilmRise in partnership with Universal Music Group’s Mercury Studios.

Manori Ravindran International EditorYouTube executive and former Fremantle boss Cécile Frot-Coutaz has been named CEO of Sky Studios, the heavy-hitting production and development arm for Sky.Frot-Coutaz takes the reins from current chief executive Gary Davey, who launched Sky Studios in 2019.

Leonardo DiCaprio and his longtime girlfriend Camila Morrone have kept their relationship entirely off of social media for all of these years, but she put up a rare show of support for him on Instagram!

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaCinemark has reached new agreements with the five major studios that could help formalize a shorter theatrical window. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it comes as COVID-19 has reshaped the amount of time that films show exclusively on the big screen before making their home entertainment debuts.

For the second year in a row Deadline’s popular Contenders Television is going virtual as an astonishing 129 creatives and stars will be appearing in the all day event Saturday May 15, 2021 that features a total of 21 networks participating and 49 different shows.  This is the must-see happening of the TV awards season and it promises to be our biggest ever as we pull out all the stops to give voters a kind of one-stop shopping opportunity to check out the top contenders for TV’s highest awards.

Google Stadia staff members have reportedly left the company to join Haven Studios.The six staff members who have made the switch from Stadia to Haven, a Montreal-based studio co-founded by former Stadia Game Studios VP Jade Raymond in March, include several high-profile personnel, according to a ResetEra post.The most notable is Sebastien Puel, the former General Manager at Stadia, who is reportedly also a co-founder at Haven.