Paramount Ad Chief John Halley Embraces The “Refreshing Practicality” Of Pitching Upfront Buyers As Corporate Intrigue Swirls

Is Billie Eilish going more Taylor Swift? Or are fans just quicker to pick up on this kind of thing thanks to Tay? Either way, we’re kind of into it!

It was a big night for Lainey Wilson at the ACM Awards. She opened the show with a bang and then capped her evening by winning the coveted “Entertainer of the Year” award.

Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Thursday’s nights Academy of Country Music Awards program will provide further evidence that we are entering a Post country music period. But not as in “post-country,” let’s be clear… we’re talking about a Post Malone country era.

EXCLUSIVE: Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) and Chris Carmack (Grey’s Anatomy) will topline The Stranger in My Home, a new thriller from Brad Krevoy’s Motion Picture Corporation of America, which entered production in Utah toward the end of last month.

A spinoff of the popular television series "The Office" was recently announced, causing fans to speculate whether any original cast members will make an appearance on the show. During a recent interview on the red carpet at the movie premiere of "IF," Steve Carell, who played the beloved Michael Scott, and John Krasinski, who appeared as Jim Halpert, set the record straight on if fans should expect a cameo.

“The Golden Bachelor was probably the television event last year,” ABC TV Group President Craig Erwich said in an interview with Deadline on the day of the Disney upfront presentation. The Bachelor offshoot was so successful, it spawned a highly rated special, The Golden Wedding.

The 59th Academy of Country Music Awards, one of country music’s biggest nights, will be live from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Many incredible country artists are up for nomination this year. Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton, Morgan Wallen and Lainey Wilson are all nominated for entertainer of the year.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The 2024 Fox upfront presentation featured an appearance by Jamie Foxx in one of his first public appearances since his health crisis last year. Foxx took to the stage and did his best to crack up the crowd of advertisers, a tall order considering the bar had yet to open.

Eurovision Song Contest 2024.This year’s competition, which was ultimately won by Switzerland’s Nemo, was surrounded by controversy for allowing Israel to compete amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza.A statement shared by the EBU to both The Mirror and The Irish Times read: “We regret that some delegations at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö didn’t respect the spirit of the rules and the competition both onsite and during their broadcasts. We spoke to a number of delegations during the event regarding various issues that were brought to our attention.It continued: “The EBU’s governing bodies will, together with the heads of delegations, review the events surrounding the ESC in Malmö to move forward in a positive way and to ensure the values of the event are respected by everyone.A post shared by European Broadcasting Union (@ebu_hq)“Individual cases will be discussed by the event’s governing body, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group made up of representatives from participating broadcasters, at its next meeting.”The statement’s release comes after the slew of controversies that took over this year’s edition of the song contest.

While Jon Watts likely doesn’t have the long, beloved career of Sam Raimi, he does have one thing the iconic filmmaker doesn’t – a beloved “Spider-Man” trilogy. And as the director with the most successful ‘Spidey’ run, Watts’ advice to the next person who will take the helm isn’t exactly what you might expect.

John Malkovich is entering the world of superheroes!

EXCLUSIVE: John Malkovich (The New Look) is poised to enter the MCU, as Deadline understands that the actor has come aboard for a role in The Fantastic Four.

Scarlett Moffat, 33, has been encouraging her fans to 'embrace the boob gap' in a confident swimsuit snap she shared on Instagram.The presenter was enjoying a stag do in Torremolinos and took the opportunity to pose in a tropical one-piece swimsuit. Posing to her fans, in a floral swimsuit that highlighted her cleavage, she told her followers: "Just a little reminder to embrace the boob gap this summer ladies." In the photo, Scarlett showed off her curves as she wore oversized black sunglasses and donned a relaxed messy bun as she lounged by the hotel pool.

Should Sony and Apollo get their hooks into Paramount Global their strategy would be to keep theatrical release output steady between both studios –not reduced– while cutting the more burdensome parts of the conglom, read auctioning off CBS, the linear channels like MTV and Paramount Plus streaming service.

North.Five.Six is set to handle international sales for the true-life heist pic Dutch & Razzlekhan, on which we were first to report. Starring Chloë Grace Moretz (The Peripheral), Lewis Pullman (Lessons in Chemistry) and Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), the film will be introduced to buyers at Cannes later this month, with CAA Media Finance repping domestic rights.

Wedding bells could be ringing soon for Adele, 35, and her fiancé Rich Paul as the Someone Like You singer is reportedly undergoing bride-to-be prep before her big day. Adele and Rich Paul, 42, reportedly got engaged in early 2022 after being together for two years, it looks like the lovebirds are ready to tie the knot. But with the star - who is mum to 10 year old son, Angelo with former husband Simon Konecki - recently debuting a new look at a Los Angeles Lakers game, some believe Adele could be preparing to turn heads when she walks down the aisle.

Fawlty Towers.Confirmation of the new incarnation of the beloved comedy came in February, when Cleese revealed he had written a two-hour play based on three episodes from the series – ‘The Hotel Inspector’, ‘The Germans’ and ‘Communication Problems’.The production will debut at London’s Apollo Theatre on May 15, nearly five decades after the first episode was filmed at the BBC Television Centre in December 1974. Tickets can be found here.And now, Cleese has said that the slurs from the original version of ‘The Germans’, which he co-wrote with Connie Booth, will be taken out of the new adaptation.In one scene of the original, the army veteran Major Gowen uses the N-word when referring to a Caribbean cricketer, and another racial slur to describe an Asian cricketer.At the press conference launching the stage show, Cleese said: “Those scenes where the Major used a couple of words you can’t use now, racial slurs they would come under, we took them out.”“There’s always a problem with comedy that you deal with the literal-minded,” he continued.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paramount Global said it would bake a new suite of data into all ad deals “at no additional cost” that examines whether a commercial spurred a consumer to take a particular action, a measure known as “attribution” that is gaining new sway on Madison Avenue as marketers struggle to determine the effectiveness of their paid media pitches. Paramount said it would offer data from both Mastercard and EDO, a start-up founded in part by actor Ed Norton, that will help clients examine “outcomes,” such as a visit to a marketer’s web site or showroom, or a consumer search for a product being advertised.

Naman Ramachandran The London West End stage adaptation of “Fawlty Towers” will be free of racial slurs, creator John Cleese has said. “Fawlty Towers – The Play” is based on the classic 1975 sitcom and is written by Cleese and Connie Booth and adapted for the stage by Cleese. Cleese, who co-wrote the original 1975 TV series with Connie Booth and starred as Basil Fawlty, has written the two-hour play based on three of the original TV episodes – “The Hotel Inspector” and “The Germans” from Season 1 and “Communication Problems” from Season 2.