Connor Schell Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: Tennis great Michael Chang, who became the youngest winner of a major tournament singles championship when he beat Ivan Lendl in the 1989 French Open at age 17, will be the subject of a ’30 for 30′ documentary by ESPN Films.

Netflix is serving up another live event. The streamer is launching The Netflix Slam, a tennis match headlined by Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.

EXCLUSIVE: The North Road Company’s investment drive continues.

Peter Chernin’s spending continues.

EXCLUSIVE: Chernin Entertainment is the latest media company to undergo a round of layoffs.

Amy Israel, the former Showtime exec, has officially been installed as President of Television at Peter Chernin’s The North Road Company.

EXCLUSIVE: The auction for All3Media has reached its final stage and three frontrunners have emerged to acquire the The Traitors super-indie.

Netflix is speeding into its latest sports docuseries.

Ken Goldin is on the hunt for more collectibles.

The U.S. Women’s Soccer team’s journey to a possible third World Cup title will be documented in a multi-episode docuseries set to launch globally on the streaming network this fall. The series is currently in production in New Zealand and Australia following the team as they compete for the 2023 World Cup.

after stepping down as chairman and CEO of Paramount Premium Group and chief creative officer of Paramount+ Scripted Series at the end of last year, David Nevins has been named CEO of The North Road Company.Peter Chernin, who launched the global content studio in July 2022, announced on Thursday that Nevins will, effective immediately, oversee the studio’s expanding portfolio as Chernin continues in his role as executive chairman. Nevins will work closely with North Road’s executive team including Jenno Topping, Jan Frouman, Chris Coelen, Connor Schell and Darian Singer. “Under any measurement as a creative company, with multiple genres and multiple territories with multiple partners, David is one of the highest-quality executives,” Chernin told TheWrap of the hire.

David Nevins is back in business.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount Global vet David Nevins has been named CEO of Peter Chernin’s global content house The North Road Company, just as the company celebrates its first year of business. Formerly chairman and CEO of Paramount Premium Group and chief creative officer of Paramount+ scripted series, Nevins will oversee North Road’s portfolio of brands, including scripted film and TV studio Chernin Entertainment, unscripted house Kinetic Content, nonfiction studio Words + Pictures, and a London-based international division. Chernin will continue to act as executive chairman of North Road, while Nevins heads up an exec leadership team that includes Jenno Topping, Jan Frouman, Chris Coelen, Connor Schell and Darian Singer.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Sports Documentaries has picked up North American TV and streaming rights to the sports documentary The Lionheart, directed and produced by Laura Brownson (The Rachel Divide), ahead of its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival. No word on a release date yet.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO and Words + Pictures have launched production on a documentary about Barry Bonds, one of baseball’s greatest players – and one of the most polarizing figures in all professional sport.

The North Road Company, the content studio founded by Peter Chernin, has  acquired an unspecified minority stake in Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions. The deal includes a multi-year agreement for development, production, and sale of unscripted and scripted content. 

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Peter Chernin’s North Road Co. has taken a minority stake in Omaha Prods., the busy production banner headed by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. The deal brings an influx of capital to Omaha and it allows the company to tap into the production and distribution infrastructure that Chernin is building through North Road, which launched last year with backing from private equity giants Providence Equity and Apollo Global Management. North Road is in assembling a roster of content banners with the goal of creating a strong independent source of TV and film titles for buyers, particularly those outside the U.S. Omaha is already co-producing projects with North Road-affiliated Words + Pictures, which is headed by former ESPN programming executive Connor Schell. Omaha made a splash starting with the 2021 football season with the launch of its “ManningCast” alternative telecast of “Monday Night Football” featuring Manning and his brother Eli Manning, a fellow retired NFL quarterback, commenting on the game in real time with guests for ESPN 2.

The controversial failed attempt by some of the world’s biggest soccer teams to form a Super League is to be charted in a documentary event series from Apple TV+, produced by All Rise Films. Trailer is below.

Peter Chernin has found his new CFO.

Peter Chernin has launched a major new global content production studio, The North Road Company. With up to $800 million in financing from two private equity firms, Providence Equity Partners and Apollo, the Chernin Group co-founder’s latest venture combines three studios into one: Chernin Entertainment, Words + Pictures and the U.S.

Peter Chernin has launched The North Road Company, a global content studio that will bring together Chernin Entertainment, the U.S. assets of Red Arrow Studios, which includes Love Is Blind producer Kinetic Content, and Connor Schell’s non-scripted business Words + Pictures.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorPeter Chernin is going all-in on building an independent content studio with global reach backed with up to $800 million in financing from private equity giants Providence Equity Partners and Apollo.The media investor and former Fox chief has formed The North Road Company after quietly acquiring the U.S. production assets of Red Arrow Studios in a deal with Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 said to be worth about $180 million.The Red Arrow units will combine with the existing Chernin Entertainment banner as the backbone of the new venture that will focus on producing movies, scripted and unscripted TV programs and documentaries, among other content.

EXCLUSIVE: Chernin Entertainment has hired former Red Arrow Studios Chairman and CEO Jan Frouman.

Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse, actor John Stamos and former ESPN pair Bill Simmons and Connor Schell are among the investors in a $15M funding round for collectibles company Rally.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe team behind the blockbuster Michael Jordan docuseries “The Last Dance” are now taking their jam to space.

Netflix has greenlighted Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, a near real-time docuseries following the September launch and mission of the first all-civilian flight crew aboard the SpaceX capsule. The docuseries hails from Time Studios (Black Gold, Big Vape), The Last Dance director Jason Hehir, Known and Connor Schell and Chernin Entertainment’s Words & Pictures.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorBurke Magnus, the ESPN executive who oversees rights negotiations for big-league broadcasts and other top sports content, has been named president of programming and original content at the Walt Disney sports-media giant.The move reflects new duties Magnus has taken on in the wake of the departure of Connor Schell, who was previously ESPN’s top content executive. Magnus was already supervising scheduling and programming acquisitions.

WWE has named three new directors — its president and chief revenue officer, Nick Kahn, former top Turner Entertainment executive Steve Koonin and producer and former ESPN content chief Connor Schell.

Connor Schell, ESPN's former executive vp of content, is launching a new unscripted content studio backed by Peter Chernin's Chernin Entertainment. Schell will serve as CEO of the still-unnamed studio which will "produce high quality, culturally relevant, non-fiction storytelling both inside and outside of the sports world," per the company.

Connor Schell, the former ESPN content chief who left the Disney-owned sports network last year, is setting up a non-scripted studio with Chernin Entertainment.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe ESPN executive who helped oversee landmark sports-journalism projects like “O.J.: Made in America” and “The Last Dance”  will team up with Peter Chernin to launch a new content studioConnor Schell was ESPN’s top content executive until he left the Disney sports-media giant at the end of 2020 in a bid to pursue new ventures.

first reported by Sports Business Journal.

ESPN is restructuring its senior executive leadership team, following the news last week that it would be reducing its workforce by 500 positions. Among the most notable departures: Connor Schell, ESPN's executive vp of content, who will leave in January.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorESPN is divvying up responsibilities for content in the wake of senior executive Connor Schell’s decision to leave the sports-media giant to start his own production company.Burke Magnus has long been the ESPN executive who makes sure the sports-media giant always has access to games from the big leagues.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorConnor Schell, the ESPN executive who oversees all of its content, ranging from “Monday Night Football” to “SportsCenter” to the documentary program “30 For 30,” will leave the sports-media giant by the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the matter.The split is said to be related to Schell’s desire to pursue other ventures, this person said.

Executives at ESPN had high hopes in the Spring of 2018 when they launched a new morning program called “Get Up!” Within weeks, they were wondering whether they ought to put the show down.