Dana Walden Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Aaron LaBerge, who helped oversee Disney‘s expansion into streaming during two stints totaling 20 years, is exiting the company.

EXCLUSIVE: Audiences seem to have enjoyed 9-1-1 paying homage to The Poseidon Adventure.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A day after Disney declared victory over activist investor Nelson Peltz, CEO Bob Iger said the board is proceeding with “urgency” in trying to identify the next chief executive with the “distraction” of the proxy fight over. “This was decisive in terms of how shareholders voted,” Iger said in an appearance Thursday morning on CNBC from Disney’s Burbank, Calif., headquarters, about the results of the April 3 meeting. Succession “is the board’s No.

EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Murphy is quickly expanding his footprint on ABC. The network has given a straight-to-series order to Murphy’s Dr. Odyssey with Joshua Jackson (Dr. Death, Fatal Attraction) set to play the lead and executive produce. The drama, targeted for a fall launch, hails from 20th Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television.

Kim Godwin has extended her deal to remain as president of ABC News.

Disney veteran Debra OConnell has been elevated to the new role of president, News Group and Networks, Disney Entertainment.

FX’s John Landgraf’s annual tally of original series has revealed that there were 516 scripted titles on air in 2023, which was a 12% drop from 2022.

, The Last Of Us star Pedro Pascal explained why his arm was in a sling. It's due to a shoulder injury he sustained when star Kieran Culkin “beat the shit out of [him].”In the audience, Culkin played along, staring blank-faced at Pascal with evil in his eyes.

A year into the run of Bob Iger 2: Return of the CEO, the Walt Disney Co. has not yet rediscovered its mojo.

After weeks of outrage from members about its silence over the terror attack against Israel, the Writers Guild is finally speaking out.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent Dana Walden sent a staff-wide memo to all of Disney Entertainment on Friday, reflecting on the past week since Hamas struck Israel in a deadly and devastating war. “Tomorrow marks one week since the world changed forever with the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Walden wrote in a memo, exclusively obtained by Variety.

Office is reportedly in the works, and fans of the show are not happy.Yesterday (September 25) it was announced that the months-long Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike in Hollywood – which has put a halt to work on new shows – will be coming to an end soon after reaching a “tentative agreement”.Speculation has now started to spread about what this could mean for new shows. US late-night talk shows, for example, could be returning to screens as soon as next week, while work on HBO‘s The Last Of Us season two will begin “the second” the strikes come to an end.Now, there are reports that the US version of The Office could be getting a revamp.

Disney CEO Bob Iger’s bombshell July comments that the linear TV business “may not be core” to the company brought a lot of anxiety for those working at any of the Disney’s linear networks.

With the ink still drying on a closely tracked carriage renewal with Charter, Disney execs Dana Walden and Jimmy Pitaro told Deadline in an interview that the agreement’s details suit the current streaming/linear hybrid environment.

Talks continued but no sign of a Friday afternoon breakthrough.

writers strike. The CEOs of the major studios — including Ted Sarandos of Netflix and David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery — are also expected to hold a joint call on Friday to discuss the next move in the talks.

EXCLUSIVE: The writers strike is heading towards its 100th day, but there’s a new sense of guarded optimism that both parties – the WGA and the studios, represented by the AMPTP – are on the verge of a making a breakthrough.

Sun Valley, a sleepy ski resort nestled between Idaho’s mountain peaks, is about to see an invasion of Gulfstreams ferrying an embattled species of mogul. These media and tech CEOs are facing threats on several fronts — from labor strikes to plunging share prices to a possible recession. So they’re likely in need of some R&R when they hit Allen & Co.’s annual conference this week. The cloistered event is an off-the-record affair, with reporters cordoned off from the captains of industry. But it remains closely watched, having been the setting for major mergers and acquisitions over the years, from Comcast’s purchase of NBCUniversal to Disney’s deal for ABC. Here’s what’s on the minds of the C-suite set as they embark on their high-altitude retreat.  

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA has agreed to a last-minute call for federal mediation of its contract, but indicated it will not extend its deadline for deciding whether to go on strike beyond Wednesday at midnight. That would appear to leave relatively little time for a mediator to avert a strike, which could begin as soon as Thursday morning. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the union emphasized that “time is running out” and made clear that relations between the two sides have become extremely strained. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” the union said. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

Ryan Murphy is parting ways with Netflix, it seems, and teaming up with Disney.

Ryan Murphy looks to be heading back to Disney.

Ryan Murphy is racing back to his old stomping grounds, and in the process of re-joining longtime collaborator Dana Walden under a new overall deal at Disney. The decision to reunite with Walden — now the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment — comes five years after Murphy ankled 20th Century Fox TV for a rich deal at Netflix that was reportedly valued at the time at between $250 million-$300 million. That deal came right before Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and Walden, who at the time was Fox Television Group chairman-CEO. There had been speculation that Murphy and Walden might join forces as partners in their own production venture, before Murphy moved to Netflix and Walden shifted over to Disney.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney reached its 7,000 layoffs goal, handing out notices to the remaining employees impacted in its third round of job cuts last Friday ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Variety has confirmed. The Mouse House’s target was to conclude these companywide layoffs, which focused most heavily on the media divisions and left the parks largely untouched, ahead of the summer. The company still has plans to eliminate more roles internationally over a period of time, according to a source close to the situation, but Disney has now concluded the benchmark it set in February, soon after Iger’s return as CEO upon the ousting of Bob Chapek.

Rita Ferro, Disney’s ad sales and partnerships chief, urged media buyers at the company’s New York upfront Tuesday to “lean into all aspects of diversity” with their marketing commitments.

Do we have Bob Iger to thank for this? Dana Walden? Whoever made the decision, the fringe fans thank you: Dancing with the Stars is moving back to ABC, Deadline has learned.

Veteran marketing executive Steven Melnick is leaving Disney Television Studios. His position was eliminated during day 1 of Disney’s second wave of layoffs.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer In a months-long goal to reach 7,000 job cuts total, Disney will begin its second round of layoffs of the year today. The notifications will be handed out to staff through Thursday, concluding with approximately 4,000 job eliminations completed overall by week’s end, according to company officials. While the Disney workforce will be reduced by thousands across divisions Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Parks, Experiences and Products (hourly frontline operations roles at Parks and Resorts will not be affected), and locations from Burbank to New York and Connecticut, there are still more layoffs to come. According to Disney, a third and final wave of cuts is expected to begin ahead of the summer, which will bring the Mouse House to its 7,000 layoffs target. (The figure represents 3.2% of Disney’s total headcount of about 220,000 worldwide as of Oct. 1, 2022.)

Disney is initiating the second and largest round of its planned layoffs Monday and expects to reach 4,000 of its projected 7,000 staff cuts by Thursday.

After a brief stint at healthcare product maker Medtronic, 15-year Disney veteran Jen Reberger is returning to the entertainment conglom as SVP Human Resources for Disney Entertainment Television. Her hire, effective May 1, was announced in a note to staff by Dana Walden, co-chairman, Disney Entertainment.

his accident Jan. 1, at the red carpet premiere Tuesday of his Disney+ series “Rennervations.” Watch a clip of that above, taken by TheWrap.

Disney has a new streaming boss.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In a shake-up of Disney’s streaming leadership ranks, the company is moving Hulu president Joe Earley into the role of president of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment effective immediately — succeeding Michael Paull, who is leaving Disney after six years. In the new role, Earley will lead Disney Entertainment’s streaming businesses including Disney+ and Hulu, reporting to co-chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden. A former longtime Fox exec, Earley joined Disney in 2019 as was instrumental in the launch of Disney+. In addition, Earley will continue as the top exec in charge of Hulu until the company identifies a replacement. Disney+ is led by president Alisa Bowen, who was elevated to the post last fall after overseeing global business operations for Disney’s streaming platforms.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor FX chief John Landgraf and ABC programming head Simran Sethi will expand their duties under an executive shuffle at Disney’s TV operations, one of the first big moves under Dana Walden, who was assigned responsibility for the company’s TV networks after Bob Iger returned as Disney’s CEO. Landgraf will take oversight of National Geographic as well as Onyx Collective, the production unit devoted to projects from communities of color and underrepresented groups. Sethi, meanwhile, will oversee programming and development for both ABC and Freeform. She will continue to report to Craig Erwich, president, Disney Television Group. The moves comes as Tara Duncan, who had been supervising programming for both Onyx Collective and Freeform, will devote her attention solely to Onyx, freeing up the programming duties for Sethi, who had a previous tenure at the cable network.

will continue to oversee networks and ABC Owned Television Stations, and will add research, labor relations and TV business operations to her purview. Disney Television Studios will remain under Eric Schrier, who will expand his responsibilities to include our global original television strategy, working closely with our talented regional leaders.Read Walden’s full memo to staff below: Dear Colleagues, Since the announcement of Disney Entertainment, I’ve spent time thinking about how to organize my team in a way that will enable me to focus on my newly expanded role, in partnership with Alan.

Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden is among the business executives named to the President’s Export Council, which advises Joe Biden on international trade.

Dana Walden is setting out her stall and it includes more responsibilities for John Landgraf and Simran Sethi.