Robert Kyncl Stepping Down as YouTube Chief Business Officer (EXCLUSIVE)

All for Grannie. As Queen Elizabeth II’s grandchildren held a special vigil ahead of her state funeral, Prince Harry was able to wear his military dress uniform despite initial back-and-forth rulings.

Glenn Close had to cancel plans at the 2022 San Sebastian Film Festival due to a family emergency.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Not surprisingly, the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8 — ending a historic 70-year reign — spurred renewed interest in “The Crown,” the popular Netflix series that follows the monarch’s life and events during her time on the throne over multiple decades. “The Crown,” which begins in the late 1940s prior to Elizabeth’s becoming the Queen of England, will end with Season 6, taking the show into the early 2000s. Between Friday and Sunday (Sept. 9-11), the show’s viewership in the U.K. increased more than 800% compared with the previous Friday-Sunday period, according to data analytics firm Whip Media. In the U.S., viewership of “The Crown” more than quadrupled from Friday-Sunday compared with the previous week, and in France viewing jumped threefold, per Whip Media.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Estrella Media has hired former NBCUniversal exec Enrique Guillen to serve as the company’s new chief content officer. Guillen will report to Estrella Media CEO Peter Markham and be based in Burbank. At Estella Media, Guillen will oversee U.S. domestic and global content strategy for the company’s TV, streaming, digital, audio, events and digital businesses, including developing, producing, and acquiring all television and film content, overseeing network and station programming, news, sports, digital content, and studio productions. He’ll also handle international distribution of Estrella Media content. “Enrique brings impeccable credentials as a leading executive in global content development and distribution, and he is a perfect fit to help our company accelerate our leadership position,” said Markham. “We look forward to Enrique taking a prominent role in helping us plot our next phase of growth as the changes taking place in our industry present unprecedented opportunities for Estrella Media.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The dojos have mojo: “Cobra Kai” Season 5, the latest installment in the popular “Karate Kid” sequel TV series on Netflix, currently has a perfect 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. All 10 episodes of the fifth season, which stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka (reprising their roles from the original “Karate Kid” movies), were binge-released Sept. 9 on Netflix. As of Friday, “Cobra Kai” Season 5 registered a 100% Tomatometer score, based on Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregation of 37 reviews. Season 1 of “Cobra Kai” also has a 100% critics score on the site, while seasons 2 and 3 have a 90% critics score and S4 clocks in at 95%. By comparison, many other recent TV premieres have Tomatometer scores in the 80s. Those include Disney+’s “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” (88%); Netflix’s “The Sandman” (87%); FX/Hulu’s “The Patient” (86%); HBO’s “House of the Dragon” (85%); and Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (84%).

Richard Weitz and Christian Muirhead have been upped to co-chairmen of Endeavor’s WME talent agency, succeeding Lloyd Braun who will step down as chairman at the end of 2022 when his contract is up. Both are agency veterans, having come from the two companies that formed WME, Endeavor (Weitz) and WMA (Muirhead), and also come from different backgrounds, agenting and corporate communications, respectively. Ari Greenburg remains WME president and will now report to Weitz an Muirhead.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque has been promoted to Chief Content Officer for the WWE.

Selome Hailu Chris Van Amburg has stepped down from his position as head of video marketing at Apple. He announced his exit in a memo sent to staff on Wednesday, citing a desire to spend more time with his family as his reason for leaving the company. Van Amburg joined Apple in September 2018, a year prior to the launch of Apple TV+, and led marketing strategy for the streamer. Projects launched during his tenure include the Emmy-winning comedy series “Ted Lasso” and the Oscar-winning coming-of-age film “CODA.” Before Apple, he worked at Sony Pictures Entertainment for 13 years, where he most recently served as senior vice president of marketing. This is Apple’s second major marketing departure of 2022. As Variety reported exclusively, head of film marketing strategy JP Richards turned in his resignation in May.

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Van Amburg is leaving Apple after a four-year stint as Head of Video Marketing. He just announced his exit in a memo to staff.

WWE has named Paul “Triple H” Levesque its new chief content officer and chief financial officer Frank A. Riddick III will assume the role of president and CFO, the company announced in Tuesday’s second-quarter earnings report.

In her first public address since stepping down as a senior royal alongside her husband Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, attended the One Young World Summit in Manchester on Monday as a keynote speaker.  She began her speech by saying, "It's very nice to be back in the U.K." Meghan Markle recalled her first experience at the One Young World summit, where she was "the girl from 'Suits.'" (Chris Jackson) Markle, who herself is a counselor, shared with the crowd a memory of her first summit in 2014. "In many ways, at the time, I was probably a lot like each of you – young, ambitious, advocating for the things I deeply and profoundly believed in – and also looking around and wondering, ‘How on earth did I get here?’" The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not dating at the time of her visit.Their relationship would not unfold until two years later.

The managing director of under-fire train operator Avanti West Coast has stepped down from his role, it was confirmed tonight. Phil Whittingham will leave his position on September 15 to 'pursue other executive leadership opportunities'.

Bowing out. Jason Aldean’s publicity firm of almost two decades has resigned from representing the country star — just days after wife Brittany Aldean made seemingly transphobic comments.

co-creator, showrunner and director Miguel Sapochnik is exiting the prequel series after just one season.HBO confirmed the news in a press release on Wednesday, sharing that Sapochnik has signed on to a first-look deal to develop new projects for the cable network while remaining onboard as an executive producer for . Ryan Condal will serve as the series' sole showrunner beginning in the second season, continuing to work closely with series co-creator George R. R.

Game Of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon, has announced he’s leaving the series.The director, who previously helmed some of the biggest episodes of Game Of Thrones including ‘Battle Of The Bastards’, served as a showrunner on the first season of the prequel series alongside Ryan Condal.Following the show’s debut last month, Sapochnik announced he’s stepping down as showrunner after signing a first-look deal with HBO to develop new projects. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Condal will serve as the sole showrunner on the second season, while Sapochnik will continue to be credited as an executive producer.Alan Taylor, who previously directed a number of Game Of Thrones episodes, has been hired as an executive producer and to helm multiple episodes in season two.In a statement, Sapochnik said: “Working within the Thrones universe for the past few years has been an honour and a privilege, especially spending the last two with the amazing cast and crew of House Of The Dragon.“I am so proud of what we accomplished with season one and overjoyed by the enthusiastic reaction of our viewers.

House of the Dragon is making a change within its showrunning ranks.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “House of the Dragon” co-showrunner, executive producer, and director Miguel Sapochnik is exiting the HBO series ahead of its second season, Variety has confirmed. The show, a prequel to HBO’s megahit “Game of Thrones,” was renewed for Season 2 shortly after it premiered. Sapochnik will continue to be credited as an executive producer on the hit prequel series, but his fellow co-showrunner Ryan Condal will now be the sole showrunner. In addition, Sapochnik has entered into a first-look deal with HBO to develop new projects with the premium cabler. Sapochnik directed multiple acclaimed episodes of “Game of Thrones” prior to joining “House of the Dragon,” including “Hardhome” and “The Battle of the Bastards” before helping to develop “House of the Dragon.” Fellow “Game of Thrones” alum Alan Taylor has now boarded the prequel to work as a director and executive producer for the second season.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Georgia Brown, head of Amazon Studios in Europe, is stepping down after five years in the role, Variety can reveal. The executive’s last day at the business is Wednesday (Aug. 31), though her departure is understood to have been in the works for some time. Brown is believed to be moving on to another opportunity, though it’s not yet clear what or where her new role will be. Brown has been a strong and prominent ambassador for Amazon Studios in Europe, and was the first executive hired to lead originals for the continent. In the 2016 to 2018 period, when a number of the global streaming services were first setting up shop internationally and kept their executives largely out of view, Brown was always front and center for Amazon, keen to discuss her local-first strategy.

first reported by Variety, which published a memo from YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. “Under his leadership, YouTube forged new relationships and partnerships in music, traditional media and tech, and our creator ecosystem – without him, the term ‘YouTuber’ wouldn’t be a mainstream term,” Wojcicki wrote.