WGA’s David Goodman Slams Latest Studio Response, Says Paramount’s Bob Bakish Sounds “Scared”

Fox unveiled its 2023/24 programming slate this morning and the writers strike was front and center.

Stockholders have expressed serious displeasure with 2022 executive compensation at Warner Bros. Discovery led by CEO David Zaslav, according to the result of a vote at the annual meeting Monday that was filed with the SEC today.

Kristin Dolan, who took over earlier this year as CEO of AMC Networks, said the company is “very well positioned” to manage through the WGA strike.

Blink and you might miss him! James Gunn confirmed that Pete Davidson had a surprise cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Francia Raisa is calling out Selena Gomez’s fans!

Taking the mic for the second time in a week, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish explained why the company slashed its dividend and talked streaming, advertising and weathering a WGA strike.

The SNP has slammed Labour after a senior MP said that they would not repeal Tory anti-protest laws. Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said a Labour government won't be "picking through all the Conservative legislation and repealing it" when asked about the anti-protest laws during his LBC radio show.

Warner Bros Discovery’s hour-long earnings call with Wall Street analysts Friday morning included nary a mention of the WGA strike, unlike many other such calls in recent days.

opened up about her battle with pancreatic cancer. In a moving interview with the Daily Star, the actor was overcome with emotion as he tearfully explained how the couple were coping. He told the publication it was "horrific" to see someone as "beautiful as her" suffer.

Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which serves as labor representatives for Hollywood’s studios, have released a new statement breaking down their stance on the various sticking points that caused a deal with the Writers Guild of America to fall apart. In a four-page document that can be read here, the AMPTP addressed several issues that were raised by the WGA in their pattern of demands, most notably the guild’s proposal for a minimum of six writers on all TV productions with more required depending on the number of episodes.

unable to reach a deal in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers before Monday’s contract expiration. Picketing began in New York City and Los Angeles on Tuesday.The strike involves a long list of concerns that the writers want Hollywood studios to address, from the low pay involved in writing streaming series to reining in “mini-rooms” used to skirt contractual pay practices to addressing the use of artificial intelligence.

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish said today that “writers are essential in creating content and… we hope we can come to a resolution that is good for everyone fairy quickly. But it’s also fair to say there is a pretty big gap today, and it’s really a multifaceted kind of bid and ask.”

unable to reach a deal in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers before Monday’s contract expiration.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Shares of Paramount Global tumbled as much as 22% in early trading Thursday after the media conglomerate reported disappointing first-quarter 2023 results and slashed its dividend. Paramount posted a Q1 net loss of $1.12 billion, as revenue of $7.27 billion was down 1% on shortfalls in its TV media and filmed entertainment units. The company’s streaming business, which includes Paramount+ and Pluto TV, saw revenue rise 39% in the first quarter to $1.5 billion. However, the direct-to-consumer segment posted a loss of $511 million, growing 12% compared with the year-earlier period. The company said Paramount+ added 4.1 million subscribers in the quarter, coming to a total of 60 million overall.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish addressed the writers strike during Paramount’s Q1 earnings call Thursday, stating that writers are “an essential part of creating content” and “we hope we can come to a resolution that works for everyone fairly quickly.” However, the Paramount chief added, “it’s also fair to say there’s a really big gap.” “Obviously, we’ve been planning for this, we do have many levers to pull and that’ll allow us to manage through the strike, even if it’s for an extended duration,” Bakish said. “In terms of those levers, we have a lot in the can, so to speak, content in the can. So with the exception of things like late-night, consumers really won’t notice anything for a while. Add to that a broad range of reality, unscripted, where we’re definitely a leader, as well as sports, and that’s not effected, so we can do more in those areas, if necessary.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Paramount Global said it would it cut its dividend as continued investment in streaming weighed on the company while it saw declines in its traditional revenue from advertising and cable distribution. The owner of CBS, Nickelodeon and the Paramount movie studio said its first-quarter loss came to nearly $1.23 billion, or $1.81 a share, compared with a profit of $775 million, or 58 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue was essentially flat, down 1%, on shortfalls in its TV media and filmed entertainment units, while its streaming operations saw revenue rise 39%. “We are focused on continuing to drive market-leading streaming growth while navigating a dynamic macroeconomic environment,” said Bob Bakish, the company’s chairman and CEO, in a statement.

Bupkis can be loosely translated into English as “nothing” — which is the comedic point of Pete Davidson’s eponymous, semi-autobiographical series premiering May 4 on Peacock.Think of “Bupkis” as a “Seinfeld”-type “show about nothing” … but writ large.“I think our goal was to capture the relentless and absurd reality that is Pete’s world,” said showrunner Judah Miller, who co-created and co-wrote “Bupkis” with Davidson and Dave Sirus. (Stacy Keach delivers the opening, jokey “legal announcement” in his unmistakable baritone.)“When we were coming up with ideas, there were no fictitious concepts or situations that were going to rival the opportunities for comedy and satire that Pete’s actual life provides,” Miller said.

Alison Herman TV Critic “Your life is fascinating,” a friend tells comedian Pete Davidson, in character as comedian Pete Davidson. “I don’t know what it’s like to live it, but goddamn, do we have fun watching it.” It’s never a good sign when we have to be told, rather than shown, how interesting a person or project is meant to be. Yet that’s precisely the position in which “Bupkis” decides to put itself. The Peacock comedy is the second Davidson vehicle to draw heavily from the “Saturday Night Live” alum’s autobiography, after “The King of Staten Island” in 2020. In the style of director Judd Apatow, that feature film was already bloated; “Bupkis” takes the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour tale and stretches it out for another four, to diminishing returns.

David A. Goodman and Michele Mulroney marched alongside approximately 200 strikers at Paramount Studios in Hollywood on Tuesday in support of the WGA which is battling the AMTPT for better wages, among other things, on the first official day of the strike.

Elizabeth Olsen and husband Robbie Arnett are enjoying a day out together.