What's news: Rentrak is back! Roku is overhauling its homescreen. Rings of Power S4 is eyeing a 2027 shoot. Alan Ritchson has inked a first-look deal with Amazon MGM. And 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi publicly slammed CBS News chief Bari Weiss. — Abid Rahman
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THR's Comedy Actress Roundtable |
►"The publicists have to be stopped!" We're back with another Emmy roundtable, next up are the comedy actresses. Six hilarious ladies — Keke Palmer (The ’Burbs), Rachel Sennott (I Love LA), Ashley Padilla (Saturday Night Live), Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary) and Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) — gathered together at The Georgian Hotel with THR's Mikey O'Connell to swap stories about their experiences in the industry that have amused, annoyed and flat-out shocked them. The roundtable.
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Advaya Inks $70M Deal to Buy Comscore Movies |
►🤝 Sold! 🤝 Private investment firm Advaya Capital has completed a deal to acquire Comscore Movies, which collects box office grosses and tracks data across all cinemas in North America and 95 percent of theaters globally for Hollywood studios and other clients. Going forward, the venture will once again be known as Rentrak, the name it operated under for years before being sold to Comscore. According to a filing with the SEC, Comscore sold its box office business for $70m in cash. The sale comes as the theatrical business is in the midst of a rebound, on track to post its best year since the pandemic. The story.
—"He is not making an offer with his own money, it is our money, the company's money." Bolloré CEO Cyrille Bolloré is encouraging Universal Music Group to reject Bill Ackman‘s $64b acquisition proposal, arguing that the billionaire investor’s offer undervalues the company. Bolloré, whose company is the largest shareholder in UMG, said during the company’s markets day that “the price is not there at all.” The story.
—"Lean into personalization." For the first time in more than a decade, Roku is overhauling its homescreen in a bid to drive more engagement and surface relevant content and apps for its users, with more dynamic and personalized functionality. The big changes: Your most used apps will now be featured more prominently, reducing the need to hunt for specific streaming services. There will also be a “top picks for you” section that recommends apps and programming that Roku thinks you will enjoy, and a large “marquee” ad spot that could tout apps or shows. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Media company Wheelhouse has acquired Anomaly Entertainment, which was founded in 2017 by producers and former Discovery Channel commissioners Matthew Kelly and Michael Sorensen. Anomaly is most known for producing 40 Shark Week shows and is currently producing KPop Shark Heroes starring Ken Jeong and Rei Ami. Wheelhouse and its subsidiary labels have produced Netflix’s Million Dollar Secret and America’s Sweethearts, A&E’s Duck Dynasty and other series. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Just ahead of the World Cup, talent agency Gersh is expanding its soccer representation business with a U.K. acquisition and launch of a new soccer unit. The agency’s You First Football division has bought PLG to form Gersh Football, a global soccer representation business that “brings together two established agencies under a unified banner and expands the agency’s reach and infrastructure across the ‘big five’ major [soccer] leagues,” the companies said. Those five leagues are the English Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1. The story.
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Hardy's Trailer Antics Added to 'MobLand' Melodrama |
►"Career suicide." Tom Hardy has been making headlines over the past week after reportedly being fired from the hit Paramount+ series MobLand — though the mercurial British star’s fate is yet to be decided. THR's Lily Ford reports that Hardy has been clashing with producers, including executive producer Jez Butterworth, over his antics. "He refused to come out of his trailer for hours at a time,” the source says about Hardy’s on-set behavior on season two, which has spooked producers into rethinking Hardy’s future. The source adds: "He kept the cast waiting, [which is] a power play. Keeping Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and others waiting is career suicide, I would wager." The story.
—Still in development. Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is already looking ahead to a fourth season. With the show’s third season set to premiere in November, the show’s UK-based production is eyeing a schedule that includes preproduction on a fourth season this fall, with shooting to begin in early 2027. To be clear, season four is not officially greenlit, but Prime Video has continued to be very bullish about continuing its piece of The Lord of the Rings franchise, which is based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age appendices. The story.
—The game is afoot! Fremantle and British production firm Archery Pictures, the company of producer Kris Thykier, will collaborate on a new original crime drama series with the working title Moriarty, written by Chris Cornwell and Oliver Lansley. The show is “inspired by” Professor James Moriarty, the fictional character created by Arthur Conan Doyle as the formidable archenemy of Sherlock Holmes. The companies described the project as “a modern reinvention of the crime procedural, based on the most famous villain in all of detective fiction.” The story.
—Sugoi! Japanese entertainment giant Toho is moving ahead with a third season of Dorohedoro, the cult dark-fantasy anime adapted from Q Hayashida’s long-running manga. The renewal arrives alongside the season-two finale. MAPPA — the powerhouse studio behind Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man and Attack on Titan: The Final Season — will also return to produce the new season. The story.
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The Wait Between TV Seasons Is Getting Longer
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►You're not imagining it. It’s been a two-year wait for the upcoming third season of House of the Dragon. The second season of Severance was a three-year wait, as was the final season of Stranger Things. At this point, waiting years for a new season isn’t at all unusual. According to a new study by Ampere Analysis, the average wait between seasons of TV shows on major streaming platforms has reached what is almost certainly an all-time high. The study reports the gap has gradually doubled over the last decade — from an average of 10 months in 2016 to 16 months in 2021 to 21 months in 2024 and 2025. The story.
—🤝 First-look deal. 🤝 Reacher star and executive producer Alan Ritchson and Amazon MGM Studios are expanding their relationship. Ritchson has signed a three-year, first-look TV deal with the studio. Under the deal, Ritchson and his Dancing Skeleton production company will develop and produce new series projects for Prime Video, the streaming service that’s home to Reacher. The story.
—🎭 Sexcapades! 🎭 Ted Danson is headed back into a retirement community — but not to solve a mystery. The Emmy winner and A Man on the Inside star has joined the cast of an Apple TV comedy series starring Elizabeth Banks. Rob Delaney also stars. The currently untitled series from creators Liz Heldens and Matt Ward centers on Heidi (Banks), a recently divorced woman who is looking to “secure a lively second act for herself and her kids,” the show’s logline reads. That’s derailed to some degree when Heidi finds herself “coordinating her father’s retirement community sexcapades,” where she forms an alliance with the son of her dad’s girlfriend. The story.
—Ice, ice, Bublé. Grammy-winner Michael Bublé and Property Brothers presenter Drew Scott are teaming up for a Prime Video docuseries about the Vancouver Giants, their hometown hockey team in which they have ownership stakes. The six-part series Hometown Giants from Scott Brothers Entertainment and Amazon MGM Studios will see Bublé and Scott as part of a local hockey team filled with young players looking to get into the National Hockey League. The story.
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'60 Minutes' Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi Torches Bari Weiss |
►"CBS management is abandoning [fearless, independent reporting], choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it." CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is expected to be on her way out at the network, a culminating event sparked by a spiked segment that she had worked on last year, and a public clash with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Alfonsi remains employed by CBS News for now —“if they want me gone, they’ll have to fire me” — though a statement slamming Weiss released on Wednesday suggest that she is already thinking of moving on. The story.
—🏆 Congratulations! 🏆 ABC News and National Geographic were among the top winners at night one of the 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Awards on Wednesday. ABC World News Tonight with David Muir took home the award for outstanding live news program, while CNN Worldwide’s The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper won the award for outstanding recorded news program. Overall, ABC received eight awards, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller via National Geographic/Muck Media won seven Emmys and CNN took home four. The winners.
—🤝 Settlement. 🤝 On Nov. 5, 2025, a group of NewsGuild of New York union members confronted the chief people officer of publishing giant Condé Nast outside his offices in One World Trade Center about recent layoffs and changes to Teen Vogue. The next day, four union members were fired and five more union members were suspended. Now, nearly half a year later, the union has reached a settlement with Condé Nast over the discipline. The story.
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Box Office Stunner! 'Obsession' Makes History |
►A revelation of epic proportions. Curry Barker's horror film Obsession, which cost $750,000 to make, has earned north of $68m in under two weeks at the domestic box office. Over the long Memorial Day weekend, the film soared to $23.9m for the three-day number, a record-smashing increase of 39.4 percent over its opening weekend haul of $17.2m from 2,615 theaters. That’s the biggest spike in modern times for a movie playing in more than 2,500 theaters outside the Christmas holidays. THR's Pamela McClintock and Lexi Carson go inside Obsession's stunning success. The analysis.
—Man of the moment. Obsession filmmaker Curry Barker has become Hollywood’s latest obsession. THR's Borys "Scoopz" Kit has the scoop that in the wake of the stunning success of his second feature, Barker is already fielding offers, or attempted offers, in any case, and he hasn’t even pitched his next project yet. According to Borys' sources, one studio is so hot to work with Barker and so believes in the YouTuber-turned-theatrical filmmaker, that it attempted to make a preemptive offer of $10m for Barker’s next original project, sight unseen. The story.
—"Spielberg’s best film in 20 years." In something of a surprise, the first press reactions for Steven Spielberg‘s mysterious UFO thriller Disclosure Day landed on Wednesday. The first-blush social media reviews from journalists and critics who have seen preview screenings of the Universal film say the sci-fi movie is one of the director’s best in years. The film stars Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor and explores what might happen if humanity received proof we are not alone. The reaction.
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Film Review: 'Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean'
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►"Consummate artist, complicated man." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Barnaby Thompson's Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean. The Cannes-bowing doc traces the life and career of the Lawrence of Arabia director, whose influence is acknowledged by luminaries like Francis Ford Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve. Also featuring Wes Anderson, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Brady Corbet, Nia DaCosta, Paul Greengrass, Steven Soderbergh, Celine Song, Joe Wright, Cate Blanchett and Kenneth Branagh. Written by Barnaby Thompson. The review.
—"There's a difference between family-friendly and painfully bland." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Eric Appel's The Breadwinner. This dramedy stars the popular comedian Nate Bargatze as a successful car salesman who temporarily becomes a stay-at-home dad. Also starring Mandy Moore, Colin Jost, Zach Cherry, Martin Herlihy, Kate Berlant, Kumail Nanjiani, Will Forte, Stella Grace Fitzgerald, Birdie Borria and Charlotte Ann Tucker. Written by Nate Bargatze and Dan Lagana. The review.
In other news...
—Paley Center to honor John Malone with annual keynote address
—Abbott Elementary EPs Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker sign with UTA
—Dave May, Grammy-winning producer and music executive, dies at 68
—John McClain, co-executor of Michael Jackson estate, dies at 71
—Pierre Deny, Emily in Paris star, dies at 69
What else we're reading...
—Sarah Perez reports on Meta's launch of new subcription services for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp [TechCrunch]
—Charlotte Klein writes that nonfiction book publishers aren’t remotely ready for AI [Intelligencer]
—Michelle Cottle goes in hard on Jack Schlossberg, describing the budding politician as "entitled and nepotistic" [NYT]
—Ashley Fetters Maloy writes that Zohran Mamdani's much-talked about Arsenal fit for Eid prayers in the Bronx was a clever choice by the NY mayor [Washington Post]
—David Smith reflects on a new book that looks at how Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury cartoons captured America [Guardian]
Today...
...in 2010, Magnet Releasing released George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead in 20 theaters as part of a brief theatrical run. The sixth entry in Romero's Night of the Living Dead series, it was also the legendary filmmaker's final film. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Carey Mulligan (41), Jake Johnson (48), Kylie Minogue (58), John Wells (70), Romain Duris (52), Chiara Mastroianni (54), Lukas Gage (31), Emily O'Brien (41), Christa Miller (62), Laura Bailey (45), Alexa Davalos (44), Jessica Rothe (39), Megalyn Echikunwoke (43), Jesse Bradford (47), Liam O'Brien (50), Kate Ashfield (54), Justin Kirk (57), Monica Keena (47), Fabrizio Guido (27), Raza Jaffrey (51), Leah Ayres (69), Jason Kravits (59), Joseph Cross (40), Rafi Gavron (37), Nazmiye Oral (57), Ashley Laurence (60), Michael Barrett (56), Krista Kosonen (43), Julie T. Wallace (65)
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Charles Cioffi, the veteran character actor who portrayed lots of cops and crooks in projects including Klute, Shaft, Get Christie Love! and The X-Files, died Friday. He was 90. The obituary.
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