  |  | | | | | | What's news: Responsibility for NBC News' failed Megyn Kelly experiment lies at the top. Plus: Today's tentative 9 a.m. plans, Suspiria's strong debut and Halloween crosses $120 million in the U.S. — Will Robinson |  | | ^Blame Lack: NBC News chairman Andy Lack's $69 million bet on a celebrity journalist, Megyn Kelly, who came to prominence at Fox News was fundamentally flawed for four separate and important reasons, writes independent news analyst Andrew Tyndall: | | + Past unconsidered: A dozen years ago, CBS News threw its checkbook at Katie Couric. At the time, Couric was by far more popular than Kelly was when she was hired from Fox, yet Couric made no impact whatsoever on the evening newscast ratings race. If Katie could not do it, why on earth would Megyn be able to? Celebrity journalists come and go, but the size of news audiences shift with the speed of molasses. | | + Chasing CBS: The history of the Peacock network’s attempts to create a weekly hard news magazine that could rival 60 Minutes is endlessly long and littered with failures. Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly, the show that introduced Kelly to NBC viewers in summer 2017, was doomed from the start. The perennial success of 60 Minutes turns out to be the exception that proves the rule. Full analysis. | | + Today's plans: Monday's 9 a.m. broadcast continued on with Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie in place of Kelly, giving another hour to the show's usual fare. "We are starting a new chapter in the third hour of our show," Kotb said at the top of the hour. | | | | | | Art House Prosperity |  | | | | Scary return: Over the weekend, Luca Guadagnino's prestige horror film Suspiria scored the best per screen average in nearly a year, Pamela McClintock reports: | | + (Almost) outdoing himself: Over the weekend, Amazon's Suspiria posted an opening theater average of $89,903 from two theaters, by far the best average of 2018 to date, and the top showing since Guadagnino's own Call Me by Your Name, a best picture nominee, opened to a per-theater average of $103,233 in four theaters in November 2017. | | * Bested competition: Before Suspiria launched, the top average of 2018 belonged to the documentary Free Solo ($73,572), now in theaters. A24's coming-of-age dramedy Eighth Grade, debuting in July, follows ($65,949). Full story. | | Michael Myers' terror continues... | | + Total haul: Halloween grossed a stellar $32 million from 3,990 theaters in its second weekend, where it stayed atop the chart to finish Sunday with a domestic tally of $126.7 million. | | + October boon: Thanks in large measure to Venom, A Star Is Born and now Halloween, domestic revenue has already hit a record for the month, or $789.9 million, well above the previous best set in 2014 ($757 million). Weekend analysis. | | Elsewhere in film... | | ► The Predator wins China weekend. The Fox actioner took in $20.7 million in its opening weekend. The world's second-biggest film market has seen ticket sales plummet 33 percent in October. | | ► London Fields bombs with $160K, near-record worst for a wide release. The long-delayed film stars Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thornton and Cara Delevingne, while Johnny Depp — Heard's ex-husband — has a cameo. On 613 screens, the film's per-screen average is a dismal $261, the lowest ever for a film rolling out in that number of locations, and among one of the lowest averages ever for a wide debut. | | ► Harvey Weinstein looks to pause lawsuit from Marco Polo producer. The embattled movie mogul points to how judges in civil litigation against Bill Cosby allowed his criminal case to proceed first. | | Pipe bomb suspect updates... | | ► Michael Moore reveals video of bomb suspect amid angry crowd at Trump rally. The Fahrenheit 11/9 director compares Cesar Sayoc to "a lost dog with no direction home." Sayoc was seen a number of times in the crowd at a February 2017 rally held in Melbourne, Florida. Watch. | | ► Twitter "deeply sorry" for refusing to take down suspect's tweet. The tweet that congressional press secretary Rochelle Ritchie complained about said "hug your loved ones real close every time you leave home." | | Quoted: "Even if all the crews wanted to bring in a more diverse crew, more women, minorities, that hasn’t been prioritized. I think the answer is, the unions and the studios need to actively start embracing that now." — Sigourney Weaver, on making sets more diverse. |  | | ^Ratings at 50: The Motion Picture Association of America released a report timed to the 50th anniversary of the voluntary ratings system, breaking down all the movies its reviewed, Pamela McClintock reports: | | + R-rated world: Of the 29,791 films okayed by the movie ratings board since its inception in 1968, the vast majority — 17,202 — have been assigned an R. The next biggest grouping are titles rated PG (5,578), followed by PG-13 (4,913) and G-rated releases (1,574). | | + Raising objections: Of the total 29,791 movies rated across the decades, 428 (1.4 percent) have filed an appeal, and 165 (0.6 percent) successfully. Generally speaking, the number of appeals has dropped since the advent of PG-13. Study analysis. | | On the festival circuit... | | ► Netflix's Ted Sarandos talks India strategy at Mumbai. "Sometimes we would wait several years before doing original productions in any given country — but we came into India right away with 10 original shows in production right now, six original films coming up for [2019] and more to come," he said. | | ► The Vice of Hope wins Rome's People's Choice Award. The Naples-set child-trafficking drama won over the hearts of audiences. In Rome's Alice nella Citta sidebar, James Gardner’s Jelly Fish won the best film award, with star Liv Hill also winning a special jury prize. | | ► Videocitta honors Ennio Morricone with lifetime achievement award. The Academy Award-winning composer was celebrated ahead of his 90th birthday in Rome, his hometown. | | Musical notes... | | ► A Star Is Born soundtrack earns third week at No. 1 on Billboard 200 chart. The album earned 109,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Oct. 25. | | In memoriam... | | ► RIP Ntozake Shange. The prolific playwright, poet and novelist who wrote the Obie Award-winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, has died. Shange was 70. Obit. |  Rep Sheet Roundup: Pitbull has left WME after 17 months to sign with UTA. … Abrams has hired agents Maxwell Mitcheson and Henry Gordon, who will focus on branding and digital media, respectively. More here. | | | | | | | | The End Is Nigh |  | | | | Rick eyes exit: The future looks grim for Rick Grimes, the veritable cowboy played by Andrew Lincoln for nine years on AMC's The Walking Dead — a tenure that's going to draw to a close next week, Josh Wigler reports: | | + What to expect: "There's an emotional story to it," showrunner Angela Kang says. "There's also a lot of adventure, action, heroism and some pretty big twists. I'm excited for that. I think there's going to be some things that are unexpected for the viewers. It's pulse-pounding and epic." | | + Rick and Daryl's brotherhood: "It started off contentiously, and then grew over time to become this really beautiful brotherhood," Kang says. "We really thought it would be interesting this year to show the complicated parts of brotherhood. People [who are close] can be at odds fundamentally in their attitudes about how they go through life." SPOILERS: Interview | Recap | | Elsewhere in TV... | | ► Hollywood's income disparity. Many, including actress Alison Becker, detail their new realities: "If I’d been number five on an NBC show, I’d be making $30,000 a week, but I was making $980 a week [at Netflix]. By the time you pay out taxes, your manager, agent, and lawyer, I was walking away with like $200.” [Fast Company] | | ► Peter Alexander officially joins NBC's Today as Saturday co-anchor. Alexander had previously been filling in on the show for Craig Melvin, who recently joined the weekday edition, as well as continue his hosting duties on MSNBC Live With Craig Melvin. | | ► Fox News bans guest for George Soros comments on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Chris Farrell's interview, in which he made comments criticized as anti-Semitic about the billionaire and the migrant caravan headed towards the U.S., has been pulled from the air and online streaming. | | ► The effect of Trump's media attacks. "The president’s almost daily attacks seem to be delivering the desired effect, despite the many examples of powerful reporting on his presidency," Jim Rutenberg writes. "By one measure, a CBS News poll over the summer, 91 percent of 'strong Trump supporters' trust him to provide accurate information; 11 percent said the same about the news media." [New York Times] |  | | ^Matt Damon, Jimmy Kimmel rivalry continues at World Series. The color of the shirts the two wore at Game 5 represented the team that the men were rooting for: Damon for the Boston Red Sox and Kimmel for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Red Sox won the World Series, four games to one. | | New era at New Fox... | | ► Inside Trump's New Fox takeover. "With Lachlan [Mudoch] content to let the Fox News machine run, the hand on the wheel belongs to Fox News C.E.O. Suzanne Scott," Gabriel Sherman reports. "Scott’s management style is to effectively let the network’s producers run their shows independently. 'No one is in charge,' a former executive told me. Without clear direction from the top, it’s every man for himself." [Vanity Fair] | | Modern Family teaser... | | ► Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sarah Hyland tease surprise "bigger thing than the death." Neither Hyland nor Ferguson gave more details, but the actress said “it was a shock, that's for sure” and “there's a lot happening with Haley, but I can't say.” | | Digital digest... | | ► PayPal bans social media platform used by Pittsburgh shooter. Gab.com is popular with far-right extremists and is where the alleged shooter at a Pittsburgh synagogue had a profile. |  Supergirl boss goes inside that powerful episode. Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) came out to her boss, James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), paving the way for TV's first transgender superhero. "It's very important for her to speak her truth," executive producer Robert Rovner says. | | | | This Is America |  | | | | America to Me concludes: Principal Nate Rouse was against allowing Steve James to film his docuseries about race and education at Oak Park and River Forest High School in suburban Chicago, but he's ready to take advantage of the national spotlight, Pete Keeley reports: | | Keeley emails: I asked our patient, tolerant TV editor to let me publish 20,000 words of interviews with educators featured in Starz's America to Me, because I think the issues examined in this docuseries are important, and by no means limited to the public high school in my hometown (class of '99, here). | | Racial predictability in academic achievement, racial disparities in discipline and opportunity, etc., exist in schools across the country (and the world, as we learn from Miss Stovall). I just hope people (specifically, Emmy voters) are paying attention. Full interview. | | What else we're reading... | | — "Will TV Change the Comedy Cellar?" Jason Zinoman writes: "[Recent] notoriety has obscured the club’s bid to raise its national profile this year. ... As dominant as the Cellar is in the New York club scene right now, it’s a fiercely competitive business where reputations rise and fall." [New York Times] | | — "The Little Horror Movie Studio That Refuses to Die." Keith Phipps reports: "[Charles] Band ensured that the [Full Moon Features] universe he created kept expanding, however slowly and however inhibited by the limitations of a modest budget, year after year and movie after movie." [The Ringer] | | — "The Skimm Brains." Noreen Malone goes behind the scenes: "The newsletter is a Frankensteining of clear, sober-minded news aggregation with a tone imitating the way young women supposedly talk to one another. It has grown by more than 100 percent since Donald Trump took office and has 7 million subscribers, twice as many as the New York Times." [The Cut] | | — "An Oral History of 'Too Many Cooks.'" Jake Kleinman recounts the viral oddity: "We watched probably 40 or 50 sitcom intros and used nearly all of them to create that early video." [Inverse] | | — "5 Directors on Cinema's Scariest Moments." Killian Fox interviews helmers — Edgar Wright on Suspiria: "Most horror films start with a sense of normality, and then plunge you into the horror world at the end of the first act. But in Suspiria everything is intensely sinister from the very start." [The Guardian] | | What else we're watching... | | + "John Oliver details the importance of state attorneys general." [Last Week Tonight] | | + "Hasan Minhaj tackles Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman's autocratic rule." [Patriot Act] | | What's ahead this week... | | Monday: The Nutcracker and the Four Realms debuts for Disney at El Capitan Theatre. | | Tuesday: Facebook reports earnings... Fox's Bohemian Rhapsody premieres in New York and Paris... Sony bows The Front Runner at NYC's MoMA. | | Wednesday: IFC returns Stan Against Evil. | | Thursday: CBS, AMC Networks and Apple all report earnings. | | Friday: Bohemian Rhapsody and The Nutcracker go wide... Paramount Players brings Tyler Perry's latest, Nobody's Fool... Amazon debuts the Julia Roberts-starrer Homecoming... House of Cards' final season appears on Netflix. | | Saturday: Universal's animated take on The Grinch debuts in New York... SCAD Savannah Film Festival closes. | | Sunday: Outlander season four premieres on Starz... The Hollywood Film Awards take place at The Beverly Hilton. | | From the archives... | | + On Oct. 29, 1967, the counterculture musical Hair premiered Off-Broadway at New York's Public Theater. The musical spawned a film adaptation in 1979 directed by Milos Forman, and despite a shaky plot, endured because of its standards: "There was a rough, tough and lusty quality to the music that went far in compensating for its gauchness." [New York Times] |  Today's birthdays: Italia Ricci, 32, Ben Foster, 38, Michael Schur, 43, Gabrielle Union, 46, Tracee Ellis Ross, 46, Winona Ryder, 47, Rufus Sewell, 51, Richard Dreyfuss, 71. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
