Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Ankler Podcast

Hollywood is a relationship business. So can you learn from your bosses, network and get promoted if you’re working from home? Nicole LaPorte talks to Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield about the divide over remote work as Lionsgate and Amazon mandate five days in office, and agents and execs warn that young Hollywood’s work-life balance may come at a professional cost. Plus: What Disney’s buying for Hulu, FX and ABC while the company’s Iger succession drama takes another turn. Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler or apply to The Ladder, a new members-only hub for early career entertainment professionals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Janice Min interviews Tina Brown, a sharp observer of the seismic social changes that have led to our chaotic new politics, in a wide-ranging and often hilarious conversation about the journalists impressing her, the frustrating state of cable news punditry, what celebrity she’d put on the cover of a magazine in 2024, her maternal rage after Trump supporters ridiculed Gus Walz, and Harry and Meghan (buckle up for one big anvil drop of ouch). That’s on top of a lot of talk about Trump, Harris, Elon Musk and the forces and figures driving our anxiety. To read more about this interview, click here. For the sharpest coverage of the entertainment industry, become a paid subscriber to The Ankler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple is the most valuable company in the world. There are more than 2.2 billion Apple devices in use worldwide. Remind us why it’s in the (often) money-losing entertainment business again? Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield explore why Apple is retreating from its blockbuster theatrical ambitions — sorry, George and Brad — why it had them in the first place and what happens next. Also: Prestige Junkie’s own Katey Rich joins to discuss the start of fall film festival season and aces some Oscars trivia. Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the one-year anniversary of the Great Netflix Correction approaches, the town’s streaming future sure looks a lot more uncertain as Bob Iger, Jeremy Zimmer, UTA CEO, and Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Tony Vinciquerra make pointed remarks about the un-sustainability of the current streaming economy. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sony Pictures Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra talks to Janice Min about The Woman King’s Oscars snub; PlayStation and The Last of Us; the decision to work with Will Smith again, and Spider-Man and Kevin Feige. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, the prevailing narrative around Gone With the Wind has been that it romanticized slavery and the antebellum south. But, as David Vincent Kimel learned when he discovered one of the film's few remaining shooting scripts, it almost did the exact opposite. The Yale grad student joins the podcast to talk about his groundbreaking story, which exposes the film's warring screenwriters and deleted scenes depicting the horrors of slavery (23:48). “It really is shocking how gritty and uncompromising that early material was,” he says. Also: Richard Rushfield's dire takeaways from talking with 20+ writers against the backdrop of a looming WGA strike (13:18), and the NBA agent joining our IRL Oscar week streaming summit (0:43). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Richard Rushfield dives deeper into his high school classmates growing up in L.A. (names include Matthew Greenfield, Jay Sures, Brett Morgen, Jason Blumenthal, Maya Rudolph and Jack Black), part of the many revelations from his profile in the Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair. Get ready to learn what car Sures drove, who carpooled with his sister, and which of the names above was his prom date (albeit group date). Also: the forces driving a near inevitable writers strike (19:02), how to interpret David Zaslav’s earnings call (10:11), and more on our IRL Oscar week streaming summit (39:04). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“It’s a terrible place to make creative decisions when fear seeps into the process,” Peter Kiefer tells our hosts, as he explains what he learned from interviews with a dozen of the town’s senior executives (13:39). Some culprits? Underwater stock options, a top-down obsession with optics, the ruthless demands of Wall Street and private equity, and a relentless mining of old IP. Oh yeah, and the constant threat of layoffs. Also: our IRL Oscar week streaming summit (1:00), the new nepo-ex atop AMC Networks (4:13), Don Lemon’s bad behavior (11:06), and Richard Rushfield’s advice (34:43) for Jenna Ortega and all stars. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few technological disruptors to the entertainment industry have appeared quite as fast, or as existentially forebodingly, as artificial intelligence. After ChatGPT, DALL-E and other new AI technologies became publicly available in recent months, Cornell Law professor James Grimmelmann says, “I could feel the ground shifting.” Today, he walks our hosts through samples of AI music, script-writing and visual effects, and the ways in which the industry may be forced to evolve. “I don’t think Hollywood should be afraid. But every person should be thinking how every creative job… is going to look different as a result of this.” Also on tap: what’s coming under Bob Iger’s second shot at Disney. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In what Mark Zuckerberg has deemed the “year of efficiency” — corporate-speak for layoffs and cost-cutting — economic pressures are being felt across Hollywood, from writers to producers to below-the-line workers and, of course, actors. Joining today, seasoned actress Rebecca Metz (Better Things, Shameless) reveals how unique circumstances for performers (shorter seasons, exclusivity windows, the disappearance of residuals) have taken a toll, even for those on hit series. As actors, making less now, leave L.A. (“I have a lot of friends who have left town”), Metz puts forth a straightforward career goal for the streaming era: to “like my life while being able to support myself.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's certainly not the soap opera that went down at Disney, but Netflix’s new succession plan might turn out to be just as earth-shaking. Prior to the streamer’s Q4 earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings announced Greg Peters, current COO and CPO, as his replacement. Insider’s Elaine Low joins hosts Sean McNulty and Janice Min to discuss her reporting on the little-known Peters, breaking down who he is (physics and astrophysics major at Yale, foodie), how he complements co-CEO Ted Sarandos (Peters is unaffected by Hollywood glamour), and what it portends for the world’s biggest streamer.   This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Sean McNulty sits with Josh Greenstein, president of Sony’s Motion Picture Group, to break down the studio’s latest theatrical success, Tom Hanks’ A Man Called Otto (a $15 million opening weekend). The two dig into Greenstein’s out-of-the-box marketing campaigns that reached Otto’s broad demographic — from AARP screenings, to an advent calendar, to Hanks’ TikTok debut. Greenstein also talks the studio’s new deal with Legendary, the upcoming Spider-man movie and CEO Tom Rothman’s strategy for making movies. Says Greenstein, “We’re really trying to bring all audiences into the tent.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the Disney soap opera took even more twists with a board shake-up and vocal misgivings from today’s Hollywood bogeyman: the activist investor. Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield unpack the welts from Nelson Peltz (which include a finger wag for the $71 billion purchase of Fox), and why Disney attracts so much drama. Also: Richard shares his view from the inside of the Golden Globes, its predictable ratings collapse, and what it augers for awards season. Lastly, with Richard jetting off to the Sundance Film Festival, the team talks about the indie sector’s theatrical wing all but in collapse, and what might come out of the confab. (Note, click here for a special invitation to an Ankler event for readers and listeners in Park City.) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hollywood’s forays into politics are often elitist, counter-productive, and sometimes just plain cringey. But at the DNC, it wasn’t just Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who seemed to nail it, but the entertainment industry as well. Ankler contributor Alison Brower joins Sean McNulty and Janice Min from Chicago, where she explains the vibe shift in Hollywood’s approach, the Hollywood producers who put on the show, and the celebrity moments that worked and why. Also: Elaine Low, David Lidsky and Sean dissect the Bronfman vs. Ellison title fight for control of Paramount and how Iger will finally pass the baton at Disney. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Sean McNulty wanted to start the New Year with stories of success in a new Ankler podcast series, Why it Worked. First up: horror’s top hitmakers, Blumhouse’s Jason Blum and Atomic Monster’s James Wan, the powerhouses behind low-budget smash M3GAN. The two talk the viral TikTok dance trend, what made the movie and campaign work, how they look at tracking (or don’t), and why the studios and streamers struggle to produce their own low-budget, high-margin hits. Will there be a M3GAN sequel? The duo answer, as well as questions around how they work together, the status of their merger, and future plans. As Blum puts it: “Thank God this one part of the business is still working!” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Buffalo Bill Daram Hamlin awoke in the hospital following his dramatic medical crisis during Monday Night Football, his first words in the hospital were “Did we win?” On today’s pod, Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Janice Min, joined by The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch, contrast the NFL’s high-stakes dramas to the deterioration of the public’s interest in Hollywood’s own competitions: awards shows (of the top 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2022, 82 were NFL games; the Oscars were 77th on the list). With the Golden Globes just days away (and likely programmed on Tuesday to no go opposite football), the four discuss the void of anticipation, who and what is owning the public mindshare right now if not for movies and TV, Avatar: The Way of the Water, and if the audience should feel optimistic about movies in this year ahead. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final pod of the year, The Ankler looks back on Hollywood’s tumultuous 12 months and what lies ahead in 2023. Hosts Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield are joined by Jason Hirschhorn, CEO of digital content and curation company REDEF, for a probing discussion around the state of Hollywood and the Streaming Wars. Hirschhorn discusses hard choices facing media giants as they pivot from customer acquisition to retention, and what the implications are for programming (12:42). The trio also talks which companies are best positioned for next year (28:36), the changes ads bring (15:25) and whether anyone will ever be able to unravel the apps and services jungle that viewers must navigate to watch shows (32:42). Topping it off: their picks for best of 2022 (60:55). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is anything more dramatic than the DC Universe (16:19)? With a history that includes off-screen ups and downs around Henry Cavill, Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon, Christopher Nolan, Ben Affleck and Amber Heard, “it’s like a soap opera in its 11th season,” says Richard Rushfield, who joins hosts Sean McNulty and Tatiana Siegel. The group unpacks the controversial decisions from new chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery’s adjacent HBO Max library purge (23:52). Also: Ankler contributor Nicole LaPorte discusses her buzzy grim story about the new hustle life for Hollywood writers, and if Bob Iger was the hidden hand behind Disney movies suddenly landing China releases (37:41). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent years, Hollywood embraced the “authorship” principle — the belief that writers and filmmakers best share the “lived experience” of their subjects to be authentic. As relayed by Peter Kiefer, the Ankler contributor whose bombshell Elisabeth Finch interview has rocked the town, the producers of medical soap opera Grey’s Anatomy, Shondaland, wholly embraced this belief system. Kiefer explains to hosts Sean McNulty, Janice Min and Tatiana Siegel not only how he ended up with Finch’s confessions, but how the current climate may have aided and abetted her staggering series of lies. In five hours of taped interviews, Finch confesses: “It was absolutely dead wrong to do that… Culturally it became cooler if [the pitch] was based on something in reality.” Even if the reality was fiction. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three months into the job as AMC Networks, CEO Christina Spade was shown the door — a shorter tenure than even ousted Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s (26:42). “Not even a word from her. It was literally an announcement in a SEC filing,” notes host Sean McNulty. “Then, the next day they announced 20 percent of the staff is being let go.” This comes on the heels of a week of stunning reorgs at CNN, Paramount and Amazon. McNulty, joined by Richard Rushfield, Tatiana Siegel and Ankler contributor Nicole LaPorte also discussed the increasingly bleak outlook for producers (14:59) and the curious case of the Emancipation red carpet where no reporter dared breathe a word of The Slap (2:59). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Watching the fiasco consuming Twitter, Hollywood might think it’s above the madness. But the mood of workers in entertainment feels more like the spiraling social media platform than anyone wants to believe. Amazon is laying off 10,000 people, Roku is cutting 200, John Malone said streaming economics have lead to “blood running down the gutters” and Vice Media seeks to cut 15 percent of its budget — which won’t come from “saving paper clips,” says Janice Min, joined by host Sean McNulty. Also: the role of tech-driven economics on Hollywood chaos (10:28), Twitter’s Elon Musk-fueled descent (13:46), the future of crypto stories in film and TV (23:41), and Marvel’s snowballing franchise fatigue (37:30).  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jennifer Aniston declared the movie star dead. Now hosts Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel, joined by Rob Long, offer their condolences as Hollywood scatters the ashes of its once-mighty creation (21:02), destroyed by self-inflicted wounds (and names of those who still endure). The group also talks agents and managers (7:32), and how streaming makes them — for better or worse — more valuable. “Streamers are so besieged with 2,000 shows in production that they demand any project [have] everybody attached,” says Rushfield. “They need a whole package ready to go.” Also: Early returns on The Ankler’s ruthless Agents, Managers and Attorneys poll (3:38) and schadenfreude over Silicon Valley’s woes (49:30): Says Long, “I am celebrating the humbling of our overlords.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, Roku, Lionsgate. Third-quarter earnings reports are all variations on a theme: things are bad. Layoffs are hitting every corner, and streaming “clearly [is] not making money yet and will not for another two years if it even gets to that point for some of these companies,” says host Sean McNulty (30:31), joined by Janice Min, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel, as the team lays out likely scenarios coming (including the “twin apocalypse” of a recession and a writers guild strike). Ankler contributor Peter Kiefer also joins to dissect Tuesday’s election, including a town divided over Rick Caruso v. Karen Bass for mayor and a wild Los Angeles County supervisor race rife with antisemitism allegations (5:10). Also on tap: Jeff Zucker’s $1 billion comeback (32:36). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recession. Ad declines. Subscriber plateaus. The tides continue to shift since the Great Streaming Bubble’s implosion of 2022. In the wake of a pessimistic Q3 earnings season, hosts Sean McNulty, Janice Min and Richard Rushfield are joined by CNBC media reporter Alex Sherman to break down the town’s latest thoughts around David Zaslav (1:35); if Comcast should give up on Peacock (16:30); why Apple didn’t discuss Apple TV+ on its earnings call (spoiler: there was likely no good news, 14:59); and if it make sense for Microsoft to acquire Netflix (16:30). Lastly, Sherman hits on Wall Street’s confusion around it all: “Wall Street doesn’t love mixed messages.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People like free. And in an age where CEOs are raising streaming prices faster than you can say gallon of milk, FAST services like Tubi and Pluto TV have doubled in size in the past couple years — ads and all. Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and David Lidsky break down the success of the new FAST players and what they could mean for the next chapter of the Streaming Wars. Plus: Paramount shutters a TV studio as layoffs begin; Sony’s steady “arms dealer” strategy; and a box office trivia throwback. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix has released more than 45 films(!) so far in 2022, the majority of which are neither loved by critics nor audience, according to Rotten Tomatoes (and as analyzed film-by-film by host Sean McNulty). Not a single one of the other streamers and studios has reached the same average level of disapproval (for the record, everyone else combined have released a total of 86 films in the same time frame). McNulty, Janice Min and Richard Rushfield discuss the quantity vs. quality debate, and if it matters for Netflix, whose Q3 earnings showed subscriber growth. The trio discuss the opposite strategy in play by David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery (see: WBD: What’s the Plan column) and why (try to contain your excitement!) not all debt is created equal. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix took a victory lap on Tuesday with its Q3 earnings report that revealed — surprise! —the company beat its revenue forecast (or, as host Sean McNulty likes to say, Netflix underpromised and overdelivered). In a special episode recorded at Advertising Week in New York, McNulty, Janice Min and Richard Rushfield break down the ad tier (9:00); the streamer’s 2.4 million subscriber growth stagnating in the U.S., but exploding in Asia (1:09); the company’s not-so-subtle roasting of its money-losing competition (5:35); the comeback of Ryan Murphy with Dahmer (6:52) and its dunk on House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power; the streamer’s theatrical plans for Glass Onion (12:26), and Netflix’s commitment to gaming but not sports (21:57). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a potential WGA strike on the horizon, can the chasm between studios and angry writers be bridged? Hosts Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel are joined by Martini Shot host (and WGA member) Rob Long to unpack the impending doom. “The Writers Guild continually strikes for a time machine and to go back and change the way [deals] were written,” notes Long. “‘If only I could go back and’ as we always say, kill Hitler.” The foursome also talk Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s questionable victory lap (38:55), David O. Russell’s very odd on-set antics (31:43); and Netflix’s never-say-never theatrical release of Glass Onion (5:27) Follow us (and like us!) wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Viewership for Hollywood awards shows is plummeting. Hosts Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty survey the rocky terrain that’s led to the Golden Globes’s shaky one-year NBC deal (far less than its once-$60 million a year license fee), and prompted the Academy’s new Hail Mary efforts to remake the Oscars (and red carpet) for ABC. “There’s no way now they’re getting $100 million a year [today],” McNulty says. In a season where Avatar 2, Steven Spielberg, Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis are in the mix, the shows are throwing everything against the wall to remain culturally relevant — with streamers likely their next home. The team also unpacks Amazon’s Thursday Night Football numbers (9:41), Apple Music’s Super Bowl steal (6:30), and Spielberg’s Toronto audience award with The Fabelmans (42:25). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty take stock of a new phenomenon on the festival circuit fest: the ever-shrinking and choreographed press conference (20:34). High-profile press conferences — from Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans to Harry Styles’ period gay drama The Policeman — featured questions vetted in advance (likely a result of Venice’s Don’t Worry Darling debacle), with Styles answering just one question at the My Policeman post-premiere Q&A. “It’s an erosion of the ability to report at a festival,” says Siegel. Also on tap, the hosts tackle the arrival of Thursday Night Football on Amazon (6:19), woeful Emmys ratings (3:52) as well as Bob Chapek and Brian Roberts’ “public negotiation” over Hulu (28:41). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oof — well, that’s an Emmys down. Today, hosts Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield dissect the Emmys, and what it says about the streaming giants who stage their annual showdown over bragging rights with increasingly little meaning to the larger audience. Who comes out of this show stronger Diminished? And would all the streamers just be better off ignoring the Emmys altogether? The hosts also throw around some wild ideas on how to fix this awards show and others, and what lies before us on the next road to Oscar. (Curious minds can click here to watch the Love Boat 1983 ABC Fall Preview Special referenced in the episode.) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does America really want to watch? In recent years, Hollywood has become obsessed with prestige content — the kind, as host Richard Rushfield puts it, that entertainment executives can talk about green-lighting to impress people at dinner parties. Richard, Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel, and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty break down surprising stats that reveal how and why Hollywood became out of touch with so much potential audience (the subject of Entertainment Strategy Guy’s “The American Viewer” series), a topic with new urgency as streaming growth in the U.S. plateaus (28:19). Also, Richard and Tatiana check in from the Toronto International Film Festival (05:26), the hosts discuss the MIA marketing heads of streaming (13:04), and Sean lays out the details of Cineworld’s unsurprising bankruptcy filing (23:36). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the price of just a few coffee runs, you can access the entire Peacock catalogue – Sunday Night Football, Love Island, and all – for a full calendar year right now. That deep-cut offer ($20 for 12 months) might signal red flags unique to the no-growth Comcast streamer, but drastic lever-pulling is engulfing the entire streaming marketplace (16:20) — from price slashing (Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount+/Showtime bundling) to ad tiers (Netflix and Disney+). Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty also talk House of the Dragon vs. Rings of Power (10:24), the return of monoculture (41:15), and the decline of marketing-sculpted movie stars (44:34). Plus: Richard struggles when quizzed about Netflix’s top 10 movie openings weekends from Summer 2022 (47:05). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rarely does an entertainment CEO become a trending topic on Twitter, but that’s exactly where Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav found himself this week as heat increases over his company’s layoffs, DEI handling, the removal of library content including hundreds of Sesame Street episodes from HBO Max, and those so-called ‘funeral screenings.’ Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty hone in on what’s happening behind closed doors and why as mounting debt puts increasing pressure on the company. Also on today’s episode, the trio play producer Dan Lin’s prophetic remarks about DC (11:44), and run down Entertainment Strategy Guy’s fantasy M&A picks (23:40) for an embattled industry. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The town may finally be acknowledging the undeniable pressures unique to this industry. This week, Jonah Hill, Tom Holland and Ezra Miller all said they are modifying their behavior to protect their mental health. Hill is stepping away from promoting his movies and making public appearances due to panic attacks; Holland announced he has abandoned social media to help stay emotionally balanced; and Ezra Miller is seeking treatment for a complex mental health issue. Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty survey Hollywood’s littered emotional landscape and how an industry whose very businesses are in current disarray adds another layer of stress onto its inhabitants. Separately, the hosts dive into new headlines ranging from Netflix’s Scott Stuber interviewing at Amazon, and Brian Stelter’s firing from CNN. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First, Disney films may have buoyed its Q2 earnings — thanks Inside Out 2! — but theme park struggles led Anxiety to overwhelm Joy. Then Warner Bros. Discovery delivered its disastrous report, with a 5 percent drop in revenue, a $9.1 billion write-off on its cable assets and yeah, Furiosa. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield break it down and the need for a plan in a moment where entertainment’s diminishing cable workforce is in a full-fledged freakout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s nothing more stressful or exhilarating than the high-wire act of live television. The Ankler Hot Seat podcast host Tatiana Siegel welcomes one of the best in the genre: Hamish Hamilton, director of the upcoming 74th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 12. Londoner Hamilton has helmed some of the most memorable moments of live TV including this year’s Super Bowl halftime extravaganza, Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s VMA win, and the London Olympics Opening Ceremony when Queen Elizabeth jumped out of a helicopter (yes, she rehearsed that move 5-6 times!). Hamilton also previews his live Beauty and the Beast with H.E.R., coming up on ABC. An Emmy nominee himself this year (for the 2022 Super Bowl), he also weighs in on two live shows he didn’t direct: the Oscar slap flap and the 2004’s Nipplegate at the Super Bowl. “You want people to be talking about your show,” says Hamilton. “On another hand, you want everybody who hits that stage, for it to be a safe place.” This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following Disney’s Q2 earnings call, many headlines declared the company’s victory over Netflix as Disney+ subscribers reached 221 million — squeaking ahead of Netflix (at 220.67 million). But in this episode, The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty tells Janice Min and Richard Rushfield that, in this case, the numbers don’t reveal the whole story (think India, domestic stagnation and revenue per subscriber). The trio also discuss the town’s curious changing narrative around Disney chief Bob Chapek, the company's declared break-even point for streaming, and the date the company has circled in its calendar to stop losing money on streaming. All this, plus other juicy tidbits (for those who love data and analysis, that is). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, hosts Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty take quick measure of entertainment’s giants after another day of wild Q2 earnings calls all about streaming that included Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Lionsgate. Some quantified(ish) what success looks like down the road; others stayed vague. WBD CEO David Zaslav said that HBO Max and Discovery+, which boast a total of 92 million combined subscribers worldwide, will break even as a united service when it adds another 40 million, likely in 2024 or 2025, as $3 billion in “efficiencies” (ouch), start to unroll. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish called their losses “a growth phase” (a $445 million loss last quarter against revenues of $672 million). All begged the hard question: when does streaming investment actually begin to pay off? Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com/subscribe for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry. Related links: * Top Producer Sees Ruthless Future for Hollywood DEI * What?! Netflix Just Lost its Biggest TV Show in America * Will Peacock Exist in a Year? * Which Streamer Has the Most Bombs in 2022? * Who Killed the Marvel Juggernaut? This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As recession fears mount, Comcast becomes the latest to deliver a bleak earnings picture, with its streaming service Peacock stuck firm on 13 million subscribers, despite spending over $2 billion a year on content. Hosts Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and Sean McNulty discuss what that might mean for its future and what to expect next on the earnings front (Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Lionsgate will report their results in the coming days, and the New York Times and BuzzFeed are on deck amid the ever-shrinking digital ad spend). Also on today’s episode, Netflix gives a limp green light to more of The Gray Man, and lands the opening movies for the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. But are those slots cursed? RELATED: Peacock Adds No New Subscribers or Free Users in Q2 Which Streamer Has the Most Bombs in 2022 Netflix Saved by ‘Stranger Things’ Never miss another podcast or story about the entertainment industry and become a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Rob Long has a confession to make: he likes agents—they’re “the friendly bacteria in the lower intestine of the dirty business we call entertainment,” he says. In defense of this controversial point of view (well, for a writer, anyway), Rob offers a cautionary tale about a past-his-prime agent who, along with his assistant, saves the career of a struggling writer with a spec sale of an old script. In the process, he reinvigorates his own career and gets the assistant promoted to agent, too. All’s well that ends well, right? But that’s not the end of the story. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earnings season is underway, and everyone should be taking notice of Snapchat’s dismal performance (and Twitter’s that followed). The tech company’s stock took a 27 percent nosedive immediately after reporting shocking ad sales declines. That portends a bleak near future for every ad-dependent entity — including Netflix and the streaming services increasingly pivoting to advertising to save the day. Is the chill temporary or is a new ice age afoot? Janice Min, Tatiana Siegel and The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty break it down. Also: Yellowstone is TV’s biggest hit, but Hollywood isn't rushing to replicate its success. And TCA scraps its in-person event and goes virtual. Is it really about Covid — or just a convenient excuse? This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Netflix Q2 2022 subscriber numbers are in!  And… huh. No splat. What does the lack of a collapse — but not exactly successful April through June quarter — indicate about the state of the streaming business at the midway mark of 2022?Hosts Janice Min and Richard Rushfield are joined by Ankler contributor Sean McNulty, writer of the daily morning newsletter The Wakeup to dive into the numbers beneath the headlines, including increasing clouds on the U.S. horizon, what the picture looks like in Q3, and what to expect from the rest of the streaming service subscriber reports to come in the weeks ahead. Subscribe to The Ankler, and you also get The Wakeup included in your subscription each weekday morning among the collection of newsletters bringing you behind the doors of the Hollywood and media business. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Emmy noms are in. After months of posturing, positioning and the biggest glut of prestige entertainment the world has ever seen, the votes have been tallied and the final sprint towards the big night is off and running. Besides the usual snubs and surprises, this year’s crop was a barometer on the state of the streaming wars and television in general. To sift through the results, host Richard Rushfield is joined by L.A. Times Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime TV critic Mary McNamara, television writer and Martini Shot host Rob Long, and Sean McNulty, author of The Wakeup. On the roundtable today: which mogul had the worst day? Why is Yellowstone the odd bison out? And lastly, our panelists name their picks for what will win and what should win. Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast dissects this week’s move by the Disney board to extend CEO Bob Chapek’s contract for three more years. Hosts Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel are joined by Ankler contributing editor Peter Kiefer to discuss why the Twitter mob — hailing from both the right and the left of the political divide — tried (and failed) to topple the P.R.-challenged chief from his top perch. The trio also breaks down Disney employees’ internal anger over the company’s exclusion of Planned Parenthood from its corporate matching gift program (which supports many pro-life crisis pregnancy centers). And it’s time to celebrate (or rue) the 15-year anniversary of the iPhone, whereby Hollywood’s collective attention span has become so short it can no longer follow an Adam Sandler movie plotline.  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Follow us (and like us!) at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, and on Twitter. Also please subscribe at TheAnkler.com for more podcasts and stories about the entertainment industry. Today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast tackles this weekend’s big studio opening, the oft-challenged biopic Elvis. Hosts Tatiana Siegel and Richard Rushfield are joined by The Wakeup writer Sean McNulty to discuss the $85 million Warner Bros. film that endured a lengthy production shutdown back in March 2020 when Tom Hanks became the first celebrity to land in the hospital with Covid. Add to that an untested star in Austin Butler, a 2-hour-and-40-minute runtime and a jam-packed marketplace with such options as holdovers Top Gun, Jurassic World: Dominion and Lightyear, as well as new horror entry The Black Phone.  But McNulty notes that the biggest problem is “Does anybody care about Elvis?” He adds: “I'm in my mid-40s and I have a mild curiosity about him. I didn't grow up on his music. So does anybody born after 1980 really care about Elvis, or really care to find out if they don't know [his music]?” Siegel, who was on the ground for the Cannes Film Festival in May, says that Warners also didn’t capitalize on the built-in buzz of premiering at the festival because — unlike Top Gun — Elvis bowed so late in the festival that most attendees were gone by that point. Additionally, Presley songs have not remained part of the popular music canon in the way Elton John and Queen had before the releases of biopics Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody. Rushfield also highlights that older Middle America — the most natural demo for Elvis — might be put off by director Baz Luhrmann’s take on the King. “The Baz Luhrmann treatment has him skewed in a way that's emphasizing Elvis as this sort of transgressive figure in a way that's definitely not making a pitch towards Elvis' natural fan base,” Rushfield says. “The great advantage of this film is that all the people that you might blame for it are gone. There's nobody at Warner Bros. taking the fall for this movie.” If preview tallies for Elvis are any indication, $3.5 million doesn’t bode well for the film. (The low-budget Black Phone did $3 million in fewer theaters.)  The trio also broke down why Lightyear stumbled and what it means for beleaguered CEO Bob Chapek as well as more Netflix layoffs (and more schadenfreude). This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theankler.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yet another round of layoffs hit Hollywood this week, this time at Disney, as the company preps to let go of 140 people at National Geographic, Freeform and other struggling areas of the largely linear business. Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low evaluate how much studios can keep cutting — save for the Olympics, of course — before they hit bottom. Plus: Shawn Levy and Deadpool & Wolverine bring comedy back to multiplexes; IATSE’s ominous warning to its members; and a reflection on the strikes, a year later. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Entertainment execs are paid to find tomorrow’s stars today — and that applies to politics too. Matthew Frank joins Sean McNulty, Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield to name names of who identified Kamala Harris’ talent early — from Disney’s Dana Walden to legend Sherry Lansing — and what her win could mean for Hollywood. Plus: David Lidsky breaks down the implications of the new NBA rights deal on scripted TV and the business prospects of Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery, and we preview Deadpool & Wolverine. Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paramount isn’t the only legacy studio struggling with tough choices and crushing debt these days. Warner Bros. Discovery, after laying off 2,000 people over the last year, will now be cutting another 1,000 jobs. All while Wall Street tells David Zaslav that WBD isn’t working and he should explore a breakup of the company. Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low analyze the latest job cuts and where WBD and other studios actually are still hiring. Plus: Peter Kiefer joins to discuss the reboot epidemic; the divide between what’s selling today and what gets Emmy noms; and a tribute to the late Bob Newhart. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The (seeming) finale of the Paramount sale drama brings closure to some questions but raises more. How is David Ellison’s promise of a rejiggered tech stack going to stem linear TV losses? Where is the additional $3 billion in revenue he is projecting coming from? And wait, is that Jeff Shell? Sean McNulty, Richard Rushfield and Elaine Low break down the next phase of the drama to come. Also: how people are vacationing right now (if at all), and the reinvigorated summer box office. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices