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Is canceling completed seasons before they air the new normal?
agents, top execs and Showrunners discuss the recent spate of write-offs from showtime, wbd, netflix, amc & peacock |
It has all the makings of a new and disturbing trend in television — companies taking fully produced, unaired series and moving them off their books — but insiders are hesitant to say whether cancellations like what we saw Monday at Showtime, as well as what has happened at Warner Bros. Discovery, AMC, Netflix and Peacock over the last few months, is becoming the new normal.
One recently departed WBD executive likened it to an “extreme version” of what used to happen on broadcast TV, when a net would quickly pull the plug on a freshman show if its ratings tanked as early as week two or three.
“By that time, they were probably in the middle of the sixth or seventh episode of a 13-episode order,” remembers the exec, who likens the current write-downs to a much-needed market correction. >>>"Drunken Sailor Effect" |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Just Like Mike - Michael Jackson will be played by the late icon’s 26-year old nephew Jaafar Jackson in the Antoine Fuqua-directed film biopic for Lionsgate. The singer and songwriter is the son of Jermaine Jackson, who is the brother of Michael and member of The Jackson 5. >>>See Him In Action
'Pinkerton' Man - Jason Bateman is set to direct The Pinkerton, a supernatural revenge-western hybrid that Warner Bros. and JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot acquired two years ago. Pic was sold as a spec by F9’s Daniel Casey. >>>Historical Basis
Hulu + Fox - After lengthy negotiations, Fox Entertainment and Hulu have closed a new multi-year deal for in-season streaming rights to the broadcast network’s primetime series. The agreement also includes an extensive multi-platform marketing partnership. >>>Deal Details
New Blood - Former Netflix VP, Business and Legal Affairs Heather McCauley has joined Anonymous Content as Chief Operating Officer. In addition to operations, McCauley will oversee the company’s Human Resources, Finance, Business Affairs and Legal departments. She is based out of the company’s LA office and begins her new position immediately. >>>" Calm In The Storm"
New Reality - Fremantle has struck a two-year partnership with UK artificial intelligence start-up Papercup that will see the UK and U.S. versions of Idols, Got Talent and The X Factor offered to Arabic audiences through YouTube channel Talent World. Papercup will localize hundreds of hours of Fremantle content into Arabic using its AI technology. This will automatically translate and dub the shows. >>> Will Use "Expressive Synthetic Voices"
Singing His Praises - Academy Award and 3x Emmy winner Bill Conti (The Right Stuff) has been tapped to pen the score for Roselli’s Way, a new biopic on Italian American pop singer Jimmy Roselli. The film scripted by J.D. Zeik (Ronin) will watch as Roselli looks back on a career in which he was forever the underdog in comparison to contemporary Frank Sinatra, among others. >>>Untold Story
In Brief - John Cusack has signed with APA for representation after less than half a year with Gersh… The White Lotus breakout Sabrina Impacciatore has signed with Gersh and MGMT Entertainment… Fisk University , the first HBCU gymnastics team to compete at an NCAA event, will be the subject of a docuseries from Deborah Riley Draper and wiip… National Geographic film Path of the Panther, directed by Eric Bendick and executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, will open in over 40 theaters in Florida on February 24, before landing on the NatGeo Channel and streaming on Disney+ in the spring. |
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“The fascinating thing about any character, but particularly this character, is figuring out the why. No one’s just a grifter. No one’s just a con artist. Everybody has a reason. That might be a bad reason, but they have a reason,” The Watchful Eye showrunner Emily Fox told Deadline. “I think what I love about this character is that there’s a certain righteousness to her that she never really loses, even throughout learning that maybe her view of the world as being so binary, good and bad, is — that there’s a huge gray area in between.” Fox and star Mariel Molino spoke with Deadline to break down the first two episodes of the Freeform series and give more details about unraveling the mystery of the Greybourne and its inhabitants. >>>The Interview |
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Exclusive
The Menu castmember Aimee Carrero is set to lead the buddy action-comedy Code 3 opposite Rainn Wilson and Lil Rel Howery. She will portray Jessica, a newbie paramedic who is eager to learn, is well-trained, and is superb under pressure. Production is set to begin in February. Exclusive
Tulsa King‘s Jay Will has landed the title role in Rob Peace — the second feature from Academy Award-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, on the heels of the Netflix-acquired The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which he’s directing from his own script.
Exclusive
Luke Hemsworth (Westworld) has been tapped for the title role in Gunner, a new action pic from director Dimitri Logothetis. The film written by The Fast and the Furious scribe Gary Scott Thompson follows special forces veteran Lee Gunner as he takes his two boys on a camping trip where the kids stumble upon a fentanyl lab and are kidnapped by drug runners. |
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Pickups, Renewals, & Cancelations
Showtime will not be proceeding with completed new series Three Women, nor will it pick up Season 2 of Let the Right One In, starring Demián Bichir, and American Gigolo, headlined by Jon Bernthal… Apple TV+ has renewed the bilingual comedy series Acapulco for a 10-episode third season; production is set to begin this spring… Hulu has canceled Reboot — Steve Levitan’s show-within-a-show comedy that starred Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville and Judy Greer… Power Book II: Ghost has received an early Season 4 renewal at Starz ahead of its third season premiere on March 17 and added Michael Ealy in a series regular role… FX is not proceeding with a second season of Kindred, its drama series based on Octavia E. Butler’s novel, which ran exclusively on Hulu. |
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More News
📺 Westworld is among the 2,000 hours of programming licensed by Warner Bros Discovery to free streaming providers Roku and Tubi. The deal is a sign of WBD's new strategy to explore revenue streams beyond adding subscribers to HBO Max.
💡 Paramount Global revealed Monday that the company has decided the premium cable network should henceforth be known as “Paramount+ with Showtime.” It's part of wide-ranging changes meant to bring the two brands together in the streaming world.
🥊 The WGA West blasted Warner Bros Discovery for going back on its promise that the merger that created the giant media conglomerate last year would create more opportunities for content creators. WBD responded that it is “committed to facilitating greater inclusion of underrepresented groups in larger numbers both in front of and behind the camera.”
😡 The creators of series including Tuca & Bertie and Gordita Chronicles, which both were axed at Warner Bros Discovery, have taken the conglomerate to task for the recent moves.
👋 Phoebe Dynevor is exiting Netflix’s hit series Bridgerton ahead of Season 3. Dynevor revealed she would not appear in the new season in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival with Screenrant, saying she could pop up in a future installment.
In Brief - New Line Cinema struck a first-look deal with Barbarian producer BoulderLight Pictures...Nina Ali has exited The Real Housewives Of Dubai after one season...Marilyn Manson was sued by a woman who claims the singer sexually assaulted her when she was a minor. |
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BY THE NUMBERS
$300 million - The first quarterly interest payment made by Twitter on the debt that Elon Musk used to take it private |
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On the Radar Tue - Spotify earnings; Pamela Anderson on Kimmel
Wed - ACE Eddie Awards nominations; Meta earnings
Thur - Amazon, Alphabet, Apple & Sony earnings; Trevor Noah on Corden
Sun - Grammys; 1923 season finale |
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Schlemiel! Schlimazel! - Cindy Williams, who starred opposite Penny Marshall in the smash Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley after appearing in two Best Picture Oscar nominees — George Lucas’ American Graffiti and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation — has died. She was 75. Her family told the Associated Press on Monday that the actress died Wednesday after a brief illness. |
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