Private equity firm Standard General has increased its stake in Tegna as activist investor Soo Kim intensifies his fight for management changes at the TV station group. Kim, founding partner of Standard General, has boosted his stake in Tegna to 12% of shares, Standard General said Friday. On Thursday, Tegna blasted Kim for shifting about
Anonymous Content producer Joy Gorman Wettels was driving her daughter to school one morning in 2018 when she got word that the Season 2 premiere of “13 Reasons Why,” the Netflix series she executive produced, would have to be canceled, following a shooting at a high school in Santa Fe. Her daughter, then just a
In today’s TV news roundup, the 2020 CMT Music Awards have been postponed to Oct. 14, and National Geographic announced the premiere of two new specials to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. DATES CMT has officially postponed the 2020 CMT Music Awards from its original June 3 date to Oct. 14. “Our top
In the next few years, I predict someone is going to make a staggering drama about the opioid crisis — a filmmaker like, say, Debra Granik (whose first feature, “Down to the Bone,” was a lacerating drug drama), or maybe Kent Jones or Kathryn Bigelow or Steven Soderbergh. It will, of course, be a film
In today’s film news roundup, Miramax’s owners have sold 49% to ViacomCBS, Imax hires a new investor relations officer and Magnolia is giving early on demand releases to a trio of titles. DEAL CLOSES ViacomCBS has closed its previously announced $375 million purchase of 49% of Miramax, giving the conglomerate access to nearly 800 titles
Former CBS Corp. chief Joe Ianniello took in a total of $125.4 million in compensation and severance payments from ViacomCBS last year. Ianniello’s total compensation was revealed Friday in ViacomCBS’ annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ianniello received $2.8 million in salary and $84.7 million in severance payments that were stipulated years
Until recently, Taraji P. Henson was concentrating on finishing up her time as Cookie Lyon on Fox’s “Empire,” but on March 14, production was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We were almost finished,” Henson told Variety, via a video conference call to promote her Netflix film “Coffee & Kareem” on March 31. “We were
In a worst-case scenario, the concert industry could lose almost $9 billion if coronavirus quarantines don’t lift by the end of the year, according to a study just published by the trade publication Pollstar — and that figure does not include associated businesses such as transportation, production, marketing, concessions, security, sponsorships and more. While Pollstar
Insomniac has announced the postponement of Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas to October 2-4. The dance music festival will take place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Said Insomniac Founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella in a social media post: “You, the Headliners, are the heart and soul of EDC. Without you Insomniac wouldn’t exist. Thank
Ellen DeGeneres and Wendy Williams are both returning to TV, following weeks of hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak. Both daytime hosts will film from home, as they practice self-quarantining, while production on the sets of their shows remains shut down. “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and “The Wendy Williams Show” will return with new content
Previously unseen photos of legendary performer Doris Day from the 1950s have been provided to Variety by her estate in celebration of what would have been her 98th birthday and to raise awareness of an auction of her memorabilia taking place this weekend. The photos show Day both at home, on vacation and on the sets of
The crowd roars as a pianist starts playing a loping swing groove. Then, a trumpet player begins a solo, his impressive wails echoing around a cavernous venue — the 82,300-person-capacity Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. When he begins singing the 1944 standard “You’re Nobody till Somebody Loves You,” spectators cheer again, this time in
In the 13 years since “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” debuted, Kim Kardashian West has parlayed her reality TV career into successful beauty and shapewear businesses, served as a spokesperson for several charities and causes, blown up into a social media influencer with 164 million Instagram followers, and become a mother four times over. To
Cardi B donated 20,000 bottles of OWYN — a plant-based, vegan meal-supplement drink — to New York City-area hospitals for their medical staffs and ambulance crews, a rep for the rapper confirmed to Variety. TMZ first reported the news. While a “meal supplement” does not sound extravagant, given the realities of the coronavirus pandemic that
From “Black Widow” and “The Eternals” to “Indiana Jones 5,” Disney has overhauled the release calendar for most of its upcoming films as movie theaters remain closed for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Black Widow” — which was delayed last month — will now open on Nov. 6, 2020, taking the place
Disney’s “Artemis Fowl” will forgo a theatrical release and will instead launch on Disney Plus. The sci-fi fantasy was scheduled to open on May 29, but the coronavirus pandemic has led to the closure of most movie theaters. Disney has overhauled the release dates for most of its upcoming films — shifting everything from “Captain
The fifth and final season of NBC’s “Blindspot” is moving up on the network’s schedule thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The final season of the thriller series was originally meant to air over the summer, but it will now premiere April 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The show will move to its normal 9 p.m.
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the third and fourth episodes of “Making The Cut.” Three words: Papi and Bébé. In the third episode of “Making The Cut,” the contestants were tasked with a collaboration challenge and “Papi and Bébé,” aka Sabato Russo and Sander Bos, won the runway with
AMC Networks announced Friday a new coronavirus initiative that includes a host of free programming from across its network portfolio. The “We’re With You” campaign will allow viewers to watch the first half of “The Walking Dead” Season 10 on the AMC website, and will also make several BBC America nature documentaries free to watch.
What can we do to help others? As the coronavirus continues to spread across the world, with more than 200,000 diagnosed cases in the United States, people have come together to show strength and kindness. Costume designers are using their resources to make masks and gowns. Tens of thousands of people on social media are
Streaming giant Netflix will donate $1 million to the Producers Guild of India (PGI) relief fund, the company announced Friday. Set up in March by the PGI, the fund will provide emergency short-term relief to thousands of daily wage earners in the Indian creative community, who are now out of work due to the closure
This weekend’s music live-stream offerings are kicked off by country favorite Ashley McBryde doing an album release show Friday night and participating in the weekly Grand Ole Opry broadcast Saturday with Lauren Alaina and Terri Clark. Web festivals or multi-act benefit lineups weigh heavy in the Friday and Saturday listings. A show sponsored by Light
“Candyman,” a reboot of the 1992 slasher film, has pushed its June 12 release date because theaters are still closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It will now open on Sept. 25, 2020. Universal, the studio distributing the film, has also moved “Praise This,” which was originally set for Sept. 25. It now remains
Credit sequences may seem like a time for viewers to grab some popcorn before the show, but enjoying the complex packages — carefully fashioned to transition viewers into the world on-screen — will add to the enjoyment of a movie or a TV show, or even a video game. Richie Adams, founder of River Road
In the first episode of “Home Before Dark,” the new Apple TV Plus mystery drama, Brooklynn Prince’s Hilde Lisko is dismissed as a “sweethearted” little girl whose journalistic aspirations are closer to a tea party with her imaginary friends than a serious vocation. But anyone who knows the real Hilde’s story and watches Prince’s powerhouse
Brooke Baldwin, a mainstay CNN anchor who holds forth each weekday in the mid to late afternoon, is the latest of the network’s journalists to test positive for coronnavirus. In an Instagram post made Friday, Baldwin said she symptoms “came on suddenly yesterday afternoon,” and listed chills, aches and fever as among the conditions she
James Charles, YouTube’s most famous beauty vlogger, has unveiled the contestants and his judge sidekick for a reality-competition show to find the next makeup artist star. And Charles is certainly grateful that the YouTube-funded series, “Instant Influencer,” has already been shot and will be ready to roll out starting April 24 on his YouTube channel.
UPDATED: Amid a bigger workforce reduction at Bustle Digital Group, the company laid off the staff of The Outline, the tech-focused site founded by journalist Joshua Topolsky, and abruptly shut it down just about one year after acquiring it. BDG laid off 24 employees across the company, including those at The Outline, and it also
The intersection of “redneck” and “sensitive singer-songwriter” has been an ever-narrowing Venn diagram in the last couple decades. Maybe it’s the waning of Texas’ influence on mainstream country music, or maybe the commodification of the outlaw label by a generation of singers who don’t really have anything more to rebel against than a low stock
Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, Devendra Banhart, Fred Armisen and many other artists will perform at a MusiCares livestream benefit presented by the acclaimed Seattle-based label Light in the Attic. The concert will stream live on the company’s Twitch and YouTube channels beginning at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT. Light In The Attic & Friends