WarnerMedia Takes $960M Pandemic Hit; HBO Max Subscriber Update; Quibi Calls It Quits; TV's Most Powerful Showrunners List

[The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment OCTOBER 22, 2020 What's news: Quibi shuts down, HBO Max adds subscribers but AT&T CEO warns theatrical recovery will be "choppy," how will Disney's new streaming structure work? Terrence Howard sues over Empire, California theme parks could sue the state over reopening guidelines, Jared Leto sets Joker return. Plus: TV's most powerful showrunners, and Niecy Nash eyes a daytime talker. --Alex Weprin [RIP Quibi] RIP Quibi ➤Quibi calls it quits. After raising nearly $2 billion in funding and promising to reinvent the way people consume entertainment programming, Quibi is shutting down. --"It is with an incredibly heavy heart that today we are announcing that we are winding down the business and looking to sell its content and technology assets," Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman wrote in [a public letter]( Wednesday. The executives added that they will look to return cash to shareholders, lay off employees as part of the shutdown and look for buyers for its assets. --Quibi has been evaluating its options for the past several weeks, including a possible sale, Natalie Jarvey reports. That the company is choosing to shut down despite still having hundreds of millions in the bank indicates that Katzenberg and Whitman see few long-term solutions for the business. [The story](. ➤HBO Max update: As part of its quarterly earnings this morning (more below, including the "choppy" return of theatrical), AT&T revealed that HBO and HBO Max streaming service combined for 38 million subscribers in the U.S., and 57 million worldwide. Of those, some 28.7 million are considered HBO Max subscribers, with a caveat: Some 16 million of those subscribers haven't yet activated HBO Max, meaning they pay for HBO (likely through a pay-TV provider), but haven't switched to HBO Max yet. [Got that](? [Most Powerful Showrunners] Most Powerful Showrunners ➤Hollywood's 50 most powerful TV showrunners of 2020. From the dreaded "Zoom room" to hermetically sealed sets, the influential creators on The Hollywood Reporter's annual rundown — including Michaela Coel, Daniel Levy, Ramy Youssef and more — reveal how they have overcome an unprecedented year with panache. [The full list](. +"Put on a face shield!": TV's top showrunners share lessons learned from safe sets amid pandemic. Grey's Anatomy's Krista Vernoff: “There are people whose job it is now to walk around with a 6-foot pool noodle and wave it in your direction. It’s always surprising how far away 6 feet actually is.”... This Is Us's Dan Fogelman: “I simply took one small step toward Sterling K. Brown to tell him he’d just been amazing in a scene, and six people screamed at me to put on a face shield. So, that’s new.” [More](. +Lovecraft Country creator Misha Green wants to reclaim genre TV for people of color. With the first season now concluded, Green, 36, spoke with THR about subverting any expectations for the sophomore run and her plans to bring more people of color into horror and other genres. [The interview](. ➤Terrence Howard has filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox Film (now a division of Disney) — and straightforward it is not. The actor seeks unpaid compensation from Empire, the Fox drama that recently completed its sixth and final season. More specifically, the actor appears to be targeting the merchandising of the show. [The story](. +The legal maze behind a Charlotte Kirk movie about O.J. Simpson. Hollywood power attorneys involved in Kirk’s court battle played roles in the Simpson trial drama in the 1990s — a spectacle now depicted in a Kirk film. [More](. ➤Disney’s streaming pivot: How will the new structure work in practice? As the Hollywood giant hands studio leaders greater control over the content they create and builds out a new distribution division, the shake-up raises new questions, Natalie Jarvey reports. --"Though the changes are meant to encourage collaboration across divisions and create a clearer path to project completion, some who do business with Disney are skeptical. WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal, which both have centralized creative decision making as they prioritize new streaming services, have faced similar criticism. 'The way these companies are all being structured is crazy,' says a top TV literary agent. 'I don’t know if it’s successful to have a content czar and a Supreme Court of buyers' at Disney." [The story](. ➤California theme parks officials call suing a "viable option" over Gov. Newsom's reopening guidelines. Karen Irwin, resident and COO of Universal Studios Hollywood, said the guidelines are "not based in science or facts" and it is "disingenuous for the state to say they would work with theme parks on guidelines. Parks should be in Tier 3." Ken Potrock, president of Disneyland Resort, said the state is forcing on "what ifs" rather than facts. "I think we've proven all the world — and in this country — we have robust policies that protect staff and guests." [The story](. ➤Zack Snyder’s new Justice League cut is getting some killer laughs. Jared Leto, who played classic DC villain The Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad, has joined the reshoots for the “Snyder Cut,” the filmmaker’s definitive version of the 2017 superhero movie he was forced to exit and he never saw through completion, multiple sources tell Borys Kit. [The story](. +After breaking-out in the series adaptation of Sally Rooney's Normal People, Daisy Edgar-Jones has been tapped to lead a big-screen version of another bestselling novel. Edgar-Jones will star in Sony Pictures' feature adaptation of the Delia Owens' debut novel Where the Crawdads Sing. [More](. +The distributor of a pro-Trump documentary claims the film is being muzzled by Amazon and Facebook. Turn Key Films president and CEO Cory Tucek says he submitted Amanda Milius’ The Plot Against the President to Amazon on Oct. 10 as for streaming with a Prime account as well as for rental or purchase through the website. He was notified on Oct. 16 that it was under content review. [The story](. Release date shuffling... +Universal and MGM have found a new date for its upcoming horror film Candyman, which is now set for Aug. 27, 2021. The project, from director Nia DaCosta, had previously been taken off the theatrical calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic. DaCosta, who is also set to direct Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel 2, co-wrote the Candyman with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, whose Monkeypaw Productions is producing along with BRON Creative. [More](. +Ghostbusters: Afterlife is on the move once again. Sony and Columbia Pictures have shifted the film's release date back three months to June 11, 2021. So far, it has the date to itself. The film from Jason Reitman had been dated for March 2021, after previously being delayed from its original July 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. [More](. [Another Daytime Talker In The Works...] Another Daytime Talker In The Works... ➤Niecy Nash may be adding talk show host to her résumé. CBS Television Distribution, the studio behind The Drew Barrymore Show, is nearing a daytime syndicated talk show set to be hosted by the Reno 911! and Claws actress. --Sources say a presentation will be filmed in the near future for the potential series, which is being produced as a co-production between CTD and Ben Winston and James Corden's Fulwell73. A showrunner has not yet been determined. Reps for CTD declined comment. [The story](. In other TV news... +Paramount+ is ready to turn up the Irene Cara. The streamer, currently known as CBS All Access and poised for a rebranding next year, is dipping into its vault and will reboot its iconic 1983 feature film Flashdance as a TV series. Tracy McMillan (Amazon's Good Girls Revolt) will pen the script for the drama, which is currently in development. Angela Robinson will exec produce and direct the pilot for the potential series. Original Flashdance associate producer Lynda Obst is attached and will also exec produce. [More](. +Smokey and the Bandit rides again. More than 40 years since the Burt Reynolds feature film launched a franchise, Universal Content Productions is reviving the property for television with a new series in development from some of the biggest names in comedy. A network is not yet attached. --David Gordon Green and frequent collaborator Brian Sides are re-teaming to co-write a new take on the 1977 Southern adventure pic. Fellow Green cohorts Danny McBride, Jody Hill and Brandon James of Rough House Pictures will also exec produce the potential series alongside Seth MacFarlane and Erica Huggins and their Fuzzy Door banner. Green will also direct the potential pilot. [The story](. +The creators of The Good Fight and Evil are tackling the coronavirus pandemic with their next series project. Robert and Michelle King have scored a straight-to-series order from Spectrum Originals for The Second Wave, a six-episode drama that follows the effect of an unexpected and deadly second wave of the pandemic in New York City. The Good Fight veteran Audra McDonald, Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasaquale will star. [More](. +CBS has added five more series to its November premiere slate, giving the network full primetime blocks on three nights of the week and at least two hours of originals on two others. The broadcaster will premiere returning dramas Bull, FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and SEAL Team and comedy The Unicorn between Nov. 12 and Nov. 25. That will bring the total number of CBS primetime series to 17 (including unscripted and news programs) by the end of that month. [More](. +Also: NBC is [developing a comedy]( set in the world of figure skating with someone who knows the ice well: Olympic medalist Adam Rippon... FXX [has renewed]( the animated series Archer for a 12th season, to air in 2021... Ziwe Fumudoh, best known to her followers across social media platforms by just her first name, is [partnering with Showtime]( for a new variety series... ➤A new study is shedding light on the industry's efforts to be more inclusive. The second part of UCLA's Hollywood Diversity Report found that while diversity has improved among television actors, executives still remain overwhelmingly white and male. The analysis by researchers at the UCLA College discovered that women hold only 32 percent of studio chair and CEO jobs, while minorities just eight percent. [The story](. ➤Claims that reps failed to act in the interests of their clients aren't unusual in Hollywood, but a new lawsuit filed in L.A. County Superior Court has an interesting twist. Mehcad Brooks says his agents at Innovative Artists breached their fiduciary duty to him by failing to tell him another firm client was developing a project similar to his, a TV series based on the Salem witch trials. But Brooks isn't suing IA — he's suing attorney Rodney Diggs for allegedly tanking his arbitration in that dispute. [More](. ➤Hollywood's third-quarter earnings season will likely be a case of good news-bad news amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to Wall Street experts. TV advertising revenue will again drop compared with the year-ago period, but the decline is projected to be less pronounced than in the second quarter, widely seen as the peak of the ad impact, thanks to the lifting of stay-at-home orders, the return of live sports and a ramp-up in political advertising spending ahead of the elections. [More](. Speaking of... +Telecom giant AT&T on Thursday reported its third-quarter results, the second set of financials and subscriber data fully affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The company said its quarterly figures included a $1.72 billion hit to quarterly earnings tied to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as $190 million in incremental costs tied to the pandemic. For WarnerMedia, it detailed a $960 million hit to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the third quarter ended in September. [More](. --AT&T CEO John Stankey said on Thursday that he feels better about the state of film and TV productions amid the coronavirus pandemic, but the outlook for the theatrical business remains uncertain, with the recovery likely to be "choppy." He also admitted that the Tenet release was no "home run," even though he said he was "happy" the studio went ahead with the theatrical release. And he once again declined to comment on whether the company will sell a part of pay TV arm DirecTV, but called pay TV "a mature business." [More](. +Audio entertainment giant SiriusXM, the home of Howard Stern, on Thursday said it added 169,000 self-pay subscribers in its satellite radio and 105,000 in its Pandora unit during the third quarter. SiriusXM, led by CEO Jim Meyer, also said: "We are making significant progress in extending our relationship with Howard Stern." [More](. ➤Film review: John DeFore reviews Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, writing that the sequel "falls short of its imperfect but zeitgeist-grabbing 2006 predecessor in several ways. Few if any of them can be blamed on director Jason Woliner, who has done excellent work with comic performers like Brett Gelman, Patton Oswalt and Aziz Ansari. The easiest (but incomplete) answer is that the George W. Bush era needed a Borat, and the Trump years make him painfully redundant." [The review](. +TV review: Inkoo Kang reviews HBO Max's Equal, writing that "in celebrating a movement whose foremothers and forefathers’ names have yet to enter the common lexicon, Equal is a valuable if glossy resource." [The review](. Obituaries: [James Randi](, the magician who escaped from jail cells, underwater coffins and straitjackets before becoming a scientific skeptic bent on debunking those who peddle in the paranormal and supernatural, has died. He was 92... [Marge Champion](, who served as the real-life model for Snow White, then teamed with her husband and dance partner, Gower Champion, for Broadway musicals, television shows and movies, has died. She was 101... In other news... --LeBron James' SpringHill Company has [inked a multi-project development deal]( with Audible, aimed at producing exclusive audio content focused on culturally influential topics. --Alicia Keys, America Ferrera, Kerry Washington and numerous Hollywood stars [are joining forces]( to celebrate the power of voting with a nationally televised and streaming special set to air just days before the 2020 election. --Consumer tech spending on hardware and related services during the holiday season (October-December) is [projected to reach $135 billion]( in revenue in the U.S. — a 10 percent increase from last year — according to a new study released on Wednesday by the Consumer Technology Association. --It's the latest musical do pick-up for Apple. The streamer [has landed]( the Todd Haynes-directed doc about the Velvet Underground. --Fox News' election night coverage [will be led by]( Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, and will include a 3D White House and 14-foot video chandelier. --Regal Cinemas is [set to reopen]( 11 movie theaters in New York State after receiving a greenlight from Governor Andrew Cuomo to do so from Oct. 23. --The Walt Disney Co. executive chairman Bob Iger has joined his first outside board of directors since stepping down from Apple's board last year. Iger is [joining the board]( of Perfect Day Foods, a startup developing vegan dairy alternatives. --Digital creators David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain, Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae [have all scored]( Streamy Awards nominations. What else we're reading... --"The first debate was a horror. The second was scrapped. Now it's up to Kristen Welker" [[WaPo](] --"Top investigator in Google case says there ‘was not a rush’ to sue" [[NY Times](] --"China tops the box office but cinema stocks aren't blockbusters" [[WSJ](] --"Harry and Meghan's foundation gains steam" [[Vanity Fair](] Today's birthdays: Jeff Goldblum, 68, Christopher Lloyd, 82, Derek Jacobi, 82, Jonathan Lipnicki, 30, 21 Savage, 28. [Image] [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( Is this e-mail not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( ©2020 The Hollywood Reporter. 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 All rights reserved. OCTOBER 22, 2020 [UNSUBSCRIBE]( [MANAGE PREFERENCES]( [PRIVACY POLICY]( [TERMS OF USE](