| | | | | | What's news: Dana White is joining Meta's board. Paramount and Comcast have renewed their comprehensive distribution agreement. Getty Images and Shutterstock are merging. Tubi has hit 97m users, Roku hit 90m. — Abid Rahman
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Aubrey Plaza Breaks Silence on Husband Jeff Baena's Death ►"This is an unimaginable tragedy." Aubrey Plaza and the family of her late husband, Jeff Baena, released a brief but heartfelt statement on Monday, two days after his death by suicide. “This is an unimaginable tragedy,” the statement read. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.” The statement was attributed to Plaza and the Baena/Stern family. Baena, an indie film director and writer, died Friday in his Los Angeles home. He was 47. Plaza and Baena were married in 2021. She had been planning to present at Sunday’s Golden Globes but pulled out following his death. The story. |
Meta Will End Fact-Checking Program ►"We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship." Meta, the tech giant that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is making major changes to its content moderation policies, eliminating its fact-checking program and bringing more political conversations back to feeds on Facebook and Instagram, as part of a bid by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “restore free expression” on its platforms. In the video Tuesday, Zuckerberg lamented that amid the debates around the harms from online content, “governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.” The story.
—"I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future." In a surprise move, UFC chief Dana White will join the board of directors of Meta. Mark Zuckerberg — an avid mixed martial arts fan — announced the addition of White and two other board members, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst, Monday. In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg said that he had been working to add the new board members for a while, and of White he wrote that "I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand." The story.
—🤝 New carriage deal 🤝 Paramount Global and NBCUniversal parent Comcast unveiled the renewal of comprehensive distribution agreements on Tuesday “to continue delivering Paramount’s leading portfolio of broadcast, entertainment, news and sports brands across Xfinity platforms.” Financial and timing details weren’t disclosed. The multiyear deals ensure carriage of Paramount’s networks, including CBS, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network and more. The story.
—🤝 Merger 🤝 Getty Images and Shutterstock, two of the globe’s biggest commercial photo, video and stock image marketplaces, are planning a $3.7b merger as the companies grapple with a marketplace rocked by the emergence of artificial intelligence tools. Getty, which provides wire service photography and video to news outlets and businesses globally, including most red carpets and film festival premieres, plans a merger with rival Shutterstock that touts a stock image library of 450m photos. If the deal closes, the combined company will be led by Craig Peters and called Getty Images Holdings, Inc and keep trading on the New York Stock Exchange as GETY. The story.
—FAST giant. Tubi, Fox’s free, advertising-supported streaming platform, has surpassed 97m monthly active users. That’s a jump from more than 78m MAUs posted in mid-2024. The streaming platform, which launched in 2014, on Monday said it streamed over 10b streaming hours in calendar 2024. The latest growth spurt at Tubi comes as it fends off competition in the FAST space from top rivals like Pluto TV and Roku Channel and the service has expanded its own content offerings to more than 275,000 library movies and TV episodes and over 300 Tubi Originals. The story.
—Keeping pace. Roku has reached more than 90m streaming households as of the first week of January 2025. The streaming platform provided the update Tuesday, after saying in October that it no longer plans to give quarterly updates on its streaming household numbers and average revenue per user. As of October, the company had 85.5m streaming households. The story. |
THR's Writer Roundtable ►"I was sitting in the library writing it, crying." THR's award-winning Roundtable Series continues, next up are the film writers. Six scribes who crafted seven of 2024’s top screenplays — James Mangold (A Complete Unknown), Jason Reitman (Saturday Night), Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain), Halina Reijn (Babygirl), Justin Kuritzkes (Challengers and Queer) and Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light) — sat down with THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg for a lively discussion about their craft. The roundtable.
—"Jump in and learn how to swim after." It's double roundtable day, with THR's music editor Mesfin Fekadu sitting down with the songwriters. Andra Day (Exhibiting Forgiveness), Andrew Watt (Elton John: Never Too Late), Robbie Williams (Better Man), Camille (Emilia Pérez) and Andrew Wyatt (The Last Showgirl) talk to Mesfin about their dream collaborators, spirit animals and whether writing film music is more like a battle or a surreal experience. The roundtable. |
Globes Producers On Nikki Glaser, Vin Diesel and That Unusual Camera Setup ►"There were things that we wanted to add this year and take some chances, frankly, to add value for the viewers at home." THR's Alex Weprin spoke to Golden Globes producers Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss Monday to get their reaction to Nikki Glaser’s acclaimed performance as host, that unscripted moment between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, and trying to bring the party atmosphere of the International Ballroom to viewers at home. The interview.
—On the rise. The Golden Globes saw its viewership rise from last year’s event, according to CBS. Sunday’s awards drew 10.1m viewers, according to VideoAmp figures. That’s up more than 7 percent from a year ago, when CBS aired the awards for the first time since 1982. Live streams on the CBS app and Paramount+ were up 9 percent from a year ago. CBS has been using VideoAmp as its ratings provider for the past several months while in a contract dispute with Nielsen. The two companies’ measurements are generally in the same ballpark but don’t necessarily match up. The ratings.
—"Here’s Ben Affleck. I can’t wait to see which Jennifer you try to ruin next." Hosting an awards show can be a thankless gig. Yet critics agree Nikki Glaser crushed her first time hosting the Golden Globes. However, the comedian omitted several jokes from her monologue as they were "too mean." Talking to Howard Stern for his SiriusXM show on Monday morning, Glaser performed the jokes that would have almost certainly gone over well with most audiences, if not some of the people in the room. The jokes. |
BAFTA Rising Star Award Noms ►🏆 Andy's to lose 🏆 Anora star Mikey Madison is among BAFTA's 2025 Rising Star nominees. The full list this year includes Jharrel Jerome (Unstoppable) and Nabhaan Rizwan (In Camera) alongside Marisa Abela (Back To Black), Madison and David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus). The five named were unveiled on Tuesday during a London press conference at The Savoy Hotel. The Rising Star award, now in its 20th year, is the only prize voted for by the British public. The winner be revealed at the BAFTA Film Awards, which take place on Feb. 16. The story.
—🏆 Vintage year 🏆 The 2025 NAACP Image Awards nominations have been revealed, with The Piano Lesson, the Malcolm Washington-directed film adaptation of August Wilson’s play starring Danielle Deadwyler and John David Washington, up for 14 nominations, the most of any film this year. Other top film nominees include six-time contenders Bob Marley: One Love and The Book of Clarence and five-time nominees Wicked, The Six Triple Eight and Nickel Boys. In addition to Wicked‘s nods, star Cynthia Erivo is also up for the Image Awards’ top prize of entertainer of the year. The nominees.
—🏆 Sounds good 🏆 Dune: Part Two and Deadpool & Wolverine tie for the lead number of feature nominations for the 72nd Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards with three nods each in the categories of dialogue/ADR, effects/foley and music. Following behind with two nominations each are Alien: Romulus (dialogue/ADR and effects/foley), A Complete Unknown (dialogue/ADR and music), Emilia Pérez (international and music) and Wicked (dialogue/ADR and music). All six films have been shortlisted for the Oscar in sound, as has The Wild Robot, which received an MPSE Golden Reel nomination in the feature animation category. The nominees. |
'Natalia Grace' Final Chapter Zeroes In on Allegations Around Adoptive Family ►"We didn’t even know that we were continuing the story." For THR, Brande Victorian reports that the third season of the ID channel docuseries Curious Case of Natalia Grace brings to light allegations of financial and physical abuse against Natalia’s new adoptive parents, Antwon and Cynthia Mans; THR has reached out to the Indiana Police Department about the allegations. The story.
—📅 Dated, sort of 📅 The Last of Us is returning in April, with a specific premiere date to be announced at a later date. Co-creator, writer and executive producer Neil Druckmann announced the news during Sony’s press conference at CES on Monday. The season will consist of seven episodes. Season two continues the story of apocalypse survivors Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and will introduce several new cast members, including Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, who is the focus of the new teaser trailer also released on Monday. The story.
—Hiking his price. Comedian Kevin Nealon has licensed his self-produced talk show, Hiking with Kevin, to the Fox News-owned streaming platform Fox Nation. The show sees Nealon joined by high-profile celebrity guests, including Conan O’Brien, Rob Lowe, Nikki Glaser, David Spade, Martin Short and others as they hike through the canyons of Los Angeles, Malibu, Utah, and elsewhere. Nealon has been booking, shooting and producing the interviews himself for years, posting them to his YouTube channel. Fox Nation is making 10 episodes of Hiking with Kevin available on its platform. The story. |
TV Review: 'Severance' S2 ►"Hits uncomfortably close to home." THR's Angie Han reviews season two of Apple TV+'s Severance. Adam Scott returns in the Ben Stiller-produced series about employees of a corporation who've undergone a procedure to separate their work memories from the rest of their lives. The review.
—"A sweet crowd-pleaser." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Pat Boonnitipat's How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. A multi-territory hit in Southeast Asia, the Thai comedy-drama, and Oscar entry, observes members of a Bangkok family jostling to be first in line for an inheritance. The review.
In other news...
—Saturday Night Live docuseries trailer shares new interviews, classic clips
—Amy Schumer pretends to be expecting in Netflix’s Kinda Pregnant trailer
—iHeartPodcast Awards 2025 nominees
—Goteborg Film Festival 2025 line-up
—Joey King, Cooper Koch to unveil 2025 SAG Awards nominees
—SNL, Saks celebrate show’s 50th anniversary with special merch
—Sesame Workshop names Joseph Giraldi as COO
—Palak Patel named CCO for Prime Focus Studios
—Tom Holland and Zendaya are engaged
—Roger Pratt, Oscar-nominated cinematographer known for Batman and Harry Potter, dies at 77
What else we're reading...
—Elie Honig writes TikTok’s last stand against a U.S. ban will be in the Supreme Court [Intelligencer]
—Kyndall Cunningham looks into why so many men are doing ayahuasca [Vox]
—Anant Gupta reports that people in India have slammed the MAGA civil war over H-1B skilled visas as racist [WaPo]
—Nitish Pahwa writes that Peacock’s latest app update blurs the lines between TV, games, and social media [Slate]
—Ian Sample reports on a new study that suggests that the Roman Empire’s use of lead lowered IQ levels across Europe [Guardian]
Today...
...in 2011, Relativity Media released Dominic Sena's Season of the Witch in theaters. Set in 14th century Europe, the supernatural action film starred birthday boy Nicolas Cage as well as Ron Perlman, Claire Foy and Stephen Graham and made $91m at the box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Nicolas Cage (61), Jeremy Renner (54), Sammo Kam-Bo Hung (73), Leslie Grace (30), David Caruso (69), Doug E. Doug (55), Haley Bennett (37), Lyndsy Fonseca (38), Linda Kozlowski (67), Lauren Cohan (43), Robert Sheehan (37), Erin Gray (75), Lorraine Ashbourne (64), Michaela Jaé Rodriguez (34), Brett Dalton (42), Steven Williams (76), Jess Darrow (30), Callum Woodhouse (31), Liam Aiken (35), Sofia Wylie (21), Kerri Medders (25), Kevin Rahm (54), Robert Ri'chard (42), Kierston Wareing (49), Max Riemelt (41), Shi Ne Nielson (44), Bipasha Basu (46), Hallie Todd (63), Nick Sagar (37), Buster Reeves (50), Camryn Grimes (35), David Marciano (65), Marcus Scribner (25), Lauren Buglioli (38) |
| Emilio Echevarría, the standout Mexican actor who starred as the hitman known as El Chivo (The Goat) in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Amores Perros, has died. He was 80. The obituary. |
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