Jennifer Maas: Celebs Rumors

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Vernā Myers will be stepping down from her role as Netflix’s head of inclusion strategy at the end of September. Myers, who was the first to ever serve in the position for the streamer when she joined in 2018, will remain as an advisor to Netflix while returning to her self-titled consulting company, The Vernā Myers Company. Upon Myers’ departure, Netflix’s vice president of inclusion strategy Wade Davis, who has worked under Myers for the past four years, will be promoted to oversee the team. Former NFL player Davis has previously consulted on inclusive corporate culture for companies including Google, Procter & Gamble and Viacom (now part of Paramount Global).

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fans spent a lot of the time out of the kitchen and in front of the TV over the weekend, saying “Yes, chef,” to the second season of FX’s “The Bear.” On Tuesday, FX and Hulu announced “The Bear” Season 2 had seen a 70% increase in total hours streamed in the first four days following its June 22 launch — when compared to the FX comedy’s first season stats over that same post-premiere time period. While FX and Hulu did not reveal the actual streaming figures behind that data point, the Disney-owned brands did confirm “The Bear’s” second season debut was the most-watched premiere of any FX series on Hulu.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Vice Studios had a new hit on its hands with the late May launch of “Bama Rush,” which the studio’s co-founder and chief content officer Danny Gabai says was Max’s most-streamed doc feature debut. But with that large viewership also came a significant discourse surrounding the extent to which “Bama Rush” director Rachel Fleit is present in her own doc about college students “rushing” to get into the sororities at the University of Alabama. That choice didn’t sit well with people who avidly followed the #BamaRush phenomenon that first swept TikTok in the summer of 2021 and again last “season” and would have preferred more behind-the-scenes content about the rush process, rather than portions devoted to Fleit’s reaction to the situation.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, Vice Media is set to be acquired by its lenders Fortress Investment Group and and Soros Fund Management. Vice representatives declined Variety‘s request for comment Thursday, however, an internal memo was sent out to employees confirming the deal with its own backers, as first reported by the New York Times, is slated to close July 7. A court hearing is scheduled for Friday during which Fortress’s winning $225 million bid (Vice was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017) for Vice is set to be approved. At that point, the sale will still need to clear a regulatory approval process to be finalized.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The livestream for Netflix’s third annual Tudum fan event garnered 78 million views across all of the streamer’s social platforms Saturday, marking this version — presented in front of 11,000 people in São Paulo, Brazil — as up 86% in viewership from last year’s 41.8 million views, and more than 203% from 2021’s initial 25.7 million. Netflix likely didn’t set out to bring the in-person Tudum crowd to tears during the three-hour event — but once they started flowing, it was a fortunate side effect the streamer proudly displayed on social media. “I wish you could have been there to convey the electricity of the audience and capture those moments,” Netflix chief marketing officer Marian Lee told Variety Tuesday about the streamer’s first attempt at pulling off Tudum as a real-time presentation with an in-person audience, following two years of the virtual-version of the event. “We posted on Twitter crying fans in the audience because it was just like that sort of Beatles moment every time one of their favorites came on stage, there were just sobbing tears in the audience.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney’s chief diversity officer and senior vice president Latondra Newton is exiting her role after more than six years, according to an internal memo obtained by Variety. An individual with knowledge of the situation says that Newton will be joining the corporate board of another company soon, and plans to devote more time to her self-owned creative company. In her role as head of DEI operations at Disney, Newton was charged with overseeing the company’s “commitment to produce entertainment that reflects a global audience and sustains a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Despite what the splashy yacht parties in Cannes suggest, media companies really are trying to save money right now. Really! Top execs at Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Netflix, Paramount Global, Amazon and NBCUniversal parent Comcast have all promised shareholders during recent quarterly earnings calls that they’ll be spending wisely amid the economic downturn. Sweeping layoffs and other cost-cutting strategies, including the removal of underperforming content from some streaming services, has been among the first orders of business in 2023. But no matter how many jobs these Hollywood heavyweights cut (in Disney’s case, 7,000 over the first half of the year), reaching an outlandish savings target (nearly $4 billion for the post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery) is going to require pinching pennies in more areas than staff headcount. While CFOs are shredding budgets to ribbons, TV’s latest FYC season poses another quandary: What is the cost vs. benefit of an Emmy this year? And does the statuette’s symbolic value go down if the best-of-television awards are not televised due to the writers strike?

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer At long last, Netflix has revealed the first footage of its highly anticipated sci-fi epic from “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — their first large-scale project at the streamer since signing a mega overall deal in 2019 — and Alexander Woo. Based on the book series by Cixin Liu, the eight-episode drama, which recently wrapped production, will launch in January 2024. Per Netflix’s logline for the sci-fi series, “A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes, five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Wild Kingdom” is roaring its way back onto NBC more than 60 years after it first debuted on the broadcast network. The iconic wildlife show will return to the Comcast-owned broadcaster this fall in a new iteration produced by Hearst Media Production Group in partnership with the original show’s sponsor, Mutual of Omaha. Titled “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild,” the new version will be hosted by wildlife expert and “Wild Kingdom” alum Peter Gros, who first appeared on a version of the series in 1985 alongside then-host Jim Fowler. Fowler was the second expert to host “Wild Kingdom,” taking over for the show’s original narrator, zoologist Marlin Perkins, after acting as Perkins’ sidekick from the start.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Zazie Beetz, Dominque Fishback, Dianna Agron and more stars braved the New York City rain Monday evening to attend the 16th annual Tribeca Artists Dinner. Hosted by Chanel at SoHo restaurant Balthazar, the event was thrown in tribute to the 10 women visual artists who contributed their work to projects featured in the 2023 Tribeca Festival, organized by festival chiefs Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal. This group of honorees included Ana Benaroya, Beverly Fishman, Christie Neptume, Lisa Lebofsky, Natia Lemay, Patricia Encarnacion, Renee Cox, Sheree Hovsepian, Shinique Smith and Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz. “When you’re 22, you’ve gotten out of those teenage years. And this year is quite spectacular. So many of our programs have matured,” Rosenthal told Variety of this year’s Tribeca Festival while on the red carpet, shielded from the downpour. “The other thing is that, the past two years whether we were just coming out of the pandemic and did a hybrid festival, and then last year there were still COVID restrictions. This feels like it’s the Roaring Twenties. People are back and ready to party — partying in the streets and coming to screenings and it’s just been fantastic.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Funko is making its move into the makeup business with the recent acquisition of cosmetics company HipDot, which will release a collection inspired by Netflix’s smash-hit “Wednesday” as its first project under Funko ownership. The cosmetics line is just one of several offerings in an upcoming collaboration between Funko and the Jenna Ortega-led MGM TV series, with products that span Funko’s iconic Pop! figurines, as well as its Loungefly accessories and high-end collectibles from its Mondo brand. Per Funko, “Celebrating Wednesday Addams’ allergy to color and inspired by the Nevermore Academy uniform, Loungefly’s new accessories will feature a grayscale color palette. Featuring a stripe pattern, the mini backpack, crossbody, wallet, and cardholder are made of twill with a vegan leather trim. The collection will also include a mystery box of pins inspired by Wednesday; and makeup items, marking Loungefly’s first forray into the category.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Joker” fans who are theorizing about the reported musical aspects of the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix-led sequel film finally have a little bit more clarity, thanks to star Zazie Beetz. “I think people will be surprised. I don’t think it’s going to be what they expect, around it being musical,” Beetz, who is reprising her role as Sophie Dumond for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” told Variety Monday at Chanel’s Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner in New York. “We all sort of express musically and dancing in our lives day-to-day. I think it’s going to work really well.” Todd Phillips returns to the director’s chair for the “Joker” sequel, which is rumored to take place prominently in Arkham Asylum.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Amid the pending fate of its co-parent company Vice Media Group, Vice TV is focusing on its latest season of “Dark Side of the Ring,” and Vice Studios-produced projects recently launched on other platforms, including “American Gladiators” on ESPN, “Bama Rush” at Max, and “100 Days to Indy” at the CW network. It’s also looking to the future, ordering second seasons of “Dark Side of Comedy” and “Sex Before the Internet” and greenlighting new series “Dark Side of the 2000s” for its own cable channel, in addition to moving Vice web series “One Star Reviews” to linear. As Vice’s president of global TV, Morgan Hertzan, put it, the Vice TV network — which is part owned by A+E Networks — is “very, very busy” right now.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Season 20 finale of Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Buddha Lo became the first ever “Top Chef: World All-Stars” winner Thursday, beating out his finale competition Sara Bradley and Gabri Rodriguez in the Paris-set “Top Chef” Season 20 finale. But Lo’s win was historic beyond that special 20th anniversary season achievement, as he became the first “Top Chef” contestant to ever win two seasons back to back, having claimed victory in Season 19, “Top Chef: Houston.” Adding another layer of prestige, Lo has the honor of being the final contestant to be declared winner by Padma Lakshmi before she exits the cooking competition after 19 seasons as host.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Molto bene! Food Network has renewed its new Italian cooking competition “Ciao House,” hosted by Alex Guarnaschelli and Gabriele Bertaccini, for a second season. “Shot on-location in Italy, the series takes ten rising culinary stars on the journey of a lifetime to live in a breathtaking Italian villa and compete against each other as individuals and in teams to prove their mastery of Italian cooking techniques and dishes,” per Food Network’s logline. “Each episode’s culinary challenges are steeped in tradition and the competitors must also navigate alliances and rivalries as they pick their own teams and each week, the losing team must vote off one of their own. In the end, the last chef standing wins a life-changing grand prize: an immersive culinary education across Italy, training with renowned Italian master chefs.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix has picked up a sex-advice talk show from “E!’s Nightly Pop” host Zach Noe Towers as its latest addition to its SiriusXM channel Netflix Is a Joke Radio. Airing biweekly on Thursdays on channel 93 beginning June 15 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, “After Hours with Zach Noe Towers” is described as “a funny, sexy, one hour radio show where no topic is too taboo and no story is too raw…as long as it gets a laugh.” Per Netflix, “In each episode, Zach will bring listeners into his own erotic escapades, welcome special guests to share their sexual journeys, and take calls to give their best advice on everything from one night stands to epic orgies to sexy souvenirs (STIs). Grounded by Zach’s signature blend of sex-positive humor and well-mannered midwestern upbringing, the show will help make conversations around sex more accessible and fun.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When Variety broke the news that Kim Cattrall will reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones for a cameo in the Season 2 finale of “And Just Like That,” I couldn’t help but wonder… is there anything that could thrill a “Sex and the City” fan more? The answer is yes: the HBO show’s 25th anniversary experience in New York City, as put on by Max, to celebrate Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha and — possibly most important — all of their stunning clothes. Formally titled “And Just Like That…It’s Been 25 Years, A Sex and the City Experience,” the event will be open June 8-June 11, but Variety and other members of the press were let into Carrie’s closet early Thursday to explore.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer HBO and Max chief Casey Bloys thinks AI has no place in the creative process at his brands. “Two things to keep in mind when I say this: One is, remember I grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is Steel Town,” Bloys, the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, told Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton during a keynote conversation Wednesday at the Variety TV FYC Fest. “So I am very, very aware of what happens when a company does not think about the future or is not aware of the future. But also, I’ve been at HBO for 19 years and I have never tested a pilot to decide whether to pick it up or not. We just don’t use all of the things other places do, it’s just not something we do. So my take on AI, the idea that AI would be involved in any sort of development or the creative process in the kinds of shows that I do, or we do, at HBO, that’s not something I want to be a part of.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Filming permit requests for TV and film projects in New York City were down 13% in April and 31.5% in May as the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike raged on, Variety has confirmed. According to information obtained by Variety, 760 requested shooting permits were issued to 177 projects by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in 2022, and 801 permits were granted to 227 projects in May last year. Comparatively, only 662 shooting permits were issued to 187 projects this April and 549 permits to 181 projects in May. The writers strike began May 2, following the WGA’s inability to ink a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) before the previous agreement expired May 1. Between April and May, the filming permits requested for shoots in NYC fell 17%, while in 2022 they had increased just over 5% between the two months.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer In Fox’s “Crime Scene Kitchen,” it’s not (entirely) about who wins or loses the most-delicious-baked-good portion, it’s about how you play the baking-detective game. For the second season, which premieres Monday at 9 p.m., host Joel McHale and judge Yolanda Gampp said the competition becomes even harder, as it includes both self-taught and classically trained bakers who come at deciphering the mystery baked goods in very different ways. This season also throws savory recipes into the mix in an attempt to trip up contestants who saw only sweet treats featured in Season 1. “The new bakers all saw the show, and I will say a lot of them swore they could do it,” McHale, who also hosted the first season of “Crime Scene Kitchen” back in 2021, told Variety. “It’s just like anything you see while you’re watching it at home, you’re like, ‘I can do that, I can figure that out.’ And then because we opened up the competition a little bit, so now it can be sweet and savory, we put in another variable that did stump a lot of them. Because some of them were classically trained, they knew their stuff very well. But some of the non-classically trained ones thought out of the box a little bit. I would say the advantages are almost equal, in a weird way.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Vice TV is once again expanding its “Dark Side” franchise with a new spinoff that should hit close to home for millennial audiences in particular: “Dark Side of the 2000s.” Premiering July 18 at 10 p.m., the 10-episode season will cover aughts subjects including the radio wars between Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony, “TRL,” the rise of TMZ, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen’s “Two and a Half Men” conflict, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” “The Bachelor,” Siegfried & Roy and men’s lifestyle magazines, or “lad mags.” Per its official logline, “From outrageous shock jocks to record breaking reality TV, and the rise of celebrity gossip to the downward spiral of a child star, ‘Dark Side of the 2000s’ delves into the decade’s untold histories, revealing dark secrets and personal insights from the people who witnessed it all first hand.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Like almost every project in Hollywood, the “Community” movie is on hold amid the writers strike. However, the bright spot in the darkest timeline is that, according to star Joel McHale, series creator Dan Harmon and co-writer Andrew Guest had almost finalized the Peacock film’s script ahead of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) work stoppage and Harmon was in talks with his ideal director for the movie. “We had a shooting date coming up, which was going to be in the summer,” McHale told Variety. “And I think they were extremely close to — I mean, Dan is somebody that tweaks things but, obviously, that’s all stopped. But I think it was pretty darn close. It was close, the shoot date was coming up and we were all excited to do it and then the writers strike happened, which obviously put everything on hold, and rightfully so. The writers are asking for very reasonable things. Writers need to be paid properly.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer WGA East members at CBS News Streaming have renewed their union contract, which includes an annual pay increase of 3% for each of the next three years. The pact, which will see the first pay bump for WGA’s CBS News Streaming staffers retroactive to March 10, also covers an increase to all salary minimums, a $500 ratification bonus for all employees, and “further benefit improvements” for the 58 members of the CBS News Streaming bargaining unit, per WGA East. This second union contract for CBS News Streaming (the first signed in 2020) has been renewed amid the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing strike, which began following the union’s inability to reach a new agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) May 1.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Could 2023 be the year of genre? Thanks to a pandemic that created a deep desire for escapist TV, there are more shows that fit into that box now than ever, many of which are eligible for Emmys this season. They include Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and “The Last of Us,” Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” Disney+’s “Andor” and “The Mandalorian,” Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Picard,” Netflix’s “The Sandman” and AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire.” Of the eight series that Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis has predicted will get a nomination in the drama category, three would fall into the sci-fi or fantasy field: “Game of Thrones” offshoot “House of the Dragon,” video game adaptation “The Last of Us” and critical darling “Yellowjackets.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney reached its 7,000 layoffs goal, handing out notices to the remaining employees impacted in its third round of job cuts last Friday ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Variety has confirmed. The Mouse House’s target was to conclude these companywide layoffs, which focused most heavily on the media divisions and left the parks largely untouched, ahead of the summer. The company still has plans to eliminate more roles internationally over a period of time, according to a source close to the situation, but Disney has now concluded the benchmark it set in February, soon after Iger’s return as CEO upon the ousting of Bob Chapek.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Gordon Ramsay’s team has been inundated with emails from C-suite execs at food businesses across the U.S. over the past week, following the premiere of his latest Fox competition series, “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.” With the unscripted series having already shot its first season in its entirety, these people are already itching to get on a potential second season of “Food Stars,” which, in a twist for Ramsay isn’t a show about how well you cook, plate or serve — it’s ultimately about how you play the business game. And the winner gets $250,000 investment from the celebrity chef himself. “As you know, 68% percent of businesses fail in the first 18 months. And so I have to judge this on the business acumen, but more importantly, the decisions and the quickness of how decisive they need to be in the cutthroat business world,” Ramsay told Variety ahead of Episode 2 of “Food Stars” airing Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Fox “So I need to get behind the character to understand the business. And then as always, stress test those businesses and look for weaknesses. I’ve made mistakes in business, but I’ve never made that same mistake twice. Everything I’ve learned and the restaurants I’ve opened, and the huge success and the issues I’ve had to deal with, across the whole sector, has gone into this shows. It’s been fascinating, because the feedback has been extraordinary. Just on LinkedIn alone, the amount of CMOs and CEOs and COOs in the first 24 hours that my team was inundated with, thousands of requests. It’s been pretty incredible.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Former President Barack Obama opened Netflix’s livestream event for his new docuseries, “Working: What We Do All Day,” on Thursday with a more aggressive statement of support for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) than what he initially said in solidarity with the ongoing writers strike. Before the panel, which aired on LinkedIn at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT, got underway, moderator Ira Glass revealed Obama had prepared remarks he wanted to deliver about the WGA’s work stoppage, which is currently in its fourth week. “Part of what this show ‘Working’ is about is how certain things are constant about the work experience. People trying to find work that’s satisfying, people trying to pay the bills,” Obama said. “Unfortunately one of the things that’s also been constant is the struggle for people to make sure their employers are treating them fairly and they’re getting a fair share of the pie. I think what we’ve seen throughout American history is that unions and worker organizations have had to make demands on their employers, those that are controlling whatever industry they’re in, to make sure they’re treated fairly and entertainment is no exception. My hope would be that in a time of big technological change, where you’ve got big mega corporations that are doing really well, that they keep in mind the creative people who are actually making the product that consumers appreciate and that gets exported all around the world.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Colin Farrell, Mariska Hargitay, Danny Strong, Paula Pell, Rachel Dratch, Michael Kelly and Craig Zobel were among the stars who came out to the writers strike picket line outside Paramount Global’s New York City office in Times Square Thursday. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.-N.Y., and local politicians spoke at the event in support of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) cause against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that has led to a four-week-and-counting work stoppage due to the organizations’ inability to ink a new contract May 1. “This is about what’s right. We’ve seen income inequality grow exponentially over the last decade; and in your business, it has never been more present,” Gillibrand said to the crowd, filled with not only WGA members, but also those from SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters, among other unions. “We see writers working hard every day to produce content and we have an unfair playing field. Not only does AI want to displace our writers, they simply can’t. AI generates content based on what’s been written before the work you did last year, and the year before. It’s not original. It’s not imaginative. It doesn’t come from the human heart. It’s not about a human experience. It’s not about what people actually want to learn about or know about or see or experience. That is what writers bring to the equation every single time. So this strike is so important for the future of this country. It’s about the value of workers; workers and what they create is fundamentally valuable.”

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor That was the week that was, and last week was an upfronts week like no other. Variety’s team of New York-based television and digital reporters offer a debrief on the 2023 programming presentations in New York on the latest episode of Variety weekly podcast “Strictly Business.” The drama roiling the industry was evident in all the Writers Guild of America picket signs that swarmed around the major events held from May 15 to May 17. That added to the general madness of the week that is a television and advertising industry tradition but is starting to feel anachronistic in the streaming era. But the upfronts are still a hard habit to break. Netflix even crashed the party this year, albeit virtually.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fox is serving up a new season of Joel McHale’s mystery baking competition “Crime Scene Kitchen” next week and bringing several celebrity new guest judges along for the ride. Variety can exclusively reveal that the lineup of Season 2’s famous faces includes “Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum NeNe Leakes, country music star Martina McBride, “Next Level Chef” (a Gordon Ramsay-led Fox food competition) and “Top Chef” star Richard Blais and NBA champ and “Special Forces” (yet another Fox competition) contestant Dwight Howard. Those guest judges will pop in during different episodes this season to join host McHale and full-time judges Curtis Stone and Yolanda Gampp in their evaluations.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Showtime research and scheduling chief Kim Lemon is exiting his post after 34 years with the company. Upon his exit, MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks’ Laurel Weir will be adding oversight of the Showtime brand (soon to be renamed Paramount+ With Showtime) to her purview. Most recently executive vice president of data strategy, research, scheduling and programming, Lemon began his career at Showtime more than three decades ago as a manager of marketing research. “Throughout his tenure, Kim has played an integral role in Showtime’s evolution from a linear network to a bonafide streaming service, establishing a first-in-class data science group,” wrote Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks president Chris McCarthy and Paramount’s executive vice president and chief research officer Colleen Fahey Rush in a memo to staff Tuesday, which was obtained by Variety. “He is a pioneer in brand strategy, always prioritizing our content and being mindful of how it would inform our growth while showing great reverence for the creative process and our audience’s feedback.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SAG-AFTRA has struck a deal with celebrity video platform Cameo to cover the brand deals that members make through Cameo for Business (C4B) under a guild contract. The new pact, “C4B x SAG-AFTRA Agreement,” will allow SAG-AFTRA members to count C4B earnings toward health and pension benefits, just as those earnings become a growing concern for out of work actors while the Writers Guild of America’s strike against Hollywood studios and their organization, Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), rages on. SAG-AFTRA has been a big supporter of WGA on the picket line over the first three weeks of the strike, with SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher being very vocal ahead of the the actors guild entering its own contract negotiations with the AMPTP on June 7.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer For its first-ever upfronts presentation, Netflix took a page out of broadcast networks’ traditional playbook and boasted about not just what series it has launching in the coming months, or even through the end of the year, but specifically calling out its fall 2023 slate. A staple of upfronts week — though not as much lately, first because of the COVID-19 pandemic and now because of the writers strike — has been the unveiling of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox’s fall lineups. This was done so advertisers knew what they were buying ads against and therefore what demos and audience size it would be most likely to reach by promoting products during those programs.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Additive Creative Partners, the digital-focused talent management arm of Brent Montgomery and Jimmy Kimmel’s Wheelhouse DNA, has signed nine top digital content creators as clients, including Lauren Kettering, Legit Tim, YouTube collective TKOR, James Wright and Carrie Berk. Wheelhouse DNA launched last year out of Kimmel and Montgomery’s media company Wheelhouse, as the division focused on digital-first and influencer content. The new talent signed by the company will be repped by Additive Creative managers Michael Senzer and Adden Laughlin. Senzer will continue to run Additive Creative’s day-to-day operations, with Wheelhouse DNA managing director Fanny Baudry will oversee the talent management division.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off its 2023 upfront presentation in a no-frills way, with an overall brand sizzle and ad chief Jon Steinlauf giving a few remarks on stage at the Theater at Madison Square Garden Wednesday. While the presentation covering HBO, Max, CNN, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery and more Warner Bros. Discovery brands was shorter than last year’s show (which was the company’s first since the merger that created it last April) the tight 90-minute presentation still covered each of its key divisions. Albeit, with much less sizzle, with no stars in attendance amid the writers strike. “Let me just start by saying I am hopeful that a fair resolution is found soon with the writers,” HBO and Max chief Casey Bloys said, adding that he hopes for a return of talent to the stage, “making this a far more entertaining show” compared to “me and my clips.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Food Network has ordered two new series hosted by Selena Gomez as part of its upcoming programming slate. The first show from the “Only Murders in the Building” star, who also hosts cooking series “Selena + Chef” at HBO Max (soon to just be Max), will be a “celebration-focused series” debuting during the holiday season later this year. In 2024, Gomez will launch a show that sees her going to other chefs’ kitchens for a change. The untitled project will feature Gomez “meeting up with some of the best chefs in the country in a quest to cook their most popular dishes when she visits their kitchens.” A source tells Variety these new shows are unrelated to “Selena + Chef,” which has not yet been renewed for a fifth season at Max.