Variety 4/5/2022

There is a dizzying amount of damage control and chaos still unfolding from the wreckage of the now most infamous Oscar ceremony on record. The more time people have had to process Will Smith’s shocking assault on Chris Rock on March 27, the angrier many have become at Smith for hijacking Hollywood’s biggest night of the year. Not only did he ravage his own golden moment — winning best actor — but he robbed the Oscar hosts, other nominees and winners and the live and TV audiences of enjoying what should have been a purely celebratory evening. The latest twist in this surreal saga came April 1, when Smith announced he was resigning from the Motion Picture Academy, calling his actions “shocking, painful and inexcusable” and acknowledging the hurt he’s…

Nielsen investors just got a nice payday. Will the company’s biggest customers benefit financially as well? The media measurement giant raised eyebrows last week when it agreed to be sold to a private-equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an affiliate of activist fund Elliott Management — which has been lobbying for a Nielsen sale — and Brookfield Business Partners. The all-cash deal for $28 per share, or $16 billion, represents a 60% premium over Nielsen’s closing stock price as of March 11. For any version of Nielsen, the ad industry needs are identical: deep disclosures and real transparency [and] commitment to the modernization that sharply increased competition demands.”— Sean Cunningham, Video Advertising Bureau The nation’s TV networks, which depend on Nielsen’s TV ratings as the basis for billions…

The Grammys, unlike the usually more-or-less accurately forecast Oscars, are always full of surprises, and this year was hardly an exception, with Jon Batiste leading the field and Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X both going home empty-handed. Surprise: Silk Sonic sweeps The duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak had the only perfect average among nominees with a significant number of turns at bat, winning record of the year, song of the year, R&B song and R&B performance. If they’d been up for album of the year (it won’t be eligible till next Grammys), they probably would have gotten that one too. Snub: No presenter calls Lil Nas X by his name Nas still has his “Old Town Road” victories from two years ago to keep him warm, but…

A common refrain about television is that it’s a dying business, and streaming is the new frontier. Yet for established entertainment companies getting into streaming, TV remains far more lucrative. In 2021, NBCUniversal and Disney each reported losses approaching $2 billion for their streaming businesses, with WarnerMedia’s HBO Max benefiting from the inclusion of HBO’s traditional profit line to hit a reportable income of $472 million, down from $1.4 billion in 2020. Still, the profits these firms drew from TV dwarfed their digital totals. While Netflix, with an income level of $5 billion last year, shows it’s possible to make big money from streaming, Disney and WarnerMedia mint more than this from their legacy TV operations. Their ultimate hope is to replace that revenue via streaming, but the financials illustrate…

As Discovery and WarnerMedia leaders go full throttle on final merger preparation for the April 11 closing date, the industry is eager to learn how Warner Bros., HBO and the former Turner cable networks will exist alongside Discovery’s large portfolio of global channels and content operations. The formal tying-of-the-knot can’t come soon enough for executives, staff, creatives and talent at both companies, who also are still largely in the dark about potential structural changes, management shifts and strategic pivots. For now, there’s a rudimentary “initial wordmark” logo for Warner Bros. Discovery, unveiled last June to some chuckles; the confirmation that HBO Max and Discovery Plus will be combined into a single streamer at some point down the road (no word on CNN Plus); and a rough idea of what leadership…

When “The Simpsons” creative team decided to use American Sign Language in an upcoming episode, there was one hitch: The show’s animated characters have only four fingers. “That was a little tricky, especially because the one thing we’re translating is Shakespeare,” says writer Loni Steele Sosthand. “But I think we pulled it off.” Sosthand, who joined “The Simpsons” in 2020, is the writer behind the show’s April 10 installment, “The Sound of Bleeding Gums.” The episode is not only notable for featuring the first use of ASL on “The Simpsons,” but it also includes the show’s first deaf voice actors. The story centers on Lisa Simpson, who discovers that her favorite musician and mentor, the late saxophonist Bleeding Gums Murphy, had a son who was born deaf. She meets the…