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Today In Entertainment JANUARY 23, 2021
What's news: Remembering Larry King, why NBCSN's closure could be a boon for USA Network, shifting release dates from Disney and Paramount, studios lean into fan demand, Fox reviving America's Most Wanted. Plus: Brie Larson adds another Apple series, and Tom Brokaw retires from NBC News. --Alex Weprin Another Cable Channel Bites The Dust ►NBCUniversal is pulling the plug on NBCSN, its cable sports network. The channel will shut down by the end of 2021, with its signature live sporting events airing instead on USA Network and Peacock. --According to a memo to staff from NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua, NHL games (including Stanley Cup playoff games) and NASCAR races will start running on USA later this year, "with key elements of NBCSN’s programming moving to USA Network and, in some cases, Peacock for 2022 and beyond." The story. +Could the shutdwn of NBCSN be a lifeline for USA? "[USA] has a larger footprint than NBCSN does and is more likely to be on a lower-cost service tier from MVPD providers," Rick Porter writes. "An influx of live sports could also be a way for USA to keep its viewer numbers (and carriage fees from cable and satellite providers) up, similar to a network like WarnerMedia's TNT, which carries a heavy load of sports programming amid a shrinking lineup of scripted originals. --"USA has been a top five cable entertainment brand for over twenty years by way of constantly broadening our slate and finding ways to excite our viewers through immersive storytelling and iconic personalities," said Frances Berwick, chairman entertainment networks at NBCUniversal. "We remain committed to original entertainment programming, and believe that high-profile live sports will complement USA’s broad premium scripted, unscripted and WWE slate, enabling us to engage our passionate, intersecting audiences more deeply and with greater urgency." The story. Remembering Larry King ►Larry King, CNN's question-and-answer man for a quarter-century, dies at 87. King, who never made it to college and never took a journalism class, first made his mark in Miami and then from a studio in Washington, D.C., where he hosted the first national radio talk show in the U.S. and attracted a weekly audience of 3 million-5 million listeners. --He hosted Larry King Live on CNN from June 1, 1985, until Dec. 18, 2010, earning a listing in the Guinness Book of Records as having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot. King died Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The obituary. --"We mourn the passing of our colleague Larry King," CNN president Jeff Zucker said in a statement Saturday morning. "The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him. We are so proud of the 25 years he spent with CNN, where his newsmaker interviews truly put the network on the international stage. From our CNN family to Larry's, we send our thoughts and prayers, and a promise to carry on his curiosity for the world in our work." ►Disney is shifting around more release dates. The King's Man is on the move. Disney has shifted the 20th Century film to Aug. 20. It previously was slated for March 12. Matthew Vaughn returns to direct the World War I prequel to his Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017). --Disney also removed 20th Century's Bob's Burgers from the calendar. It had been set for April 9. 20th Century's Ron's Gone Wrong has moved six months to Oct. 22, while Searchlight's The Night House is now dated for July 16. Searchlight's The Eyes of Tammy Faye also has found a date and will open Sept. 24 in limited release. Meanwhile, Searchlight's horror movie Antlers, from Scott Cooper, also has a date and is now set for Oct. 29. The story. +And at Paramount: The ViacomCBS studio is pushing back yet again the release of marquee title A Quiet Place Part II further into 2021 amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. The studio has now delayed the John Krasinski film to Sept. 17. That's after the sequel was initially pushed from Sept. 4, 2020 to April 23, 2021. More. Franchise Fever ►Welcome to the multiverse: Studios lean into fan demand. To boost their streaming services, Hollywood giants are developing dozens of shows and spinoff features based on a few valuable franchises — does that risk overexposure? The story. +In other Heat Vision news: Paramount Animation is heading realms unknown with Tom Wheeler, the writer of Puss in Boots and co-creator of Netflix’s Cursed. The studio division has optioned the film rights to C.O.S.M.O.S., the upcoming children’s adventure book series written by Wheeler. Wheeler is also attached to write the adaptation. More. ►Fox is giving new life to one of its foundational series. The network has greenlit a new version of America's Most Wanted, with former ABC News anchor Elizabeth Vargas serving as host. --The new series, set to premiere in March, will have the same format as its predecessor: Each week, Vargas will present cases involving fugitives from justice and ask for viewers' help in tracking them down. The show will also employ social media for viewer tips and use technology like augmented reality and 3-D projections of what suspects might look like now — tools that didn't exist in the show's first incarnation — for its re-enactments. The story. In other TV news... +Brie Larson is adding a second series at Apple to her workload. The Captain Marvel actress is set to star in and executive produce Lessons in Chemistry. Apple's TV+ platform has given a straight to series order for the project, which it landed in a highly competitive situation. The story. +Streaming ratings: Pixar's Soul became the first feature film to top Nielsen's weekly streaming rankings, debuting at No. 1 for the week of Dec. 21-27. The movie, which premiered on Disney+, topped two other high-profile premieres during Christmas week: Drama series Bridgerton and George Clooney's feature film The Midnight Sky, both on Netflix. Wonder Woman 1984 also premiered on Christmas on HBO Max, but Nielsen's streaming measurement doesn't currently include that platform and WarnerMedia doesn't release viewing data for HBO Max. The numbers. +For its annual survey of non-fiction producers, NPACT skipped on ranking TV players on a variety of criteria — instead asking its membership to name which buyers have been best to work with since the pandemic. Their top selections, in alphabetical order, are Bravo, Discovery, HBO Max and Netflix. More. Revolving door: After 55 years with the network, Tom Brokaw is retiring from NBC News. Brokaw, who anchored NBC Nightly News from 1983 to 2004, had been working as a political analyst and contributor to NBC News programming after stepping down from the network's flagship evening newscast... Gregg Sulkin, star of Hulu’s Marvel series Runaways, has signed with APA for representation... Obituaries: Gregory Sierra, who endeared himself to 1970s sitcom fans as the genial Julio Fuentes on Sanford and Son and the impassioned Sgt. Miguel "Chano" Amenguale on Barney Miller, has died. He was 83...Henry "Hank" Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record and gracefully left his mark as one of baseball's greatest all-around players, died Friday. He was 86... Mira Furlan, the Croatian actress who portrayed the Minbari ambassador Delenn on the 1990s sci-fi series Babylon 5, has died. She was 65... Ben Halpern, a publicist for Paramount, United Artists, Filmways and Universal, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 99... Bob Avian, the two-time Tony Award-winning choreographer who worked on A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls and Promises, Promises in a Broadway career that spanned six decades, has died. He was 83... John Aldred, the two-time Oscar-nominated British soundman who collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, David Lean and Stanley Kubrick across a 50-year career, has died. He was 99... ►TV review: Daniel Fienberg reviews the HBO docuseries Painting with John, writing "slightly more formless and significantly more myopic than How To or Pretend It's a City, Painting With John is still a soothing, contemplative, eccentric series with plenty to recommend it." The review. ►Awards Chatter podcast: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist star Jane Levy discusses her years-long journey to becoming an "overnight sensation"; life as a young actress in the #MeToo era; and providing musical theater to the masses while Broadway is shuttered. Listen. In other news... --Producer Ricky Kirshner on pulling off Celebrating America in just 6 weeks with high security, secret fireworks, and Tom Hanks. --The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled a host of industry heavy-hitters for its 2021 pandemic-era jury members. Daughters of the Dust director Julie Dash, Harriet star Cynthia Eviro and novelist Hanya Yanagihara will judge the U.S. dramatic competition, as they figure among 22 jurors selected to award prizes from six competitions on Feb. 2. --UBS analyst John Hodulik upgraded his rating on the stock of the Walt Disney Co. from "neutral" to "buy" in a Friday report, lauding the Hollywood giant's streaming success and arguing its theme parks would benefit from the reopening of the economy after the coronavirus pandemic. --DKC — the full-service PR, digital communications and content production agency — has launched a new division aimed at bridging the gap between brands and Black culture in the digital and media space. --Pure Flix Entertainment, the faith-based film studio behind the God's Not Dead franchise, has changed its corporate name to Pinnacle Peak Pictures. What else we're reading... --"Can a brash executive in Kansas save movie theaters?" [NY Times] --"2021's celebrity-gossip renaissance" [Vanity Fair] --"The business of influence with YouTuber MKBHD" [The Verge] --"What does the uncertain state of the Tokyo games reveal about the Olympic model? [The Ringer] Today's birthdays: Mariska Hargitay, 57, Tiffani Thiessen, 47, Anita Pointer, 73, Doutzen Kroes, 36, Tito Ortiz, 46.
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