🎬 Paramount + WBD?

👋 Good morning. Today SAG-AFTRA crowns its new president and leadership team. 'Lord of the Rings' star Sean Astin faces off against indie actor Chuck Slavin to lead Hollywood's 160,000 performers. The winner will take the reins from Fran Drescher as the union heads into crucial 2026 contract negotiations with studios. Results for president, secretary-treasurer and other positions should be available sometime this evening here.

Welcome to The Dailies. Pour yourself something caffeinated and let's dive into what's moving the needle in entertainment, starting with the latest streaming data. 👇

TOP STREAMED
📊 What U.S. audiences were watching this week…

How last week’s releases are stacking up…

• 📰 The Paper: (Peacock) Binge-dropped to 9M hours streamed in week one, translating to ~1.9M season views per Luminate. A soft start for Peacock, trailing past breakouts like ‘Poker Face’ S1 (14.5M hours) and ‘Day of the Jackal’ (17M hours).

• 🎙️Highest 2 Lowest: (Apple TV+) After a limited theatrical run, it opened with 2.3M weekend views. That’s a respectable debut by Apple standards. Outpaced ‘Echo Valley’ (1.5M) but short of ‘The Gorge’ (3.5M).

Sources: Top-streamed chart (U.S.) via FlixPatrol; new release viewership data (U.S.) via Luminate.

CLOSEUP
📺 Paramount wants Warner Bros. next…

Paramount is already hunting for its next big catch: Warner Bros. Discovery. The Ellison family is preparing a majority-cash bid for the entire company. The news comes weeks after closing their $8B Skydance-Paramount merger in August and sent WBD shares soaring 29% yesterday.

WBD is in the midst of a major reorganization, planning to split its cable networks from streaming and studios by April 2026. But Paramount reportedly wants the whole package. The Ellisons clearly see value in keeping everything together—they didn't spin off Paramount's cable assets after their takeover.

The mega-merger would essentially put tech CEO David Ellison in charge of a Hollywood mega-studio. What that would look like:

• A $57B+ media giant (combining WBD's $39.8B and Paramount's $17.95B market caps)

• Combined streaming platforms (HBO Max, Paramount+, Discovery+) that could rival Netflix and Disney, plus broadcast networks CBS, HBO, CNN, MTV, and Nickelodeon

• A huge amount of Hollywood's biggest franchises under one roof, including DC Comics, Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones

Critics are already mobilizing: Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the deal to be blocked hours after the news broke, warning of a "dangerous concentration of power." Some industry insiders worry about the creative impact. Fewer studios mean fewer buyers for producers and potentially less theatrical output. When Disney bought Fox, that studio went from about 15 films annually to 5.

Looking ahead… There's no formal bid yet and no timeline for when one might come. Paramount has brought on financial advisors, but the deal could still fall through. If it does move forward, it would need to clear significant regulatory hurdles.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 Production assistants, pharma ads, and Netflix…

🎥 Production assistants on 'The Pitt' just made Hollywood history. Support staffers on HBO Max's medical drama unanimously voted last week to unionize with LiUNA Local 724, reportedly becoming the first PAs on a major TV show to organize. These workers who manage sets, coordinate logistics, and handle countless tasks that keep productions running can now negotiate for health insurance, wage increases, and basic protections that other film crews have had for decades. The victory comes as production slowdowns have made PA jobs scarce and competition fierce, with many cases of assistant directors now stepping down to entry-level roles just to find work. Union leaders call it "only the beginning" for Hollywood's unsung workforce.

💊 New rules could turn 30-second pharma ads into 4-minute slogs. The Trump administration's new executive order requires drug companies to include comprehensive side effect lists in TV commercials, potentially stretching standard spots into basically unusable 4-minute infomercials. Since 1997, drugmakers only needed risk overviews in ads, directing viewers elsewhere for complete information. Now they'll disclose everything on-air. Pharma spends $5B+ annually on TV ads, money that could dry up and destabilize TV's entire ecosystem. Fox Corp says losing pharma could cost hundreds of millions, and news programs that rely heavily on pharma ads could get hit particularly hard.

⏲️ Netflix's 10-year holds are up. Nearly 47% of Netflix's English-language scripted originals face expiring exclusivity deals in the coming years. 'House of Cards' loses its Netflix exclusivity next year, and other hits aren't far behind: 'Orange Is the New Black' follows in 2029 and 'Ozark' in 2032. Back in 2012, Netflix pioneered streaming originals and negotiated 10-year worldwide exclusive holds with studios. At the time, nobody knew how these shows would perform or what streaming would become. Now that the clock is winding down, the streamer will have to decide: pay to keep these shows, or let studios take them back and sell them to rival streamers, FASTs like Tubi, or cable networks eager for proven content.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Michelle Buteau and Zooey Deschanel will star in the time-travel comedy ‘Heather of the Valley,’ filming in 2026. (more)

• Idris Elba will direct and star in Apple TV+’s psychological thriller ‘This Is How It Goes.’ (more)

• Lulu Wang will direct Lucy Liu and Charles Melton in ‘Audition,’ a Higher Ground and Laika feature adaptation of Katie Kitamura’s novel. (more)

• Legendary has paid seven figures for movie rights to SenLinYu’s dark fantasy ‘Alchemised,’ which began as Harry Potter fan fiction. (more)

• Imagine Entertainment is developing ‘Dangerously Funny,’ a feature on trailblazing comedy duo The Smothers Brothers. (more)

TV Development 📺

• ABC is developing workplace comedy ‘All’s Fine,’ set in a Texas food truck park from David E. Kelley, Chrissy Teigen, and Caroline Fox. (more)

• Francesca Sloane will write ‘Big Little Lies’ S3 and has signed an overall deal with HBO. (more)

• Matthew Rhys has joined Rachel Brosnahan and Jack Reynor in S2 of Apple TV+’s ‘Presumed Innocent.’ (more)

• Joel Kinnaman will star in Prime Video’s newly ordered crime drama series ‘Bishop.’ (more)

• ‘Overcompensating’ is renewed for S2 at Prime Video. (more)

• Apple TV+ has renewed the sci-fi series ‘Foundation’ for a S4. (more)

Business 🤝

• Netflix chief product officer Eunice Kim is leaving the company. (more)

• Angel Studios, distributor of ‘Sound of Freedom,’ has closed its SPAC merger and will begin trading on the NYSE Thursday under ANGX. (more)

• Paramount has launched Paramount Sports Entertainment, a new division led by Jesse Sisgold that includes Skydance Sports. (more)

• Paramount has hired former Meta exec Dane Glasgow as chief product officer to lead its digital, AI, and product strategy. (more)

Together with

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RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend…

🎥 THEATRICAL

• The Long Walk: Stephen King dystopian thriller directed by Francis Lawrence, starring Cooper Hoffman and Mark Hamill.

• Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale: Final film in the franchise directed by Simon Curtis, starring Hugh Bonneville and Michelle Dockery.

• Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle: First film in the finale trilogy of the hit anime franchise, directed by Haruo Sotozaki.

• Spinal Tap II: The End Continues: Mockumentary comedy sequel directed by Rob Reiner, with the original cast reuniting.

📺 STREAMING

• The 77th Emmy Awards: (CBS/Paramount+) Ceremony hosted by Nate Bargatze, broadcasting live from the Peacock Theater at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT.

• The Girlfriend: (Prime Video) Psychological thriller series directed by and starring Robin Wright, with Olivia Cooke.

• The Wrong Paris: (Netflix) Romantic comedy starring Miranda Cosgrove, directed by Janeen Damian.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
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