HBO’s Emmy Dominance Proves the Value of Risk Despite Turbulent Cable Company and Leadership

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic Zendaya sits at the bleeding-heart center of “Euphoria,” and Sydney Sweeney’s performance provides its raging, rollicking id. But the young actor Angus Cloud, who died July 31 at age 25, may have come as close as anyone to giving the show its soul. “Euphoria,” in its first two seasons, has been defined by its wild shifts in tone — tending always to head in one direction.

Jeff Zucker was breezing through the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach when he spotted David Zaslav across the room. The former CNN chief was there on vacation on March 31, while the current Warner Bros. Discovery CEO was on hand for the Saudi-backed FII Institute’s Global Priority Summit.

James Gunn is clarifying some rumors about the DC development slate starting with Superman: Legacy and a potential Justice League live-action film under his direction.

Alison Herman TV Critic For “Minx,” the show, it’s been a rocky path. Despite strong reviews, good word of mouth and even a swift Season 2 renewal for the period porn comedy, the show became a casualty of upheaval at its parent company. Scrambling to pay down debt from the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc., CEO David Zaslav took a series of drastic steps that alienated creatives and consumers alike. Entire back catalogs disappeared from streaming services; “Batgirl,” a big-name superhero project,  was scrapped for a tax break despite completing production; and “Minx” had its renewal rolled back while still shooting Season 2. But for Minx, the fictional magazine within the show, things are looking up. We know this because, this week, the show makes a miraculous return on Starz, a network that’s capitalized on its competitors’ hot-and-cold decision making by picking up both “Minx” and “Three Women,” the limited series nixed by Showtime before it even premiered. The new episodes, all eight of which were shared with critics in advance, resolve some of the cliffhangers that could’ve left fans wanting if “Minx” were truly cut short: what editor Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond) will do with ownership of her ascendant publication, or whether Tina (Idara Victor) will choose business school over sleaze kingpin Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson), her boss-turned-boyfriend. Before long, however, the season starts to feel like wish fulfillment — a turn that sometimes saps the show of conflict, but also hits especially hard given how close “Minx” came to the brink. If our time with these characters is precious, why not see them happy?

“To survive in Hollywood, all you need is an occasional miracle.”

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic It’s hard to know who “Superpowered” is for. The newly rebranded streamer Max presents a three-part documentary on the history and impact of DC Comics — not coincidentally, an intellectual-property concern with films like “Won-der Woman” and “Aquaman” that are made by Max corporate sibling Warner Bros. “Superpowered,” coming in the midst of a yearlong celebratory jag as Warner Bros. marks its 100th anniversary, is too superficial to satisfy core fans, but so automatically assumes viewer buy-in that it won’t create any new converts. Directed by Leslie Iwerks and Mark Catalena and narrated by Rosario Dawson, “Superpowered” follows an odd structure, where a linear march through the history of a company that began in the 1930s is studded with promotional interviews for recent endeavors. We jump from footage of the campy late-1960s “Batman” TV show to an interview with director Matt Reeves discussing his 2022 film “The Batman” back to the ’60s. Dawson intones over footage of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights-era protests that, given national turmoil, “the DC characters seemed tone-deaf.” And the spirit of tone-deafness is kept alive by such transitions.

Well, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav already put his foot in his mouth responding to the WGA writers’ strike, so now it’s Bob Iger‘s turn.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic It’s the spotlight Fran Drescher turned out, unexpectedly, to be born for.  Speaking at a press conference announcing the actors strike Thursday, the SAG-AFTRA president, still known best for her winsome and haphazardly charming protagonist of the sitcom “The Nanny,” looked stricken. Speaking at first deliberately and then with increasing passion, Drescher narrated her union’s attempt, initially, to avoid a strike, and then what she cast as the dawning realization that action was required.  It was a performance with build and emotional heft, culminating in an appeal to labor across the world: “This is a moment of history that is a moment of truth,” she declared — and if that reads a bit awkwardly on the page, well, you should have heard how she delivered it. She continued to excoriate “big business, who care more about Wall Street than you and your family.” On “you,” she gestured out into the audience; on “your family,” she gazed directly into camera, to the unseen viewers out there at home, proletariat and executive alike. 

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA has agreed to a last-minute call for federal mediation of its contract, but indicated it will not extend its deadline for deciding whether to go on strike beyond Wednesday at midnight. That would appear to leave relatively little time for a mediator to avert a strike, which could begin as soon as Thursday morning. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the union emphasized that “time is running out” and made clear that relations between the two sides have become extremely strained. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” the union said. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

SAG-AFTRA strike, with just a day to go before the contract deadline. A group of CEOs and senior executives, including Disney chief Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, gathered by conference call Monday evening to discuss the urgent situation with SAG-AFTRA poised to go on strike as soon as Thursday. In addition to the executives discussing efforts to bring in a federal mediator, talent agency chieftains including Ari Emanuel of WME and Bryan Lourd of CAA have reached out to SAG-AFTRA leaders in recent days to offer assistance that could stave off a second Hollywood work stoppage this summer.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic What’s NBC nowadays? Even before the ongoing writers strike scrambled the network’s fall schedule, its identity — historically quite strong as a place for chewy, grown-up dramas and chic, cerebral sitcoms — had seemed hazy. Promising comedies, the sort that might have grown to fulfill the role recently played by “30 Rock” or “Superstore,” got unceremoniously booted from the air after barely a chance to thrive; new dramas, from “Ordinary Joe” to “The Thing About Pam,” seemed painfully undistinguished.  It’s been a tough few years. And as much as the departure of former NBCUniversal chairman Susan Rovner, a career TV executive previously known for her work at Warner Bros. Television, is just latest bit of media industry consolidation, it’s also a moment to observe that the legacy network and its corporate siblings have struggled to find a way forward. (Rovner’s replacement, Donna Langley, will oversee both film and television for the company.) In the years since Rovner came into the job in 2020, there have been limited bright spots — the “Night Court” revival on NBC, “Poker Face” on streamer Peacock. But there’s been a general tone of a lack of faith in the core of what NBC is and does, one that makes today’s news feel like less of a surprise than it otherwise might.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic Perhaps the greatest surprise of Jack Schlossberg’s recent social media rant against the concept of restaurants was that it happened at all.  To this point, Schlossberg — the youngest child of current U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, and thus the youngest grandchild of the late President John F. Kennedy — has kept a fairly low profile. Unlike various higher-flying members of his extended family, Schlossberg largely keeps out of the public eye, with his public comment reserved for things like dutifully revealing the Kennedy family’s Profile in Courage Award honorees on “Today.” Which made his direct-to-camera diatribe about how antisocial and unhealthy restaurants are — serving food that we “put inside of our body, which really matters a lot” — a rare thing. And across this writer’s social media feeds, where the video kept burbling up over a slow July 4 weekend, people seemed to be getting a clearer view of where Camelot is now.

Netflix on Monday, serving as confirmation that a deal for Netflix to stream HBO content has been completed. The deal closed late last week, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.“Insecure” is the first of a number of HBO originals that will stream on Netflix, with the WWII limited series “Band of Brothers,” Emmy-winning drama “Six Feet Under,” Dwayne Johnson’s “Ballers” and supernatural sensation “True Blood” to follow, according to the same individual.

Issa Rae’s Insecure has landed on Netflix.

There are some big streamer switch-ups happening!

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Insecure” is now officially available to stream on Netflix, the first HBO original to launch on the streamer under a new licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. It was first reported on June 20 that WBD was in talks to license some of their original shows to Netflix. In addition, the streamer has confirmed that “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific,” “Six Feet Under,” and “Ballers” will be coming to the service at a later date. “True Blood,” which also currently streams on Hulu, will be available to Netflix subscribers outside the U.S. All of the shows remain available to stream on Max (formerly HBO Max) as well. The deal marks the latest shift in content strategy at Warner Bros. Discovery under the David Zaslav regime. In January, Warner Bros. Discovery made licensing moves by partnering with Roku and Tubi to launch free, ad-supported channels with HBO shows. The FAST channels included all seasons of shows like “Westworld,” “Raised by Wolves,” “Legendary,” “FBoy Island,” “The Nevers,” “Finding Magic Mike,” “Head of the Class,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and more. In 2014, HBO and Amazon reached an exclusive licensing deal to stream shows like “the Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “True Blood” and more on Amazon Prime Video.

2020’s social media blackout that was supposed to be in support of the BLM movement.Disney’s chief diversity officer and senior vice president Latondra Newton, a six-year veteran, was the first of the four to go. On June 20, the company said that Newton was leaving to pursue “other endeavors.” Predictably, her exit was celebrated by a faction of people who blamed her for “The Little Mermaid’s “woke” casting of Black actress and singer Halle Bailey.

Brian Cox is weighing in on the future of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) after executive changes at the cable network made Hollywood worry Warner Bros. Discovery was ready to pull the plug.

And now a promising update on the ongoing crisis at Turner Classic Movies. EW reports that after Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and P.T.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The casual Oscar observer might wonder how some of the 398 new members invited to join the Academy’s ranks qualify for the honor that includes Oscar voting rights. From Taylor Swift to Warner Bros-Discovery CEO David Zaslav, it’s not always obvious how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decides who to invite as next year’s class of new members. Oscar winners are automatically invited to join the ranks after their big moment, so Billie Eilish was therefore eligable after she won the Oscar for the James Bond song “No Time to Die” (2021) with her brother Finneas.