Matt Brodlie And Jonathan Kier’s Upgrade Productions Signs Mediawan & Leonine Exec Caroline Kusser

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Amara Walker, the CNN correspondent newly assigned to co-anchor weekend mornings, will be represented by CAA. Walker, who joined CNN in 2012, works alongside co-anchor Boris Sanchez. The two also anchor CNN’s 10 a.m. hour on Saturdays. She is based in CNN’s Atlanta studio, and continues to also serve as a correspondent. The current “New Day” airs Saturdays between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and Sundays between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. CNN has announced plans to relaunch morning programming later this year and the weekend show’s name would, presumably, change as part of that move. Walker has reported on such events as the 2021 Atlanta spa massacre and co-hosted a primetime special with Anderson Cooper, Victor Blackwell, and Ana Cabrera, called “Afraid: Fear in America’s Communities of Color.” During the 2020 presidential election and the Georgia Senate runoff, Walker was part of an election night team reporting on President Trump’s repeated attacks against the Georgia Secretary of State, baselessly claiming fraud. Walker began her career at CNN as an anchor for CNN International, where she anchored during the ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela, and during large-scale demonstrations against a controversial extradition bill in Hong Kong in June 2019, among other events. She was live on the air as a fire ripped through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April 2019. Walker graduated magna cum laude with a dual degree in political science and broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California, and speaks conversational Korean and Spanish.

A Japanese technology investment giant has sold all its shares in Manchester-headquartered software and retail group THG to co-founder Matthew Moulding and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund.

Caroline Polachek has today (October 17) shared a new video for her latest single, ‘Sunset’ – check it out below.The song was co-produced by Polachek with Sega Bodega; Polachek also co-directed the song’s Barcelona-filmed video with Matt Copson. She had previously teased the track’s release on Instagram earlier this month.The single follows on from ‘Billions’, which arrived earlier this year and comes just weeks after the musician shared a track written for Kurt Cobain-inspired opera Last Days.Oliver Leith’s Last Days opera is based on Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film of the same name, which was inspired by the missing five days between Cobain absconding from a rehab facility in Los Angeles and killing himself in an outbuilding of his Seattle home.

EXCLUSIVE: Children’s TV bosses from all over the world met at Mip Junior last night to discuss major challenges and seek co-production alliances, as the BBC’s Patricia Hidalgo tells Deadline a commercial strategy is the best way to safeguard kids programing.

The next series of The Crown is set to be released on Netflix on November 9 and will detail the Royal Family’s lives for the first half of the 1990s. Series five will largely focus on the breakdown of the marriage between Princess Diana and the then Prince Charles, which will include the controversial Panorama interview, according to reports.

Julian Lennon thinks the world is the "worst" he's lived in now because of the "veiled threats from Russia" and North Korea's missile tests. The 'Saltwater' singer - who is the son of the late John and Cynthia Lennon - doesn't understand why people "do not want peace" and despite all the conflict going on around the globe, he's still trying to stay "hopeful" for the future. Asked if he finds it hard to summon optimism, he told Independent.

“The Crown” has, once again, changed heads.Netflix released photos of its new Season 5 cast of the British royal family TV series on Friday. This ensemble of actresses will continue through Season 6, the show’s last.Imelda Staunton becomes the third and final actress to play Queen Elizabeth II on the series — this time during the tumultuous 1990s, in which a fire ravaged Windsor Castle, Princess Diana and Prince Charles had a messy divorce and Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997.One still shows Staunton, 66, as the queen, looking smaller and grayer than her predecessor Olivia Colman, who won an Emmy for playing the part, next to Jonathan Pryce, 75, as Prince Philip.Another sees a sunglasses-and-swimsuit-clad Diana — Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, 32, takes over from Emma Corrin — on a boat with Charles (Dominic West, 52), and young princes William (Timothee Sambor) and Harry (Teddy Hawley). But her happiness will be revealed as a facade.

Skydance Media said today it’s completed a $400 million strategic investment round led by KKR, a first-time investor, and joined by the Ellison family, who remain majority shareholders. Existing investors RedBird Capital Partners and Tencent also participated in the fundraise, which values Skydance at over $4 billion.

Shanina Shaik is a mom!

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Urban Sales has sold Japanese director Chie Hayakawa’s dystopian drama Plan 75 to KimStim for North America, in addition to several other territories. The film won a Camera d’Or Special Mention when it premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, and is also Japan’s submission to the Best International Feature category of the Oscars. 

North Korea has fired two short range missiles toward its eastern coast hours after the U.S. military concluded military training exercises with South Korea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement they detected the two missiles launched between 1:48 a.m.

Naman Ramachandran Priyanka Chopra Jonas (“The White Tiger”), Richie Mehta (“Delhi Crime”) and Anurag Kashyap (“Sacred Games”) are among the luminaries who are part of Awedacious Originals’ slate. Awedacious is a production company led by Apoorva Bakshi, one of the producers of Mehta’s International Emmy-winning Netflix series “Delhi Crime,” and Monisha Thyagarajan, who served as associate producer on the show.

Paramount’s Network 10 Preps Aussie ‘Taskmaster’ 

North Korea fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday morning local time, just two days after Pyongyang sent an intermediate-range ballistic missile flying over Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.  About 40 missiles have been launched by North Korea this year, including six in the past two weeks, but Tuesday's test marked the first time in five years that the country has sent a missile over Japan.  The U.S. and South Korea staged joint drills on Wednesday in response, with the USS Ronald Reagan moving into waters east of South Korea.

Everything’s bigger in Texas — even reality shows! Netflix’s Love Is Blind is taking over Dallas for season 3 and we already have the first look at the all-new cast.