Tim McGraw Partners With Shareability to Launch New Nashville-Based Media Venture, Down Home

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Fast-rising R&B star Brent Faiyaz has struck a wide-ranging partnership with Steve Stoute’s company UnitedMasters that spans a recording partnership and a creative agency. UnitedMasters CEO and founder Steve Stoute says, “Brent Faiyaz is one of the most prolific independent artists today and we are extremely excited to embark on this new partnership with him. It’s been inspiring to watch his journey as an artist over the years and with this partnership we look to further amplify his creative vision and support his entrepreneurial ambitions.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Jonas Brothers have announced a 35-date tour of North America for this summer and fall, taking place mostly in arenas but also touching down in a few key stadiums, including Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Wrigley Field in Chicago and (as previously announced) Yankee Stadium in New York. The gambit for the tour is that the sibling trio will play five of their albums each night. Obviously, their releases have not all been hour-plus excursions, but it should still make for a lengthy set. This format plays off of and expands the conceit of the group’s recent run in a Broadway theater, in which each night focused on a different one of those five albums (albeit with copious amounts of extra material filling out those single-album shows as well).

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Park City Song Summit will return to Utah this September for another installment in its annual mixture of performances and panels, featuring an array of guests from different genres, with those set to speak or sing ranging from Grateful Dead veteran Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. to rising star Joy Oladokun. This year’s festival takes place Sept. 7-9. The 50th anniversary of hip-hop will be explored, as evidenced in the booking of progenitors like Grandmaster Flash, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Chuck D, amid other veteran artists like folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Standout younger artists featured include Adia Victoria, Danielle Ponder, Celisse, Cimafunk, Joe Pug, Ruby Amanfu and Matisyahu.

The 76th Tony Awards will again be hosted by “West Side Story” Oscar winner and “Diana: The Musical” Tony nominee Ariana DeBose. Shifting uptown from its longstanding location at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the ceremony will for the first time this year but hosted at the historic United Palace in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood.The Tonys are produced by Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, and White Cherry Entertainment.

Len Goodman left Bruno Tonioli in tears when he made the emotional decision to quit Dancing with the Stars. Last November, the former Strictly Come Dancing judge announced on Dancing With The Stars that he would be hanging up his scoring paddle for the last time at the end of that series.

Roku is teaming up with Jennifer Lopez, Jaime Camil and Juanpa Zurita as it expands its Roku Originals in Spanish.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Warner Bros. Intl. Television Prod. (WBITVP) has appointed former Fremantle exec Harry Gamsu as new VP, creative, for format, development and sales. He will report to Andrew Zein, SVP creative, for format development and sales and oversee relations between WBITVP’s international division and the WB’s U.S. TV production units Warner Horizon, Telepictures and Shed. Gamsu will also evaluate formats in WB’s catalogue for international exploitation and format sales to Canada. He succeeds Adam Steinman, who ankled WBITVP earlier this year. In his previous role as VP of non-scripted content acquisitions at Fremantle, Gamsu managed the U.S. content acquisition team and working on factual and entertainment series.

Timothee Chalamet joined forces with Martin Scorsese to film a new project in New York City on Wednesday (April 19).

EXCLUSIVE: Thompson Turner Productions, the Broadway and touring general management and producing office whose clients include The Book of Mormon, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt and the upcoming Merrily We Roll Along starring Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff, will now be known as TT Partners, the company announced today.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic There could probably be no better evangelist for anything than the immensely respected Rhiannon Giddens, and the banjo is lucky to have her. The singer and multi-instrumentalist has been spreading the gospel of that instrument generally and its roots in Black culture specifically for years, in her live performances and as a member of a banjo-driven all-star ensemble, Our Native Daughters. Now, she’s taking a much deeper dive than ever with an outstanding 10-part limited series, “The Banjo: Music, History and Heritage With Rhiannon Giddens,” which has her and some guests who are pickers and/or academics exploring the twisted, fascinating journey of what she considers the quintessential American instrument. The series covers everything from the instrument’s roots in the African diaspora to its role in slavery to its adaptation as a staple of “hillbilly” music, on up to its resurgence as a staple of the Americana music scene today — and how, in Giddens’ view, it has been a reflection of divisiveness and unification in the U.S. over a period of centuries.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If the 14th annual TCM Classic Film Festival had an official focus, it was on the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros., from the opening night premiere selection of a restoration of “Rio Bravo” to a celebration of the 50th anniversary of “The Exorcist.” Almost equal in emphasis, though, by virtue of the guests brought in, was a celebration of the ingenues-turned-leading-ladies of the 1960s, who now represent the elder guard of a Hollywood golden age — Angie Dickinson, Ann-Margret and Shirley Jones. Dickinson had the highest profile of any star at the festival, being the belle of the ball at the Thursday screening of “Rio Bravo” in the big house at the TCL Chinese Theatres, where most of the screenings were held. But there was just as much outpouring of affection for Ann-Margret, who turned up for a Q&A (and birthday cake) following “Bye Bye Birdie” on Saturday, and Jones, who was joined by her son Shaun Cassidy and a slew of grandchildren after a showing of 1962’s “The Music Man” as the festival neared its end Sunday.

EXCLUSIVE: Head Gear Films has announced a formal partnership with asset management firm Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI), which solidifies the company’s international stronghold in media funding. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rakuten TV has announced the launch of two new owned and operated FAST channels, bolstering its role as a curated channel programmer in the free ad-supported streaming TV services space. The channels, announced during MipTV’s FAST Summit, will see the growing pan-European video-on-demand streaming service enter the TV series landscape by launching a reality/factual entertainment channel in the U.K. and crime series channels across German speaking territories and in France, Italy and Spain. Rakuten’s Real channel which was launched in the U.K. on April 12, will feature shows such as culinary bootcamp series “Worst Cooks in America”; reality show “My New BFF”, with Paris Hilton; and “Undercover Boss.”

Sure, Benedict Cumberbatch is an incredible actor who feels like he’s been doing this line of work for more than a century already. However, he’s a normal man of 46 years and not some immortal.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic To say that Robbie Fulks has been one of the best singer-songwriters in American roots music over the last quarter-century would be correct, and maybe a little reductive, too; he’s one of the best writers in America, period. It might be tempting to append the word “unsung,” since Fulks’ regular touring since the late ’90s has usually found him playing sub-SoFi rooms — like Hotel Cafe, where he’ll be appearing May 20.

Tim McGraw, the country music star whose acting career has hit a new gear lately with roles in Yellowstone and prequel 1883, is launching his own media company with backing from Skydance Media.

Musician and “1883” star Tim McGraw has formed his own production company: Down Home Media in Nashville, Tennessee.McGraw has teamed with his management company EM.Co, and social content studio Shareability. Shareability’s founder, Tim Staples, is Down Home’s co-founder and CEO, while EM.Co’s Brian Kaplan, also a co-founder, will serve as Chief Strategy Officer.

EXCLUSIVE: Rachel Nichols is looking to provide some “quiet time” for both basketball stars and viewers with her new Showtime series, Headliners.

Did Taylor Swift remove one of her popular songs from the original The Eras Tour set list?