CEO Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Board members at Paramount Global are reportedly considering the removal of CEO Bob Bakish as discussions continue with Skydance Media about a complex, multi-step merger.

Formula 1′s Nico Hülkenberg will be making a big change going into the 2025 race season next year!

EXCLUSIVE: Stu Goldstein is the newly minted head of Business & Legal Affairs and General Counsel for Vice Media Group

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, had a pay package worth just over $20.2 million in 2023, while Roku’s media boss, Charlie Collier, received $6.8 million in salary. Wood’s compensation last year included salary of $1.2 million, stock awards worth $7.57 million and stock option awards ​valued at $11.43 million.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Bob Bakish may be out at Paramount Global before any sale or merger deal for the media company is completed. The board of directors of Paramount Global, including controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, have discussed a plan to oust Bakish as CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. Instead, the company would form an “Office of the CEO” comprising Paramount Global’s division heads to run operations on an interim basis, per the report.

Comcast said chairman and chief executive Brian Roberts‘ pay package for 2023 totaled $35.47 million, up from $32 million the year before. It included a $2.5 million base salary, stock awards valued at about $15 million, $9.2 million in option awards and $8.55 million in what’s called non-equity incentive plan compensation – like a cash bonus.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Carrousel Studios, the newly launched production company of “Lupin” star Omar Sy, “Fast X” director Louis Leterrier and “Gangs of London” producer Thomas Benski, has appointed Cécile Gaget as CEO. A seasoned executive, the Paris-based Gaget previously worked at Wild Bunch as head of film, and also worked at Anton Capital and Gaumont where she spearheaded international sales and co-productions.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, had a compensation package worth $35.47 million in 2023, as he saw his pay rise 11% from the year prior. Roberts, who oversees the cable giant and NBCUniversal, last year had a salary of $2.5 million, stock awards worth $15 million, stock options worth $9.2 million and a $8.55 million cash incentive bonus. In 2022, his compensation totaled about $32.1 million.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The Onion has a new owner: a company called “Global Tetrahedron,” which is a real thing based on a fake entity invented by the satire site more than two decades ago. G/O Media, a private-equity backed firm that has owned The Onion since 2019, sold the site to a new Chicago-based firm called Global Tetrahedron, which is “made up of four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy-based content,” G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller said in a memo to staff Thursday. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Co-op Live bosses have confirmed that the venue will not open this weekend - with The Black Keys and next week's Peter Kay's gigs rescheduled. The £365m venue was due to open on Saturday evening with The Black Keys performing, however the gig has now been moved to Wednesday, May 15.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel’s 2023 pay package totaled $83.9 million, according to the company’s proxy statement today. That comes on top of the $65 million in compensation last year as chief executive of TKO Group, the new public company that’s controlled by Endeavor.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel received a compensation package worth $83.9 million last year — more than four times his compensation in 2022. Emanuel’s 2023 pay at Endeavor included $4.9 million in salary, a $34.65 million bonus and $43.47 million in stock awards, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube keeps eating up more share of the advertising pie: The Google-owned video giant posted $8.1 billion in ad sales for the first quarter of 2024, its highest Q1 total to date. The figure for YouTube ad sales, up 21% year over year, was announced as part of parent company Alphabet’s Q1 earnings. Wall Street analysts expected YouTube’s ad revenue for Q1 to come in at $7.72 billion, according to StreetAccount.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Roku reported its first-quarter 2024 earnings Thursday, revealing the company reached 81.6 million active accounts, an increase of 1.6 million from the previous quarter, and streaming hours rose to 30.8 billion, up from 29.1 million in Q4 2023. Wall Street forecast a loss per share of 61 cents on $848.62 million in revenue, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG, formerly Refinitiv. Roku reported adjusted loss per share of 35 cents on $882 million in revenue (+19% year over year).

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney deputy general counsel Jill Ratner has exited the Mouse House to join Sony Pictures Entertainment as executive vice president and general counsel. Beginning in her new role May 28, Ratner will be overseeing all SPE’s legal functions, compliance and labor relations, SPE music affairs, government/external affairs and corporate social responsibility teams. She will report directly to CEO Tony Vinciquerra.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Miss USA pageant is expanding its relationship with The CW, sealing a three-year deal that adds Miss Teen USA to the mix. The network announced Thursday that the 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air live on Sunday, Aug. 4., at 8 p.m.

Marc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Lily Gladstone and Bowen Yang will star in Bleecker Street and Shivhans Pictures’ remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 romantic comedy “The Wedding Banquet” from director Andrew Ahn. Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar winner Yuh-jung Youn and Joan Chen are also attached to star. The reimagination of Lee’s Oscar-nominated film is based on a screenplay by Ahn and James Schamus.

Ronda Rousey is doing something incredibly brave, even for such an accomplished fighter. She’s opening up about her difficult fertility journey. During an interview on the Diary Of A CEO

Wheelhouse is getting ready for a rollercoaster ride.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Continued investment in streaming contributed to a first-quarter loss for Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision, which is seeing the bulk of its growth come from its Mexican operations while U.S. revenue stays flat with year-earlier results. The company, which operates the Univision TV network, said operating expenses grew 16% during the first quarter, to $821 million, driven by continued investments in its ViX streaming service and the expansion of a third party ad-sales business in Mexico.

Priyanka Chopra-Produced Doc Debuting On Prime Video India

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ari Emanuel, in his capacity as CEO of TKO Group Holdings — the parent company of UFC and WWE — had a compensation package last year that hit nearly $65 million. TKO granted Emanuel, who also is CEO of Endeavor, a base salary of $911,538, plus a $24 million cash bonus and stock awards worth $40 million in 2023, per a regulatory filing by TKO. All told, the exec’s pay package totaled $64.91 million.

Smoke billows from a millionaire's mansion as fierce flames tear through the property. Firefighters have been tackling the blaze, in Dunblane, Perthshire, for a number of hours and are still at the scene.

Ari Emanuel, CEO of TKO Group as well as the soon-to-be-private Endeavor, saw a pay package valued at $64.9 million in 2023 as CE0 of TKO Group, the home of WWE and UFC. TKO is a relatively new company that started trading on the New York Stock Exchange last September.

Angelique Jackson Tracee Ellis Ross is packing her bags and inviting audiences to join her solo travel adventures with the new Roku Original series “Tracee Travels.” The series will chronicle the award-winning actor (“Girlfriends,” “Black-ish,” and most recently the Oscar-winning film “American Fiction”) and Pattern CEO and founder as she “meticulously, laboriously, and sometimes ridiculously prepares for and travels solo to spectacular locations.” The series will shoot later this year, following Ross as she “charts her own path, exploring the intersection of beauty, fashion, design, food and culture at each stop.” “I took my first solo trip when I was 22 years old. I decided way back then that I wouldn’t wait to do the things I wanted to do or for my life to come to me,” says Ross.

Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse has some new investors.

Shou Zi Chew is responding to new U.S. policy.

The brothers who co-founded fashion giant PrettyLittleThing have announced they are teaming up on a new business venture together.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief HYBE Corp., the biggest corporation in the South Korean pop music scene, has begun an audit into ADOR, the label responsible for K-pop act NewJeans. HYBE says that executives at the majority-owned subsidiary mya be attempting to break away from the conglomerate. “HYBE invoked the right to audit CEO Min Hee-Jin and top executives of its subsidiary label ADOR, called them to summon a shareholder meeting and sent an official letter to ask CEO Min to step down,” HYBE said in a statement emailed to Variety. Media sources in Korea have reported that the audit targets Min and one of her deputies and that computer assets have been seized and face-to-face statements already taken. They also report that HYBE suspects Min and her deputy to have circulated confidential information to outsiders in a possible bid to attract investors who would allow ADOR to gain its independence from the parent company. ADOR was founded in 2021 as a HYBE subsidiary and is currently 18% owned by Min, a renown hit-maker in the Korean music industry.

Elle Fanning and Gus Wenner are stepping out for date night.