NHL’s Media Moves, Netflix vs. Agents, Nate Silver Speaks

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon capsule of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Dylan Byers chronicles the inside story of Hoda Kotb’s departure from NBC’s Today show. In the wake of a proposed pay cut, Hoda’s forthcoming exit is the latest, painful reminder of the economic realignment of the television business—and the news industry writ large.

Plus, below the fold: Marion Maneker examines the scorching-hot market for artworks by Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne. John Heilemann presents his candid conversation with Nate Silver, the world’s most celebrated (and vilified) election forecaster. Bill Cohan digs into the latest, particularly gruesome FTX financial autopsy. On The Varsity, longtime NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sits down with John Ourand to divulge the NHL’s media strategy. On The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly joins Peter Hamby to chew over tomorrow’s V.P. showdown and Netflix’s battle with the talent rep community. And on The Town, Matt Belloni is joined by Justine Bateman to unpack the latest A.I. developments keeping Hollywood executives up at night.

DYLAN BYERS

Yes, Hoda Kotb deserves to ring in her seventh decade by sleeping in past 4 a.m. But the truth is that the star left her cushy $20 million-plus per year deal only after NBC proposed a pay cut. “This is the age of the great resetting of TV news contracts,” one veteran media executive told me. “Everyone is getting their pay cut or their jobs eliminated.”

MARION MANEKER

In the white-hot market for the hybrid sculpture-furniture works by the late husband-and-wife team known as Les Lalanne, nothing is as it seems. Camels are couches, hippos are bars, and the prices always seem to be going higher and higher. This fall, after an opulent show in a Venice palazzo, the auctions may give us even more to talk about.

JOHN HEILEMANN

The world’s most celebrated—and vilified—election forecaster says this year’s contest is the closest he’s ever seen. In a wide-ranging conversation, Silver explains why Kamala Harris has an edge over Donald Trump, but one so slight that no sane Democrat should take much comfort from it.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

A new report from FTX’s court-appointed examiner reveals, in new and sordid details, the gruesome internal dynamics inside the House of S.B.F.