ESPN’s All Star, Oscars Burning Questions, CNN’s Paywall Play

Happy Monday, and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon roundup featuring the best new reporting at Puck.

First up today, Dylan Byers illuminates the anxieties of the highly compensated TV anchor set amid an industry-wide economic contraction, and the growing exodus of A-list hosts—Hoda Kotb, Norah O’Donnell, etcetera—as the talent market resets.

Plus, below the fold: Bill Cohan details the latest Epstein twist in the “Jane Doe” lawsuit targeting Leon Black. Marion Maneker offers a timely midseason art market vibe check. John Heilemann calculates the electoral impact of a potential October surprise. On The Town, the Times’s Kyle Buchanan joins Matt Belloni to discuss Hollywood’s award season machinations ahead of the ’25 Oscars. On The Varsity, John Ourand rings up broadcasting GOAT Chris “Boomer” Berman for a candid conversation about how ESPN is adapting to streaming. And on The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly reunites with Peter Hamby to scrutinize CNN’s new paywall strategy and Brian Williams’ upcoming Election Night special.

DYLAN BYERS

The industry-wide resetting of TV news contracts is now firmly underway, it seems, and most talent will be affected—at best by a smaller-than-anticipated cost-of-living raise, often by a pay cut, and, at worst, by a delicately choreographed defenestration.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

In a highly unusual development in the “Jane Doe” suit against the billionaire Apollo founder, Black’s lawyers are demanding access to sealed documents that they believe will show his accuser fabricated her story—and that she might not be an Epstein victim at all.

MARION MANEKER

A quick look at the numbers from New York’s midseason contemporary art sales suggests the market is improving slowly but surely. More money was spent in this year’s sales relative to last year, and the indicators were broadly healthy—even if the sales provided little in the way of excitement.

JOHN HEILEMANN

The final month of the Trump-Harris dogfight is shaping up to be less shocking, in many respects, than the history-shaping summer that preceded it. But the media hunger surrounding Washington’s favorite political ritual has a momentum of its own.