Netflix’s Adolescence creators (Graham co-stars) have the number one show in the world, with 66.3
million hours viewed in its first two weeks, as the teen violence drama sparks the kind of Times think pieces and Elon tweets that lead to Emmy buzz.

Runner-up: Jason Statham, whose $15.2 million debut for Amazon MGM Studios’ A Working Man continues the Beekeeper hot
streak.

Second runner-up: Jared Polis, the Colorado governor, who swiped Sundance from Utah
and now gets to spend 2027 and beyond complaining about the L.A. assholes who invade Boulder every January.

A little more on ‘Adolescence’…

With the algorithm working overtime, the latest “surprise” Netflix hit could soon rival its most-watched originals ever. This chart from Puck’s Julia Alexander reveals week-to-week growth in global views compared to shows like Squid Game and Stranger Things…

That Journal
report this week on the jockeying between Paramount and NBCUniversal over Yellowstone was interesting, but not because they’re fighting over the definition of a “spinoff” (I reported on that in December). More intriguing: Paramount is looking to ramp up licensing of its Paramount+ shows, including the Taylor Sheridan–produced hits that have defined the service. It’s part of the hottest trend in streaming: Subscale outlets like Par+, Peacock, and Max increasingly debut homegrown content on their own platforms, then quickly license it off to Netflix and Amazon for cash.

Kim Masters tipped me last week that the
Paramount licensing team was in the market with a major package of shows and movies to be sold globally—some to air very soon after they appear on Par+—and Netflix, Amazon, and Max were all taking a look. Skydance’s David Ellison, who can get involved before he actually owns the company because this would be a massive, “material” deal, has blessed the ramp-up in licensing, part of his and Jeff Shell’s efforts to better monetize Paramount’s assets
post-close. (Skydance declined to comment.)

The Netflix angle is intriguing because it’s no secret that content chief Bela Bajaria and film leader Dan Lin aren’t happy with the streamer’s expensive deal with Ellison’s Skydance Animation, run by John Lasseter. At the same time, Ellison and Shell would like the first window on those animated films put through the Paramount theatrical pipeline. According to sources, Netflix asked that a
renegotiation of the Skydance Animation deal be tied to a new Paramount licensing arrangement, but Paramount rejected that idea on the theory that there’s no point in giving Netflix a discount on a current deal just so Bajaria can put more money into shows and movies from Paramount. So Paramount is waiting for a cash offer from Netflix while also exploring what Amazon and Max will pay for those sweet, sweet Sheridanverse shows (and other stuff).

Sheridan, for his part, is said to not be thrilled that the incoming Paramount regime is already
looking at leveraging his hits to shore up weaknesses elsewhere, namely at Skydance Animation. Rumors are also flying that Ellison and his incoming streaming chief, Cindy Holland, are looking to make shows for less money. Holland, in meetings with creators and agents, has been saying her target is around $9 million per episode, according to sources. Sheridan’s shows, thanks to the star power and extensive location shoots, typically cost between $12 million and $16 million an
episode. (Sly Stallone, for instance, is making nearly $2 million per episode for the upcoming third season of Tulsa King.)

Sheridan’s shows cost more but also rule the ratings, of course, with Landman, Lioness, Tulsa King, 1923, and the Costner-free Yellowstone all charting over the past year, despite Paramount+ (and Paramount Network, in the case of Yellowstone) being available in
fewer homes than Netflix or Amazon. The last thing Ellison wants when he takes over Paramount is to lose its top creator. Or does he care? Maybe those cost concerns will trump the ratings. Seems like Paramount has one great thing going for it, but Sheridan’s deal is up in 2027.

“For $40 million, I hope it’s great.”
—Ted Sarandos, the Netflix co-C.E.O., at a Paley
Center Q&A, with the perfect answer to the question of whether Amazon overpaid—cough, bribed, cough—for the Melania Trump documentary.

Runner-up: “Very, very rarely.” —Scott Rudin, the producer, when asked in this choreographed “I’m back” profile in the Times whether he threw objects at people in his
office.

More: Rudin has been prepping his theater slate for a while in advance of this story. He’s also got a number of film projects he hasn’t gone public with, especially at A24. Countdown until that announcement…

Second runner-up: “I think that in the long run The Alto Knights will have the same kind of long-range audience acceptance.”
—Irwin Winkler, in the Times, hilariously
comparing his now-infamous flop to Goodfellas, which he also produced, and defending Warner Discovery C.E.O. David Zaslav as “a really, really great executive.”

A little more on the Warner Bros. saga…

The drumbeat in Burbank grew louder this weekend as Bloomberg
reported that Zaslav is “meeting informally” with potential replacements for Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy at the film studio. No names in that report, and Zaz’s P.R. guy, Robert Gibbs, went on the record to say nothing is “imminent”—an interesting choice of word. I’m told
Zaz’s initial outreach list included Legendary’s Mary Parent, among others. (Gibbs didn’t respond when I asked; Legendary declined to comment.) While the flops are piling up, the spending is outsized, and everyone who has lunch with Zaz tells him he’s getting fleeced, I actually don’t think he will make a change before seeing how Superman does in June.

Ironically, that’s from DC, so it’s not a Mike and Pam movie, but Minecraft will likely open fine this
weekend. (I saw it yesterday. Kids will like it, but it’s strange that Warners didn’t even really try to appeal to adults, despite a $150 million budget.) Then there’s Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (April 18), which is tracking between $30 million and $40 million and, with a supposed $90 million budget, will probably do okay enough to avoid the flop narrative. Then if Superman performs in June, that takes a little heat off until the make-or-break moment: Paul
Thomas Anderson’s $150 million One Battle After Another in late September. Will Zaz wait that long? If Sinners flops, that’s likely dispositive. But if it doesn’t… That’s likely why Warners, which has skimped on marketing recently, has already turned on the marketing spigot for the P.T.A. film during March Madness.

And now, here’s Kim…

But Ari has been pretty silent about his friend Elon Musk. Rather than distancing himself
from Elon as he slashed his way through federal agencies, in February, Ari joined in Elon’s $97.4 billion bid to take over OpenAI. (Attorney Marc Toberoff, who represents Elon and Ari in the OpenAI litigation, has been working at times out of the Endeavor offices—strictly on WME business, says an Ari associate.) And though Ari felt comfortable demanding that other businesses stand up against antisemitism, he has yet to utter a syllable in public about Elon’s tweets promoting the
antisemitic “great replacement” theory, or about his endorsement of the extremist AfD party in Germany, whose members have used Nazi slogans.

Ari’s capacity for forgiveness, too, seems to shift with the tides. WME dumped Mel Gibson in 2010, and Ari even wrote an editorial calling for Gibson to be shunned after the actor’s antisemitic outburst. But then he started
advocating for him after Ari decided—on what basis is unclear—that Mel had learned his lesson. (If Gibson has ever walked back his Holocaust denial, I’m not aware of it.) Ari made a point of returning a $400 million investment by Saudi Arabia after the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, but then got back into bed
with the Kingdom via Endeavor’s purchase of WWE. (Disclosure: WME represents Puck.)

As a reporter who covered a number of #MeToo stories, it’s painful to take stock of where we are now.
Ironically, after the sight of Trump in the White House helped ignite the movement, the backlash helped propel him right back into the Oval Office. Accused predator Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Defense secretary, Baldoni has become a cause célèbre on the right, and one of the director’s defenders, Candace Owens, recently debuted a project to exonerate Weinstein, whom she has called “a victim of the justice system.” (Hegseth, who was
never charged, has referred to a 2017 allegation of sexual assault as a “nuisance claim.”)

And then there’s the administration’s role in bringing us the spectacle of the Tates flying around the country in a private jet on a sojourn that included a visit with Kanye. According to the Tates’ attorney, they “talked for hours about the suffering and betrayals they’ve endured simply for achieving greatness on their own terms.” (Yes, starting at the top with Trump, the alleged perpetrators are
the real victims.) How inspiring that, in spite of all that, Andrew Tate has held on to his faith in the future. “The Tates will be free,” he tweeted at one point on Musk’s website. “Trump is the president. The good old days are back. And they will be better than ever. Hold on.”

It certainly seems that the old days are back. Trump has been waging a jihad against D.E.I., and last week, F.C.C. chairman Brendan Carr opened an investigation into Disney’s practices even though
the company has jumped through hoops to placate the administration. Carr already ordered an inquiry into Comcast and NBCUniversal in February. (Won’t it be fascinating to watch Carr and his minions try to build a case that Donna Langley was a D.E.I. hire?)

When the #MeToo movement sprang into being, the reaction in Hollywood was explosive. Now one wonders how people like Lively and Reynolds square Ari, the supporter of allegedly wronged women, with the guy who runs a
company where a top executive welcomed the Tate brothers to Las Vegas. One former WME insider says he’s surprised that clients at the agency seem to accept such shifting ethics—though most, of course, are not personally dealing with Ari. “You would think there would be some actors who would go, ‘I don’t like the fact that Ari Emanuel is friends with Elon Musk,’ but none of them care,” he says. “They don’t care! That is the ultimate hypocrisy of this town.”

Doug Shapiro argues why top talent will soon embrace A.I.
[Mediator]

Not surprisingly, Roy Price, the pre-Salke head of Amazon Studios, has some thoughts on how “Amazon can stop losing in TV.” [Price Point]

MLB’s opening day games on ESPN hit multiyear ratings
highs in the final year of a TV deal that Disney says it won’t renew. Conspiracy theory: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has ordered up a juiced ball to increase home runs and, hopefully, ratings to generate a big new deal—and an eff you to Disney. [Sports Media Watch]

Will Smith raps
about The Slap on his new album. Feel free to throw up a little before listening. [NBC]

Did Jonathan Majors’ consultant-managed comeback press tour actually work? [Vulture]

Peter Kafka argues that
we’re still not paying enough attention to YouTube. [Business Insider]

As CBS cancels Taylor Tomlinson’s 12:30 show you forgot existed, Bill Carter suggests just reairing The Daily Show.
[Late Nighter]

Seth Rogen amusingly outed Steve Asbell, now president of 20th Century Studios, as the executive who once told him, “I fear it’s my job to ruin movies.” [Late Show]

Update those meme
accounts, unemployed WGA members! Carol Lombardini’s successor as studio pain sponge—sorry, lead labor negotiator—is Greg Hessinger, a Mitchell Silberberg partner who advised the AMPTP and worked for both SAG and AFTRA pre-merger. He’s also a SZA fan. [THR]

James
Packer, the Australian billionaire, Murdoch friend, and, uh… former associate of Charlotte Kirk, just paid $110 million for a Bel Air mansion. [Real Deal]

Correction of the week:
From the Washington Post: “A previous version of this article incorrectly described Graydon Carter’s outfit at his book party. He was wearing a custom Anderson & Sheppard brown corduroy
jacket, not a cream-colored suit.”

As you might guess, the Jen Salke firing at Amazon dominated my messages through the weekend. Some
examples…

“It says a lot about our business that one can reach Salke’s level without reading [scripts] or calling people back. The business is littered with people that want certain jobs but don’t actually want to do the work associated with them. Her executives felt it the most. You had one of the greatest spends ever on film and TV being led by somebody who didn’t have a creative true north. The result is what you got: directionless, with no identity and nothing that stood out.”
—A manager

“This isn’t a sign of weakness. Mike [Hopkins] sees that Prime Video is driving signups internationally, it’s profitable now and a growth engine, and he sees opportunities to do more than they are doing. [Salke] was always protected by Bezos, but that ended after Bond.” —A producer

“Does this mean Jen will now return my call from six months ago?” —An agent

“Jack Ryan and The
Boys greenlights predate Salke, so even giving her credit for those is generous. I kind of forgot the hiring process with her: Amazon absolutely was dead set on hiring a woman in the wake of Price’s firing, and multiple rumored people passed before they landed on Salke (and tried to make it seem like she was a top choice).” —An executive

Finally, on the Amazon front, a little news…

I noted on Thursday that Salke signed Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge to a
massive $20 million overall deal in 2019, then got exactly zero shows out of it, then re-upped her in 2022… and has gotten more of nothing, including the long-gestating Tomb Raider series. Since then, I learned that Amazon recently re-upped Waller-Bridge again. But this time the deal was converted from an exclusive overall deal to a nonexclusive first look… for significantly less money.

Have a great week,
Matt

Got a question, comment, complaint, or a menu recommendation for the
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