What I’m Hearing: Chapek’s Fate, Sun Valley Buzz, and Who’s Ghosting Whom

Happy Father’s Day and Juneteenth, a little earlier than usual.
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Happy Father’s Day and Juneteenth, a little earlier than usual. Today I’ve got one of my periodic back-and-forths with William D. Cohan, our financial writer and a former investment banker (sign up for his excellent newsletter here, it’s free to Puck members), plus a column by producer and Puck contributor David Friendly on the industry’s “ghosting” problem.

Discussed in this issue: Bob Chapek, Stephen Curry, Dan Loeb, Jeff Shell, Dana Walden, Shari Redstone, Lachlan Murdoch, Ryan Murphy, Chris Silbermann, Bob Iger, Paul Singer, and Sheryl Sandberg’s “damage to our society.”

But first…

Who Won the Week: Stephen Curry

Curry’s MVP performance (and a six-game series) helped the NBA Finals climb to a respectable 12.4 million viewers after a slow start, up from 2020 and 2021 though down from pre-pandemic times. Also, I’m told, Curry is in talks to host the ESPYs on July 20. (ESPN declined to comment.) “The real question is why,” one source snarked at me. Why not? Sure, the ESPYs have seen better days, and a televised contest honoring winners of televised contests has never really made sense. But LeBron and Peyton did it, and Curry, like those guys, would love his Unanimous Media to be taken more seriously in Hollywood (that’s Holey Moley producer Steph Curry to you). Regardless, it’s a get for ESPN and ABC.

Runner up: Robert Smigel, aka Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, for getting detained with staff at the U.S. Capitol on assignment for Stephen Colbert. (This smells like a P.R. stunt but CBS swears it isn’t.)...

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Bob & Shari’s Sun Valley Winter

The inside conversation in Hollywood and Wall Street about Chapek’s future at Disney and Redstone’s M&A itch at Paramount amid a looming recession… with William D. Cohan.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Matthew Belloni: So Bill, we gotta start with Disney. The board is set to meet before the end of the month, and I’m told they will discuss the fate of C.E.O. Bob Chapek, whose contract is set to expire in February. Susan Arnold, the board chair, put out an odd statement last week backing Chapek when he abruptly fired Peter Rice, his top TV executive. You know board politics better than I do: Does this mean Chapek likely gets renewed?

William D. Cohan: Hard to imagine Chapek doesn’t get renewed, despite the recent turmoil at Disney and the fact that its stock is down 40 percent in 2022. Wall Street still seems to be supporting him, at least the research community is. According to the Journal, of the 30 research analysts that cover Disney, 20, or two-thirds, have a “buy” rating on the stock. There don’t appear to be any analysts who have a “sell” rating. Disney is trading around $95 a share, and while that’s down from nearly $200 in March 2021, the consensus price target appears to be around $145 a share, or upside of around 50 percent. So the Street is hanging in there for Chapek, at least at the moment...

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