Happy Monday. The BBC's new boss has just started work. Jury deliberations are about to begin in Musk v. Altman. And there's talk of a "sweetheart deal" for TikTok. Scroll down for all the details... |
Stephen Colbert is going out with a smile this week — and with plenty of jokes about CBS and its parent company Paramount.
As Colbert readies for Thursday's "Late Show" finale, many fans are disappointed, even angry, believing that the cancellation stems from Paramount's effort to appease President Trump. (Jake Tapper detailed the "curious timeline" in this digital video.)
Media analysts like Bill Carter say CBS is diminishing itself by abandoning the traditional late-night business. "CBS Cancels Itself, Not Just Colbert" is the title of Carter's new piece for the NYT.
But while others are outraged on his behalf, and the audience continues to litigate the show's end, Colbert remains positive and radiates gratitude, and I really admire that. After eleven years on the show, working with "great partners" at CBS, "I feel so much better to be ‘grateful for’ than to be 'mad about,'" Colbert told The Times.
That's a beautiful (and some may say privileged) way to navigate life. And I think that approach will come through on Colbert's final four episodes...
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The promotional listings for this final week contain some clues about the show’s plans. Tonight's episode will be "the worst of ‘The Late Show’ with Stephen Colbert," but it's "not a clip show," CBS says.
Tuesday's episode will feature Jon Stewart and Steven Spielberg, plus a “special performance by David Byrne and Stephen Colbert."
Wednesday will include a performance by Bruce Springsteen and a special edition of "The Colbert Questionert." And Thursday’s finale will be a surprise, with no guests or segments promoted in advance. Here's my curtain-raiser story...
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How CBS is handling the PR |
Writing for Status over the weekend, Brian Lowry said CBS is declining to make any new comment about this week's finale. "Officials have approached the negative publicity with a sense of resignation," Lowry wrote, "with one sighing that it's easy to be painted as the bad guy when messing with a venerable institution like late night."
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Starting Friday, the CBS time slot will be filled by "Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen," a roundtable comedy show that bears little resemblance to Colbert's production.
"Comics Unleashed" abstains from topical humor because the episodes are designed to be replayed later. As a result, the show lacks the political commentary that Colbert fans love.
"We don't need the politics. I don’t care who you vote for. I don’t care. I’m here to make people laugh," Allen said in an interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish. (Tellingly, Fox News immediately picked up and replayed that CNN clip.)
As LateNighter recently pointed out, comedians sometimes treat "Comics Unleashed" and its evergreen panel format like a punchline. But Allen, who is buying the time slot from CBS and recouping his costs by selling ads in the show, depicts it as a win-win: He told TheWrap that CBS will save "approximately $150 million+ per year just on production and marketing" by replacing Colbert with "Comics Unleashed."
>> And where will Colbert's fans go? Well, Jimmy Kimmel seems primed to inherit some Colbert loyalists in the coming weeks...
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Anderson Cooper signs off '60' |
The CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes" always goes on summer break this time of year. Last night was the 58th season finale, made much more intriguing by the fact that Bari Weiss is planning a makeover of the show. The uncertainty was captured by this recent story by The Guardian's Jeremy Barr, who quoted one network insider expecting "massive changes" but another saying "they don't want to turn it upside down."
It's the highest-rated news program on US TV, so there is a lot at stake. Anderson Cooper, who is exiting the show after twenty years, touched on all of this in a farewell edition of "60 Minutes Overtime."
"I hope '60 Minutes' remains '60 Minutes,'" he said. "There are very few things that have been around for as long as '60 Minutes' has and maintained the quality that it has." Watch Cooper's final segment for "60" here...
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Today: Jury deliberations begin in the Elon Musk v. Sam Altman/OpenAI trial.
Tonight: The NBA conference finals begin with the San Antonio Spurs vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Also tonight: "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone make a rare TV appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
Wednesday: The FCC holds its monthly open meeting, followed by a Brendan Carr presser.
Saturday: The Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony and the Palme d’Or announcement.
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What Trump's 'treason' talk is really about |
Trump keeps equating independent reporting to treasonous conduct, and David Sanger has hit on the reason why. After being on the receiving end of the president's latest "treasonous" lie, Sanger told Kaitlan Collins on Friday night, "We all know what this is about. It is an effort to intimidate news organizations into not doing the reporting, but reporting is the fundamental First Amendment responsibility that we have..." |
'Sweetheart deal' for TikTok? |
"TikTok is nearing a $400 million truce with President Trump's Justice Department over child data privacy breaches — a sweetheart deal as the social-media app was willing to pay $1 billion to settle the same claims in 2024," the NY Post's Thomas Barrabi reports this morning...
>> Speaking of sweet deals, there's this breaking news on the CNN homepage right now: "Trump drops lawsuit against IRS amid talks of establishing a $1.8 billion fund for allies."
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FiveThirtyEight archives disappear |
This is, sadly, a story that many journalists can relate to:
The archives of FiveThirtyEight, the pioneering data journalism site, vanished from the internet in recent days, causing an outcry among the site's alums. "Users who attempt to navigate to the site are now redirected to the political news page of ABC News," the NYT's John S.W. MacDonald wrote.
The quiet deletion is a grim reminder of how the internet can and should be a limitless archive of information, yet influential works can disappear without a trace. This is "a needless erasure of thousands of pages of knowledge," former senior editor Nathaniel Rakich said.
Founder Nate Silver was furious. "Honestly what a bunch of assholes," he tweeted. "I approached ABC about buying back the former FiveThirtyEight IP, and they said they wouldn't sell at any price because I'd criticized their management of the brand."
An ABC News rep did not respond to my request for comment on the disappearance...
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Brittin's first day atop the BBC |
As Matt Brittin took the helm today, he said in an all-staff memo that the "BBC has never been more needed," but "tough choices" are also needed.
"We should ask ourselves, honestly: if we were inventing the BBC today, what would we do? Then respond with clarity, pace and purpose," Brittin wrote.
>> Much as Josh D'Amaro outlined three pillars for Disney last month, Brittin "said he intends to focus on three areas: arguing for the broadcaster’s future as part of negotiations with the government over its Royal Charter governing document, 'editorial excellence' and 'increased velocity,'" Variety's K.J. Yossman reported...
>> Here's how the Beeb is covering this: "New BBC boss warns that 'tough choices are unavoidable.'"
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>> Scott Nover interviewed Georgia Fort, who says the federal prosecution against her has left her "unable to interview key sources, a situation she says is stifling her reporting." (WaPo)
>> Peter Kafka asked Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch about the state of the business — and Anna Wintour and David Remnick's succession planning. (Business Insider)
>> Madison Mills summed up the AI backlash this way: "If AI were a candidate for political office, it would be losing in a landslide." (Axios)
>> Eleanor Olcott wrote that Chinese AI firms "have moved ahead of US rivals in video generation, a key battleground in generative AI in which there is rapid uptake across advertising, ecommerce and entertainment." (FT)
>> Daniel A. Medina wrote that journalist-turned-comedian Charlie Berens is using his platform "to address one of the more polarizing issues in contemporary life: what AI portends for Americans." (The Guardian)
>> USA TODAY veteran Darren Samuelsohn has launched a Substack called Love, Journalism, where he'll explore "the future of storytelling." (Love, Journalism)
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>> The AP "laid off 20 U.S.-based journalists on Friday, the union representing them said, part of a restructuring announced last month that is turning the news organization’s focus away from print journalism and toward visual journalism and other revenue sources." (AP)
>> "A group of digital media veterans, led by former Pitchfork and Spin editor-in-chief Puja Patel, is launching Totei, a publication dedicated to 'craft and craftsmanship,'" Max Tani reports. (Semafor)
>> GQ vet Sam Hine is joining New York mag as senior men's style editor. (Feed Me)
>> The aforementioned New York mag is reviewing the work of Ross Barkan, "who has been accused of plagiarism after publishing at least three stories with striking similarities to other published work," Bobby Allyn reports. Barkan told Allyn, "This is all quite ridiculous," and said he stands by his record. (NPR)
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Headlines from the TV upfronts |
"Creator content made the main stage at TV's 'upfront' pitches — and not just for YouTube," CNBC's Liliian Rizzo wrote in this upfront week recap. BI's Sydney Bradley said "the hottest party in NYC" was "the premiere of a new YouTube show from the 'Subway Takes' creator" Kareem Rahma.
At the same time, there were some counterintuitive signs. Scripted series "made a comeback" on broadcast schedules, "defying naysayers," Deadline's Nellie Andreeva wrote...
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'SNL' season finale takeaways |
Saturday's season finale of "SNL" contained no cast goodbyes, "leaving changes for offseason," the aforementioned Nellie Andreeva says. She has some intel here. (The show does at least seem fully invested in its five freshman cast members. See: Variety's glossy new Q&A with them.)
Over at The Omnicosm, Bill Kuchman says the season "ended with intrigue over the future of Lorne Michaels..."
>> The most popular clip on YouTube from Saturday's episode, so far: The "Jeffrey Epstein ghost" cold open...
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"'Michael' has moonwalked back to No. 1 at the domestic box office, earning a strong $26 million in its fourth weekend of release," Variety's Rebecca Rubin writes.
>> TheWrap's Jeremy Fuster notes the movie "remains on course to break the all-time biopic record as it crosses $700 million in global grosses..."
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THR's Jada Yuan says South Korean director Na Hong-jin's "Hope," a sci-fi action allegory, "woke up this sleepy Cannes Film Festival at its world premiere late Sunday night."
The film "received what may be the most enthusiastic and prolonged standing ovation of any film playing in competition," Yuan reports.
For more, Vanity Fair is liveblogging from the Croisette...
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