| | | | | | What's news: Omnicom has completed its $13b deal for Interpublic. The S34 finale of DWTS delivered 9.24m viewers. Bugonia, Sirāt and Sound of Falling dominate the European Film Award craft noms. Apple has pulled French thriller series The Hunt over plagiarism accusations. — Abid Rahman
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Spacey Set to Face More Sexual Assault Claims ►The latest. Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey will face three more civil claims of sexual assault in London next year. BBC News reported on Wednesday that the claims have come from three separate men, who allege Spacey assaulted them between 2000 and 2013. A judge has suggested a provisional trial date of Oct. 12, 2026, though it remains undecided whether they’ll be heard in a single trial or three consecutive ones. The Oscar-winning actor, who from 2004 to 2013 was the artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London, has continuously rejected the claims made against him and formally denied two out of the three made this week. He is yet to file a defense with the court in the third. The story.
—Blair, Glass... Nuzzi. Political writer Ryan Lizza has shared another round of explosive claims against his ex-fiancée, high-profile "journalist" Olivia Nuzzi, around her alleged digital relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Nuzzi, Lizza writes today, would “regularly” share “opposition research” that she had obtained from trusted sources with Kennedy during his 2024 presidential campaign. “Olivia had essentially become a private political operative for Bobby Kennedy, while publicly posing as a hard-nosed reporter,” Lizza writes in his latest jaw-dropping missive on his Substack. The story.
—It's happening, innit. A $986m film studio in Buckinghamshire, England, has been given the go-ahead by the British government. Marlow Studios was initially denied planning permission over conservation and sustainability fears, but an appeal to the U.K. government was successful, and the campus has received the green light. The lot is set to boast 18 soundstages and a skills academy among extensive production facilities, rivaling the millions spent annually on the likes of Elstree, Pinewood and Leavesden and a key show of support for the country’s creative industries. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝Indie studio Blue Ant Media is set to acquire Vancouver-based rival Thunderbird Entertainment Group as part of a $63m cash and stock deal. Thunderbird backs multiple projects filming in Vancouver for U.S. studios and streamers produced on a production fee-for-hire basis, while also making its own proprietary content. The company’s Atomic Cartoons division has been at work on Marvel’s Iron Man and his Awesome Friends and Marvel’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends for Disney Junior, and Dr. Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish for Netflix. The story. |
Black Friday Deals Suggest Hollywood Still Split on Streaming Strategy ►Reach vs. profits. It’s a tale as old as time — or at least as old as the streaming wars: Should the entertainment business be focused on reach and mass scale? Or should they focus on profitability, to bring back an economic model a bit closer to the glory days of cable TV? THR's Alex Weprin reports that streamers like HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount+ Fox One and even Apple TV are offering steep discounts as they try to lure in new subscribers, even as they tout profitability efforts to Wall Street. The analysis.
—🤝 Carriage deal, finally. 🤝 Univision is coming back to YouTube TV, nearly two months after it was pulled from the streaming multichannel video provider. The deal sees TelevisaUnivision’s U.S. channels, Univision, UNIMÁS, TUDN, and Galavisión, return to the base tier and Spanish-language plans of YouTube TV. It will also see the ViX streaming service sold through YouTube Primetime Channels in the U.S. and Mexico, the first time the service has been available in that country. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 In a deal that will reshape the advertising and communications industry, Omnicom has completed its $13b deal for Interpublic, creating a marketing behemoth that will seek to leverage its scale and generative AI to reimagine the sector. Omnicom and IPG first announced their deal a year ago, ultimately securing FTC approval after agreeing to a consent decree focused on “collusion” between the companies, with a particular focus on the companies colluding to withhold ad dollars from media outlets or social platforms based on their political views or ideology. The story.
—D'oh! THR's Winston Cho reports that OpenAI has lost a key discovery battle over internal communications related to the startup deleting two huge datasets of pirated books, a development that further tilts the scales in favor of authors suing the company. To rewind, authors and publishers have gained access to Slack messages between OpenAI’s employees discussing the erasure of the datasets, named “books 1 and books 2.” But the court held off on whether plaintiffs should get other communications that the company argued were protected by attorney-client privilege. The issue has been a major battleground in discovery. OpenAI could be on the hook for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars if it was aware it was infringing on copyrighted material. The story.
—Something's got to give. If you thought you were paying a lot for your sports-TV package now, just wait until 2030. London-based research group Ampere Analysis forecasts global sports-media spending will jump 20 percent in the next five years, surpassing $78b. The culprits are the recent U.S. deals for the likes of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, as well as the general emergence of new competition in the global streaming marketplace. These new MLB and NBA deals alone will be responsible for nearly half ($36b) of that eye-popping total. And if the NFL renegotiates its existing agreements, it’s gonna be an Oh-my-God situation, basically. The story. |
THR's Top Music Schools in the World 2025 ►Bach to school. Conservatories made a comeback this year, with several returning to THR's annual list of the world’s best music schools. The fundamentals of composition and performance remain a top priority for both institutions and students eager to break into the field. While overall college enrollment continues to decline, and some universities struggle with government funding cuts, music schools and media scoring departments have largely bucked the trend. To compile this year’s rankings, THR polled members of Hollywood’s Society of Composers and Lyricists, the Composers Diversity Collective, and the music branches of both the Motion Picture Academy and Television Academy. Special thanks to Ray Costa and Costa Communications and Ashley Irwin of the SCL for their help in distributing the poll. The list. |
'Wicked: For Good': Jonathan Bailey Unpacks Fiyero's Choice ►"It’s crazy to think I had four days of rehearsal when everyone else had a few months, but it’s amazing what you can do when you have experts around you." THR's Caitlin Huston spoke to Wicked: For Good star, and People's Sexiest Man in the World, Jonathan Bailey. The Brit actor opens up about how he views Fiyero's transformative arc, and filming both movies with only four days of rehearsal. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—📅 Dated! 📅 The Dutchman is ready to fly in theaters. Rogue Pictures and Inaugural Entertainment are set to release director Andre Gaines’ psychological thriller in theaters nationwide Jan. 2, 2026. André Holland, Zazie Beetz and Kate Mara star in the modern feature adaptation of the 1964 Obie Award-winning play of the same name. The Dutchman centers on Clay (Holland), a successful but troubled businessman who attends therapy sessions with wife Kaya (Beetz) but soon learns that the therapist follows unconventional methods. The story.
—Sugoi! Lee Sang-il’s Kokuho — a nearly three-hour period drama about the cloistered world of traditional kabuki theater — has defied all reasonable expectations to become Japan’s top-grossing domestic live-action film of all time. The Sony-backed feature, produced by Aniplex in association with Myriagon Studio and distributed by Toho, has earned more than $111m since its June release in Japan, surpassing the record held for 22 years by crime-comedy Bayside Shakedown 2. The film has drawn over 12m admissions — a feat that few would have predicted for such an artistically demanding work. The box office report.
—🏆 Sirāt supremacy. 🏆 The European Film Academy announced the nominations for the 2026 European Film Awards in the crafts categories Wednesday, with Yorgos Lanthimos‘ dark comedy Bugonia, Olivier Laxe’s post-apocalyptic road movie Sirāt, and Mascha Schilinski’s multigenerational German period drama Sound of Falling leading the pack with five nominations each. Both Sirāt and Sound of Falling are also up for best European Film at the EFAs. Bugonia has a single nomination in the main EFA categories, a best European director nod for Lanthimos. The nominees. |
Apple's 'The Hunt' Pulled Amid Plagiarism Claims ►Anger management. Next month’s premiere of The Hunt (Traqués), a French thriller series for Apple TV, has been pulled from the streamer’s schedule amid plagiarism accusations. Furthermore, any official existence of The Hunt has been scrubbed from the web, including photos and screeners on Apple’s press site and the official trailer on YouTube. The Hunt hails from creator/director Cédric Anger and was supposed to debut its first two episodes on Dec. 3, 2025, but now, the show’s future is in serious question. As first reported by French journalist Clement Garin, the show appears to be an uncredited direct adaptation of Douglas Fairbairn’s 1973 novel Shoot. In 1974, Shoot was translated as The Hunt. The book was adapted into a 1976 movie, Shoot, directed by Harvey Hart and written by Richard Berg. The story.
—"NETFLIX FIX YOURSELF RIGHT NOW BRO, IVE BEEN WAITING THREE YEARS." It appears even Netflix isn’t safe from the Upside Down. When Vol. 1 of the highly anticipated fifth season of Stranger Things premiered on the streaming service at 5 p.m. PT on Wednesday, fans flooded social media, complaining that Netflix had crashed. The streaming service was seemingly back up and running a few minutes after the new season of Stranger Things dropped, and the official Netflix account on X retweeted a user’s comment that read, “STRANGER THINGS IS BACK EVERYONE STFU.” The story.
—Saudi-funded turkey trot. South Park returned to Comedy Central on Wednesday for a Thanksgiving-themed episode filled with its trademark double entendre, rich dialogue and plot action far more focused on the happenings in the titular town than with Donald Trump and Satan’s expected baby. The penultimate episode of the 28th season of the hit series turned away from Washington but still saw the Department of War come for the small town, thanks to Pete Hegseth. The recap. |
'DWTS': Inside the Huge Comeback Season ►"The TikTok world has opened something up that I’ve never seen before." THR's resident Dancing With the Stars expert McKinley Franklin spoke to showrunner Conrad Green and casting director Deena Katz, who dish on how much social media and TikTok have contributed to season 34's virality, why influencers are their modern day “celebrity” and if Tom Bergeron could return as host after guest judging. The interview.
—Updated! A Tony winner, several Olympians, Super Bowl champions, Bachelorettes and the Irwin siblings are just a few of the stars who have won the coveted mirrorball trophy throughout the show’s 20-year history. Flexing her knowledge, McKinley runs through all 34 DWTS winners. The list.
—Woof! The biggest DWTS season in years ended, fittingly, with the show’s most watched finale in nearly a decade. Tuesday’s S34 finale of DWTS delivered 9.24m viewers, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings (which don’t include the company’s big data component). That’s a season high — easily topping the 7.22m viewers for the previous week — and the largest same-day audience for a DWTS finale since November 2016, when 10.97m people watched the final episode. The ratings. |
TV Review: 'Stranger Things' S5 ►"Time to move on." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things. Linda Hamilton joins the cast for the show's fifth and last outing, consisting of eight chapters to be released in three chunks over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve holidays. Starring Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Brett Gelman, Priah Ferguson, Linda Hamilton, Cara Buono and Jamie Campbell Bower. Created by Ross and Matt Duffer. The review.
—"Queer as Puck." Daniel reviews HBO Max's Heated Rivalry. Letterkenny co-creator Jacob Tierney wrote and directed the six-part series about a pair of rising hockey stars who fall into a steamy affair. Starring Hudson Williams, Connor Storrie, Francois Arnaud, Dylan Walsh and Christina Chang. Created by Jacob Tierney. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Thanksgiving ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this live episode, Scott spoke to Rian Johnson. The Wake Up Dead Man writer/director describes his experiences progressing from low-budget (Brick) to mid-budget (The Brothers Bloom and Looper) to big-budget (The Last Jedi) films, directing some of the most celebrated episodes of TV ever (Breaking Bad) and the origins and appeal of his Benoit Blanc series of murder mysteries Knives Out. The podcast.
—Awards Chatter. In this episode, Scott spoke to Weapons star Amy Madigan. The veteran actress, who was Oscar-nominated 40 years ago for Twice in a Lifetime, reflects on how her music ambitions gave way to acting, how she met — and her many collaborations with — her husband Ed Harris, her memories of working on classics like The Day After, Field of Dreams and Uncle Buck, and how she wound up giving one of the performances of her career as the iconic Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger's acclaimed blockbuster horror film. The podcast.
—It Happened in Hollywood. THR senior writer Seth Abramovitch goes behind the scenes of the pop culture moments that shaped Hollywood history. In this episode, Seth spoke to Manhunter star William Petersen. The star of Hollywood’s first take on Hannibal Lecter reveals the obsessive lengths gone to by Michael Mann to craft a procedural masterpiece. The podcast.
In other news...
—Quentin Tarantino slams Hunger Games for ripping off Battle Royale
—Guy Fieri reveals on-set injury that landed him in a wheelchair
—Black Friday streaming deals: Hulu, Disney+, DirecTV and more
—Ethan Browne, model-actor-musician and son of Jackson Browne, dies at 52
What else we're reading...
—Must-read piece from Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman about Trump's rapid health decline and very obvious signs of aging [NYT]
—Brian Phillips tries to make sense of the Olivia Nuzzi-Ryan Lizza-RFK Jr. mess and what it all means [Ringer]
—Josef Adalian reflects on the "crime and corsets" strategy of British TV-centric streamer BritBox that is reaping dividends [Vulture]
—Anna Holmes looks at what people are getting wrong about One Battle After Another character Perfidia Beverly Hills [Atlantic]
—Here's your Thanksgiving list: 36 Thanksgiving movies to feast on this season [THR]
Today...
...in 1976, MGM’s prescient drama Network hit theaters. Sidney Lumet's R-rated title, which went on to claim four Academy Awards, remains as relevant as ever decades after its release. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Kathryn Bigelow (74), Bill Nye (70), Tadanobu Asano (52), Lashana Lynch (38), Cherien Dabis (49), Jaleel White (49), Robin Givens (61), Adam Shankman (61), Alison Pill (40), Sharlto Copley (57), William Fichtner (69), Fisher Stevens (62), Elizabeth Marvel (56), Curtis Armstrong (72), Steve Oedekerk (64), Zoe Colletti (24), Samantha Bond (64), Noémie Merlant (37), Kirk Acevedo (54), Brooke Langton (55), Michael Rispoli (65), Anja Savcic (33), Cayla Brady (27), Michael Vartan (57), Todd Giebenhain (51), Alec Newman (51), Rosie Cavaliero (58), Kimmy Robertson (71), Chris Reid (37), Ella Bright (19), Morgan Davies (24), Arjay Smith (42), Jennifer O'Dell (51), Chin Han (56), Ali Astin (29), Lee Sang-yi (34) |
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