David Zaslav Pledges Cost Discipline After WarnerMedia Merger As Streaming ‘Spending Wars’ Intensify

“Judge Jerry” after three seasons leaves Springer without a small-screen home for the first time since “The Jerry Springer Show” launched in 1991 — its host “The Ringmaster” of his raucous daytime circus for the next 27 years.“Right now I’m just taking a little bit of time to try out this retirement thing,” Springer told The Post. “I’m 78 and NBC/Universal has been so great to me.

Amy Schumer is ready to share her "big secret." The "Life & Beth" creator and star recently revealed that she has "trichotillomania." According to the Mayo Clinic, the "hair-pulling disorder" is a "mental disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body, despite trying to stop." "I think everybody has a big secret, and that’s mine," Schumer told The Hollywood Reporter. "And I’m proud that my big secret only hurts me, but it’s been what I’ve carried so much shame about for so long." According to the Oscars co-host, she has struggled with the condition since childhood.  "And it’s not that I used to have this problem, and now I don’t," she noted.

March Madness Live is the dedicated home for live streaming all 67 games of the 2022 NCAA Tournament online, just sign in with your TV provider to access the livestreams. You can also catch March Madness games via popular streaming platforms, includingHulu + Live TV, Paramount+ and more. Streaming platforms such as Hulu + Live TV, Paramount+ and Sling TV are a great way to stream all the March Madness games wherever you happen to be.  — 6 p.m.

Kaia Gerber and Austin Butler are stepping out to celebrate Oscars weekend together!

A new Russian law that makes it illegal to discredit the Russian military will cause Spotify to suspend its streaming service.

EXCLUSIVE: Sue Naegle is leaving Annapurna after five and a half years at Megan Ellison’s film and TV company, most recently as Chief Content Officer, overseeing film as well two divisions she has been instrumental in launching, television and theater. Naegle’s departure is said to be amicable and she is expected to focus on producing, including a number projects she put in development while at Annapurna.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterHoly ticket sales, Batman!Robert Pattinson’s pitch-black superhero adventure “The Batman” collected a mighty $128.5 million in its box office debut, marking the best opening weekend of 2022 by a landslide. But what is more impressive: it’s only the second pandemic-era movie to cross the $100 million mark in a single weekend, a feat first achieved by “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which launched last December to a historic $260 million.Thanks to positive reviews, strong reception from ticket buyers and high levels of intrigue to see Pattinson’s moody take on the Caped Crusader, “The Batman” is shaping up to be a commercial winner for Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Scott Foley-led drama “The Big Leap” has been canceled after just one season at Fox, Variety has learned.A modern tale about second chances, chasing your dreams and taking back what’s yours,”The Big Leap” revolves around a group of diverse, down-on-their-luck characters attempting to change their lives by participating in a potentially life-ruining reality dance show featuring a modern reimagining of “Swan Lake.”“The Big Leap” starred Scott Foley, Teri Polo, Piper Perabo, Simone Recasner, Kevin Daniels, Ser’Darius Blain, Jon Rudnitsky, Mallory Jansen and Anna Grace Barlow.The drama from creator/executive producer Liz Heldens (“The Passage,” “Friday Night Lights”), director/executive producer Jason Winer (“Modern Family,” “Perfect Harmony”) and executive producer Sue Naegle (“Soundtrack,” “The Plot Against America”) premiered as part of Fox’s fall lineup. It averaged a 0.4 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic and 2.8 million multiplatform viewers throughout its 11-episode run in Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data, which counts a week’s worth of delayed viewing where available.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster ITV has signed an agreement with WarnerMedia International Television Distribution to be the exclusive free-to-air home for several programs including Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble’s comedy series “The Sex Lives of College Girls.”The first series of “The Sex Live of College Girls” will premiere on ITV Hub and ITV2 in April, with the second series to follow later on ITV’s upcoming integrated AVOD/SVOD platform ITVX.The deal also includes series of “Hart of Dixie,” “The OC,” “One Tree Hill” and the first three seasons of “Veronica Mars” being made available on ITV and ITV Hub next month, with all four seasons of American sports drama television series “All American” available in May.

German-Turkish film director, screenwriter, and producer Fatih Akin has signed a first-look deal with WarnerMedia, the first such agreement the filmmaker has made in his career.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCNN and Fox News Channel are fierce rivals, and their anchors regularly take pot shots at each other. But there is at least one thing on which they agree: how much a new subscriber to their streaming outlets ought to pay.CNN will charge $5.99 per month for its new CNN Plus, a subscription-video streaming outlet that is expected to launch in late March, according to a person familiar with the matter, confirming information previously reported by The Los Angeles Times.  That is the same monthly fee sought by Fox News for its Fox Nation outlet.

Jennifer Hudson, 40, is getting the talk show treatment. News broke on Wednesday, March 2 that The Jennifer Hudson Show will premiere in Fall 2022 on Fox Television Stations following the end of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Jennifer’s daytime show will be one-hour long, according to Variety, and will come from Warner Bros. Unscripted Television and Ellen production company Telepictures. The test show was reportedly shot in November 2021 with Ellen executive producers Andy Lassner and Mary Connelly as showrunners.

Antenna, a data firm tracking subscriptions in streaming and other sectors, has wrapped a $10 million Series A funding round, with backers including UTA Ventures and Dick Parsons’ Imagination Capital.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterBruce Wayne could be the hero the box office desperately needs.Though movie theater attendance has significantly improved compared to earlier pandemic days, overall ticket sales have been slow to get box office receipts back to pre-COVID levels. “The Batman,” a decidedly grim superhero action-adventure, opens in domestic theaters on Friday and presents the best shot since “Spider-Man: No Way Home” at getting people back to the silver screen in a big way.The comic book film, starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, looks like it will be more than up for the task at hand.

The predominantly deaf cast of Apple TV+’s CODA made history on Sunday as it became the first to win one of SAG’s coveted ensemble prizes.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorFinancial markets seesawed Thursday in reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with media stocks mostly finishing the day in positive territory after a sharply lower open.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 2.6% in early trading. Markets turned higher in the afternoon after President Biden announced more severe U.S.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery, Inc. hit 22 million paid streaming subscribers worldwide by the end of 2021, with the vast majority being Discovery Plus customers, the company revealed Thursday.The company reported last November that it grew to 20 million paid direct-to-consumer subscribers by the end of Q3.

Discovery said it ended the fourth quarter with 22 million DTC subscribers, up from 20 million for Q3. The bulk of subs are from Discovery+.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAT&T and Discovery are expecting to close Discovery’s acquisition of WarnerMedia to create new company Warner Bros. Discovery as early as mid-April, Variety has learned.According to two people familiar with the matter, with Discovery’s shareholder vote on the deal — which has already received regulatory approval from the DOJ — set for March 11, the two companies are preparing for a close between April 11-April 28.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Red vs. Blue,” Monday’s episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”Lisa Edelstein is exiting “9-1-1: Lone Star” after playing Gwyneth Morgan, the wife of Rob Lowe’s Chief Owen Strand and the mother of Ronen Rubinstein’s T.K. Strand, for two seasons on the Fox drama, Variety has learned exclusively.Edelstein’s departure was hinted at in the final moments of Monday’s episode of “Lone Star,” when T.K.

David Zaslav, who is famously gregarious and high-energy, has been oddly quiet lately with an absence of media interviews or social events on his schedule. Even his regular booth at the Polo Lounge has been somnolent.