Jennifer Maas: Last News

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Hollywood had a rough year in many areas — but the stock market largely was not one of them. Wall Street is poised to finish out 2023 up double digits: As of Dec. 27, the S&P 500 index has climbed 25% year to date and is nearing an all-time high record close.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the creators of ChatGPT and other A.I. platforms, over copyright infringement, claiming the companies are responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages.” The suit, filed Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, does not include a specific monetary demand but does assert the above-mentioned claim that Microsoft and OpenAI are responsible for billions in damages, and also demands that any chatbot models and data that pulled copyrighted work from The Times be dismantled.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Mega media merger mania is once again afoot in Hollywood with very, very early talks between Warner Bros. Discovery‘s David Zaslav and Paramount Global’s Bob Bakish about a potential merger of the two companies. Analysts and industry sources have already raised a number of questions about what a WBD-Paramount combo would look like and the effect it could have on the larger TV and film landscape.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Legendary wildlife host Jack “Jungle Jack” Hanna’s TV franchise library, including 400 episodes of “Jack Hanna‘s Into the Wild” and “Jack Hanna’s Wild Countdown” has been acquired by Hearst Media Production Group. Hearst is the longtime distributor of Hanna’s series, previously owned by Into The Wild, LLC, and already held ownership of “Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures” and in 2021 launched the Jack Hanna Channel, a FAST channel showcasing hundreds of episodes of Hanna’s adventures in the wild.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Gamer and social media star Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is hosting his own New Year’s Eve special targeted at a Gen Z audience. Titled “Ninja’s NYE,” the event that will be streamed across Blevins’ Twitch, YouTube and TikTok channels is described as “a unique alternative live entertainment option geared toward gaming and digitally native audiences for New Year’s Eve.” Special guest stars that will be featured in the special include fellow web stars TimTheTattman, SypherPK, DrLupo, BasicallyIDoWrk and LEGIQN.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “One Piece” is about to become an anime series — again. On the heels of the immense success of the first season of its live-action “One Piece” TV series, Netflix has teamed with “One Piece” creator Eiichiro Oda, publisher Shueisha, Fuji Television Network and Toei Animation Co.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nissa Diederich, 20th Television‘s head of production, will step down from her position after nearly 25 years as an executive with 20th TV, Fox 21 Television Studios and its successors. Most recently, she spent the past three years as an executive VP.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fox’s ad-supported streamer Tubi has struck a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to stream DC movies including “The Batman,” “Suicide Squad,” “Black Adam,” “Wonder Woman” and “Aquaman,” as well as superhero series “Batwoman,” “Gotham” and “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” The above film titles, as well as “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn),” “Green Lantern” and “Wonder Woman 1984,” will hit Tubi’s on-demand lineup in 2024.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer It’s hard to measure the full impact of the Hollywood strikes — mainly because the TV and film industry will be facing the ripple effects for years to come — but a new study has revealed one significant immediate hit: 17% of Los Angeles-based showbiz workers lost their jobs during the work stoppages. According to the Otis College of Art and Design’s study, the first released under the college’s ongoing Otis College Report on the Creative Economy, following the WGA (which ran May 2-Sept.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer ABC Signature head of creative affairs Tracy Underwood has been elevated to president of the Disney-owned TV studio. Underwood, who has been at the studio since 2010, will be filling the role vacated in July by Jonnie Davis. Davis was named president of ABC Signature (then ABC Studios) in July 2019 in the wake of the 21st Century Fox-Disney merger.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery cable warrior Kathleen Finch is heading into her Super Bowl: the holiday season at Food Network.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Peacock is closing out 2023 with some good news: The Comcast-owned streaming service has reached 30 million paid subscribers. Additionally, according to Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh, the platform saw $2.8 billion in losses this year (coming in under the $3 billion projected by the company back in January), and Cavanagh expects that figure to be the peak losses for Peacock as we head into 2024.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Kids Baking Championship” is cooking up a 12th season at Food Network and this installment of the Valerie Bertinelli and Duff Goldman-hosted competition will come with a whole new culinary curriculum for its young contestants. The fresh batch of episodes will debut Jan.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney‘s board named Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman and former Sky chief Jeremy Darroch as new directors Wednesday. Additionally, Disney has announced that board member Francis A. deSouza, former president and CEO of Illumina, will not stand for reelection at the company’s upcoming annual meeting, “as he pursues new opportunities in the technology sector that will require his full attention.” The news comes one day after Disney held a company-wide town hall featuring CEO Bob Iger and his top lieutenants discussing the state of the business.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Indie streamer Nebula has picked up “Dracula’s Ex-Girlfriend,” a short film from YouTube star and actress Abigail Thorn that centers on how “toxic” relationships with the legendary bloodsucker have affected two of his exes. Described as “‘Jennifer’s Body’ meets ‘Euphoria,'” the “sexy and irreverent” short will debut in early Summer 2024 on Nebula under the Nebula Originals banner.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger focused on instilling employees with renewed optimism about the Mouse House’s “blessed” and “fortunate” state during a virtual company-wide town hall Tuesday, rather than making any proclamations about the company’s future. The event, moderated by ABC News’ David Muir, was held just over a week after the one-year anniversary of Iger’s return to the helm at Disney (Iger hosted a similar town hall exactly a year ago to the day, upon resuming his post last November) following the surprise ousting of Bob Chapek, and on the heels of Disney reporting its most recent quarterly and full-fiscal-year earnings and taking a stumble at the Thanksgiving holiday box office with new animated film “Wish.” When asked by Muir if coming back to the position of CEO has been more challenging than he had anticipated, Iger, who originally ran Disney for 15 years from 2005-2020, said yes. “I knew that there were myriad challenges that I would face coming back,” Iger said.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The film adaptation of Alice Clayton’s rom-com novel “Wallbanger,” set up at Tosca Musk’s romance-focused streamer Passionflix, has rounded out its cast with “Love Island” star Roselyn Sánchez, “And Just Like That” actor Cathy Ang and four more supporting cast members. Based on Clayton’s 2012 New York Times best-selling book, “Wallbanger” is an irresistible tale of exasperation at first sight, according to the film’s official synopsis.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer For the holidays, you can’t beat home sweet home — and that’s exactly where Chip and Joanna Gaines‘ Magnolia Network is taking you with its new seasonal special, “Holiday Party With Andrew and Zoë.” Premiering Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. Magnolia Network, and streaming same-day on Max and Discovery+, this hour-long even is hosted by Magnolia Network staples “Family Dinner” star Andrew Zimmern and Zoë François of “Zoë Bakes” as they throw a mashup Christmas/Hanukkah party for mutual friends in their hometown, Minneapolis.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Even Meghan Markle can’t fathom what has made her old USA Network drama “Suits” pop off on streaming services this year, but she’s here for it. While walking the red carpet at Variety’s Power of Women event Thursday, Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, was informed by Variety’s senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson that the legal drama has now crossed 45 billion minutes streamed on Netflix and Peacock combined, as of Nielsen’s latest weekly streaming report, released earlier Thursday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of “Gen V, titled “Guardians of Godolkin,” now streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video. As a member of the “Gen V” cast, Chance Perdomo has gone through many on-set experiences specific to those in “The Boys” franchise: being repeatedly covered in fake blood and bodily fluids, shooting scenes with giant genitalia, and saying some truly filthy lines coming out of a superhero’s mouth. But Perdomo has another surprising connection to “The Boys.” “I came into this as a fan of ‘The Boys,’ I actually had originally auditioned for Hughie, years ago.” I read it and I thought it was such a great script.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Former head of drama development at Disney’s 20th Television Michelle Mendelovitz has been named head of Mattel Television Studios. In her new role, Mendelovitz will oversee the development, production, and distribution of Mattel’s slate of episodic content on broadcast and streaming globally.