Earlier this month, the CW proudly trumpeted how the 2023 LIV Golf League season will air in 100% of markets across the U.S. The 14-event schedule kicks off today at the El Camaleón Mayakoba Golf Course in Mexico, with the CW app streaming coverage on Fridays and linear CW broadcast picking up on Saturdays and Sundays.
What was missing from the surprise announcement last week was the list of CW affiliates that declined to air the Saudi-funded tour. The Saudi connection has deeply divided professional golf (and kept CBS/Paramount, NBCUniversal and Disney/ESPN on the sidelines when LIV looked to upgrade its media deal in year two after launching last year with free YouTube streams). Since CW affiliates are only contractually obligated to air primetime programming, all eight of the CBS-owned CW affiliates declined to air the weekend tourneys.
Deadline hears the Scripps-owned CW affiliates were late in agreeing to air LIV only because of a recent decision to lean more heavily into local sports. And there's been lots of rumormongering involving Sinclair, one of CW's largest station groups that agreed to carry LIV. Talk is that Sinclair not only took its time to sign onto LIV, but is receiving some sort of compensation -- either directly or in other ways -- to air the controversial tour. A spokesperson for Sinclair declined to comment, while a spokesperson for CW said the network is not compensating Sinclair for carrying LIV Golf. >>>Advertisers Hesitant
(Editors' Note: This item originally stated that Sinclair trumpeted the announcement. We have corrected the error.) |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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Global Blueprint - Major international arts and entertainment unions, employers, industry bodies and governments have agreed on their first framework for a decade to improve workers’ rights after a week of tough negotiations in Europe. >>>Represent More Than 1M Workers
Nancy Dubuc Exits Vice - After a five-year run as CEO of Vice Media, Nancy Dubuc is exiting the company, Deadline was the first to report. The company is in the process of exploring a sale, recapitalization or other strategic shift. "I'm proud to leave a Vice better than the one I joined," she wrote in her farewell staff memo.>>>Years Of Transformation
A 'Giant' Step - Guillermo del Toro will adapt The Buried Giant, based on the fantasy novel by Nobel Prize-winning British writer Kazuo Ishiguro. Del Toro will produce as well as direct, and is co-writing the script with Matilda the Musical scribe Dennis Kelly. >>>His Next Netflix Project
TV Team-Up - George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smokehouse TV and 101 Studios have made a multiyear overall deal for original scripted and unscripted content for television. >>>Ohio State Doc In Works
Crash Landing? - Warner Bros/New Line/DC’s sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods hit early tracking Thursday and surprised many with a low projection of $35M, which is under the first installment’s $53.5M opening in 2019. >>>Mitigating Factors Seen
'Fewer, Bigger, Better' - Distributors continue to see investment in high-value documentaries and series — especially those with bankable names attached — but is the shine coming off the genre? >>>Premium Docs
Ukraine: A Year On - Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago today and correspondents are preparing for the possibility of an even longer and more brutal war, perhaps with even more risks and uncertainties. >>>Viewership Interest Still Strong
Re-Up - Netflix has agreed a deal to re-up its exclusive partnership with Germany's Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the pair behind Dark and 1899, who now turn their attentions to adapting comic book Something is Killing the Children. >>>Eight-Figure Pact
Cost Of Living - The global economic crisis is impacting the industry and ahead of the London TV Screenings next week, global sales companies are adapting their catalogs and working with clients to navigate the international market. >>>"Ups And Downs" |
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Seemingly predestined for viral, word-of-mouth success, given its adrenalized title alone, Cocaine Bear is among the recent titles serving as a much-needed reminder that the moviegoing experience can offer something unexpected — and fun.
In conversation with Deadline ahead of the film’s release, Banks discusses her draw to Jimmy Warden’s out-of-the-box script; the pitch to Universal that landed her the project; and how she strived to make it as “bold and audacious” on screen as it was in name. >>>The Interview |
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Exclusive Addison Rae has landed a lead role in Eli Roth's horror pic Thanksgiving, joining Patrick Dempsey in the Spyglass Media title. Deadpool franchise star Ryan Reynolds has signed on to produce and star in Boy Band, a comedy for Paramount Pictures; Reynolds penned the script with Jesse Andrews. Exclusive Minari and The Walking Dead star Steven Yeun looks set to join the ensemble cast of Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts, in a role that could play a more significant role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jack Lacy and Alison Brie are set as leads opposire Annette Bening and Sam Neill in Peacock's upcoming limited series Apples Never Fall. Exclusive The Walking Dead's Steven Ogg has boarded the BBC's upcoming sequel series to BAFTA-nominated indie flick Boiling Point, the Stephen Graham-starring restaurant drama. In Brief - Natasha Rothwell’s How To Die Alone sets main cast... Fiona Palomo, Milo Manheim & Antonio Banderas set for Nativity musical... Judy Reyes joins Kaitlin Olson & Daniel Sunjata in ABC’s HPI remake pilot from Drew Goddard |
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More News
🌙 Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is weighing a potential Cannes 2023 world premiere, as previously tipped in Deadline’s The Dish in July of last year. It would mark Scorsese’s first Cannes debut in decades. He previously took After Hours and Taxi Driver to the fest, the former of which earned him the Best Director prize and the latter the Palme d’Or.
⛓ Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Thursday in downtown Los Angeles to 16 years in prison for rape and other sex crimes. The ruling is in addition to the 23 year sentence from a Manhattan judge in March 2020.
👋 After nearly 18 years, Meredith Grey logged her last day at Grey Sloan Memorial in the mid-season finale of Grey's Anatomy on Thursday.
👨⚖️ In an throughly unsurprising move, Alec Baldwin officially entered a plea of not guilty to charges arising out of the fatal shooting cinematographer Haylna Hutchins on the Rust set in 2021. |
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Trending  Rihanna is having a moment. Fresh off her Super Bowl performance where she revealed she is pregnant with her second child, the superstar is set to sing the Oscar-nominated tune "Lift Me Up" from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the Academy Awards.
🔻 BBC Chair Richard Sharp has been urged to resign by almost all the plus-1,000 respondents to a staff survey as pressure on him builds following the Boris Johnson loan scandal. |
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Obituaries
🕯 Tom Whitlock, who won a Best Song Oscar for co-writing the No. 1 smash ‘Take My Breath Away’ from Top Gun and also wrote the film’s other hit single “Danger Zone,” has died. He was 68. 🕯 Alicia Allain, a producer and actress who started in the business as a hair stylist, has died according to a social media post by her husband, John Schneider. She was 53. 🕯 Beloved BBC football commentator John Motson, whose sheepskin coat and excitable voice were synonymous with the sport for years, passed away aged 77. 🕯 Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Fri - César Awards; Tom Cruise on Kimmel
Sat - PGA Awards; NAACP Image Awards, Berlin Film Festival Awards
Sun - SAG Awards; 1923 & Blacklist season finales
Mon - BBC Studios Showcase
Tues - London TV Screenings begins; Endeavor, AMC Entertainment and Nexstar report earnings
Wed - The Mandalorian S3 premiere |
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The Power Of 3 - Co-stars Jonathan Majors, Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson gathered for a screening of Jordan's directorial debut, Creed III, in Atlanta last night. In our review, Deadline praised the film's visuals for their "full of action and energy." |
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