The Evening Paper - Media, Culture and the Modern Condition

Covid-19 is making people wary of going to theaters. The morning consult polled 14,000 Americans on  how they feel about going to movie theaters. 

Only 18 percent of them said they were likely to go to the movies in September, while 23 percent said they were likely to go sometime this year. 

Nearly a third of the people who said they were uncomfortable going to a movie in September said being able to rent a theater for personal use would make them more likely to go.

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Rob and Michele Reiner are reviving Castle Rock Entertainment with the help of Warner Bros TV.

Castle Rock is a familiar name for TV and movie fans in the 80s and 90s. They’re Best known for When Harry Met Sally…, A Few Good Men,, Miss Congeniality and The Shawshank Redemption and more than 100 other films.

It was also the producer of one of the most successful TV shows ever… Seinfeld. 

The Reiners tell Deadline dot com that they have about a dozen projects in the hopper including half-hour comedies, dramas, political and period shows.

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About a year after leaving Fox News Sheppard Smith is back on TV.

He begins a nightly newscast Wednesday at 7 p.m. on CNBC. Smith will work out of a new studio that’s been built for him at CNBC’s New Jersey headquarters says the Associated Press.

He replaces reruns of Shark Tank averaging 150,000 viewers and admits that It’s not an easy thing to start from scratch” 

There’s really no other place to go but up.

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A recent survey says the gulf between Emmy nominated shows and America’s favorite show is pretty big. Roughly 10% of U.S. adults named “NCIS,” “Yellowstone” or “This Is Us” as the best TV show so says the morning consult. 

68 of more than 16-hundred surveys called “NCIS” the best program that aired new episodes in the past year. Just three surveys said “Watchmen,” the most nominated program of the year was their favorite.

Seven of the top 10 programs named in the survey aired on broadcast television or ad-supported cable, though just two of the 10 programs that received the most Emmy nominations — “Saturday Night Live” and “Schitt’s Creek” — can say the same.

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Axios is doing something rare for news in 2020: making money.

The Wall Street Journal says that Axios is expected to make  nearly 60 million dollars this year up 30% from last year.

And they are expanding CNN says they plan to create morning newsletters for local markets including Denver, Des Moines, Minneapolis and Tampa."

Why those cities? People are already reading Axios there and they say there’s a good talent base in those cities. Population, demographics and economy are all said to also play a role.

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Regal cinemas is closing its theaters temporarily. This after the latest James Bond Film was pushed to spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 500 locations will be impacted.

Regal, the second largest movie theater chain in the US, reported a one point six billion dollar loss in the first half of 2020. And they say they need to raise more money to survive prolonged shutdowns.  

The National Association of Theatre owners warns that “If the status quo continues nearly 70 percent of small and midsize movie theater companies will be forced to file for bankruptcy or to close permanently.”

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 Legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen is dead. He was 65. His son said his father died of a "long and arduous battle with cancer." 

Eddie’s group Van Halen is one of the biggest groups of all time. It’s largest album 1984 propelled them to decades of stadium rock stardom. hits like Jump, Dance the Night Away, and my personal favorite Right now 

He was 65

*****

Howard Stern is getting a big raise.

 

Stern’s contract with Sirius XM expires at the end of December, and Bloomberg says the new deal is expected to reach 120 million. 

Sirius XM CEO Jim Meyer told CNBC earlier this year that resigning him was a top priority 

More than 34 million people pay for a subscription to Sirius, which offers more than 150 channels of live sports, music, talk and comedy. Meyer says another 65 million listeners use the company’s recently acquired pandora service. 

The company generated $7.8 billion in sales last year and nearly $1 billion in profit.

He’s been with the company since 2005.

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Megyn Kelly is a podcaster. Kelly became a star on Fox News and flopped when she joined NBC three years ago. Now The Wall Street Journal says she’s funding her own venture which means complete independence.

“I’ve been controlled by other people for too long,” Ms. Kelly said. “I don’t think I was meant to have a boss.”

Kelly has been out of the spotlight for much of the last two years aside from a few talk show appearances 

Kelly said podcasting offers the chance to tackle any issue in a way she hopes will be respectful, if at times irreverent.

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Digiday recently reported that Discovery Networks is launching its own. streaming service early next year. Discovery plus has been trademarked. They will offer ad free and ad supported versions and no cost has been made public yet.

Discovery’s core cable tv is thriving during the pandemic. In August 2020, Discovery Networks include HGTV, TLC, Food Network, the Discovery Channel and Investigation Discovery all ranked in top 14 cable networks in primetime.

While most TV production studios were closed, several Discovery networks were able to produce quarantine specific, stay-at-home programs which are credited with some of its success.

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Skip Bayless has resigned with Fox Sports, sources tell Front Office Sports. His contract was up at the end of September.

Bayless is expected to get a slight raise on his $6 million annual salary in a new contract extension.

Bayless was said to consider reuniting with his former TV partner Stephen A. Smith at ESPN’s “First Take.” Both have said they miss working with each other.

But that will have to wait. Smith resigned with ESPN last year and is widely reported to be the highest paid employee there.

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