Norwegian director Vegard Dahle’s zombie comedy “Grandmonster” has won the top Outpost Award, and a prize of post-production services, at the Fantasia Festival’s prestigious Frontières Co-Production Market, which handed out six awards at its closing cocktail, July 25.
The film, about an American dropout who unintentionally triggers a zombie outbreak at a remote Norwegian nursing home while trying to save her grandmother from dementia, was presented with deadpan, self-deprecating humor by Dahle and producer Jon Vatne, who wore matching sweaters, at a day-long Frontières pitching event on July 22.
The project, one of the 20 titles in Frontières official selection, received a boisterous, laugh-inducing response from the packed Frontières audience of fellow pitchers and buyer and industry delegates. 300 delegates from 24 countries attended the market, including team members of projects in its official selection, Genre Lab, Shorts To Features, and Music strands.
Outpost Special Awards were presented to two titles in the Shorts to Features category. “Reset” is U.S. directors Celine Tien and Jerry Hsu’s sci-fi drama about a program that resets the elderly into children to remain economically useful; the short is screening in Fantasia’s official international short film competition. “Sea Spirits” is director Edson Jean’s Haiti-set gothic folk horror about a guilt-ridden mother haunted by her daughter, who is lost at sea and refuses to leave the country in search of her ghost.
The PurpleDOG Award for an official selection project, which comes with a prize of post-production services, went to “Cher,” the first project out of Thailand participating in Frontières, a supernatural folk horror about a vengeance-seeking forest spirit who emerges near a remote mining camp that is trespassing on sacred forestland.
The PurpleDOG Award for a project in the Gender Equity in Media Society (GEMS) section of the Genre Film Lab went to “Wifey,” Canadian director Cassidy Civiero’s horror thriller about an independent artist about to transition female-to-male who is is forced into a non-consensual marriage in which traditional gender norms are used as a violent weapon.
The Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival Award, which comes with an invitation to pitch at the Sitges festival in October, went to “Eternal Valley,” U.K. director Jasmine De Silva’s dark comedy body horror, a feature project based on her proof-of-concept short film “Beauty Sleep,” which had its world premiere at Fantasia in 2025.
“The feedback we’ve received from participants about the projects pitched last Wednesday has been overwhelmingly positive,” Frontières executive director Annick Mahnert told Variety shortly before the award ceremony.
“People have praised not only the exceptional quality of the projects themselves, but also the filmmakers’ pitch presentations. Every year, the bar is raised even higher, and I believe that’s why decision-makers return year after year. They trust our curation.”
One-on-one meetings and industry seminars conclude on July 25.
Here is the full list of Frontières award winners and their prizes:
Outpost Award of CAD$15,000 (US$10,637) in post-production services: “Grandmonster” Outpost Special Mention Award of CAD$5,000 (US$3545) in post-production services: “Reset” Outpost Special Mention: Award of CAD$5,000 (US$3545) in post-production services: “Sea Spirits”
PurpleDOG award to Official Selection project, CAD$10,000 (US$7091) in post-production services: “Cher” PurpleDOG award to GEMS project, CAD$10,000 (US$7091) in post-production services: “Wifey” Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival: an invitation to pitch at the Sitges Festival next October, “Eternal Valley”
Only a few days ago, the states’ antitrust challenge to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger still looked like a speed bump.
Now, it looks more like siege warfare — as Paramount has agreed to put the $111 million deal on hold for at least several months. In doing so, Paramount’s lawyers have effectively conceded that they were not likely to prevail in an upcoming fight over an injunction and will instead try to beat the states at trial.
“I think they saw the writing on the wall,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Variety on Friday. “They saw that the outcome of a motion for a preliminary injunction was a fait accompli. The die was cast. They were going to lose. Otherwise, why not challenge it?”
David Ellison, Paramount Skydance‘s chairman and CEO, had hoped to win a ruling denying the injunction by mid-September — allowing him to close the deal in time to avoid paying Warner Bros. shareholders millions of dollars a day. His lawyers pushed for a three-day evidentiary hearing in late August, where they could confront the states’ expert economist and undermine the states’ argument that the deal will result in illegal market concentration.
But in a ruling on Thursday, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin denied Paramount’s bid to speed up briefing on that request, signaling she was not inclined to go along with the multiday hearing. The judge had already granted a 28-day restraining order, finding that the states had made a “strong showing” that the merger was likely to harm competition, and the standard to get an injunction would be similar.
Paramount could have opted to wait for the ruling and then immediately appeal to the 9th Circuit. But Nexstar tried to do that after its merger with Tegna was enjoined in April — and is still stuck in limbo with no assurance of resolution anytime soon. Paramount would have faced a similar delay, likely pushing any appellate relief into early 2027.
So where does it go from here?
To trial, where Paramount still believes it has the upper hand against what it terms “one of the weakest merger challenges in modern antitrust history.” The company hopes to get there as soon as possible, ideally before the end of 2026.
Whenever a trial is held, it won’t come fast enough to avoid having to pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders $7 million per day, starting on Sept. 30. But that is a cost that Paramount will have to bear to get the deal done.
The 12-state coalition will push for a later date, arguing that it needs additional time to prepare.
“We do think 2027 is appropriate,” Bonta said. “If the judge said April 2027, we would not disagree with that.”
Paramount has agreed not to close the transaction until five days after the trial ruling or June 1, 2027, whichever comes first. Bonta argued that Paramount is pushing for a speedy resolution due to “business factors” and not due process considerations.
“I’m sure they want a fast trial,” he said. “That’s based on other reasons, not what’s appropriate for a case of this magnitude.”
The states will want extra time to obtain extensive discovery, including documents and depositions they were unable to get during their investigation.
“Paramount and Warner Bros. were dragging their feet. They didn’t give us everything we wanted,” Bonta said. “If they wanted to have a trial quicker, they could have given us the information we asked for in the pre-litigation discovery process.”
The trial will be held in Martinez-Olguin’s courtroom in Oakland, Calif., and could last two to three weeks or more.
In the meantime, Paramount could seek to reopen settlement talks with the states. So far, Bonta said, the company has not offered the sort of structural remedies — that is, divestitures of cable or film distribution assets — that would have to be part of a deal.
Bonta has said repeatedly that he is not interested in “behavioral” remedies, such as a consent decree guaranteeing a minimum number of film releases or 45-day theatrical windows, saying that those have proven ineffective in the past.
“We’ve never gotten anything that would come close to addressing the concerns we’ve raised,” Bonta said. “We’re focused on litigation. We’ve built momentum and we look forward to taking that momentum into trial.”
In its statement, Paramount argued that the strategic retreat was the best way to get to a decision on the merits of the deal as soon as possible.
“This is the fastest and clearest way to prove that this transaction is good for competition, good for consumers, and good for creators, a conclusion dozens of competition authorities around the world have already reached,” the company said.
Bonta argued the opposite — and now it’s clear those arguments present more than a minor obstacle.
“This merger, if it is able to go through, will hurt Americans, will hurt Californians,” he said. “It will raise their prices. It shouldn’t break the bank to enjoy your favorite show on the couch.”
Film crews on Hollywood and local productions shooting in Ontario are being urged to mask up as fast-moving wildfires sweep across the province’s far north and southwest, blanketing southern Ontario — and at times the U.S. Eastern Seaboard — in thick smoke.
So far, however, the provincial film sector has largely weathered what is shaping up to be Ontario’s worst-ever summer wildfire season.
Production hubs in northern Ontario cities like Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay are feeling the effects most acutely, with film crews sharing hotels with evacuees from neighboring communities. A massive blaze covering some 3,200 square kilometers (1,235 square miles) north of Thunder Bay in Wabakimi Provincial Park has been of particular concern for firefighters. As of Wednesday, around 146 wildfires remained active across the province.
“While Thunder Bay has been affected by the wildfires in several ways, the active fires remain approximately 150 to 250 kilometers from the city and at the moment we aren’t in danger of being evacuated,” a spokesperson for Thunder Bay, which is a two hour flight from Toronto, told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.
Unlike the 2025 wildfires in and around Los Angeles that directly impacted Hollywood movie and TV production, the forest fires in Ontario and the ongoing devastation is mostly contained in sparsely-populated northern and southwestern regions of the province. That’s left fire crews to tamp down or attempt to put out destructive wildfires that have destroyed some communities in the province and led to the evacuation of others.
Even so, the distant spread of wildfire smoke has the province urging film crews to limit outdoor filming when air quality is poor. In addition, the Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources departments have asked film and TV productions not to use drones during filmmaking as they may interfere with firefighting aircraft, including water bombers and helicopters.
In Sudbury, which is only an hour flight from Toronto, city officials tell THR forest fires have not impacted filming in the region, and local shoots are under no specific forest fire-related restrictions when cameras roll in the city.
At the same time, the city adds in a statement sent to THR: “Typically, safety-related decisions of this nature are left to the discretion of the production team. We would recommend that they follow applicable public health guidance regarding air quality.”
Local soundstage and location shooting in Ontario by the major studios and streamers in recent years has become a major business for the province. So no cancellations or major disruption evident from the current spate of wildfires in the province has eased concerns over the long-term recovery of the Ontario production sector after major disruptions from the pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
Cecilia Vega, the former 60 Minutes correspondent who was fired in May, is reflecting on her time with the newsmagazine, alleging that she felt pressure to insert political bias into segments that did not make it to air.
In an interview with ABC News’ John Quiñones at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference, Vega alleged that higher-ups requested specific changes to three of her segments from this year that she could did find evidence for, per The New York Times.
“I’ve gone head-to-head with editors for 25 years in this business,” she said at the Thursday conference. “But never in my career, until now, have I felt that those edits, that those suggestions, came from a place of misinformation or politics.”
Per the Times, Vega said executives asked her to add video of protestors attacking citizens whom they thought were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a January segment about ICE; she was also asked to add video of a police chief rolling his eyes during a news conference. Vega did not find video of either incidents, she said.
The ex-60 Minutes correspondent also said in a February segment about West Virginia poverty, she was asked to mention Vice President JD Vance, as he’d previously written about poverty in Ohio. “She said the piece was not focused on politicians or political voices,” the Times notes.
The third requested changed, Vega said per the Times, was to include a line saying Iran was outgunned by the United States and Israel in another segment. Vega described it as “an administration talking point.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to CBS News for comment.
Vega previously claimed she had “experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories” in a statement after her firing. “Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions,” she wrote at the time.
“Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven,” Vega added. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.” At the time, a CBS News spokesperson said in response to her statement, “We respect Ms. Vega and her contributions, but her claims are not based in reality.”
Vega was fired from 60 Minutes as part of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss‘ major overhaul that also saw the dismissal of executive producer Tanya Simon, Scott Pelley and Sharyn Alfonsi. Pelley was fired after an intense meeting with 60 Minutes‘ new EP, Nick Bilton, where he claimed that Weiss is “murdering 60 Minutes. She does not love this place; she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” He also told Bilton that he had “slender qualifications” for the job, and suggested he was not welcome at the flagship newsmagazine.
After the news was announced that he was let go from 60 Minutes, Pelley released a statement where he accused Weiss of “incompetence and unprofessionalism,” and claimed that CBS News management “instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.”
Weiss pushed back against Pelley during a morning call with staff shortly after, arguing that he broke “trust and mutual respect.”
Status newsletter was the first to report on Vega’s remarks at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference.
Netflix has been threatened with legal action by Kalshi, which accuses the streaming giant of defamation over a trailer for an upcoming documentary that showed traders making wagers in a state it’s not allowed to operate.
In a cease-and-desist, Kalshi demanded Netflix to immediately take down the trailer for Instadocs: The Prediction Market Games and issue a public retraction. It said that the video falsely suggests that users traded sports events contracts on Kalshi in Nevada in violation of a court order.
In the trailer, a brief scene shows several people gathered at a house in Nevada discussing prediction markets during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. One participant holds up what appears to be a Kalshi transaction receipt and says, “I like betting on Kalshi” before claiming he placed a $5,000 wager on Spain to win the tournament.
The prediction market operator is currently barred from offering event-based contracts that would allow Nevada residents to place bets on sports under a court order issued as part of ongoing litigation with state regulators. The letter argued that Netflix falsely portrays the company of violating the injunction by implying that the trade in the trailer occurred in July 2026.
“These false statements jeopardize Kalshi’s legal standing in litigation that is highly material to Kalshi’s business,” stated the letter, which noted that the company is concerned that the trailer could expose it to court sanctions or other penalties.
Kalshi pointed to several details that it says reveal the receipt shown in the trailer isn’t authentic. Among them: The image displayed on the phone is dated May 16, 2025, more than a year before the events depicted in the trailer occurred. It also noted that the phone screen shows the word “crop,” indicating the user was viewing a saved image rather than interacting with the live Kalshi application.
Leading up to the legal threat, Kalshi alerted a Netflix employee responsible for editing the trailer about the alleged inaccuracies. According to the letter, the employee acknowledged not realizing the receipt was dated from the previous year or that it appeared to be a cropped screenshot rather than a live transaction. Kalshi said the employee agreed the receipt would not appear in the finished documentary but refused to remove it from the trailer despite being warned that it could create legal complications in the Nevada litigation.
Those concerns quickly materialized, with a CNN reporter subsequently contacting the company seeking clarification about where and when the featured trades occurred, Kalshi said. The company argued Netflix’s refusal to remove the trailer after learning of the alleged inaccuracies is evidence of actual malice under defamation law.
Kalshi demanded Netflix, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, to issue a statement that the “trailer was fabricated.”
HBO’s upcoming DC Studios drama “Lanterns” got a new trailer for the Green Lantern-inspired mystery at San Diego Comic Con. The eight-episode series premieres on HBO on Aug. 16.
The show stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, a veteran Green Lantern, and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, Jordan’s protege who is learning the ropes. The heroes have magical rings that allow them to create any object imaginable out of green light. They patrol the galaxy and keep peace as members of the Green Lantern Corps. In “Lanterns,” the two outer space cops get called into rural Nebraska for a mysterious murder, which may have connections to dangerous extraterrestrials.
The cast includes Kelly Macdonald, Laura Linney, Paula Patton, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, Sherman Augustus, Paul Ben-Victor and Ulrich Thomsen as the classic Green Lantern villain Sinestro. Nathan Fillion, who played Green Lantern member Guy Gardner in last year’s “Superman” and its upcoming sequel “Man of Tomorrow,” will be back in “Lanterns.”
The new trailer revealed the first look at Sinestro, who has a complicated past with Jordan. In the comics, Sinestro was a former Green Lantern and mentor figure to Jordan, but the red-skinned alien flips and becomes one of Jordan’s greatest villains. He later becomes a Yellow Lantern, an opposing space group who uses fear to power their magical rings. There’s also a cameo from Guy Gardner, plus it’s revealed that the murder mystery surrounds the Manhunters, a race of aliens who can shape-shift and look like anyone.
“Lanterns” is created by Tom King, Damon Lindelof and showrunner Chris Mundy. They also serve as executive producers alongside DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran. “Lanterns” joins “Creature Commandos” and “Peacemaker” as fellow shows in the rebooted DC Universe. Up next for the DCU is this fall’s body-horror movie “Clayface,” starring Tom Rhys Harries as the classic Batman villain.
The most-nominated network enters Phase 2 of the Emmy race with the year’s two most-nominated series, giving the platform a rare opportunity to capture television’s top drama and comedy prizes, and potentially make history across three major program categories.
“The Pitt,” the sophomore season of the breakout medical drama, leads all programs with 25 nominations. Close behind is “Hacks,” which earned 24 nominations, making it the most-nominated comedy series in Emmy history. The next closest is Apple TV’s horror-comedy “Widow’s Bay,” with 19.
It’s an uncommon achievement for a single network or platform to produce both the most-nominated drama and comedy series in the same year.
Apple TV accomplished the feat last year with “Severance” and “The Studio,” the latter of which became another comedy record-breaker. A year earlier, FX earned the distinction with “Shōgun” and “The Bear,” which at the time also became the most-nominated comedy series in Emmy history before ultimately losing the top comedy prize to Season 3 of “Hacks.”
And now, it is HBO Max’s turn.
The platform’s current dominance marks its first time leading both genres since 2017. (I misstated this distinction on this week’s episode of the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast.)
For HBO, however, this territory is familiar. The premium network led both drama and comedy nominations in consecutive years, in 2003 and 2004, with “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under” and “Sex and the City.” It repeated the feat during the latter half of the 2010s with “Game of Thrones,” “Westworld” and “Veep.”
Few programmers in Emmy history have consistently produced the leading drama and comedy contenders in the same ceremony. History, however, shows that nomination dominance does not always translate into Emmy glory.
Among the 18 instances in which a single network led the Emmy nominations in both drama and comedy, the series ultimately won only four times (22%).
Those successful double victories came twice for NBC with “Hill Street Blues” and “Cheers” in 1983 and 1984, again for NBC in 1987 with “L.A. Law” and “The Golden Girls,” and, finally, for HBO in 2016 with “Game of Thrones” and “Veep.”
Leading both genres reflects passion for programs for sure, but hardly guarantees a path to the big stage. Campaign strategy, momentum and voter sentiment during final-round voting will ultimately determine whether HBO Max can capitalize on its historic position and not fall to some of its closest competitors like Apple’s “Pluribus” in drama series and “Widow’s Bay” in comedy.
Notably, one statistic strongly favors another win for “The Pitt.”
The most-nominated program series of the Emmy year has won its corresponding top series category 41 times across 73 eligible ceremonies (56%).
Last year provided a rare exception when “Severance,” with 27 nominations, lost drama series to “The Pitt.” Before that upset, the most-nominated series had won its corresponding top category every year from 2015 through 2024.
“The Pitt” enters this part of the season not only with the largest nomination haul but also as the reigning champion after winning its debut season. Only four shows have won drama series for both their first and second seasons: “Hill Street Blues,” “Picket Fences,” “The West Wing” and “Mad Men.” Three of those four — except “Picket” — ultimately won at least four drama series Emmys overall.
(CBS’ “Mission: Impossible” and “The Defenders” also won the top drama prize in their first two seasons when the category carried different titles: “Outstanding Dramatic Series” and “Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Drama,” respectively.)
The stats suggest “Hacks” faces a slightly steeper climb.
While the series leads the comedy field in nominations and already owns the comedy series trophy for its third season, the most-nominated comedy has historically converted at a lower rate than its drama counterpart.
The most-nominated comedy series has won 25 out of 59 times in the current category format (or 42%). The frontrunner has been especially vulnerable in recent years, losing five of the past eight ceremonies, including 2023, when “The Bear” fell to “Hacks.”
Also worth noting: the last comedy series to win in non-consecutive years was “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which won for its seventh season in 2003 and again for its ninth and final season in 2005, with “Arrested Development” winning in between. Other comedies to accomplish the feat include “Murphy Brown,” “Cheers,” “All in the Family” and, in the category’s earliest years, “The Jack Benny Show.”
So, if HBO Max completes the coveted drama-comedy double, “The Pitt” appears to be the safer bet for a repeat victory, while “Hacks” will need to overcome some more historical statistics.
The streamer also has its sights set on an even rarer accomplishment.
In limited series, HBO Max’s “DTF St. Louis” earned 13 nominations, including directing, writing and supporting acting recognition for David Harbour, Jason Bateman, Richard Jenkins, Linda Cardellini and Joy Sunday. The network hopes to overtake Netflix’s “Beef,” which leads the limited series field with 16 nominations. The first iteration won this category.
“Beef” stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan appear well-positioned in the lead acting categories, while Harbour and Cardellini face a more crowded supporting field because of their co-stars nominated from the same series. Meanwhile, Charles Melton and Yuh-jung Youn enter their respective races without internal competition. That could be helpful down the road.
But here are some more numbers to consider. The limited series frontrunner has been the least reliable of the three major program categories. The most-nominated limited series has won 16 of 45 times (or 36%) — compared with 45% for drama and 42% for comedy.
Since 2021, the nomination leader for miniseries has lost four out of five times: “WandaVision” (2021), “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (2023), “True Detective: Night Country” (2024) and “The Penguin” (2025), which led with 23 nominations but lost to “Adolescence.” Only “The White Lotus” (2022) managed a victory.
The category has long produced “frontrunner” collapses, including HBO’s “Mildred Pierce” (20 nominations, 2011), which lost to “Downton Abbey,” and CBS’ “Lonesome Dove” (15 nominations, 1989), which fell to “War and Remembrance.”
Winning the top series prizes in drama, comedy and limited series in the same year remains one of the rarest accomplishments in Emmy history. It has happened only three times: HBO achieved the feat in 2015 with “Game of Thrones,” “Veep” and “Olive Kitteridge,” while NBC accomplished it twice, in 1996 with “ER,” “Frasier” and “Gulliver’s Travels,” and in 1987 with “L.A. Law,” “The Golden Girls” and “A Year in the Life.”
So in fairness, HBO has done it before. But can they do it again? That remains to be determined. But it is still early in Phase 2, and plenty can change before ballots are finalized.
Final-round voting runs Aug. 17-26 ahead of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and Governors Gala on Sept. 5-6. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will air Sept. 14 on NBC.
Top series Leaderboard: “Widow’s Bay” (11); “The Pitt” (7); “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” and “Beef” (6); “Love on the Spectrum” and “Wednesday” (4); “DTF St. Louis,” “Hacks,” “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” “Spider-Noir” and “Survivor” (3)
Top Networks Leaderboard: HBO Max (28); Netflix (25); Apple TV (16); NBC (9); ABC and Prime Video (7); CBS and Comedy Central (6); FX (5); Disney+ (3); National Geographic (2)
Jason Bateman and Harbour in “DTF St. Louis”
HBO
Drama Series: “The Pitt” (HBO Max) Comedy Series: “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) Limited or Anthology Series: “Beef” (Netflix) Outstanding Movie: “Remarkably Bright Creatures” (Netflix) Lead Actor (Drama): Noah Wyle, “The Pitt” (HBO Max) Lead Actor (Comedy): Matthew Rhys, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) Lead Actor (Limited/Movie): Oscar Isaac, “Beef” (Netflix) Lead Actress (Drama): Rhea Seehorn, “Pluribus” (Apple TV) Lead Actress (Comedy): Jean Smart, “Hacks” (HBO Max) Lead Actress (Limited/Movie): Carey Mulligan, “Beef” (Netflix) Supporting Actor (Drama): Tom Pelphrey, “Task” (HBO Max) Supporting Actor (Comedy): Stephen Root, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) Supporting Actor (Limited/Movie): David Harbour, “DTF St. Louis” (HBO Max) Supporting Actress (Drama): Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt” (HBO Max) Supporting Actress (Comedy): Kate O’Flynn, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) Supporting Actress (Limited/Movie): Constance Zimmer, “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” (FX) Guest Actor (Drama): Colman Domingo, “Euphoria” (HBO Max) Guest Actress (Drama): Brittany Allen, “The Pitt” (HBO Max) Guest Actor (Comedy): Rob Reiner, “The Bear” (FX) Guest Actress (Comedy): Betty Gilpin, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) Variety Series: “The Daily Show” (Comedy Central), “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (ABC), “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” (HBO Max) and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS) Variety Special (Live): “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” (NBC) Variety Special (Pre-Recorded): “The Muppet Show” (Disney+) Directing (Drama): Vince Gilligan, “Pluribus” (Apple TV) — “We Is Us” Directing (Comedy): Hiro Murai, “Widow’s Bay” (Apple TV) — “Welcome to Widow’s Bay!” Directing (Limited/Movie): Lee Sung Jin, “Beef” (Netflix) — “Oh, the Comfort, the Inexpressible Comfort” Directing (Documentary/Nonfiction): Mariska Hargitay, “My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay” (HBO Max) Directing (Variety Series): Yvonne De Mare, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS) — “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Series Finale” Directing (Variety Special): Hamish Hamilton, “The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny” (NBC) Directing (Reality Program): Cian O’Clery, “Love on the Spectrum” (Netflix) — “Episode 1” Writing (Drama): “Task” (HBO Max) — “A Still Small Voice” by Brad Inglesby Writing (Comedy): “Hacks” (HBO Max) — “Hacks (Finale)” by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky Writing (Limited/Movie): “DTF St. Louis” (HBO Max) by Steven Conrad Writing (Variety Series): “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS) Writing (Variety Special): “The Muppet Show” (Disney+) by Albertina Rizzo, Gabe Liedman, Nedaa Sweiss, Kelly Younger and Andrew Williams Writing (Nonfiction): “The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: Give the Man a Prize” (Comedy Central) Game Show: “Jeopardy!” (ABC) Host (Reality or Reality Competition): Jeff Probst, “Survivor” (CBS) Host (Game Show): Martin Short, “Match Game” (ABC) Competition Program: “Survivor” (CBS) Structured Reality Program: “Love is Blind” (Netflix) Unstructured Reality Program: “Love on the Spectrum” (Netflix) Documentary or Nonfiction Special: “My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay” (HBO Max) Documentary or Nonfiction Series: “Sean Combs: The Reckoning” (Netflix) Hosted Nonfiction Series or Special: “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman” (Netflix) Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking: “The Librarians” (PBS) Animated Program: “South Park” (Comedy Central) — “Sermon on the ‘Mount”
The Paramount+ multi-cam comedy “Crutch” is done after just one season, Variety has learned.
The series, which starred Tracy Morgan in the title role, originally debuted on Paramount+ back in November 2025.
News of the series ending comes as little surprise, as it failed to find a significant audience upon its debut and considering Morgan’s commitment to other projects. Most notably, Morgan now stars in the NBC comedy “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.” That show debuted on NBC in January 2026 and was renewed for a second season in May. In addition, cast options expired some time ago with many moving on to other projects.
With the cancellation, Paramount+ just one live-action comedy on its current slate, with that being the Australian import “Colin from Accounts.” The streamer is instead focused on its dramas like Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” and “Yellowstone” spinoff “Dutton Ranch” as well as the British crime drama “MobLand” among others.
“Crutch” follows its titular character Francois “Frank” Crutchfield (Morgan), who goes by “Crutch,” who is described as “a brash, yet beloved Harlem shop owner who finds his world turned upside down when his highbrow son and free-spirited daughter move back into the Crutchfield family home.”
The series was set in the world of “The Neighborhood,” one of CBS’ original comedy series, with Morgan appearing in a crossover episode of that show the same day that “Crutch” debuted on Paramount+.
Additional cast members for “Crutch” included Jermaine Fowler, Kecia Lewis, Adrianna Mitchell, Adrian Martinez, Braxton Paul, and Finn Maloney.
“Crutch” hailed from Cedric The Entertainer and his production company, A Bird and a Bear Entertainment. The series is executive produced by Cedric The Entertainer and Eric C. Rhone and created by Owen Smith who served as executive producer and showrunner. Executive producers for “Crutch” included Aaron Kaplan for Kapital Entertainment, Wendi Trilling for TrillTV, Mike Mariano and, Morgan. The series was produced by CBS Studios and distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution outside of Paramount+ markets.
The Reacher and War Machine action star seemingly blasted President Trump over the Epstein files during an eye-opening f-bomb filled rant on Happy Sad Confused podcast this week.
“I think people are a little bit afraid of me because they’re like, ‘He’s a loose cannon,’ and I’m not,” Ritchson began, a bit ironically. “I’m just saying the shit that everybody should say if they give a shit about humanity. Everybody else should feel like I feel.”
“The world is on fire,” encouraged host Josh Horowitz.
“Yeah, about the way things are and the abuses that are happening — the Epstein files, the fucking Epstein files!” Ritchson continued, angrily but with a smile. “Goddamn it! Where are they? It’s a fucking law, bitch. Show it. You fucking pedophiles! I shouldn’t say ‘fuck’ because I’m a Christian, and people are gonna be like, ‘How can you say fuck?’ Because that is something that should make you want to say ‘fuck.’”
“Sorry, God, I’m sweating now,” he continued. “This is my fucking politics, dude. I would fucking railroad these fuckers. I would get those Epstein files out in two seconds. Fucking move out of the way. I don’t care what room they’re in, bitch move. Give me the fucking manila envelope. I will get you the Epstein files.”
“You got my vote,” Horowitz said. “Whatever you want to run for, you got it.”
“Don’t you want to see what’s in there so that we can hold people accountable?” Ritchson asked. “These fucking rapists. We’re just cool with it. That bitch has the keys to the nuclear codes. He’s like all up into 13-year-olds. Like dude, what? Go to jail.”
The Trump administration has released 3.5 million pages related to the late disgraced Jeffrey Epstein, though whether more files exist remains under scrutiny. Trump was directly mentioned roughly 1,000 times in the files released so far, though references in themselves do not equate to wrongdoing. The Epstein files contain an allegation that Trump sexually assaulted a minor, but the releases do not establish that the allegation was true, and Trump has not been criminally charged or found civilly liable for any Epstein-related abuse. Trump was separately found civilly liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll.
While Ritchson has become one of the hottest action stars in Hollywood and has two major releases coming this year — the action thriller Runner, which is released Sept. 11, and the holiday film The Man With the Bag, co-starring with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Awards have always been a bedrock of our coverage at The Hollywood Reporter. We devote an enormous amount of time, energy and ink to the Oscars, the Emmys and the many other statuettes that crowd the Hollywood calendar each year.
When I first arrived at THR a few years ago, fresh to the trades, I was struck by the money, manpower and near-religious fervor Hollywood devotes to awards. Was this simply another symptom of an industry endlessly fascinated with itself?
I’m no longer so sure.
At a moment of profound uncertainty — for Hollywood and for journalism — recognition from your readers and your peers can mean more than another trophy for the shelf. It can be a sign that the work is connecting, that it matters and that somebody out there is still paying attention.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked to make THR newsier, sharper and more ambitious: breaking the daily news of Hollywood while going deeper on the people and institutions reshaping it. We’ve launched popular newsletters devoted to style and the London entertainment industry, opened our pages to provocative new columnists and brought rigor, wit and urgency to everything from boardroom upheavals to the Taylor Swift nuptials.
The work is paying off. While AI and the collapse of social and search referrals have battered digital media, THR has bucked the trend, posting year-over-year audience growth in six months this year and replacing fleeting traffic from Google, Facebook and Instagram with something far more valuable: readers who seek us out and come to us directly.
Team THR’s Award Winners, clockwise from top left: Jackie Strause; Tony Maglio, Julian Sancton, David Rooney, Caitlin Huston, Laura Tucker, Lexi Carson, Alex Weprin, Erik Hayden, Kevin Dolak and Hilary Lewis; Gary Baum and Seth Abramovitch; Aaron Couch, Ryan Gajewski, Seija Rankin, Scott Feinberg, Katie Kilkenny, Nicole Fell, Darah Head, Mary Franz, Alison Edmond, Kirsten Hageleit and Ash Barhamand; Lexy Perez; Jason Rovou, Tiffany Taylor and Harry Buerkle; Abid Rahman; Carly Thomas and McKinley Franklin; Kimberly Nordyke
Our peers have noticed, too. THR won the Webby People’s Voice Award for best website and an ASME for our “Stuck” cover. And just last month, we enjoyed a record night at the Los Angeles Press Club’s Southern California Journalism Awards, taking home 44 prizes — including 20 first-place honors, more than any other publication.
The honors reflected the remarkable range of the newsroom. Gary Baum was named print journalist of the year, Seth Abramovitch entertainment journalist of the year, David Rooney best film critic and Scott Feinberg best audio host. THR was also named best website, while creative director Ada Guerin took first place for cover art. Our video team won for both its Actresses Roundtable and a feature on the video-store owner defying the streaming era — and, just recently, Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter received a Daytime Emmy nomination.
And we’re not done. New video franchises, a provocative slate of podcasts and newsletters devoted to Canada, AI and music are all coming soon. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the extraordinary staff pictured here: journalists who are curious, experienced, fiercely competitive and, despite everything, still excited by the work. None of this happens without them.
After decades as a journalist, I still think there’s nothing more fun and rewarding than being first on a story, scoring that impossible interview, producing the cover that everyone’s talking about. But posing with 20 first-place prizes at the Biltmore ain’t so bad, either. It’s the kind of fun you can brag about to your mom or (tastefully!) show off in your office. And even a staff full of skeptics will find it hard to be blasé about that.
This story appeared in the July 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
