Tag: Entertainment-Variety

Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” was the big winner on the final night of the 57th NAACP Image Awards virtual ceremonies.

The blockbuster movie — which led the Image Award nominations with a dominant 18 nods, including outstanding motion picture — won three categories: stunt ensemble, cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw) and ensemble cast (Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Buddy Guy, Delroy Lindo, Peter Dreimanis, Lola Kirke, Li Jun Li, Saul Williams and Yao). Coogler and Jordan’s previous collaborations, “Black Panther” and its sequel “Wakanda Forever,” also won the ensemble prize on the way to massive trophy hauls at their respective Image Awards telecasts.

Wednesday night’s virtual ceremony, hosted by Angel “ThatChickAngel” Laketa Moore and Khleo Thomas, focused on the non-televised film, television, and writing award categories. Teyana Taylor — who is nominated for six Image Awards, including one for her role in “One Battle After Another” — picked up the prize for outstanding supporting actress in a TV movie, limited series or dramatic special for her work in “Tyler Perry’s Straw.” Her co-star in the Netflix thriller, Glynn Turman, won the supporting actor award.

The late Malcolm-Jamal Warner won the prize for outstanding guest performance for his part in the Fox series “Murder in a Small Town.” It was the second Image Award win for the actor, who died last year at 54.

With the virtual ceremonies complete, the Image Awards week rolls along to its final destination, the 57th Image Awards telecast, hosted by Deon Cole, on Saturday, Feb. 28. The show will be broadcast live from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET, CBS and across Paramount networks.

Deon Cole returns to host the show, broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. While “Sinners” topped the film categories, the recently-wrapped Peacock series “Bel-Air” led the TV categories with seven nominations. The nominees for Entertainer of the Year, the show’s signature category, include Cynthia Erivo, Doechii, Kendrick Lamar, Michael B. Jordan and Teyana Taylor.

Special honorees for this year’s NAACP Image Awards week include Viola Davis, who will be presented with the Chairman’s Award; Colman Domingo, the President’s Award honoree; Salt-N-Pepa and DJ Spinderella who will be inducted into the Image Awards Hall of Fame; A$AP Rocky, to be presented with the Vanguard Award for fashion; and Rev. Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, who will receive the prestigious Mildred Bond Roxborough Social Justice Impact Award.

The full list of winners from night three can be found below:

Outstanding Children’s Program

“Gracie’s Corner” (YouTube TV)

Outstanding Animated Series

“Gracie’s Corner” (YouTube TV)

Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Television)

Kyla Pratt – “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” (Disney+)

Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Motion Picture)

Quinta Brunson – “Zootopia 2” (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

Outstanding Stunt Ensemble (Television or Motion Picture)

“Sinners” – Andy Gill (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture

“Love, Brooklyn” (Greenwich Entertainment)

Outstanding International Motion Picture

“Souleymane’s Story” (Kino Lorber)

Outstanding Documentary (Film)

“Being Eddie” (Netflix)

Outstanding Cinematography in a Motion Picture

Autumn Durald Arkapaw – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Editing in a Motion Picture or Television Series, Movie, or Special

Deanna Nowell – “Ironheart” (Disney+)

Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Motion Picture)

Cassandra Mann – “Unexpected Christmas” (3 Diamonds Entertainment LLC)

Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture

Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Buddy Guy, Delroy Lindo, Peter Dreimanis, Lola Kirke, Li Jun Li, Saul Williams, Yao – “Sinners” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Outstanding Variety (Series or Special)

“Ali Siddiq: My Two Sons” (YouTube/Moment PPV)

Outstanding Guest Performance

Malcolm-Jamal Warner – “Murder in a Small Town” (FOX)

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series

Aisha Muharrar – “Hacks” – “Clickable Face” (HBO Max)

Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series

Cynthia Adarkwa – “The Pitt” -“12:00 P.M.” (HBO Max)

Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie or Special

Aireka Muse – “Friends & Lovers” (Lifetime Movie Network)

Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series

Tyler James Williams – “Abbott Elementary” – “The Science Fair” (ABC)

Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series

Mario Van Peebles – “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” – “Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself” (STARZ)

Outstanding Directing in a Television Movie or Special

Olatunde Osunsanmi – “Star Trek: Section 31” (Paramount+)

Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Television)

Chinaka Hodge – “Ironheart” (Disney+)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Movie, Limited–Series or Dramatic Special

Teyana Taylor – “Straw” (Netflix)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Television Movie, Limited–Series or Dramatic Special

Glynn Turman – “Straw” (Netflix)

Outstanding Host in a Reality/Reality Competition, Game Show or Variety (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble

Steve Harvey – “Celebrity Family Feud” (ABC)

Outstanding Reality Program, Reality Competition or Game Show (Series)

“Celebrity Family Feud” (ABC)

Tuesday, February 24

Cardi B, Don Lemon and SZA joined Michelle Obama and Kendrick Lamar as NAACP Image Award winners on night two of the virtual pre-show.

Cardi B won three Image Awards on Tuesday night, including outstanding female artist and outstanding album for her latest record “Am I the Drama?” Her track “ErrTime” won the prize for outstanding hip-hop/rap song. Before this year’s ceremony, Cardi B had won just one Image Award, for serving as judge and executive producer of “Rhythm & Flow.”

Veteran journalist Don Lemon won two trophies for his eponymous talk show, “The Don Lemon Show”; Lemon’s news and talk series and Obama’s podcast “IMO,” which the former first lady co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson, won four of the five awards presented for that medium.

Lamar, who was also a big winner on the first night of the three-part virtual ceremony, added two more prizes on night two. The rapper was named outstanding male artist and shared the music video/visual album award with SZA for their Grammy-winning hit “Luther.”

Coogler’s “Sinners” won its first awards out of its 18 nominations, collecting the prizes for outstanding soundtrack and original score.

Watch the virtual pre-show in the video here. The full list of winners from night two can be found below:

Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album

“luther” – Kendrick Lamar & SZA (pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records)

Outstanding New Artist

Monaleo – “Who Did the Body?” (Columbia Records)

Outstanding Female Artist

Cardi B (Atlantic Records)

Outstanding Male Artist

Kendrick Lamar (pgLang under exclusive license to Interscope Records)

Outstanding Hip-Hop/Rap Song

“ErrTime” – Cardi B (Atlantic Records)

Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Album

“Sinners (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” (Proximity Media LLC, under exclusive license to Masterworks, a label of Sony Music Entertainment)

Outstanding International Song

“Is It” – Tyla (Epic Records)

Outstanding Jazz Album

“We Insist! 2025” – Terri Lyne Carrington & Christie Dashiell (Candid Records)

Outstanding Gospel/Christian Song

“Do it Again” – Kirk Franklin (Fo Yo Soul Recordings/Tribl Records)

Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album

“Tasha” – Tasha Cobbs Leonard (Motown Gospel)

Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Traditional)

803Fresh feat. Fantasia – “Boots on the Ground Remix” (Snake Eyez Music Group/Artist Partner Group)

Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration (Contemporary)

Chris Brown feat. Bryson Tiller & Usher – “It Depends (Remix)” (RCA Records/Chris Brown Entertainment)

Outstanding Original Score for TV/Film

“Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score)” (Proximity Media LLC, under exclusive license to Sony Classical, a label of Sony Music Entertainment)

Outstanding Album

“Am I The Drama?” – Cardi B (Atlantic Records)

Outstanding Podcast – Scripted/Limited Series/Short Form

“Interesting Things with JC” (Jim Connors LLC)

Outstanding Podcast – News and Information

“The Don Lemon Show” (Lemon Media Network)

Outstanding Podcast – Lifestyle/Self-Help

“IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” (Higher Ground)

Outstanding Podcast – Arts, Sports and Entertainment

“IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson” (Higher Ground)

Outstanding Podcast – Society and Culture

“The Don Lemon Show” (Lemon Media Network)

Monday, February 23

The 57th NAACP Image Awards week kicked off Monday with former first lady Michelle Obama and rapper Kendrick Lamar winning two of the early prizes.

Obama’s latest book, “The Look” — which explored her style evolution from her time in the White House to life afterwards — won the award for outstanding literary work biography/autobiography. Meanwhile, Lamar’s electrifying Super Bowl halftime performance was named outstanding short-form series or special – reality/nonfiction/documentary. Both Obama and Lamar are repeat winners at the Image Awards: she won in the same category in 2019 for her memoir “Becoming,” while he has nine trophies from the NAACP, including two for his 2025 anthem “Not Like Us.”

The awards were announced during the first edition of a three-night virtual event, where winners will be revealed in the majority of the Image Awards’ more than 90 categories (across film, television and streaming, music, literature and podcasts). The pre-show ceremony, hosted by Angel “ThatChickAngel” Laketa Moore and Khleo Thomas, aired exclusively on YouTube and NAACP+ and focused primarily on the literary categories, as well as two digital content creator prizes. For the first time, the NAACP Image Awards got into gaming, with Berlin Edmond Jr., aka Berleezy, winning the top prize.

Watch the virtual pre-show ceremony in the video above. The full list of winners from night one can be found here:

Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/Autobiography

“The Look” – Michelle Obama (Crown)

Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction

“A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm & Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics” – Juanita Tolliver (Legacy Lit/Hachette Book Group)

Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional

“Who Better Than You?” – Will Packer (Penguin Random House)

Outstanding Literary Work – Journalism

“On Borrowed Time” – Anissa Durham (Online)

Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author

Charles B. Fancher – “Red Clay” (Blackstone Publishing)

Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction

“Death of the Author” – Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow)

Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry

“The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems” – Patricia Smith (Scribner)

Outstanding Literary Work – Children

“Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark” – Allen R. Wells; Illustrated by DeAndra Hodge (Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers/Macmillan)

Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens

“Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi” – Angie Thomas (HarperCollins/Clarion Books)

Outstanding Literary Work – Graphic Novel

“Parable of the Talents: A Graphic Novel Adaptation” – Octavia E. Butler, adapted by Damien Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings and David Brame (Abrams ComicArts)

Outstanding Short-Form Series or Special – Reality/Nonfiction/Documentary

“The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show Starring Kendrick Lamar” (FOX)

Outstanding Digital Content Creator – Gaming/Tech

Berlin Edmond Jr. (@Berleezy)

Outstanding Digital Content Creator – Fitness/Wellness/Food

Keith Lee (@keith_lee125)

“A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey” reached 8.35 million worldwide on all platforms. Some 5.13 million people in the United States interacted with content from the exclusive interview, while the remaining 3.22 million were international.

On CNN, the interview — which aired on Feb. 21 at. 7 p.m. ET/PT — drew 453,000 viewers, with 57,000 in the key 25-to-54 demographic, according to Nielsen. The full conversation was also available on CNN’s streaming platform and Variety‘s YouTube page.

Clips from the “Town Hall” were a major driver of social media traffic, reaching 46.29 million views across all of Variety‘s platforms. Instagram and Facebook lead with 20.35 million, followed by TikTok at 14.54 million and X at 11.4 million.

The Saturday night broadcast, filmed in front of an audience of University of Texas at Austin students, saw the reunion of Chalamet and McConaughey, who played son and father in 2014’s “Interstellar.” During the roughly 90-minute sitdown, the pair discussed memories from Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic, Chalamet’s Oscar-contending performance in “Marty Supreme” and took questions from the audience.

During their chat, Chalamet told McConaughey that “Interstellar” was his “favorite project” he’s ever been a part of, adding that he thought McConaughey’s Cooper was “his most fantastic role.”

“I know you were coming off ‘Dallas Buyers Club,’ but that movie, to me, was the origin point in seeing how you carried yourself on set, how seriously you and Christopher Nolan took the work,” Chalamet said. “It gave me a license. Coming out of high school, it’s hard to take yourself super seriously. You can feel like you’re wasting time or stuck-up or something. And I remember you had a yoga mat, and you’d be working out and sleeping on set. It was all very strange to me. But it was super inspiring. I just can’t thank you enough for being warm to me at that time, when you had no reason to be warm to me. Christopher as well. It just changed my life, man.”

McConaughey graciously responded, “Thanks for that, man. You were pretty easy to be warm to. I remember you had what I felt like was a feverish curiosity at that time. You were figuring some stuff out, but it seemed obvious to me that no matter what you were dealing with, you were going to make your way. And I believe you were in some sort of limbo. You were choosing — something about music, and somebody was putting pressure about, ‘Maybe go this way,’ and you wanted to go this way.”

Watch “A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey” below.

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The U.S. men’s national hockey team made headlines over the weekend when it defeated Canada 2-1 in the gold medal final at the Winter Olympics, and now, Nike has dropped a new line of merch to commemorate the occasion.

The U.S. men’s win marked the first Olympic gold medal for an American hockey team since the now-legendary “Miracle on Ice” victory by the U.S. over their Soviet opponents in the 1980 Winter Olympics. That win of course, went on to inspire the 2004 film, “Miracle,” starring Kurt Russell.

Now, Nike has dropped a limited-edition line of apparel to celebrate the new Olympic champs, including New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes, who scored the overtime-winning goal over the Canadians in Milan.

The collection includes this officially-licensed hoodie features a “USA Gold” emblem on the front along with the USA Hockey shield and Nike logo. The back of the hoodie features the names and numbers of all the players on the men’s Olympic team.

The hoodie is Made in the USA from a cozy cotton blend with a regular fit. Choose from sizes small to 2XL.

Get the same gold medal-winning graphic on this unisex T-shirt, which is also Made in the USA from a 100% cotton material. The T-shirt also comes in navy, though unlike the hoodie, the back does not feature the roster names. Choose from sizes small to 2XL.

Of course, the U.S. women’s hockey team also took home gold in Milan and Nike has released this white hoodie commemorating their win. The gold graphics on the front of the hoodie also include the “USA Gold” tagline only with the words “Women’s Olympic Champions” instead of “men’s.” You can get the same design in a white T-shirt here.

Nike says the pieces “honor the U.S. Hockey team’s historic win,” with new graphics “printed across the chest so you’ll never forget their triumphant efforts. Secure this celebratory piece today and relive the glory of the U.S. Hockey team’s golden moment for years to come.”

Looking for something a little different? Fanatics also has this unisex T-shirt from Outerstuff, which depicts the silhouette of a hockey player against the American flag. The Team USA Olympic logo also features prominently in the design.

And you can pick up an official Jack Hughes Team USA T-shirt, which celebrates the young hockey hero whose overtime goal lifted the the States to their first Olympic gold medal since Lake Placid. This one is an officially-licensed release from Nike.

You can find more USA Hockey gold medal merch including autographed pucks, posters and other collectibles at Fanatics.com. One thing that may be harder to find: official Team USA Nike hockey jerseys, which sold out online in the days following the Americans’ big Olympic win.

Paramount Skydance leaders steered clear of any discussion of the company’s latest bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery as it unveiled fourth-quarter 2025 earnings report on Wednesday that reflected declines in the company’s core linear TV business but momentum for Paramount+ and other streaming platforms.

CEO David Ellison and Paramount president Jeff Shell fielded questions from Wall Street analysts about the company’s fourth quarter results, which marks the first full quarter that studio has been owned by Ellison.

Ellison said flatly that Paramount’s film slate “underperformed” in 2025. Ellison and Shell were pressed about the potential for the NFL to trigger its option to renegotiate its TV rights deals starting in 2029. And Ellison told analysts that he is bullish on streaming’s ad-supported FAST channel sector, and that Paramount eventually will invest “10x” in engineering talent as part of the revitalization plan for the studio.

Dennis Cinelli, Paramount’s newly appointed chief financial officer, addressed the 2026 projection for Paramount Pictures’ film business as having a down year overall compared to 2025 despite having more theatrical releases on deck. Paramount said it expects to have 16 theatrical releases this year, compared to eight in 2025.

“We do expect the actual revenue to decline. We’ve been very clear overall that we’re in a real rebuild phase of that business. As we execute that rebuild, we’ll see some of that come through in 2026, but mostly that will come through in future years. And so even with the actual revenue dropping down, we do expect better cost management as well as benefits from our licensing deals to drive studio profitability up,” Cinelli said.

Ellison’s Skydance Media took over Paramount Global last August. “We inherited a slate that has underperformed. We’re going to see significant improvement in the profitability of the film slate this year,” Ellison said.

Pressed for examples of how the new regime is executing its plan to use technological upgrades to drive operating improvements at the more than 100-year-old studio, Ellison pointed to changes already made but he indicated that there is much more to come.

“When you look at the engineers that we have at the company currently, you can expect us to kind of 10x the size of the headcount that we are basically investing towards this,” Ellison said. “We really want to be in a position where we can be a leader in the industry in terms of how this transformation is shaped.”

Ellison and Shell were grilled about the growth and profit forecasts for the Paramount+ streamer. Ellison also made a point of endorsing the company’s Pluto TV platform that serves up dozens of free ad-supported streaming television channels (aka FAST) around the world.

“I am a big believer in in the FAST space. When you really look globally, FAST is something that is only going to grow in importance. And when you look at the signs that are also really encouraging on Pluto is that we are seeing engagement grow,” Ellison said. “The headwind we’re facing is really monetization, and we’re doing several things to correct that. And while Pluto has always been a leader in the FAST space — it’s a profitable platform — but it was from our perspective under-invested in by the previous owners and managers, both in a content standpoint as well as from a product standpoint.”

As for the NFL, Shell projected confidence that Paramount’s CBS would remain a cornerstone of the league’s distribution strategy for games for many years to come. The NFL has the right to re-negotiate deals that were sealed in 2021 and stretch out through 2033. Shell pointed to the power of the regionalization that CBS allows for with NFL coverage on Sunday with its AFC package, much as Fox does with its NFC package for Sundays. If the NFL restarts the contract, the price is expected to be astronomical.

“We feel pretty confident we’re going to be in business with the NFL for a long time, and we have properly accounted for what we expect to be whatever impact of that negotiation in our kind of internal forecast going forward,” Shell said. “One of the unique things about our relationship with the NFL, and I would actually say it’s probably somewhere to Fox’s relationship with the NFL is the anchor of their flywheel and the anchor of their reach is really the reach of both CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoons. That reach, which has really helped contribute for both of our benefit to the success of the NFL, is by our vast array of both owned and operated stations, of which we have 28, and affiliates. It’s important that those games get regionalized, and that we aggregate that viewership and maximize the viewership in each market for the best game, both for us and Fox, and that accrues to the benefit of the NFL and to us and really maximizes the reach on any given Sunday.”

Viewers of “Today” are going to see a little more of Hoda Kotb.

Kotb is expected to continue to fill in at the NBC morning franchise opposite Craig Melvin while regular co-anchor Savannah Guthrie continues to monitor the search for her mother, Nancy, in Arizona, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kotb has been co-anchoring “Today” for the past three weeks.

Kotb does not plan to rejoin the program full time, this person says, noting that Guthrie is expected to return to “Today” on her own timeline, even though her absence may continue for a significant period.

Guthrie has been absent from the show since the start of the month. Her mother, Nancy, has been missing since January 31.

Kotb, who left the program in early 2025, has remained under contract to NBC since that time. She has taken part in a podcast as well as NBC’s annual telecast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, while making occasional appearances on “Today” hours. Kotb was originally supposed to attend NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage in Italy along with Guthrie and other “Today” personnel, but those plans were scaled back after Nancy Guthrie disappeared.

Kotb’s decision to stay offers a viable solution for NBC and “Today” producers. She’s already affiliated with the show, and adding someone new to the mix during such a difficult moment could be ill advised The introduction of someone new to fill in more regularly for Guthrie — even on an interim basis — could alienate viewers, who have a years-long relationship with her and don’t want to see her treated poorly, particularly under duress.

When Kotb announced her decision to exit in 2024, she cited a desire to spend time with two young daughters. “I realized it was time for me to turn the page,” after a recent 60th birthday, she told colleagues on the program. She noted that she had children later in life and that “they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have.”

Kotb had been at NBC News since 1998, when she joined as a correspondent for the “Dateline” newsmagazine. She arrived at NBC after logging years at CBS affiliates in Florida and Louisiana. But she gained a wider profile after joining a fourth hour of “Today” in 2007 that typically airs at 10 a.m. At first, Kotb was one of group of personnel assigned to the show, but within months was paired with Kathie Lee Gifford, a veteran of the syndicated ABC program “Live” who held her own for years opposite Regis Philbin.

Suddenly, Kotb was talking about her dating adventures with Gifford. being satirized on “Saturday Night Live” and sharing more of her personal life than than a journalist might expect. “It used to be you could host a morning show, even the 7, and not really reveal too much. And I think everything has changed now. I think now part of entering into this world, you have to reveal things. Because people expect so much more,” Kotb told Variety in 2014. “They don’t know whether to love you or not if you don’t share anything and sometimes you have to go beyond. I feel like I’ve gone beyond what I’m comfortable with.”

Donald Trump lashed out at Robert De Niro in a Truth Social rant amid their ongoing public feud. The president slammed the Oscar-winning actor as “a sick and demented person” after De Niro fought back tears in a recent interview on “The Best People With Nicole Wallace” podcast while urging Americans to resist Trump.

“Trump Deranged Robert De Niro [is] another sick and demented person with, I believe, an extremely Low IQ, who has absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying — some of which is seriously CRIMINAL!” Trump posted. “When I watched him break down in tears last night, much like a child would do, I realized that he may be even sicker than Crazy Rosie O’Donnell, who is right now in Ireland trying to figure out how to come back into our beautiful United States.”

“The only difference between De Niro and Rosie is that she is probably somewhat smarter than him, which isn’t saying much,” the president continued. “The good news is that America is now Bigger, Better, Richer, and Stronger than ever before, and it’s driving them absolutely crazy!”

Trump’s latest rant encouraged De Niro to get on a boat and leave the country with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), both of whom walked out of Trump’s State of the Union address before it was over and shouted at him in disapproval.

“When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump posted. “When people can behave like that, and knowing that they are Crooked and Corrupt Politicians, so bad for our Country, we should send them back from where they came — as fast as possible. They can only damage the United States of America, they can do nothing to help it.”

During his interview with Nicole Wallace, De Niro said Trump is “destroying” America, adding: “It’s sick, it’s fucked up. We have to save the country.”

“People have to resist, resist, resist, resist, resist. That’s the only way,” De Niro said. “There’s no magic. There’s no nothing – people are not going to go away, even if Trump dies for some reason by having an illness or something,” he said at one point. “Parts of that movement are still there, and that’s the scary part. It has to be neutralized by the people.”

Paramount Skydance, in the midst of pursuing a acquisition of Warner Bros, Discovery, saw downturns in revenue from TV advertising and distribution in the fourth quarter, which helped to spur a wider loss for the period, even as revenue increased in its streaming and film operations.

The owner of the CBS broadcast network and Paramount+ posted a loss that widened from the year-earlier period, to $573 million from $224 million, despite a 2% increase in revenue.

Paramount posts its fourth quarter results as it is intensifying its chase for Warner Bros. Discovery, which is considering a revamped Paramount bid to buy all of the company even though it has already struck an agreement to sell its HBO Max streaming service and Warner studios to Netflix.

“Over the past six months, we have made meaningful progress,” said David Ellison, Paramount’s CEO, in a letter to shareholders, noting that executives “remain confident in the path we’ve set to transform this company for the future.”

Paramount said revenue grew 10% at its streaming operations, to $2.21 billion, while revenue from filmed entertainment rose 16% to nearly $1.26 billion. But revenue fell 5% at the company’s largest business, its TV networks, to $4.7 billion, compared with nearly $4.98 billion in the year-earlier period. Paramount said TV advertising during the quarter fell 10%, while distribution revenue fell 7%.

The company projected better times ahead, calling for a 4% uptick in revenue for all of 2026, while guiding Wall Street to a projection of revenue of $7.15 billion to $7.35 billion for the first quarter of the year. Those figures would represent a decline of 1% to an uptick of 2% in revenue for the period.

An acquisition of Warner would help boost the company’s economics, Ellison said in the letter. The company views Warner “as an accelerant” to achieving its goals “more quickly, in a way that is economically compelling for Paramount shareholders.”

More to come…