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Disney Upfront: Here’s What Happened At North Javits

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Disney didn’t want to miss out on all the songs and dances at this year’s Upfronts so brought along the Savannah Bananas to kick things off with a slightly off-pitch opener.

It was apt given that their second baseman Jackson Olson is waltzing off to Dancing with the Stars. It wasn’t the most tuneful of openings but Disney had an ace up its sleeve: closing out with a three-song performance by Olivia Rodrigo.

The barnstorming baseball team was followed by Anne Hathaway, star of Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2, to introduce new CEO Josh D’Amaro.

The last two years have seen former CEO Bob Iger present on stage – the first time in 30 years – so it makes sense that his successor D’Amaro gets in on the act.

“This is my first Upfront as CEO of The Walt Disney Company, so naturally we decided to keep the pressure low and put a few thousand media executives in one room to stare at me,” he said before cracking a joke about the New York Knicks.

The former parks boss threw a little shade at his rivals. “Everybody, in their own way, is racing to assemble something. Studios. Streaming services. Sports rights. Live events. Brands that audiences feel something about. It is, in a way, a real compliment to this company. Because what they are racing to assemble is, more or less, the picture of what we already are,” he said. “The thing is, you cannot acquire a hundred years of trust. You can’t put generations of belonging on a balance sheet.”

Next up was FX heartthrob Paul Anthony Kelly, who played John F. Kennedy Jr. in Love Story, to introduce ad boss Rita Ferro.

Then came the sports: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was joined by Joe Buck to talk up the fact that Disney has the Super Bowl in 2027. Jason Kelce then brought out a line-up of Super Bowl MVPs including Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Steve Young, Emmitt Smith, Desmond Howard, Jerry Rice, Hines Ward, Kurt Warner and Nick Foles to promote this fact.

Goodell had some fun on stage, hugging Buck in the increasingly aggressive way that he has been known to hug players at the draft.

Then it was onto television and film with intermittent promotions for shows such as Hulu NFL drama The Land with stars William H. Macy, Mandy Moore and Christopher Meloni on stage.

They were followed by a Dancing with the Stars moment with pros including Mark Ballas and Val Chmerkovskiy, Ke Huy Quan, known to some as Short Round and to younger fans as Gary DeSnake in Zootopia 2, Sigourney Weaver promoting the Disney+ premiere of Avatar: Fire and Ash and her role in The Mandalorian and Grogu, Rosario Dawson talking up the season two launch of Ahsoka on Disney+.

Then came the movie stars: Robert Downey Jr. followed a Marvel “hype sizzle” ahead of the launch of Avengers: Doomsday in December, before being interrupted by Loki star Tom Hiddleston to promote his “side hustle” Pompeii: Out of Time with Tom Hiddleston for Nat Geo, and Paul Bettany to show a trailer for WandaVision spinoff VisionQuest.

“Twenty years ago, Kevin Feige officially asked me to play Tony Stark in Iron Man, it changed my life,” Downey said.

There were some linear stars on stage including Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson and High Potential’s Kaitlin Olsen and Scrubs “throuple” Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison.

Things quickly creepy with American Horror Story. Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, Billie Lourd and Emma Roberts revealed that the aforementioned FX heartthrob Paul Anthony Kelly would be joining the Ryan Murphy-produced series.

“We’ve been expecting you, Paul,” said Paulson.

Things remained creepy with a trailer of FX’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ The Shards. Kaia Gerber, Igby Rigney and Home Gere were then joined by Lindsay Lohan, Shailene Woodley and Kit Harrington to show off Hulu’s Count My Lies, followed by FX’s Olivia Colman and Brie Larson-starrer Cry Wolf and Clare Danes and Ewan McGregor to talk up Hulu’s The Spot.

Don’t worry, from there it was more sports. Shaquille O’Neal, with some “Shaq stats”, was joined by Dallas Mavericks star Cooper Flagg and commentator Kenny Smith as well, in a surprise move, New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, fresh from helping the team sweep Philadelphia 76ers to reach the Eastern Conference finals.

Arguably the biggest cheer of the night went to Billie Jean King, who is the subject of Give Me The Ball, a documentary directed by Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff, that highlighted her Billie Jean King’s impact on tennis and global social activism. “We’re just getting started,” the tennis legend said before hitting a number of autographed tennis balls into the quarter zip vest-loving crowd.

Then came Jimmy Kimmel to close things out with his annual roast. Kimmel joked that he’s been through so much “bullsh*t” over the last twelve months that it made him “appreciate this bullsh*t” at the Upfronts.

Kimmel’s daughter Jane then came out to introduce Olivia Rodrigo to perform. Amazon might have had Diplo and Shaboozey at their Upfront afterparty, but Disney flexed its muscle with a three song set featuring Rodrigo’s new single Drop Dead, the Misery Business-esque Good 4 You and Get Him Back!

There was a rather sweet ending as Rodrigo pulled Jane Kimmel on stage for a final gang vocal.

“That’s it from me, probably forever,” joked her dad moments early. We’ll see next year.

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‘Icebreaker’ TV Show Adaptation News & Updates: Everything We Know

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Another hockey book adaptation has entered the chat.

Netflix is currently building out its cast for the series adaptation of Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book that kicks off the Maple Hill series. This in addition to their show The Sticks that is also currently in the works.

For everything we know about Netflix’s Icebreaker book adaptation so far, read on.

When will Netflix’s Icebreaker series adaptation come out?

A release date has not yet been set. The show has begun to assemble its cast.

Who will lead the Icebreaker show at Netflix?

Daisy Jelley (Poser, How To Have Sex) will portray Anastasia “Stassie” Allen, and Connor Simos (Subversion) will portray Nate Hawkins in the college hockey drama series.

Who else is in the cast of Netflix’s Icebreaker adaptation?

Gabriel Tierney (Rivals, Enola Holmes 2), Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana), newcomer and professional athlete Peter Berry, Chaneil Kular (Best of the Best, Sex Education), Devin Craig (Sex Lives of College Girls, Maize) and Aidan Shaw (We Were Liars, Heated Rivalry, Finding Her Edge) have joined the ensemble cast.

Tierney will play Aaron; Cravalho will portray Lola; Berry is Robbie; Kular will play JJ; Craig will portray Henry and Shaw is Russ.

What is Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book about?

Stassie is a transfer athlete gunning for Olympic gold. Nate is the campus star chasing the NHL. When an accident forces their teams to share one rink, Anastasia Allen and Nate Hawkins collide—and discipline gives way to obsession, because the only thing more dangerous than wanting to win is wanting each other.

Who else is behind Netflix’s Icebreaker series?

Jade Halley Bartlett (Road House, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Miller’s Girl) created and executive produced the series. Amanda Lasher (Gossip Girl, The Bold Type, Togetherness) serves as showrunner, writer and excutive producer. Grace also executive produces along with Alex Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre for Cooper’s Unwell Productions.

RELATED: ‘The Sticks’: Scott Bakula, Logan Marshall-Green & More Cast Confirmed; First Look At Netflix YA Hockey Drama Starring Michelle Monaghan

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Cindy Holland Leaving Paramount Ahead Of WBD Merger

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One of the biggest executive questions about Paramount following its pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — who will lead streaming — may have been answered.

Cindy Holland is leaving Paramount where she was Chairman of Direct-To-Consumer since the Skydance-Paramount merger having served as an advisor to Skydance CEO David Ellison prior to that. She announced her departure in a company memo, which you can read below.

The move leaves HBO’s Casey Bloys as the likely streaming head of the combined Paramount-WBD.

“Cindy is one of the most exceptional executives in our industry — a force of nature whose impact on Paramount over the past year has been significant,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said. “Under her leadership, P+ reached new heights, Pluto TV underwent its most significant transformation in a decade, and we strengthened our content and sports portfolio – all while the business exceeded the ambitious goals we set. Just as importantly, she built an exceptional team and a strong foundation for the future. Cindy has been a trusted partner to me and so many others, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her leadership, her relentless drive and everything she’s done for our company.”

Here is Holland’s memo:

When I joined David’s team in January 2025, we proceeded to set three goals: i) advise on the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, ii) integrate and transform Paramount+ & revive Pluto TV, and iii) build an unparalleled team in this industry. In just over 12 months, I’m proud to say we accomplished all three and it’s been a joy to work closely with all of you.
Together with the Product team, we drove significant strategic and organizational change across DTC — building a new foundation for growth on both services, while investing in greater depth and breadth of programming and delivering strong revenue, profit, and subscriber growth for the division.
As David readies for the next phase of his vision, we’ve discussed my role and the future of the combined businesses. David is optimizing for HBO stability as we move into this next chapter, and I fully support that. I know this team has the leadership and expertise to manage through the transition and the next phase of the company, and to this end today will mark my last day here.
As I reflect on my time here and all that we’ve built together in this short time, what stands out most to me is this team. I have never been more proud of a group of people. What we’ve accomplished together is remarkable — landing quarter after quarter while navigating extraordinary uncertainty and change with resilience, focus and ambition. We grew Paramount+ to an all-time subscriber high, delivered the best retention in the service’s history, and drove double-digit growth in both engagement and revenue. We built an extraordinary content pipeline, greenlighting more than 40 new and returning series and setting all-time records with Landman, the most-watched series in Paramount+ history, and Dutton Ranch, the service’s biggest original series debut ever. We transformed live sports into a powerful streaming growth engine, securing landmark agreements with UFC and Zuffa Boxing and expanding our WNBA and UEFA Champions League rights – with UFC Freedom 250 becoming the largest-ever audience for an exclusive live event on Paramount+ and UFC 329 setting a new platform record for peak concurrent streams for an exclusive live event. And we undertook Pluto TV’s biggest product transformation in a decade, dramatically increasing registered viewing and VOD consumption while delivering strong financial performance across the business. These are extraordinary accomplishments – but what makes me proudest is how we achieved them: together, with an unwavering commitment to our audiences, our creative partners and one another.
I joined Paramount because I believe in these businesses, and because I believe wholeheartedly that the combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery serves the best interests of artists and audiences worldwide. I’m looking forward to seeing what you all accomplish together in this next, momentous chapter.
Cindy

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New ‘South Park’ Takes On Data Centers And The Billionaires Who Build Them

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While President Trump was holding a press conference at the White House this morning and extolling the AI-related work of Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, a promo for tomorrow night’s South Park episode dropped. It was less salutary.

Here’s the logline for Episode 6 of Season 29: “Butters is unhappy with the data centers that the billionaires are building in our backyards.”

The clip opens with an X-Pest exterminator guy ringing the doorbell at Butters’ home.

“I understand you’ve got some billionaires in your back yard,” he says.

“Yeah, there’s more of these stupid billionaires every day!” replies Butters.

The first image from the episode (see it above) shows Butters in what appears to be his back yard with the X-Pest exterminator guy, who has strapped on his tank of poison and has his sprayer wand at the ready.

The topic of data centers is a hot one across the country and especially in Hollywood, where unions and workers worry about job displacement and writers and directors express concern over what it might do to their art.

Among the biggest players in the data center land rush is, of course, Oracle CEO and Paramount-WBD deal financier Larry Ellison. South Park airs on Comedy Central, which is owned by Paramount. As in the past, the show’s creators are seemingly not afraid to bite the hand that feeds them.

Mark Ruffalo and others have decried the introduction of “really profoundly scary technology” into Hollywood and how AI might impact media outlets soon to be owned by Ellison and his son David.

“Larry is a classic Oligarch,” wrote Ruffalo. “They are crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.”

Paramount, for its part, responded by accusing Ruffalo of using “antisemitic tropes” in his argument, especially when linking the Ellisons’ studio acquisition to Oracle’s work with the Israeli military.

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