
Noah Kahan’s reply to the White House
SAG-AFTRA leadership has taken a slightly more aggressive stand against Paramount Skydance‘s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, but it has stopped short of joining its sister union the Writers Guild of America in bringing the issue to court.
The union’s National Board adopted a resolution over the weekend that publicly opposes the merger unless there are certain production guarantees.
The action, while largely symbolic, also puts on record the guild’s support for both of the pending anti-trust lawsuits filed by the Writers Guild of America and a group of states’ attorneys general to block the merger.
“Today’s board resolution officially puts on record our demand that the acquisition not proceed unless there are enforceable safeguards against reduced production by the studios with guarantees of increases in the percentage of productions made in the USA,” SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin and National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a joint statement about the situation.
The statement continued, adding: “We acknowledge that there are other demands that could be made as a part of this process. We have concluded that at this time, those issues are best addressed by other advocates while we focus specifically on the very real economic impact on our members and other industry workers.”
SAG-AFTRA had not previously taken a firm position on the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Back when Netflix was still in competition for the storied studio, the actors union said that it would conduct a “complete and thorough analysis” of the deal before picking a side but also warned that the potential deal raised “many serious questions”.
The statement over the weekend assured members that leadership had done their due diligence before adopting the recent resolution, including meetings with lawyers, guild leaders, studio executives, and even the Department of Justice.
The merger received rather quick approval from the Trump administration’s DOJ followed by approvals from other countries including a green light from the European Union with concessions around film distribution. A decision the key U.K. market, however, is is still pending.
The Ellisons had hoped to close the deal in the third quarter, but it’s now on pause. A dozen state attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds and were successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order. With a hearing looming next week on a preliminary injunction, Paramount agreed Friday to go directly to trial instead.
The WGA has filed its own lawsuit to block the merger. Both cases reside with same judge in District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland County.
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Noah Kahan is putting the Donald Trump administration on blast after a social media post using his song was shared on the White House account.
Trump visited General Motors this week, and the White House made a post using Kahan’s “American Cars,” but the songwriter says he didn’t approve of this.
“Would never approve of my music being used in support of you or this administration,” read the reply from Kahan on Instagram.
Instagram recently introduced a feature that lets users change the song used in a post even after it’s been posted. After Kahan called them out, the song has since been removed from Instagram, but continues playing on their TikTok post.
Kahan was not the only one to respond to the Instagram post. Noah Levine, who co-wrote the song with Kahan, also replied and said, “You fat f*** this song isn’t for you.”

Noah Kahan’s reply to the White House
Kahan is not the only artist who has slammed the Trump administration for using their music on social media posts. Katy Perry took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to blast the administration for using her song “Firework.”
“I am deeply appalled and angry to see “Firework” used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes. I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it,” she posted.
She continued, “I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments. To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for. My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.”
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Ryan Murphy has noticed the renewed interest in Glee and is not ruling out a possible reboot.
In a new interview and during the premiere of his new FX series The Shards, the Glee creator opened up about the idea of making a follow-up to the musical series.
“That show is interesting because it’s come back around. So many young people now watch it. And I’m like, ‘Maybe we should revisit that show,’” Murphy told People.
He continued, “My nostalgia and love for that show is enough that I’m like, ‘Well, maybe people would like to see a new incarnation of that in some capacity.’ So yeah, I love that show, and I loved what it became and what it meant to so many people.”
Murphy co-created Glee alongside Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. The Fox series made its debut in May 2009 and was a jukebox musical comedy-drama series set at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. The coming-of-age series followed the members of the glee club, New Directions, as they navigated social issues like sexuality, family, and race.
Glee starred Matthew Morrison as choir teacher Will Schuester. Other actors in the series included Cory Monteith, Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Dianna Agron, Kevin McHale, Amber Riley, Jenna Ushkowitz, Naya Rivera, Jayma Mays, Jane Lynch, and many more.
The series produced over 120 episodes across six seasons, ending in March 2015.
Following the success of the series, Glee: The Concert Movie was released in theaters, featuring the cast during their North American tour. A reality TV competition titled The Glee Project premiered in 2011 and ran for two seasons, where the winners would have a guest-starring role in the series.
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Add Ransom Canyon to the list of Netflix series whose second seasons are opening significantly lower than the first ones this year.
The romantic drama starring Minka Kelly and Josh Duhamel logged 4.1 million views for its first week of release, down 43% from the Season 1 opening week, which collected 7.2 million views.
While this is an inauspicious return for a high-profile series headlined by big stars, the 43% slide matches that of Running Point and is better than the 63% decline for The Four Seasons, both of which have been renewed for a third season.
Other recent sophomore series that posted steep opening week viewership drops include Avatar: The Last Airbender (59%), Beef (nearly 60%), and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder (more than 76%).
It is too early to say how Ransom Canyon‘s Season 2 debut performance would impact its renewal chances. Last year, the Texas drama was somewhat of a bubble show. It was eventually picked up for a second season with a smaller order (8 episodes vs. 10 for Season 1) and a storyline and supporting cast shakeup.
During Netflix’s earnings call earlier this month, co-CEO Ted Sarandos dismissed concerns over the slumping sophomore openers, calling it “very common in the industry,” and touted an year-to-year improvement.
“We are not seeing any material change in our second season viewing compared to season ones, our second seasons are performing well within our bands of expectation,” he said. “Very often we see drop off from season one to season two. It’s very common in the industry, but it’s even more so with us because we launch our shows so big.”
Added Sarandos, “When we look across the entire portfolio, across all the regions, all the content categories, our season two fall off is actually slightly improved this year relative to last year. Now, of course, you can pick any five data points to tell any story you want, but I’m going to repeat this: our season two fall off is actually slightly improved this year relative to last year.”
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