Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content, jokingly requested some credit for not canceling his appearance at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference Thursday which came at a very awkward time. It was held two days after Paramount‘s streaming chief Cindy Holland’s exit cleared the way for Bloys to take over the combined Paramount+/HBO Max streaming operation but ahead of Paramount’s acquisition of HBO parent WBD officially closing and the merged company’s leadership structure, including Bloys’ exact position and title, being announced.

That led to a series of deflected questions, including whether HBO Max and Paramount+ will be fully merged or bundled.

But Bloys did say that Paramount CEO David Ellison “is very, very excited, very respectful of what the HBO team has done — not just in my tenure, but the entire history of HBO” and that he believes Ellison will “maintain what we’ve done.”

Bloys did address in depth the ongoing TV industry contraction — which the Paramount-WBD merger will likely be contributing to — in the aftermath of the Peak TV era that was driven by the rise of streaming.

“We are an industry in disruption, we used to compete against people who were selling cable subscription or advertising, main product was video entertainment,” he said. “We are now competing against companies that are in very different spaces, have different economics. We’re also on the backside of a bubble bursting, we went from 600 shows to 400, whatever it is. If you just think about those numbers, 200 shows and the average show, depending on how big it is, is a couple of hundred good paying jobs. That’s a catastrophe. That is very hard across the board. That is what it looks like when a bubble bursts. It’s ugly.”

Bloys did admit that the downfall was inevitable, referencing the craze at the height of the market when over 600 scripted series were being made in a year.

“People were greenlighting shows based on an idea, it was not sustainable; you couldn’t make that many shows as an industry and monetize it properly,” Bloys said. “A bubble has some benefits on the way up in terms of people learning on shows because there’s so much work. The downside is really painful.”

It was not all bleak as Bloys had a positive outlook and said that he would still recommend pursuing a career in entertainment because it’s “a lot of fun.”

“My hope is, like any industry that gets disrupted, there is mergers, there is new players coming in,” he said. “Maybe we will find some certainty, some calmness.”

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The SCAD Savannah Film Festival’s third annual TV Sidebar is set, with four TV program screenings followed by award presentations and conversations with the stars of the series.

The fest, which runs October 24-31 in Savannah, GA will spotlight episodes of The Good Daughter, VisionQuest, Furious and The Lowdown.

Based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling novel, The Good Daughter stars Meghann Fahy and Rose Byrne. Fahy will receive the Spotlight in Television Award on October 24 at a screening of one of the show’s episodes. In The Good Daughter, Fahy stars as Charlotte “Charlie” Quinn alongside Byrne as Samantha “Sam” Quinn. Written and executive produced by Slaughter and directed by Steph Green, the limited series premieres November 12 on Peacock.

Paul Bettany will receive the Virtuoso Award on October 26 at a screening of Marvel Television’s VisionQuest. The Disney+ series continues the story of Vision following the events of WandaVision, with Bettany returning to the role he has portrayed across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor’s latest superhero installment will close out the trilogy that began with WandaVision, for which he received an Emmy nomination, and Agatha All Along.

Emmy Rossum will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Television Award on October 28 at a screening of the Hulu Original drama series Furious. Created, written and executive produced by Elizabeth Meriwether, the thriller stars Rossum as FBI agent Alice Black, who is on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating female serial killer (Lola Petticrew). The series, on which Rossum serves as an EP, also stars Quincy Tyler Bernstine and Scoot McNairy.

RELATED: ‘The Lowdown’ Gets Season 2 Release Date At FX; First Photos Of Tommy Lee Jones & Betty Gilpin

Ethan Hawke and Sterlin Harjo will receive the Outstanding Collaboration in Television Award on October 30 at a screening of their FX and Hulu series The Lowdown. Created, executive produced, written and directed by Harjo, the Tulsa-set noir series stars Hawke as Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed “truthstorian” and citizen journalist whose relentless pursuit of the truth continually lands him in trouble.

In addition, Deadline during the fest will present “Below the Line: Scoring for the Screen with the Alliance for Women Film Composers,” a behind-the-scenes look at how today’s most innovative voices are redefining the sound of cinema. The conversation will feature members of the Alliance for Women Film Composers discuss their creative process, the challenges and triumphs of the industry, and the role composers play in bringing depth and resonance to film and television.