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Now, here’s John Ourand on the ESPN-NFL deal…

…and Lauren on those Eva Chen/Vogue murmurs…

Finally, the main event…

On Thursday afternoon, F.C.C. chairman Brendan Carr and fellow commissioner Olivia Trusty voted to approve the $8 billion merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media, bringing an end to more than 250 days of regulatory review and political pressure on both mediacos, and thus greenlighting Shari Redstone’s hard-fought $2.4 billion exit and David Ellison’s inheritance of a century-old studio, the NFL’s AFC rights, and a once-storied television business now rendered a political piñata. The whole saga would make for a great HBO miniseries, if not for the fact that it kind of already did, and the depressing reality that the stakes have suddenly begun to feel so low.

Indeed, Shari’s late father, Sumner, never would have imagined off-loading his empire for so little. The $30 billion combination of CBS Corp. and Viacom, in 2019, already represented a significant discount from their previous valuations. And one wonders whether Larry Ellison, with a net worth of $280 billion, would have suffered his own role as bankroller and Oval Office whisperer if anyone but his own son wanted the asset.

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In any event, the F.C.C. order has been given, and the deal is slated to close on August 7—despite newly minted billionaires Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s best attempt to nuke all of Shari and David’s efforts at the eleventh hour. On the political front, the F.C.C.’s decision to grant approval only after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a meritless lawsuit against CBS over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview is, ahem, noteworthy. Some business leaders now fear a regulatory environment where approval comes with the additional closing cost of a Trump tax. (Of course, as Bob Iger learned, you can pay a Trump tax even when you don’t need regulatory approval. Although the Fubo deal was announced shortly thereafter…) As I noted earlier this week, the real intrigue of Trump’s latest lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal is that Rupert Murdoch may prove to be the rare media mogul with the leverage and fortitude to actually stand up to the president.

On the business front, David Ellison and his deputies—incoming president Jeff Shell, and CBS C.E.O. George Cheeks, who will stay at the company—will now implement a plan they’ve had ample time to draft. As my partner Matt Belloni has reported, this will likely start with layoffs intended to help reach the promised $2 billion in cost savings, as well as a very au courant sale, or spinoff, of the cable networks, and a reduced investment in scripted programs. Paramount+ and Pluto TV could also merge, yielding more savings.

Then, of course, there is CBS News, the political football in this whole dispiriting drama. Paramount’s decision to settle the 60 Minutes lawsuit was obviously discouraging for the news veterans. So, too, was Shari’s meddling in the once sacrosanct editorial process, as well as the forced resignation of 60 Minutes executive producer, Bill Owens. Now, CBS journalists worry about their own new administration, which didn’t hesitate to put their biggest late-night star out to pasture when his math broke the pencil; and has pledged to scrap D.E.I. programs and hire an ombudsman to monitor “bias” (read: liberal bias); and, according to Trump, committed to $20 million in advertising and public service announcements for causes near and dear to the president’s heart.

But, as one insider put it, “the big question is Bari [Weiss]. Does she come in and shake things up?” As I’ve noted, David’s pursuit of Weiss’s Free Press feels like a passion play, a chance to virtue signal and tack CBS News toward something less overtly liberal. Indeed, it would certainly be slightly ridiculous to reshape a national multigenerational newsbrand through the ethos of a 40-something provocateur, especially one whose chief talent is playing herself.