The two billionaire Golden Globes owners and trade media proprietors might seem like an odd pick, given that the show was pretty universally panned, ratings will likely come in lower, and crass cash-grab stunts like the UFC “security guards” and the Polymarket chyrons cheapened everyone at the Beverly Hilton—even Vivi Nevo, the Warner Discovery investor/Leo DiCaprio pal who strategically sat next to David Zaslav and somehow got more screentime than Julia Roberts.

But that’s kinda the point. Boehly and Penske are laughing at Hollywood. They literally brought in a gambling sponsor, like at a West Virginia dog track, and you still showed up. You still cared when you won an award, even though I’m betting not a single one of you could explain who, exactly, is now voting for the Globes. Boehly and Penske learned one thing during the publicist-fueled diversity scandal that enabled them to swipe the Globes from the HFPA in the first place: Nothing matters as long as the talent and their handlers are made to feel important.

So they’ll continue to shamelessly leverage Hollywood until Hollywood pushes back. Penske instituted a dumb podcast category to extract F.Y.C. money from audio players, and they gladly ponied up, with Ben Shapiro buying ad spreads in Penske outlets and Spotify sponsoring a Penske editorial feature and party. As a synergistic plug for Variety, Penske foisted its red carpet reporter, Marc Malkin, into the disastrous role of play-by-play commentator, sparking a level of backlash online that hasn’t been seen since Seth MacFarlane hosted the Oscars. That’s Jay’s fault, not Marc’s.

Even from the beginning this year, the Globes were pushed a week to create space for Penske’s media outlets to generate much-needed revenue from “official” events and to make a CBS special, Golden Eve, that attracted just 2.1 million viewers on Thursday, about half the same-day audience for 9-1-1 on ABC. Celebs like Sydney Sweeney and The Rock attended a Variety Globes party that was also a promotional event for the Aman-branded luxury hotel and condo development that Boehly is building next to the Beverly Hilton. (Sweeney was later posted on Aman’s social media feed as if she were endorsing the project.) And remember, Penske was selling access to the Globes via his Robb Report; the link was taken down only after Page Six found out.

Again, nothing matters, this is just what the Globes are now. Hollywood is in a pretty weak state these days, and the vultures are descending.

“Not in front of the boss!”
—Mike De Luca, the Warner Bros. film chief, responding on camera and gesturing toward David Zaslav, seated next to him, after Paul Thomas Anderson announced onstage that One Battle After Another happened only because De Luca “let directors do whatever the hell they wanted.” Zaslav, of course, almost fired De Luca and co-chief Pam Abdy for indulging in the exact largesse that enabled O.B.A.A., Sinners, and so on… As close to a perfect Hollywood moment as exists at an awards show.

0
Number of times Zaslav was thanked at the Globes by the Warners/HBO Max winners, despite sitting directly in front of the stage.

16
Globes out of 28 total that would have been won by Netflix last night if it owned Warner Bros. and HBO Max. (Seven plus nine.)

36 percent
Year-over-year increase in total hours viewed in December on Apple TV, according to Apple’s Eddy Cue, who did not provide any meaningful context, of course.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

"The movie Guillermo del Toro was born to make."

- New York Times

___

[WATCH] In Conversation with Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese sits down with Writer/Director Guillermo del Toro and his creative team—Actors Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, Production Designer Tamara Deverell, and Costume Designer Kate Hawley. Scorsese hails FRANKENSTEIN a “remarkable achievement,” while Del Toro reflects on the monumental scale of the production, describing it as a return to "the way we used to make movies: for humans, by humans, and by hand."

___

For more on FRANKENSTEIN, visit film.netflixawards.com

18.7 million
Average NFL regular season game audience, the second highest since 1988 and up 10 percent from last season, thanks to Nielsen’s new “Big Data” survey that accounts for more out-of-home viewing. [Nielsen/AP]

14 percent
Year-over-year increase in viewers for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the lone network late night show to grow in 2025. [LateNighter]

$255 billion
Forecasted global content investment in 2026, up 2 percent from last year, with streamers responsible for an expected 40 percent of the spend. [Ampere]

Okay, here’s Kim on the changing winds at Disney and FX…

Back in 2020, when television executives still regularly, and often very helpfully, took questions from the press at gatherings of the Television Critics Association, FX Networks chairman John Landgraf told the room that his network’s brand had “hit a ceiling” on basic cable. Integrating with Hulu, and adding some 30 million new homes, he said, would “make the FX brand actually more valuable, really, because I think it’s going to penetrate more deeply into American culture.”

It was a bittersweet moment for an old-school TV executive who watched the rise of Netflix with distaste and famously took his time—a great deal of time—nurturing shows rather than spewing them out to see what sticks. Almost six years later, FX still stands out as one of the only premium brands in television, the home of such diverse and awards-worthy shows as Atlanta, Better Things, Reservation Dogs, The Bear, and The Lowdown. You have to admire an executive willing to take an enormous swing like Shogun, which delivered strong numbers and received a record-breaking 18 Emmys in its first season.

But as Shogun goes into production on its second season, Landgraf and FX find themselves contending with ever-growing challenges, just like everyone else making television these days. By the end of the year, Hulu will be integrated into Disney+ (FX is moving to Burbank this month). In a world full of noisy distractions, some Hollywood insiders wonder if Landgraf can continue to make just a few series a year with the same slow, deeply considered process. As acclaimed showrunner Noah Hawley (Fargo, Alien: Earth) has grown restless with the lengthy development process, will others start thinking they could get richer faster at Netflix or Apple, or find a bigger platform on HBO Max? How many of them can even find a place on FX’s schedule, when Ryan Murphy takes up precious slots every year, even as several of his projects have faltered lately? And does Landgraf want to stick around as the business goes through a brutal contraction—especially as Netflix, the company he blames the most for degrading the quality of television programming, stands poised to acquire HBO?

No one is remotely suggesting that Landgraf, 63, lacks respect or support from co-chairman of Disney Entertainment Dana Walden and C.E.O. Bob Iger. But given the ongoing transformation of the business, they aren’t sure there will be room for a man who still weaves with a handloom in the midst of an industrial revolution. He’s long been critical of Netflix, accusing the streamer of using misleading metrics to claim that many from its ever-bigger geyser of shows were hits. In 2019, he threw some shade publicly at the streamer, telling the gathering of television critics that “there’s a value in focus and care in what one does.”

“John hearkens back to a time when linear television mattered,” said one talent rep. FX is still obligated to debut some of its shows on the FX cable channel, but in today’s world, “entertainment programming is a solid second place to sports and live events.” Another source with a lot of business at FX told me, “I don’t think he believes in the concept of streaming. He thinks the money from Netflix ruined what was great about the business. He’s right. We’ve got a lot of crap on TV as a result. John wishes he could snap his fingers and go back to a time when he could make television for less money. It kills him to spend $10 million an episode.” At the same time, this person continued, “He’s getting pushed to do bigger stuff. And it’s very hard to replicate what happened with Shogun.” Another source with close ties to FX told me, “For years, John’s been saying putting out new shows is like pissing in the ocean.”

Speculation that Landgraf might be moving slowly toward an exit is contradicted by FX sources, who say he’s in the early phase of a “multiyear” contract. (They won’t get more specific than that—and Landgraf declined to comment for this story.) And it’s possible that Landgraf has inadvertently fed some of the anxiety that he might exit by exuding a certain wistfulness that is not exactly new. “I’m 61 years old and a little burned out,” he told The Hollywood Reporter a couple of years ago. “These are hard jobs.”

Several sources close to the situation think they detect signs of fatigue, or possibly fatigue coupled with frustration. And the question that they pose is not just whether Landgraf wants to stay, but whether there will still be space for bespoke storytelling as Hollywood’s digital transformation continues apace. “He loves his job, he loves programming really high-level stuff—and selective stuff and not tonnage—but the world is changing,” said one veteran talent rep. “Eventually, everything at Disney is going to be consolidated under Disney+—in a year, in my opinion. So then where does he go?”

This person noted that “they pay [Landgraf] a lot of money” for a few new shows a year and wondered whether such an arrangement would continue to make sense for Disney. A Disney veteran framed the question this way: “Inside of Hulu, he made FX a special place. How do you do that inside Hulu inside Disney+?” (After some name-changing shenanigans, Warner Bros. Discovery ultimately put the letters H, B, and O first when naming its streamer.)

Several people who work with FX speculated that Landgraf may in part be feeling the effects of the prolonged, very pregnant pause before Disney finally reveals its new C.E.O., an announcement promised sometime this quarter. “It feels like Disney is just waiting for a lot of things with the leadership change,” said one source with multiple shows at FX. “Everything that should be simpler and easier to get through seems clogged.” Another person who does a lot of business with FX concurred, saying, “It feels like John’s having to fight harder and be more strategic or put people through their paces more. I can’t tell if it’s him or Dana or Disney or a combination.”

The quality of FX programming suggests that at least some part of Landgraf’s laborious process is still paying dividends. But that doesn’t make it easy. “I like and respect them, but it’s a crazy fucking process,” said one source who has done significant business at FX. Another person with long experience with Landgraf put it this way: “John acts like a producer. He will call you in and you will have a two-hour meeting about what happens in the third act of Episode 7. One can say, John Landgraf has a big fucking job. Why is he watching the third rough cut of Episode 7? Because that is his oxygen.”

It appears that one reason WME was able to poach Hawley from CAA last spring was that Ari Emanuel and Ari Greenburg swooped in just as the showrunner was getting restive. “After 10 years of content for them, he’s not so sure he needs to hear everyone’s notes and everyone’s dissertation on his work,” said a source familiar with Hawley’s thinking. In November, Hawley struck a reported nine-figure deal that continued his relationship with FX but also allowed him to work across all of Disney Entertainment Television. (Hawley, who declined to comment, also has Far Cry, a third series, in the works at FX, so it makes sense for him to maintain that relationship. And he had enough clout to win a battle over moving production of the second season of Alien: Earth from Budapest to London.)

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

"The movie Guillermo del Toro was born to make."

- New York Times

___

[WATCH] In Conversation with Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese sits down with Writer/Director Guillermo del Toro and his creative team—Actors Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, Production Designer Tamara Deverell, and Costume Designer Kate Hawley. Scorsese hails FRANKENSTEIN a “remarkable achievement,” while Del Toro reflects on the monumental scale of the production, describing it as a return to "the way we used to make movies: for humans, by humans, and by hand."

___

For more on FRANKENSTEIN, visit film.netflixawards.com

There’s also an apocryphal story that showrunner Dan Fogelman (Only Murders in the Building, Paradise) has a “no Landgraf” clause in his Hulu deal. Not true, but a knowledgeable source said Fogelman’s attitude is, “‘I know that guy and he gets great stuff, but I don’t need that person in my life. You shouldn’t be counting on me to do shows with FX.’” (Fogelman declined to comment.)

Still, others who work with FX are happy to step forward and praise Landgraf’s methods. Shogun co-creator Justin Marks told me that during the making of the first season, Landgraf actually did call to say, “‘I think it’s a beautiful thing you’re doing in the 10th episode with the absence of Mariko. It’s a great thing, because there was a line in Episode 6 that spoke to the theme. Is there a way you can feel her absence as a presence?’” Marks said that “set up a beautiful challenge” to make the 10th episode stronger. He regards Landgraf as a “muse” who made the series possible.

Producer Garrett Basch, who has had multiple shows at FX (most recently The Lowdown), also told me the long conversations with Landgraf and his team have made his shows better. “If it’s a harder process, you’re working on something good,” he said. “Anyone who can’t handle that process is probably not making anything I’d want to watch.”

Some who have found those long notes discussions trying have wondered whether Ryan Murphy—who has had many shows at FX (including American Horror Story, Pose, Grotesquerie, and the upcoming The Beauty, bowing January 21—still has to participate in the sessions. Landgraf nurtured Murphy in his cradle (Nip/Tuck), but now the producer has what one Disney veteran calls “an extremely cemented” relationship with Walden. “Ryan does what he wants to do,” said a Disney source. “Managing that is tricky.”

Sources said that Murphy sometimes gets to skip the pilot process, which is still in place for other prospective series. And some who are angling for their own shows even wonder whether Walden mandates that some of Murphy’s programs should be on FX—a notion that generates some resentment when there is space for so few new shows each year. But a source familiar with the situation said that Murphy still takes notes from Landgraf, adding that the FX exec never takes on any project that he doesn’t believe in.

Meanwhile, a producer who works with FX said in all of Landgraf’s extensive notes process, there has been no sign of interference from the overlords. “I’ve never heard, ‘Dana had this thought,’ or ‘Bob thinks that,’” he said. And a former Disney exec is confident that Landgraf will be independent and free to work at his own pace for some time. “If Dana gets the [C.E.O.] job, she’ll have her hands full,” he said. “If Josh D’Amaro gets it, the first thing he does is not going to be whacking John Landgraf. It doesn’t seem like a good first act.”

Ben and Matt’s Artists Equity got Netflix to offer tiered performance bonuses for all 1,200 cast and crewmembers on The Rip, but Netflix wants everyone to know they’re “not changing our model” (unless they do, of course). [N.Y. Times]

Reeves Wiedeman has a 10,000-word overview of the David Ellison Situation that you can send your parents when they ask why you see your therapist so often. [Vulture]

With its stock down 30 percent since October, Netflix may still be too expensive. [Bloomberg]

More: It would be pretty hilarious if the end result of Netflix bidding for Warners is that investors start treating the company not like a tech unicorn but just like every other desperate media company looking for M&A to grow.

Eywa did not come: Avatar: Fire and Ash has grossed just 66 percent as much as The Way of Water after 24 days. The threequel is now expected to top out at about $1.4 billion globally, well behind the $2.3 billion of the 2022 sequel and absolutely disastrous for my box office draft. [Screendollars]

Speaking of Disney, its Imagineering division—the often overbudget team helping spend that $60 billion planned for parks and cruises over the next decade—is about to get a lot more attention when/if Josh D’Amaro becomes C.E.O. [WSJ]

Lauren Sherman, maybe the biggest celebrity at the star-packed W magazine party on Saturday, picks her hits and misses of Globes fashion and dares take a shot at Chase Infiniti. [Puck]

Lots of comments on my 2026 predictions, but I’ll single out a couple interesting pleas…

“Can this be the year that you and everyone else who covers movies stop writing about box office like inflation does not exist? Why are my movies from 20 years ago compared to what is being released today, when the value of a dollar in 2006 is roughly equivalent to $1.60 today? Inflation and surcharges for premium formats are giving the impression that film exhibition is still a relatively healthy business. In fact, admissions, the true gauge of engagement with theatrical movies, have been declining for decades, but everyone seems to ignore that. All they care about is beating the grosses from last year or five years ago or the previous installment that came out a decade ago (Zootopia). Stop the collective delusion!” —A producer

“Dave Filoni [co-running Lucasfilm] does not change the fundamental problem that Kennedy exemplified: Disney doesn’t want Star Wars to be interesting. [It only wants] fan service. Unless that changes at the very top, the movies will continue to cheapen the brand.” —An assistant

A reader sent me this pic taken before the holidays in a studio conference room (I won’t say which one). Maybe Hollywood is back?

Have a great week,
Matt

Maya Tribbitt contributed research for today’s issue.

Got a question, comment, complaint, or an available studio conference room? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.

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