Those following the travelogue of David Zaslav’s debt journey know that I’ve long anticipated a credit-rating upgrade for his beleaguered Warner Bros. Discovery—a putative reward that might finally boost the company’s long-languishing stock, which is down some 60 percent since WBD was created in April 2022. The logic was simple: Zaz and WBD C.F.O. Gunnar Wiedenfels have paid down $21 billion of their original $55 billion in debt in three years. A pretty impressive feat, all things considered. Indeed, Zaz and Gunnar have been specifically rewarded by the WBD board of directors to reduce that debt—Zaz’s 2024 salary was $3 million, but his overall compensation, laden with stock-related incentives, ballooned to $52 million.