The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has axed by CBS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Do Wall Street Analysts Like Paramount Global Stock?
New York-based Paramount Global (PARA) is a leading media, streaming, and entertainment company offering television, film production, and digital content across various global platforms. With a market cap of $8.8 billion, the company owns a diverse portfolio of entertainment brands and provides streaming services, including Paramount+, Pluto TV, BET+, and Noggin. Shares of this entertainment giant have underperformed the broader market over the past year. PARA has gained 16.5% over this time frame, while the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has rallied nearly 17.1%. However, in 2025, PARA stock is up 24.7%, surpassing the SPX's 8.6% fall on a YTD basis. More News from Barchart Tesla Just Signed a Chip Supply Deal with Samsung. What Does That Mean for TSLA Stock? Dear Microsoft Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendars for Aug. 1 Is Lucid Motors Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold for July 2025? Tired of missing midday reversals? The FREE Barchart Brief newsletter keeps you in the know. Sign up now! Similarly, PARA has trailed the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLC), which has gained about 27.9% over the past year. However, PARA's double-digit returns on a YTD basis outshine the ETF's 10.6% rally over the same time frame. Paramount shares rose over 1% in pre-market trading on July 25, after receiving Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) approval for the company's merger with Skydance Media. This approval marks a significant step forward in the proposed deal, which aims to combine Paramount's extensive content library and global distribution network with Skydance's innovative production capabilities and strong track record in film and television. For fiscal 2025, ending in December, analysts expect PARA's EPS to decline 15.6% year over year to $1.30 on a diluted basis. The company's earnings surprise history is mixed. It beat the consensus estimate in three of the last four quarters, while missing the forecast on another occasion. Among the 23 analysts covering PARA stock, the consensus is a 'Moderate Sell.' That's based on two 'Strong Buy' ratings, 11 'Holds,' and 10 'Strong Sells.' This configuration is more bearish than three months ago, with three analysts suggesting a 'Strong Buy.' On Jul. 28, Seaport Global Securities downgraded Paramount Global from 'Neutral' to 'Sell,' setting a price target of $11 ahead of its August 7 merger with Skydance. The firm cautions that PARA shares may give back recent merger-driven gains after the deal closes. The company will begin trading under the new ticker PSKY post-merger. While PARA currently trades above its average mean price target of $11.67, its Street-high price target of $16 suggests an ambitious upside potential of 22.7%. On the date of publication, Kritika Sarmah did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Sign in to access your portfolio
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
David Ellison is coming to Paramount with Silicon Valley cash. Can he save a classic studio?
As a deep-pocketed producer, David Ellison helped breathe new life into Paramount franchises including 'Mission: Impossible,' 'Star Trek' and 'Top Gun.' But can the high-flying son of a billionaire make a full-fledged media company airworthy again? Can he use Silicon Valley money and movie business know-how to restore the legacy of one of the entertainment industry's original studios, following a deal clinched through an act of political appeasement? Those are the questions Hollywood talent, studio rivals and insiders will be asking as Ellison takes the controls of the new Paramount, after regulators finally approved the long-awaited $8-billion merger with his Santa Monica production company Skydance Media. The deal — two years in the making, and approved by the FCC only after a $16-million settlement with Trump and promises to mindwipe any trace of DEI from the company — is expected to close Aug. 7. After that, Ellison, backed in large part by his father, Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, will bring in his own team to face the daunting challenges. Chris McCarthy, the architect of Paramount's recent streaming strategy, is out. Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon head Brian Robbins is also expected to exit while CBS chief George Cheeks is staying. The incoming management team includes former NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell, who is currently a heavyweight at Ellison's bidding partner RedBird Capital. Skydance Chief Creative Officer Dana Goldberg will run the film studio, and former Netflix executive Cindy Holland will play a major role at the new company. Also joining is Sony Pictures movie executive Josh Greenstein. This may be a different team from the one that labored under outgoing controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, but it'll be contending with most of the same problems. Paramount is dogged by issues buffeting all legacy media companies, including the decline of traditional TV ratings, the post-COVID-19 realignment of the theatrical box office and the escalating costs of sports rights, as my colleague Stephen Battaglio and I reported last week. Those difficulties were exacerbated at Paramount by chronic underinvestment and years of shambolic leadership, as corporate governance experts have long pointed out. Ellison has direct experience with movies, having produced many of them, including some of Paramount's biggest hits (as well as some notable flops). He's less steeped in running TV channels and streaming services, which have urgent needs. The scion is also coming in to make good on a promise to investors: to find $2 billion in cost cutting, which will mean layoffs and disruption. Paramount+ has been growing, thanks in part to the NFL, CBS shows and a run of original hits including 'Landman,' '1923' and 'Tulsa King.' But the service has lost money for years, and the app is clunky. (It's expected to reach full-year U.S. profitability in 2025.) McCarthy spent big bucks on talent, including Taylor Sheridan and the creators of 'South Park,' enough to make Matt Stone and Trey Parker billionaires, according to Forbes. Analysts say the service will need substantial investment in content and technology to make it competitive while also partnering with other companies to increase its reach through discounted bundles and other initiatives. The new owners will have to decide what to do with the cable channel business, which includes such eroding brands as MTV, BET and Comedy Central. Many observers tend to assume Ellison will eventually spin those off, following the lead of NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. In a sadly comical reminder of what can happen with a merger gone wrong, David Zaslav's Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday announced that the two companies resulting from its pending breakup will be called — wait for it — Warner Bros. and Discovery Global. TD Cowen analyst Doug Cruetz, in a recent note to clients, speculated that Ellison didn't buy the Paramount assets just to 'break it up for parts.' We'll see. Another looming and potentially costly issue is the NFL's relationship with CBS Sports. The change of control will trigger an early renegotiation of Paramount's contract with the league once the transaction closes. That's important because the NFL has significant leverage in dealmaking, considering that its games account for the vast majority of most-watched programming on television. Ellison has promised to bring technological enhancements to Paramount. That would mean a more functional app for Paramount+ and an improved personalized recommendation system. It might mean using tech to make movies cheaper and faster. A year ago, Ellison noted a partnership between Skydance Animation and Oracle to build a so-called studio in the cloud. What technology can't do is pick the movies people want to see, and that's where the new leadership group will have to prove themselves. But the biggest hurdle will be overcoming the stain covering the deal itself after the concessions required to get it over the finish line. Paramount paid a substantial sum to make peace with President Trump, who had sued the company over CBS News' '60 Minutes' interview with his 2024 election rival, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The case was frivolous, 1st Amendment experts said. But the Redstone family and the Ellisons were desperate to get the deal done. As a result, the new company is starting off on a crooked foundation, as one Hollywood insider put it to me. Stephen Colbert, speaking on 'The Late Show,' called Paramount's settlement a 'big fat bribe.' Days later, he learned that his show would be ending in May. Even assuming the company told the truth in saying that the cancellation was a purely financial decision (i.e., the show was too expensive and it was losing money), the optics were bad. Comedians responded the way comedians do. The 'South Park' team, having secured a $1.5 billion deal to bring the long-running animated series to Paramount+, opened their 27th season with, effectively, a pair of middle fingers raised to Trump and their parent company. The show depicted a flapping-headed cartoon Trump in bed with Satan, similar to its past portrayal of Saddam Hussein, and ended with an AI-generated PSA showing the president wandering the desert and stripping naked, revealing tiny, talking genitalia. The Trump settlement cast a pall over whatever plans Ellison has. CBS News lost key figures in part due to Paramount's push to reach a peace accord with the president (Tanya Simon being named to run '60 Minutes' is seen as a relief). But whatever you say about the corporate behind-the-scenes machinations that took place to make the deal happen, you can't say the artists have lost their spine. In a return to form for Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel Studios, 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' opened with a robust $118 million in the U.S. and Canada and $218 million globally, according to studio estimates, slightly outperforming prerelease projections. This comes after middling results and poor reviews for 'Captain America: Brave New World' and tepid sales (but better reviews) for 'Thunderbolts*.' Last summer's 'Deadpool & Wolverine' was a $1.34-billion hit. Like Deadpool and Wolverine, the Fantastic Four — known as Marvel's first family — came to Disney through the company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox entertainment assets. Fox made three 'Fantastic Four' movies, all bad. 'First Steps' earned mostly positive reviews from critics and fans (88% on Rotten Tomatoes; 'A-' from CinemaScore). The $218-million global opening weekend was similar to that of James Gunn's DC reboot 'Superman,' released earlier this month. That film just crossed the $500 million box office milestone, with a strong $289 million domestically and a less-impressive $213 million overseas. Theaters have been on a winning streak this summer. So far this year, ticket sales are up 12% from 2024, according to Comscore. But the rest of the season looks thin. Next weekend features Paramount's 'The Naked Gun,' Universal's animated 'Bad Guys 2' and Neon's Sundance horror breakout 'Together,' starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. One marker of a great artist is the number and diversity of musicians who take inspiration from their work. And Ozzy Osbourne, the Black Sabbath frontman who died last week, had plenty of admirers who covered his songs. The Times' Mikael Wood already rounded up the Prince of Darkness' 10 essential tracks. Here are some of the best covers, with help from Rolling Stone and Loudwire.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Colbert bitterly mocks Paramount deal with slew of pee jokes: ‘Hot, streaming content right in your face'
Stephen Colbert — whose 'Late Show' was axed this month following CBS owner Paramount's legal settlement with President Trump — bitterly mocked the media giant's upcoming merger with a series of crude pee jokes. Taking aim at the change in Paramount's ticker, which will go from PARA to PSKY after its deal with David Ellison's Skydance Media, Colbert pronounced the new name as 'pee-sky.' 'I'm thrilled for everyone at Paramount,' Colbert quipped Monday night, adding: 'Soon, PSKY will blast hot, streaming content right in your face with hits like Yellowstone, Yellowjackets and a full variety of water sports. Advertisement 4 Stephen Colbert mocked Paramount's merger with Skydance Media with a series of pee jokes. CBS 'I predict PSKY will become synonymous with number one. PSKY: A pitcher of warm entertainment,' Colbert joked. CBS has maintained that the cancellation of 'The Late Show' is 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.' Outraged critics have accused the network of firing Colbert to appease Trump as part of its $16 million settlement with the president, which concerned a lawsuit related to a controversially-edited '60 Minutes' interview with Kamala Harris. Advertisement The FCC greenlit the $8.4 billion sale of Paramount to Skydance – which had been in limbo for a year – just a week after it was announced that Colbert was canceled. Prior to the approval, Skydance made promises to slash DEI policies at CBS and appoint a media bias ombudsman to oversee the network. 'After months of delay, the deal was finally approved by FCC chairman and brilliant handsome man who Paramount officials described as 'liquid sex', Brendan Carr,' Colbert jabbed, flashing a photo of Carr on the screen. Advertisement 4 President Trump opens his new golf course in Scotland on Tuesday. Getty Images Colbert also nodded to Trump's social media posts earlier this week slamming NBC and ABC. 'Wow, 'Concast's' NBC is down in viewership almost 28% this year. Their programming is terrible, their management even worse. They are an arm of the Democrat Party, and should be held accountable for that. Likewise, Fake News ABC!!! MAGA,' Trump wrote in a post. 'Networks aren't allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party. It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked! MAGA,' he wrote in another post. Advertisement The late-night host, who has been the frontman at 'The Late Show' for about a decade, told Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon – his counterparts at ABC and NBC – to 'come on in.' 4 Stephen Colbert mocked the new Paramount-Skydance ticker symbol. CBS 'The water's warm because of all the PSKY,' Colbert said. Colbert tore into Paramount last week for handing over millions of dollars to Trump after the media company laid off thousands of employees. 'Last year, Paramount laid off 2,000 employees, then cut another several hundred just last month,' he said. 4 FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testifies before the House in May. Getty Images Trump has said he expects an additional $20 million in advertising and public service announcements from Skydance once it takes control of Paramount, for a total $36 million settlement, confirming an exclusive report by The Post. 'Firing that many people and then handing over 36 mil to a guy who is putting your neighbors in alligator camps, all because of a lawsuit that your own lawyers said was completely without merit, if that's true, it would make CBS morally bankrupt. Also, bankrupt.'
