Media Moguls Were Excited for Trump to Make Them Rich. Are They Still?
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CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger
FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger The FCC greenlit the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media on Thursday in an $8 billion deal. Skydance will be able to finalize the deal and take control of Paramount in the coming weeks. 01:00 - Source: CNN Vertical Top News 17 videos FCC approves Paramount-Skydance merger The FCC greenlit the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media on Thursday in an $8 billion deal. Skydance will be able to finalize the deal and take control of Paramount in the coming weeks. 01:00 - Source: CNN Why are Thailand and Cambodia fighting? Tensions are rising between Thailand and Cambodia over a border dispute that dates back to 1907. CNN's Will Ripley explains how the conflict has escalated. 01:32 - Source: CNN CNN reports from Gaza aid crossing CNN's Nic Robertson is on the scene at the Kerem Shalom border crossing as aid agencies warn of rampant hunger caused by Israel's blockade of Gaza. Gaza's health ministry said on Tuesday that 900,000 children are going hungry, and 70,000 already show signs of malnutrition. Israel denies it is at fault and accuses Hamas of 'engineering' food shortages. 01:39 - Source: CNN Almost 50 missing as plane crashes in Russia Dozens of civilians are feared dead, including children, after a Soviet era passenger jet crashed in Russia's far east Amur Region. Burning wreckage was discovered by rescuers just 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Tynda airport, the plane's destination. 00:30 - Source: CNN Erin Burnett on the significance of Trump knowing he's in the Epstein files CNN's Erin Burnett explains how reports that President Trump was briefed that he is named in the Epstein files shine a light on his recent denials of that exact claim. 02:13 - Source: CNN Judge declines to release Epstein grand jury documents A Florida federal judge declined to release additional grand jury documents from the criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, marking the first roadblock in the Justice Department's efforts to quell the public backlash over the handling of the case. CNN's Evan Perez reports. 02:43 - Source: CNN Bryan Kohberger sentenced to life in prison Bryan Kohberger has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders of four University of Idaho students. 01:29 - Source: CNN Fans pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne Fans have gathered in Ozzy Osbourne's hometown to pay tribute to the former Black Sabbath singer, who died yesterday at the age of 76. One of them told CNN's Salma Abdelaziz that Osbourne will 'live on forever in his music.' 01:07 - Source: CNN Hot Chinese brands are coming to America Chinese brands like Luckin Coffee, Pop Mart, and HEYTEA are expanding in the United States, despite the ongoing trade war. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich and Marc Stewart report from two different continents on why the companies covet American customers. 02:10 - Source: CNN Metal legend Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76-years-old Ozzy Osbourne, the hellraising frontman of Black Sabbath and reality TV star, has died aged 76. CNN's Stephanie Elam looks back at the legendary career as the Godfather of Heavy Metal. 03:05 - Source: CNN Newly uncovered photos show Jeffrey Epstein attended Trump's wedding in 1993 Photos from Trump's 1993 wedding and video footage from 1999 Victoria's Secret fashion show shed light on Trump-Epstein relationship. CNN's Andrew Kaczynski has the story. 01:31 - Source: CNN Missing child case from 46 years ago reopened A federal appeals court overturned the verdict of Pedro Hernandez, the bodega worker who was found guilty in 2017 of kidnapping and murdering Etan Patz in 1979. Patz was 6 years old when he disappeared on the first day he was allowed to walk alone to his school bus stop in New York City. 01:50 - Source: CNN US citizen among Druze executed in Syria Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian-American from Oklahoma, was among eight men, all family members, rounded up and killed in an execution-style attack amid an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria this month. The violence flared between Syrian Druze groups and Bedouin tribes in the Druze-majority Suwayda province. Video geolocated by CNN shows a group of men, Saraya included, being marched to their death. 02:04 - Source: CNN Epstein's brother vividly details relationship between Trump and Epstein Jeffrey Epstein's brother, Mark, tells CNN's Erin Burnett about his brother's 'very close' friendship with Donald Trump in the 1990s. 02:01 - Source: CNN Stephen Colbert addresses 'The Late Show' cancellation 'Cancel culture has gone too far,' Stephen Colbert told the audience as he began his first post-cancellation episode of 'The Late Show.' The host went on to fire back at Trump's Truth Social post celebrating the announcement by CBS. The episode also featured cameos by late night talk show hosts including Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, John Oliver and Seth Meyers. 01:24 - Source: CNN Fire tornado rips through Turkish forest Turkey's forestry ministry has released video of a fire tornado tearing through the country's woodland. Hundreds of wildfires have gripped Turkey this summer, as well as Greece and other Mediterranean countries. 00:33 - Source: CNN Breonna Taylor's mother speaks out on officer's sentencing CNN's Laura Coates speaks with Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor's mother, about the sentencing of former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison. He was given three years in prison for using excessive force during the deadly 2020 Breonna Taylor raid. 01:45 - Source: CNN
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
'South Park' Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone Are Now Billionaires
I f you piss off South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they will make you pay—both financially and satirically. On July 2, after Comedy Central delayed the Season 27 premiere of the show because Paramount, the network's parent company, was locked in a contentious negotiation for its streaming rights—in the midst of months-long acquisition of Paramount by David Ellison's Skydance Media—Parker and Stone issued a statement on and let it rip: 'This merger is a shit show,' the duo wrote, 'and it's fucking up South Park .' Both transactions were resolved this week, as Parker and Stone agreed Monday to a five-year, $1.5 billion streaming deal that will bring South Park to Paramount+ globally. And Thursday, the FCC officially approved the Skydance acquisition. The deal cements the duo's place as the highest-paid TV showrunners in Hollywood and made the 55-year-old Parker and the 54-year-old Stone billionaires—worth an estimated $1.2 billion each. But the new agreement—which will pay the pair at least $250 million per year—didn't end Paramount's headaches. In South Park 's season premiere, which aired Wednesday, Donald Trump is depicted in bed with Satan, and Jesus is seen warning the show's young protagonists about the dangers of provoking him. 'You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount,' says the Jesus character. 'You really want to end up like Colbert?' The comedically fearless Parker and Stone now enter television's rare billionaire creative class, joining Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Dick Wolf and Jerry Seinfeld in the three-comma club. That astonishing amount of money is a testament to the enduring popularity of South Park , which has been a cultural phenomenon since its debut on Comedy Central in 1997, becoming, in just its second season, the highest-rated non-sports program in basic cable history, with nearly six million viewers. Over the years it became indispensable to Comedy Central, and its 300-plus episodes have now become bulk inventory that re-air dozens of times per week. Kenny Money: The new deal with Paramount will pay Parker and Stone $250 million a year to create new 'South Park' episodes through 2030. Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images Parker and Stone's real coup came in 2007, when the creators and their lawyer and business partner, Kevin Morris, struck a deal with the network to play South Park episodes online using a rudimentary Flash video player, agreeing to split the then-non-existent digital revenues 50-50 'in perpetuity.' Then came the streaming revolution. Hulu licensed the show's streaming rights in 2014 for $87.5 million and reupping for $110 million through 2019. HBO Max then won a bidding war over Peacock, Netflix and others to become South Park 's exclusive domestic streaming home for $550 million over five years. That deal expired in June. Instead of just pocketing their half of the HBO deal, in 2021 Parker and Stone negotiated for a new arrangement with Paramount (which owns Comedy Central) for a guaranteed $155 million a year in exchange for creating new episodes of the show and their portion of the streaming revenue. Monday's agreement renegotiated the terms of that deal, upping the annual payout to $250 million. Parker and Stone pour that wealth into Park County, not only the location of South Park 's fictional town but also the name of their production studio, which is owned almost entirely by the pair. Founded in 2012, they route all income from their TV show, movie projects and stage productions of The Book of Mormon (which they cowrote) through the company, taking only an estimated $10 million per year in salary. It's a common corporate structure among Hollywood's top earners, but unlike other companies such as Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine or Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Park County has never taken on equity partners or investors. Instead, in 2012, Parker and Stone leveraged the existing and projected future income generated by South Park and other projects to score $60 million in convertible debt funding from media-focused merchant bank The Raine Group. As long as they paid off the loan on time, they would keep all of the equity. The bet on themselves paid off as the streaming dollars began to flow in, and in 2016 Parker and Stone bought out Raine, maintaining full ownership ever since. Park County continues to use debt to fund the company's growth, including securing an $800 million credit line from private equity giant The Carlyle Group in 2023. Using the cost of the debt and some clever Hollywood accounting around depreciating catalog value, Park County has been able to lower and delay its tax bills considerably. The ultimate exit plan would be to one day sell the company, settle up with creditors and tax collectors, and pocket the remaining cash. Sources tell Forbes that Viacom (Comedy Central's then-parent company) and Park County discussed doing exactly that in 2019, a deal reminiscent of Disney's acquisition of valuable brands such as Lucasfilm or Marvel. The two sides got as far as a $1 billion valuation before talks broke down. That same year Viacom was, just as it has been lately, in the midst of a messy merger with CBS that made high-priced acquisitions difficult. When the companies returned to the negotiating table in 2021, Park County's overall production deal rang in at $935 million over six years—nearly the same price tag as the acquisition, without ownership changing hands. Given Park County's guaranteed revenue and strong profitability, Forbes estimates the enterprise value of the company could now reach as much as $3 billion in a potential sale, netting Parker and Stone more than $1 billion each. Paramount and Park County's most recent round of negotiations proved to be the toughest yet, and became an early referendum on the stewardship of Skydance's David Ellison, son of the world's second richest man Larry Ellison. He told analysts he wants his new Paramount to be 'a creativity-first studio and the first stop for best-in-class storytellers.' Where previous owners had licensed some of the company's biggest shows, like South Park and Yellowstone , to other streaming services for a short-term cash influx, it seems Ellison is prioritizing bringing everything back under the company's own streaming platform, Paramount+. It hadn't gone entirely smoothly. In late June, Park County threatened legal action against Skydance, which they believed was tampering with their talks with Netflix and Warner Bros. about potentially obtaining South Park's streaming rights. Paramount was motivated to make a deal and eager to avoid more negative publicity, like that which followed a $16 million settlement paid to Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris and the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Facing the prospect of another season premiere delay and potential trash talking on stage at San Diego Comic-Con this week—where Parker and Stone took a rare high road—Skydance and Paramount agreed Monday to rework Park County's production deal in conjunction with the new streaming rights agreement, a sticking point in the negotiations. With their pockets sufficiently lined by the $1.5 billion deal, Parker and Stone will produce 10 new episodes of South Park each year until 2030, and there's little doubt they will continue to poke fun at both their parent company and a very litigious president. When asked at during a Comic-Con panel Thursday evening what to expect from the rest of this season, Stone quipped, 'no politics,' drawing laughter from the crowd. And Parker, when asked about Trump's negative reaction to the first episode, answered with similar deadpan: 'We're terribly sorry.' More from Forbes Forbes How This Hollywood Producer Turned Brad Pitt Into A $40 Million 'F1' Ad By Matt Craig Forbes Can Netflix Become The Netflix Of Gaming? By Matt Craig Forbes J.K. Rowling Is A Billionaire—Again By Matt Craig Forbes The Highest-Paid TV Showrunners 2024 By Matt Craig
Elle
an hour ago
- Elle
Travis Kelce Has an Unexpected Evil Role in 'Happy Gilmore 2'
Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Spoilers below. THE RUNDOWN Netflix's Happy Gilmore 2 revisits the 1996 Adam Sandler movie and brings back much of the original cast, including Julie Bowen, Ben Stiller, and Christopher McDonald. It's also filled with celebrity cameos, including Travis Kelce, Margaret Qualley, and Bad Bunny. Kelce, who went Instagram official with Taylor Swift this week, appears in a scene that takes place in a country club restaurant the night before a major tournament, alluding to the famous Champions Dinner that takes place days before the annual Masters Tournament. In it, Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) appears with several real-life golf stars including Jordan Speith, Rickie Fowler, and Keegan Bradley. Kelce and Bad Bunny play waiters. Kelce's character, who is credited as The Waiter, puts on a phony niceness while serving the golfers, then turns nasty when he fires Bad Bunny's character, Oscar, for an understandable mistake. Kelce's character is revisited in a later scene. Happy asks Oscar, who has now become his caddy, to imagine his 'happy place.' In the fantasy sequence The Waiter is tied to a pole with his shirt off. Oscar slathers him in honey and then lets him be devoured by a bear. Oscar watches, satisfied. Despite the violent turn of events, Kelce has said that working on the long-awaited sequel was a 'dream.' '[Sandler] is every bit as cool off the screen as he is on the screen. That was a dream come true. That was awesome,' he said on The Pat McAfee Show earlier this year. Kelce's previously appeared onscreen in Ryan Murphy's FX series Grotesquerie in 2024 and on Saturday Night Live, as a host in 2023. 'Travis is such a gentle, nice guy, and funny as hell,' Sandler later told Entertainment Tonight. 'He's like the guys I grew up with. When I was with Travis, it reminded me of my buddies in high school and just being able to laugh and say the things you want to say.' The Kansas City Chiefs training camp began last Sunday, causing Kelce to miss the film's premiere in New York City. Watch Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix Watch Happy Gilmore (1996) on Prime Video
