New Projects - COVID Protocols - Casting Changes at Disney - Network & Streaming Updates

By Abigail Hardin, February 22, 2022

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Industry Intel

Hollywood is planning to continue its COVID safety protocols through April 30th at least, with language being updated to define "fully vaccinated" as initial shot(s) plus a booster starting March 15th. Funding for testing services will also be replenished, and renewed mask mandates will require employers to provide N95, KN95 or KF95 masks for on-set workers.

The COVID updates come as SAG-AFTRA begins negotiations for new commercial contracts for members, a two-sided endeavor between the union and the ad industry's Joint Policy Committee. The two groups agreed to a media blackout until the results of the meeting have been finalized - so stay tuned for updates!

Get your casting notebooks out! Disney's casting department has added several new staff members, as well as promoted current employees, and assigned others to new projects. Led by EVP Casting at Walt Disney Television Sharon Klein, the changes come at a time when Disney is seeking to expand its content reach through Disney+ as well as its feature films. Even a company as massive as Disney is always looking to meet new faces, so always keep an eye out on these changes - you never know who you might know from an audition once upon a time âœ¨

The upcoming Critics Choice Awards will feature dueling telecasts from London and Los Angeles, in an effort to breach the gap of travel restrictions from COVID. The 27th annual CCA will coincide with this year's BAFTA's ceremony as well, a move that organizers hoped would allow nominees to attend both events in London on March 13th.

Tis the season for awards, after all, Check out Variety's predictions for this year's SAG Award frontrunners!

Looking for a generational masterclass on acting? The upcoming narrative documentary ACTING: THE FIRST SIX LESSONS takes an in-depth look at the craft, history, and artistry of acting, starring Beau Bridges and his daughter Emily Bridges. Lessons include Characterization, Memory of Emotion, and Concentration. The doc will stream across platforms on March 8th!

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Network Updates, Streaming Still King ðŸ‘‘

As of last Wednesday, ViacomCBS has officially become Paramount, a move the company believes will place "an iconic global name" at the forefront of its worldwide business endeavors. "As Paramount, our name will reflect who we are, what we aspire to be, and all that we stand for," Paramount execs wrote in a statement. "It will help advance our strategy of harnessing all our strength and breadth in building the businesses of tomorrow."

The industry was unimpressed. Paramount stocks dropped more than 20% early Wednesday, after the company announced that it would move more deeply into the virtual content world, pledging to increase its streaming spend to $6 billion by 2024. While Paramount exes boasted increased company earnings numbers for its streaming networks Paramount+ and PlutoTV, industry analysts still felt that returns would not reach favorable heights until the latter half of the 2020s, prompting many to question Paramount's upcoming reliance on its streaming model.

But Paramount isn't going down without a fight. The company also announced last week that Showtime content would be making its way to Paramount+ later this year, after celebrating the 56 million subscribers the company has pulled in between the two platforms. While 80% of the new 9.4 million subscribers in 2021 were for Paramount+, the company still believes Showtime's content standard will keep people coming back, and fair enough - the 56.1 million subscribers are third in the streaming race, behind only Netflix and Disney.

AMC Networks also flaunted its Q4 2021 earnings last week, sharing that the company ended the year with over 9 million paid subscribers for its own streaming services. While 9 million may seem like peanuts compared to the industry heavyweights, the figure stepped right up to meet NBCUniversal's 9 million Peacock subscribers to end the year, posing an interesting mid-level streaming race between the two platforms in the year to come.

And let's hear it for a newcomer to the streaming space! TelevisaUnivision has announced Vix as its main streaming platform, set to launch in the next few months. The company will offer both paid and free versions, and users will have access to tens of thousands of hours of Univision's English and Spanish-language content. Welcome to the show, Vix

Theatre Updates

The 13th annual Jimmy Awards have set the 45 Regional Awards programs for this year's ceremony, created and sponsored by The Broadway League. Two winners for each region's program will receive a paid trip to NYC to be a part of the Jimmy Awards on June 27th at the Minskoff Theatre. Break a leg to all participants!

Theatre Communications Group has added the 110 titles from its TCG Books Play Collection to Drama Online, a leading source of publications from the theatre made available for use by institutions. An additional 90 titles are set to be added to the collection later this year, from authors like Alice Childress, Adam Rapp, David Mamet, David Henry Hwang, and more!

Anyone looking for a show recommendation in New York: OUT OF TIME at The Public Theatre has been receiving rave reviews since previews began, including this in-depth piece from NYT last week. The show features five monologues from Asian-American playwrights, performed by a troupe of actors all over 60. Check it out and let us know what you think!

ENCANTO lovers: Who's ready for a Broadway spin on the newest Disney+ craze? It sounds like Lin-Manuel Miranda may be onboard the multi-award winning writer and performance recently told E! News that he "would love" to expand on the world of the Madrigal family, saying that it "weirdly lends itself well" to a stage adaptation. "There are so many stories in that house that it would be wonderful to expand on it, whether it's a stage version, whether it's a series, whether it's another movie," Miranda said. "There's lots of stories in there." Sign me up!

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The 2021-2022 season was an incredible year for representation in television, as LGBTQ+ characters accounted for 11.9% of all series regular roles on television. This is an encouraging jump from the 2.8% in the prior season, and easily the highest figure on record. An additional 49 LGBTQ+ recurring roles were noted by the annual GLAAD Where We Are on TV report, adding up to 141 LGBTQ+ characters on broadcasts this year in lead or recurring roles. Check out the full breakdown of the report here!

USC Annenberg's Inclusion Initiative also released its annual "Inclusion in the Director's Chair" report, which breaks down representation in the top 1,500 films between 2007-2021. This year's study found that 15% of the top grossing films in 20220 were helmed by women, a record number for the metric, though still far behind where the report would like to see the statistic. The biggest strides are being made among streaming content: "There seems to be a recognition that the audience is diverse and wants to see a range of stories from a wide array of storytellers," Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder Dr. Stacy L. Smith said. "[W]e need more than Jane [Champion] and more than Chloe Zhao to ensure that womenâ€”and women of color in particularâ€”have career sustainability and the opportunity to tell stories that reach audiences."

While Annenberg's study called out Amazon Prime Video specifically for its strides in creating inclusive spaces for women and other underrepresented groups behind the camera, Netflix made clear its commitment to diversity at all levels of its business, releasing the findings of the diversity in its workforce last week. 50.5% of the streamer's workforce is made up of employees from "historically excluded racial backgrounds" and 51.7% of the workforce is women - an impressive metric considering the company's roughly 10,000 global team members. Perhaps the tides of representation in Hollywood (and around the globe) are truly beginning to change ðŸ¤ž

Angelina Jolie spoke to a group of senators on Capitol Hill last week, urging them to renew the now-lapsed Violence Against Women Act. The law, first passed in 1994, established federal protocols for domestic violence allegations throughout the country, along with creating funding for crisis centers and community groups. The law expired in 2019 and has yet to regain firm support in Congress - Jolie called the bill's new life in the Senate "one of the most important votes senators will cast this year." Please call your representatives and ask them to support this bill - all it takes is a phone call or email!

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