Steve Pond's Blog, page 155
May 12, 2025
‘Creed’ Spinoff Series ‘Delphi’ From Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society Lands at Prime Video
Prime Video has ordered a new TV series set in the “Creed” universe from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society.
The series, titled “Delphi,” marks the first live-action series extension of the “Creed” universe, focusing on young boxers at the Delphi gym. The announcement of the new series was made as a part of Amazon’s second annual upfront presentation on Monday.
Marco Ramirez (“The Defenders,” “Daredevil”) will serve as showrunner for “Delphi,” and will executive produce the show alongside Jordan and Liz Raposo, who executive produce for Outlier Society, as well as Winkler Films’ Irwin Winkler, David Winkler and Charles Winkler.
“Delphi” will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, though a release date and casting has not yet been announced.
“Creed,” a spin-off of the “Rocky” film series centered on the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed, includes three films, with “Creed III” most recently debuting in 2023 as Jordan’s feature directorial debut. Jordan starred in the “Creed” films and served as an executive producer for “Creed II” and a producer for “Creed III” while Irwin Winkler, David Winkler and Charles Winkler produced all three “Creed” movies. Ryan Coogler, a consistent Jordan collaborator, directed the first film.
“Delphi” showrunner Ramirez most recently created and executive produced Hulu’s “La Máquina,” which followed an aging boxer whose crafty manager secures one last shot at a title. “La Máquina” starred Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Eiza González.
Ramirez also created TV series “The Twilight Zone” and “The Defenders,” and has credits across “Fear the Walking Dead,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “Daredevil” and “Da Vinci’s Demons.”
Outlier Society is represented by M88, WME, 2PM Sharp and attorney Greg Slewett.
The post ‘Creed’ Spinoff Series ‘Delphi’ From Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society Lands at Prime Video appeared first on TheWrap.
‘Beast Games’ Renewed for Seasons 2 and 3 at Prime Video
MrBeast has more games to play.
“Beast Games,” the Prime Video series from the world’s most popular YouTuber, is coming back for a second and third season, the streamer announced Monday during its second annual upfront presentation in New York.
MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), who created the series, will return to host and executive produce the competition series, whose first installment saw 1,000 players competing for a $10 million cash prize. A return date was not yet announced for the second season of “Beast Games.”
“Beast Games” dropped its first season on Dec. 19, 2024 on Prime, and within 25 days of its premiere, the competition show became Prime Video’s most-watched unscripted show ever with 50 million viewers.
“MrBeast achieved a significant milestone for our global Prime Video customers, bringing to life the largest reality competition series ever,” Amazon MGM Studios head of TV Vernon Sanders said in a statement. “Following its record-breaking first season, we are thrilled to announce that two more seasons of ‘Beast Games’ are on the way, and we eagerly anticipate all of the new, jaw-dropping challenges MrBeast has planned for the players.”
“Our goal was to deliver the biggest, boldest competition series ever created, and the response has exceeded every expectation,” MrBeast Industries CEO said Jeff Housenbold said. “’Beast Games’ resonated with fans around the world, and that’s a testament to the creativity of Jimmy and the entire Beast team. We’re grateful to Amazon for their continued partnership, and we’re excited to raise the bar even higher in the next two seasons.”
“Beast Games” was co-created by MrBeast, Sean Klitzner, Tyler Conklin and Mack Hopkins, with Klitzner and Matt Apps serving as showrunners. Klitzner and Apps serve as EPs alongside Conklin, who returns as series director, Housenbold, Michael Cruz, Michael Miller, Josh Kulic and Chris Keiper, Charles Wachter, Keith Geller, Joe Coleman and Rachel Skidmore.
MrBeast previously announced he will continue to release new content across his own YouTube channels, including more adventure and competition series, celebrity collaborations and behind-the-scenes content.
The post ‘Beast Games’ Renewed for Seasons 2 and 3 at Prime Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Bob Iger Himself Blocked That Raunchy Mickey Mouse Joke From ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ Ryan Reynolds Says
Turns out it was Bob Iger himself who requested Ryan Reynolds remove that Mickey Mouse line from “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
While talking on the “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast, Reynolds recalled getting approached by the Disney CEO about removing a raunchy line involving the company’s beloved mascot.
“The first time he saw the film it was in pretty good shape and he said ‘you got to remove the one line Ryan,'” Reynolds said. “And I was like ‘what line?’ ‘You know the line.’ And I went, ‘Mickey Mouse?’ Yeah.”
He continued, “I was like ‘Bob the whole movie orbits around that line.’ That line is the film, it’s the thrust, the thesis, it’s everything. My brain when he said the one line was ‘Precious. Must keep the line.’ I really had to walk around his office a bit, do a couple laps and then we were good. We switched it up. He just didn’t want the Mickey Mouse joke in.”
Despite being removed from the film, the line still managed to reach the public through the original script that was released through Disney’s FYC portal. The line in question happened after Deadpool learned Magneto was dead – and that Ian McKellan would not be making a cameo in the film.
“F–K! What we can’t even afford one more X-Man? Disney is so cheap,” Deadpool exclaimed. “I can barely breathe with all this Mickey Mouse c–k in my throat.”
Reynolds told O’Brien that because of the script release, the line might have earned more attention than if it was just included in the final product. “Deadpool & Wolverine” director Shawn Levy also talked about the joke with Entertainment Weekly after the scripts released.
“There was only one line in the entire movie that we were asked to change,” he said. “We have made a pact, Ryan and I, to go to our grave with that line, but I will say that it was replaced with an equally dirty line of dialogue about Pinocchio shoving his face up Deadpool’s ass and starting to lie like crazy. I was like, ‘Ryan, that’s your replacement line in response to, ‘Can we clean it up?’ That’s Ryan Reynolds for you, audacious to the very edge.”
The post Bob Iger Himself Blocked That Raunchy Mickey Mouse Joke From ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ Ryan Reynolds Says appeared first on TheWrap.
Fox Sees Big Super Bowl Bump Last Quarter With 65% Boost in Ad Revenue
Fox Corporation saw a major boost from the Super Bowl during its third quarter of 2025. The major sporting event led to a 65% boost in advertising revenue, which topped out at $2 billion. The company also saw increases when it came to affiliate fees, Tubi and sports sublicensing revenues.
Specifically, affiliate fee revenues increased 3% during the quarter, a bump that was driven by 4% growth in the television segment as well as 3% growth cable network programming. Specifically in the Television segment, which measures Fox’s broadcasting offerings versus its cable output, advertising revenues increased $725 million, marking a 77% increase. This was largely due to the impact of Super Bowl LIX as well as continued digital growth from Tubi. Other revenues also increased 20% due to higher sports sublicensing revenues.
As for Fox’s cable division, that segment’s revenue saw a 11% lift, coming in at $1.64 billion. Affiliate fee revenues increased by 3% to hit $31 million for the quarter. This boost was due to contractual price increases, which offset overall subscriber declines. Advertising revenue for cable increased 26% to hit $76 million, owing to higher news ratings, pricing and digital advertising revenues.
Here are the key results:
Net Income: $354 million, a 50% decline compared to the third quarter of 2024. Net income attributable to Fox shareholders was $346 million, a 48% year-over-year decline.
Earnings Per Share: $1.10 adjusted, a roughly 1% year-over-year increase. It’s also an increase compared to the 93 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue: $4.37 billion, up 27% year-over-year.
Adjusted EBITDA: $856 million, a 4% year-over-year decrease.
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Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe Comedy Series, the NBA Lead NBC’s 2025-26 Lineup
NBC has greenlit a new comedy series starring Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe, which leads the network’s 2025-26 alongside the NBA.
The new series, titled “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins,” focuses on a disgraced former football player (Morgan), who is on a mission to rehabilitate his image, according to the official logline. It is executive produced by “30 Rock” creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” will debut in the 2025-26 alongside returning comedies “St. Denis Medical” and “Happy’s Place” which took the coveted comedy slots on Monday and Friday upon the cancellations of “Night Court” and “Lopez vs Lopez.”
“The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” will either be slotted after “St. Denis Medical” on Mondays or after “Happy’s Place” on Fridays, with an additional slot open for NBC comedy pilots — which include “Stumble” from Jeff and Liz Astrof and an untitled project from Sierra Teller Ornelas — to air in the 2025-26 season if greenlit.
Beginning in October, when NBC kicks off its 11-year deal with the NBA, Peacock will livestream national Monday night games before games are broadcast across NBC and Peacock on Tuesday nights, filling the entirety of Tuesday night primetime. In spring 2026, NBC will launch “Sunday Night Basketball” across NBC and Peacock, alongside playoffs and WNBA Coverage.
Before the NBA kicks off in October, NBC’s Tuesday nights in September will see “The Voice” air from 8-10 p.m. before new unscripted show “On Brand With Jimmy Fallon,” which follows the late night host as he starts a premier marketing agency, airs at 10 p.m.
With the NBA’s return making fewer primetime spots available for scripted programming, freshman series “Brilliant Minds” and “The Hunting Party” made the cut over “Suits LA,” “The Irrational,” “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” and “Found.” There’s still a chance for “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” to move to Peacock, according to programming planning strategy president Jeff Bader and SVP of program planning and scheduling Steve Kern, who told press that a potential move to the streamer was something considered for every show.
While the execs noted the NBA broke up the network’s comedy block — which helped launch “St. Denis Medical” last season — Bader noted the scripted programming line up isn’t “dramatically less” than pre-NBA seasons. “I actually think we did a good job of carving out scripted time, given that we do not have Tuesdays,” Bader said.
“Brilliant Minds” will air after “The Voice” on Mondays, while “The Hunting Party” airs Thursday at 10 p.m. after “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: SVU.” The “Chicago” franchise will continue holding down Wednesday night, with “Chicago Med” airing at 8 p.m., “Chicago Fire” at 9 p.m. and “Chicago P.D.” closing out the night at 10 p.m.
“We’re really going to lean into [these sophomore shows],” Bader told press. “‘Brilliant Minds’ only had 13 episodes, and first season of ‘Hunting Party’ only had 10 episodes. We need to give these full seasons and really lean into them … really get them established.”
For NBC’s full 2025-26 lineup, see below.
Mondays
8-10 p.m. — “The Voice”10-11 p.m. — “Brilliant Minds”Tuesdays (September)
8-10 p.m. — “The Voice”10-11 p.m. — “On Brand With Jimmy Fallon” (new series)Tuesdays (October)
8-11 p.m. — NBAWednesdays
8-9 p.m. — “Chicago Med”9-10 p.m. — “Chicago Fire” 10-11 p.m. — “Chicago P.D.”Thursdays
8-9 p.m. — “Law & Order”9-10 p.m. — “Law & Order: SVU”10-11 p.m. — “The Hunting Party”Fridays
8-9 p.m. — “On Brand With Jimmy Fallon” (new series)9-10 p.m. — “Dateline NBC “Saturdays
7-7:30 p.m. — Big Ten Pregame/Notre Dame Pregame (also live on Peacock)7:30-11 p.m. — Big Ten Saturday Night/Notre Dame Football (also live on Peacock)Sundays
7-8:20 p.m. ET— Football Night in America (also live on Peacock) 8:20-11 p.m. ET— NBC Sunday Night Football (also live on Peacock)The post Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe Comedy Series, the NBA Lead NBC’s 2025-26 Lineup appeared first on TheWrap.
‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ Not Canceled Yet, NBC Ponders Move to Peacock
While the chances for “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” to score a Season 2 renewal from NBC aren’t looking great, there’s possibility the freshman drama series could move to Peacock — a potential fate that is “still being discussed” according to one NBC scheduling exec.
The drama series from Jenna Bans and Bill Krebs was not included in NBC’s 2025-26 schedule, which revealed Season 2 renewals for “Brilliant Minds” and “The Hunting Party” alongside all three “Chicago” series, “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: SVU.”
Bader noted a potential move to Peacock was discussed for every show that did not make the cut for NBC’s lineup next season. The impending move of the NBA to Tuesdays nights prompted a flurry of cancellations Friday, including dramas “Suits LA,” “Found” and “The Irrational,” and comedy series “Night Court” and “Lopez vs Lopez.”
A potential move to the NBCUniversal-owned Peacock was hinted at by showrunners Jenna Bans and Bill Krebs, who told TheWrap they knew that “Grosse Pointe” was performing well on streaming. Last year, NBC previously moved “Law & Order: Organized Crime” to Peacock after letting it go from its schedule.
“We know we have a lot of support at the network and people love it creatively, so we’re just hopeful they’ll find a way to bring us back. It might not be a traditional way, but we’ll see,” Bans said at the time. “We have nothing concrete though.”
“Grosse Pointe Garden Society” launched alongside the series premieres of “Suits LA” and The Americas” to solid ratings, but the show was shifted mid-season from Sundays at 10 p.m. to air in a new timeslot on Fridays at 8 p.m.
In “Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” Aja Naomi King, Melissa Fumero, AnnaSophia Robb and Ben Rappaport star as friends united by a suburban gardening club who get mixed up in murder when a formal gala goes awry. The Season 1 finale is set to air Friday, May 16, on NBC.
The post ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ Not Canceled Yet, NBC Ponders Move to Peacock appeared first on TheWrap.
May 11, 2025
‘The Last of Us’ Star Isabela Merced on Making Dina ‘A Little Bit More Calculated’
Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5.
Sunday evening’s episode of “The Last of Us” saw Ellie’s revenge quest take its darkest turn yet as she and Dina tracked down Nora (Tati Gabrielle), one of the ex-Fireflies who killed Joel.
Despite being pregnant, Dina chose to go along on the journey with Ellie rather than lay low at the theater, revealing that she not only carries guilt for the death of Joel, but also for her own mother and sister, who were killed by a raider when she was eight years old.
“Dina and Ellie walk very similar paths in the sense that they both have lost people they loved, and they continue to lose people they loved,” Isabela Merced, who plays Dina, told TheWrap. “So they’re bopping out of the fear of abandonment.”
Though Dina ultimately kills the raider and gets her vengeance, Merced points out that traumatic event still consumes her.
“When it comes to losing people you love, no matter how much you may not be responsible, that doesn’t stop your brain from going over and over and over the sequence of events, and replaying it and imagining what you could have done differently to potentially change the outcome,” Merced added. “I think that moment should have been a message that resonated differently with her. But she just learned to think of it like ‘Yeah, I killed this man when I was eight years old but for good reason I swear.’ It’s justification of the vengeance.”
When asked about the process of expanding on Dina’s character from the game for the HBO adaptation, Merced revealed that the majority of the decisions were made long before she was hired, but she did ask executive producer Craig Mazin about cutting some lines.
“I wanted Dina to be a little bit more calculated and maybe hold her cards closer to her chest,” she said. “When I came in, it was a great guitar with all the strings. I just needed to tune it up a little bit with my own ear.”
By the end of the episode, Ellie’s mission is accomplished as she finds and brutally beats Nora, who’s been exposed to spores inside a lower level of the hospital that was ground zero for the outbreak in Seattle. But not without her and Dina getting nearly killed themselves by a pack of stalkers and having to be rescued by Jesse (Young Mazino), who has been separated from Tommy (Gabriel Luna) after following the pair to Seattle to bring them home.
“It’s the irrationality and power of love,” Mazino tells TheWrap. “As much as a stickler as Jesse is, even he can’t get past that one thing. He’s willing to face armageddon to try to get them back.”
Though Jesse is focused on his mission to get everyone back to Jackson safely, Young Mazino admits the former is “livid” and “on the edge” of hitting his breaking point with the Ellie by the time he finds her and Dina in Episode 5.
“It’s one thing to let the revenge overtake you, but she’s dragging Dina, who Jesse has a lot of love for into Seattle, which we all know is a hell hole and f—ng terrible place to be in,” Mazino said. “Throughout the season, Jesse is always trying to rein Ellie back, trying to tell her to ease on the breaks and tone it down and help her scale it back because in a lot of situations, not just combat, if you lose that coolness and level-headedness and you overstep that’s how you end up dying. He’s trying to tell Ellie to calm down and chill out a little bit and she just refuses and now Dina’s life is on the line too.”
Merced said that the moment Jesse rescues her and Ellie is “so dramatic” and “very conflicting,” but also “very relieving” for Dina.
“I mean, it’s her baby daddy or stepfather to her baby. Jesse is so reliable and Dina really does admire and adore him for his strength and he’s really level headed. I think it’s going to be interesting and really heightens the tension of the love triangle,” she said. “Ellie was also gonna die, so he’s not only saving Dina. It would have changed everything if he hadn’t.”
When asked if Dina plans to tell Jesse the truth about her pregnancy, Merced said she believes she would “eventually be very straightforward.”
“In her head, she would ideally wait until they got back to Jackson safely. I think she fears that Jesse would leave without Ellie and just take [Dina and the baby] out of there,” she explained. “She knows he’s such a good leader and would be such a devoted father, but honestly it would ruin things between her and Ellie a lot. Right now, the tension is too high and it’s too much happening.”
“The Last of Us” airs Sundays on HBO and Max
The post ‘The Last of Us’ Star Isabela Merced on Making Dina ‘A Little Bit More Calculated’ appeared first on TheWrap.
‘Suits LA’: Rick Hoffman on Louis’ Return and His Surprising New Mudding Partner
Note: This story contains spoilers from “Suits LA” Episode 12.
“Suits LA” brought beloved original series character Louis Litt back into the fold in the funniest way possible: sparring with one of the new lawyers at what should’ve been a tranquil anger management retreat.
Episode 12, titled “Angry Sylvester,” followed as Stuart (Josh McDermitt) sought refuge from drama in LA by attending the anger management retreat. His peace didn’t last long however, as he immediately knocked heads with Louis (Rick Hoffman) over using a luggage carrier.
“When Aaron called me and pitched the idea I was immediately excited. When you hear ‘Louis’ and ‘anger management,’ could there be anything else that goes better?’” Hoffman told TheWrap, adding that he relished returning to the role that “changed my life.” The interview took place before NBC canceled the show Friday ahead of its now final two episodes.
While Ted (Stephen Amell) and the rest of the “Suits LA” lawyers dealt with case drama and flashback turmoil back home, Stuart experienced a whirlwind of emotions with Louis. Their early confrontation led to a bigger blowout during one of the retreat’s sessions, which ended with the moderator lashing out at both of them for ruining the experience for all. During the session, Louis revealed he was encouraged to attend after he got in an argument with someone over his cat.
He also shared he is still with the love of his life Sheila (Rachael Harris), and that since the end of the original series they’ve welcomed a second child together. The family talk leads to common ground between the two lawyers, and the duo pull an impressive 180 that feels very Louis Litt — which ends with Louis inviting Stuart to go mudding with him.
Rick Hoffman and Josh McDermitt in “Suits LA.” (Nicole Weingart/NBC)“They couldn’t have done a better job getting all the greatest hits of Louis into the episode, as well as an existential crisis,” Hoffman said. “Josh could have been more warm … everybody in the director and producer areas I had worked with for nine years on ‘Suits’ too, it felt like no time had passed.”
“Suits LA” airs Thursdays on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.
The post ‘Suits LA’: Rick Hoffman on Louis’ Return and His Surprising New Mudding Partner appeared first on TheWrap.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 5 Recap: Spores, Stalkers and Backup
“The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5 begins, once again, with the Washington Liberation Front (W.L.F.). Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) arrives in one of the militia’s W.L.F.-controlled hospitals only to find its basement stairwell completely sealed off. When she asks Sergeant Elise Park (Hettienne Park) why she decided to kill some of her men by doing so, she is told a terrifying story. Sergeant Park tried to fulfill her mission of making the hospital fully operational again for the W.L.F. by clearing every one of its floors. She found little resistance doing so, too, until her soldiers began to scour the building’s three basement levels. B1 was fine. “The whole floor was empty, not even rats,” she says (a line that is sure to make “The Last of Us Part II” players’ ears perk up).
When she sent her son Leon down to help clear out B2, however, he radioed not long afterward and sounded like he could barely breathe. “I said, ‘Leon, were you bit? He said, ‘It’s in the air. Seal us in,'” the haunted Park recalls. Hanrahan does not hide her shock over this story, but does her best to shake it off, telling Sergeant Park, “As far as I’m concerned, you resolved the situation permanently and heroically.” Her words offer little comfort in a scene that creates chilling dread out of a simple conversation, which is something “Last of Us” showrunner Craig Mazin is uniquely gifted at pulling off. This scene also accomplishes two things: It sets up the eerie conclusion of this week’s episode and also the scariest set piece in “The Last of Us Part II,” which HBO viewers likely will not see realized until the TV show’s third season.
Before we can get to either of those moments, “The Last of Us” cuts back to the theater where Dina (Isabela Merced) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) found shelter at the end of “Day One.” Dina is busy listening to the W.L.F. radio she and Ellie stole, using the military transmissions she hears to find a safe path to the hospital where they know Nora (Tati Gabrielle) is stationed. While she does this, Ellie explores the theater, stumbling upon another, relatively pristine guitar in the building’s gorgeous, dusty auditorium. Sitting on the theater’s stage, she sings just one line from “Future Days” by Pearl Jam, a song that “Last of Us” viewers probably will not recognize but video game players absolutely will. “If I ever were to lose you…,” she sings, recalling a moment from her past that has yet to be depicted onscreen, but which pointedly opens “The Last of Us Part II.”
Isabela Merced and Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5 (Liane Hentscher/HBO)Backup arrivesDina realizes the only way for her and Ellie to make it to the hospital and avoid the W.L.F. patrols along the way is to cut through a building they assume is filled with infected. Dina notes that this strategy is “reckless,” but that does not stop her or Ellie from committing to it anyway. On their journey across the city, they stumble upon another “Feel Her Love” mural, under which lies a pile of murdered Seraphite bodies and another spray-painted message that reads, “Feel this, b—h.” The sight horrifies both Ellie and Dina, and it causes Ellie to offer Dina an out. In response, Dina decides to tell her partner the story of the first person she killed.
When she was eight, Dina snuck out of her family’s house to play outside. While she was outside, she heard screaming and ran back with her gun. By the time she got home, her mother and sister were already dead, but the raider who had killed them was still there. Dina shot him without hesitation. “Whatever reason Joel gave those people to do what they did, he didn’t deserve that,” Dina argues. “What if my mom and sister were beaten to death in front of me? What if that motherf—ker made me watch as he did it? Would it make a difference if my family had hurt his people first? … No.” Dina, in other words, understands why Ellie wants to find and kill Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). “I’ll go back if you want, and I’ll keep going if you want,” she says. “If I die, it’s on me.”
Ellie, unsurprisingly, decides to keep going. Once they reach the building Dina had marked earlier, she tells Ellie not to start shooting any infected they see and making a lot of noise like she normally would. “You’re a little crazy, and that’s exciting. It’s one of the reasons I love you,” Dina simply states. “But I do want to make it out of here.” Their plan goes out the window when they find themselves trapped in a dark room with countless infected stalkers just like the one Ellie killed in the “Last of Us” Season 2 premiere. The two girls get pinned down by the stalkers, only to be saved by Jesse (Young Mazino), who kills the attacking infected before leading Ellie and Dina away from the building and out of the range of the W.L.F. soldiers who were drawn to them by their gunfire.
They hunker down in a park the W.L.F. chooses not to follow them into. While there, Jesse explains that he and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) snuck out of Jackson the night after Ellie and Dina left to go after them. The two men split up when they got to Seattle, but have planned to rendezvous together tomorrow morning. When they do, Jesse says the four of them will go back to Jackson together. Ellie starts to protest, only to first be interrupted by Dina and then by a flurry of ominous whistles. The trio witnesses a group of nearby Scars mercilessly hang and disembowel a captured W.L.F. soldier. Dina is then shot in the leg with an arrow, and Ellie tells Jesse to take her back to the theater while she draws the Scars’ attention away. When she sees the roof of the W.L.F. hospital in the near distance, though, Ellie decides to go there rather than follow after Jesse and Dina.
Tati Gabrielle in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5 (Liane Hentscher/HBO)The immune girlEllie sneaks past the patrolling W.L.F. soldiers and their dogs and eventually comes face to face with Nora, who is surprised and confused to see her again. “We could have killed you,” she says. “Maybe you should have,” Ellie replies. “Or maybe you should have stayed the f—k out of Jackson.” Nora ignores Ellie’s repeated questions about Abby’s whereabouts, telling her, “I’m sorry you saw it happen. No one should ever have to see something like that. Sometimes, at night, I still hear his screams. It was a terrible thing, the way he died.” Her facade of sympathy for Joel is torn down when she coldly adds, “Yeah, the little b—h got what he deserved.” She tries to flee, but Ellie just chases after her, evading the gunfire of Nora’s fellow W.L.F. soldiers.
Desperate, Nora jumps on top of an elevator, which plummets several floors down. She lands right next to the door to level B2 and runs inside. Ellie follows her in, discovering the entire floor covered in Cordyceps and the air dense with spores* that spread the same zombie infection that destroyed the world decades ago. Ellie even stumbles upon the dying soldiers that Sergeant Park sent down there the day before. By the time she catches up with Nora at the end of a dead-end hallway, the W.L.F. nurse is already coughing and struggling to breathe. “We’re breathing spores. We’re infected,” she tells Ellie. “You killed us both.” Ellie just blankly responds, “Did I?”
It does not take long for Nora to catch on. “You’re her. The immune girl… you’re real,” she says in awe. “Don’t you know what he [Joel] did?” Ellie says she does not care, and she remains unwavering even as Nora lays it all out for her. “He killed everyone in that hospital, including the only f—king person alive that could make a cure from you,” Nora explains. Ellie replies with two words that may surprise some HBO viewers: “I know.” When Nora continues to refuse to give up Abby’s location, Ellie picks up a nearby pipe and beats her with it, torturing Nora until she tells her what she wants to know. But viewers do not see the full extent of Ellie’s violence. Instead, the episode abruptly cuts to the distant past. A younger Ellie wakes up in her bed in Jackson just in time to greet Joel (Pedro Pascal) as he walks in the door.
* In “The Last of Us Part II,” Ellie’s confrontation with Nora is even darker. Ellie already knows what spores are when she arrives in Seattle, and she knowingly throws both herself and Nora into a spore-covered level of the hospital after getting pinned down by W.L.F. soldiers. Ellie, in other words, knowingly dooms Nora in “The Last of Us Part II,” whereas it is Nora in the show who chooses to go into the hospital’s basement.
Bella Ramsey in “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5 (Liane Hentscher/HBO)Our future daysThe ending of “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 5 suggests that viewers may finally start to get some of the flashback scenes between Ellie and Joel that they have been denied thus far, and which are the strongest moments of “The Last of Us Part II.” These scenes are scattered intermittently throughout that video game, but its HBO adaptation has thus far withheld them, likely out of fear of further disrupting this season’s already disjointed pace. The series has suffered a bit without Pascal’s star presence, though, so if we really can expect to see more of him moving forward, that is a welcome development.
It is also worth noting that, in addition to finally introducing the infected spores from the “Last of Us” video games, this week and last week’s episodes have adopted the same day-by-day (i.e., “Seattle: Day One,” “Seattle: Day Two”) structure as “The Last of Us Part II.” That suggests the HBO series is going to actually follow the exact same, divisive structural path as its video game source material. Right now, it seems highly unlikely that TV viewers will be willing to exercise the same, extreme levels of patience that “The Last of Us Part II” and its structure demand from players, but only time will tell for sure.
“The Last of Us” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.
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The Upfronts: How TV’s Big Week Evolved From Chess Match to WWE Free For All
The TV upfronts have a long and colorful history, rooted in grainy images of network executives strategically moving shows around an oversized scheduling board, trying to parry moves by other programmers in the equivalent of a high-stakes chess match.
Today, the strategy is less a cerebral cat-and-mouse game of positioning those pieces than a WWE-style free for all, where programmers try to assemble cohesive lineups but can’t begin to plan how to counter competition that’s coming at them on a multitude of fronts.
Billions of dollars in advance commitments still hang in the balance, with networks and now streaming services seeking to impress media buyers and garner their share of the advertising pie. While sellers still dress to impress, from flying in talent to hosting parties, the Trump economy has cast a shroud over this year’s festivities, stoking fears companies will cut back on spending amid looming recession anxiety.
The shift from linear TV to streaming has fundamentally altered the upfronts in a variety of ways, diluting once-common terms like “lead-in” and “audience retention.” In foodie parlance, it’s the difference between a meticulously prepared meal, where every dish has its place, and an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Much of the process thus bears scant resemblance to when TV viewing was seen as a zero-sum game, and scheduling maneuvers — like Fox placing “The Simpsons” opposite “The Cosby Show” in 1990, or NBC relocating “Frasier” to challenge “Roseanne” in 1994 (prompting ABC to retaliate by swapping in “Home Improvement”) — could elicit gasps from the media-savvy crowds that attended.
As a result, the gamesmanship and media buzz surrounding the upfront have lost considerable luster, at least from the days of that “Simpsons”-“Cosby” matchup, or when NBC and CBS had the audacity to pit two new medical dramas, “ER” and “Chicago Hope,” directly against each other.
Such moves actually captured the public’s imagination as well, giving the primetime schedules the texture of a major prize fight. “THE BART VS. BILL BATTLE — CAN FOX KO ‘COSBY’ WITH ‘THE SIMPSONS?'” one headline blared at the time.
Big scheduling gambits inspired military analogies, casting the annual showdown as a form of warfare, just with sitcoms and dramas dispatched as the soldiers doing battle. Then-ABC scheduling chief Alan Sternfeld paraphrased Gulf War General Norman Schwarzkopf to explain the decision to counter NBC by throwing “Home Improvement” against “Frasier,” telling the Los Angeles Times, “We’re sort of borrowing from the doctrine of Schwarzkopf: If you’re interested in accomplishing something, use overwhelming force.”
“The ‘Home Improvement’-‘Frasier’ move was the biggest scheduling gamble of my career,” Ted Harbert, who was president of ABC Entertainment at the time, told TheWrap, noting ABC wound up winning that time-period battle. Harbert also recalled the brinksmanship associated with cobbling together the primetime lineup, seeking intelligence on the other networks’ plans while staying up into the wee hours of the morning in his hotel room dictating the next morning’s presentation to scheduling executive Jeff Bader, then faxing the speech to the venue where the clips and slides were being put together.
Stephen Colbert donned a top hat and tails to perform at the CBS upfront presentation in 2017 (CBS).Even as the world gradually changed, nobody played the scheduling game more meticulously than CBS, which touted its No. 1 status (if you drank every time “No. 1” was said during its upfront presentation, you’d never survive the cocktail party) in splashy annual gatherings at Carnegie Hall.
Last week, the network unveiled its lineup in lower-key fashion for the press in a Hollywood conference room before the official upfront week, although it did host a talent-studded party at the Paramount lot to commemorate the announcement and will hold private events with media buyers.
In a few respects, the more things change, the more they stay the same. CBS outlined its lineup night by night, discussing the desire to create audience flow for linear-TV viewers who can still be lured from one program into the next. Hence a night where the venerable crime procedural “NCIS” leads into “NCIS: Origins” and “NCIS: Sydney.”
At the same time, the network’s emphasis on delayed and streaming viewing has shifted the calculus. When everybody follows their own metrics, and a key yardstick for broadcast networks has become 35-day multiplatform viewing (that is, how many people watched your show, anywhere, over five weeks), suddenly how well a network fared versus ABC or NBC on Thursday night fades in significance.
Asked about the extent to which CBS considers its network competitors in setting the primetime lineup, CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach said she sees its competition much more broadly, consisting of all the available TV content, including Netflix and other “have it when you want it” options.
“We definitely schedule first and foremost for the audience and ourselves,” she said. “We still believe in the art of scheduling and flow, and that it makes sense night to night.”
CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach (Courtesy of CBS)Granted, other aspects of the upfront remain similar to the past, beginning with the disappointment of viewers learning that their favorite shows have been canceled. TV’s metrics might have changed, but its underlying proposition — that you need enough people watching to justify keeping a show around — really hasn’t.
The major wrinkle now is that people mourning the loss of a series can instantly go online, finding other people who share their passion, even if there weren’t enough of them to justify its existence.
Ultimately, the upfronts provide a concentrated symbol of a changing business. As ratings service Nielsen put it in an analysis of the “newfronts” for digital platforms last year, “Broadcast and cable are entertainment pillars, but we’re firmly in the streaming age,” with streaming having firmly emerged as “the dominant form of TV viewing.”
To borrow the aforementioned military terminology, media companies remain engaged in combat for viewers’ attention and ad dollars, both of which are finite resources, even in an age of abundance. But the battlefield has moved.
At that CBS presentation, president and CEO George Cheeks addressed the broad hurdles this year’s upfront market entails, while alluding to specific ones facing CBS as parent Paramount Global jumps through the Trump FCC’s hoops in seeking approval of its Skydance Media merger. He called this “a very disruptive and challenging time for our industry and our company.”
Like everyone else, CBS is feeling its way through that uncertainty. While that still means trying to put together a compatible roster of shows every night for the hardy holdouts that consume TV that way, the minutia of what other networks are doing on a given night in a certain hour, like much of the TV model that held sway from the medium’s birth into this century, is going the way of the dinosaur.
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