All writers

Todd Spangler

variety.com
30
articles (90 days)

Recent articles

Trump Celebrates ‘Total Jerk’ Colbert’s CBS Exit; Late-Night Host Once Told President ‘Go F— Yourself’
President Donald Trump’s wrath toward late-night comedian who relentlessly mock him is no secret. So it was no surprise that Trump couldn’t resist the opportunity to blast Stephen Colbert after the...
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‘Anatomy of Murder’ Duo, After Acrimonious Split With Audiochuck, Are Back With New True-Crime Podcast ‘Homicide 360’: ‘It’s Important for Us to Own the Thing We Create’
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi and Scott Weinberger ended their hit true-crime podcast “Anatomy of Murder” at the end of 2025 — and there was some bad blood. They severed ties with their previous partner Aud...
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Apple to Broadcast MLS Game Shot Entirely on 15 iPhones, First Major Live Sports Event Captured Using Only Smartphones
Apple has frequently touted the use of professional-grade iPhones by filmmakers to make shorts, commercials and even feature-length movies. And it recently added iPhones to the mix for its MLB and ...
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Netflix Will Soon Start Livestreaming Charlamagne Tha God’s ‘Breakfast Club’ Worldwide in Deal With iHeartMedia, Marking Its First Live Daily Show
Live from New York: It’s Charlamagne Tha God and the crew from “The Breakfast Club” morning talk show — on Netflix. Starting June 1, Netflix will stream “The Breakfast Club” live daily, available t...
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Senate Democrats Implore FCC Chair to Conduct ‘Rigorous’ Review of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Foreign Investment: Deal ‘Raises National Security Alarms’
Democratic senators are again urging the FCC to not rubber-stamp Paramount Skydance’s proposed $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — citing concerns over foreign investors, including Mi...
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Paramount’s Junk-Status Credit Rating to Be Downgraded Further Following Warner Bros. Merger to Reflect ‘Major Ongoing Uncertainties,’ S&P Global Says
S&P Global Ratings already has placed Paramount Skydance’s credit rating in junk-status territory — indicating that the media conglomerate’s debt securities are considered speculative-grade. Bu...
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Jeff Bezos Defends ‘Melania’ Documentary as a ‘Very Good Business Decision,’ Denies It Was a ‘Way of Buying Influence’ With Trump Administration
Jeff Bezos insists that Amazon MGM Studios’ decision to acquire and release “Melania,” a documentary about the First Lady, was smart business — and not an attempt to curry favor with her husband. I...
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W. Kamau Bell to Launch Video Podcast ‘Who’s With Me?’ With Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries
W. Kamau Bell, the award-winning TV host, comedian and filmmaker, is teaming with Malcolm Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries podcast and audiobook company to launch a new video podcast, “Who’s With Me?”...
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James Murdoch Buys New York Magazine, Vox Media’s Podcast Network and Vox Website in Deal Reportedly Worth More Than $300 Million
James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems media and tech holding company, is buying a big swath of Vox Media’s holdings. Murdoch’s company has agreed to acquire New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network ...
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Ari Emanuel, Mark Shapiro Are Acquiring Minority Stakes in NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders
Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, top execs at WME and TKO Group, are buying small ownership stakes in the Las Vegas Raiders. A spokesperson for Emanuel and Shapiro confirmed that the sports and entert...
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Disney Pulls Hulu Even Tighter Into Disney+ but Company Says ‘No Current Plans’ to Phase Out Hulu App
Disney continues to add more features hitching Hulu and Disney+ together as it takes steps toward the goal of “fully integrating” Hulu into the Disney+ service. The Mouse House has outlined plans t...
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Jonas Brothers Are Launching Their Own Weekly Podcast, With a Hotline Number for Fans to Call In and Ask Them Anything
Pop-rock trio Jonas Brothers are sharing the brotherly love on their new podcast series, “Hey Jonas!”, launching under an exclusive deal with iHeartMedia. The weekly podcast, executive produced by ...
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Spotify Officially Bans AI-Generated Podcasts That Impersonate Someone Else, Adds Verification Badges for Podcasts
Spotify is aiming to boost the trust of podcast listeners — by extending its verification program to podcasts and affirming that using AI to “impersonate” another podcaster is not allowed. Accordin...
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Jury Rejects Elon Musk’s $150 Billion Suit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman
Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing AI powerhouse OpenAI of violating its charter as a charitable organization was unanimously rejected by a federal jury. The nine-member jury in federal district court in...
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Spotify, After Massive User Backlash Over Disco-Ball Icon, Says Regular Logo Will Return Next Week
Haterade rained down on Spotify’s 20th birthday party celebratory disco-ball icon — and, after acknowledging the backlash, the streamer says the old 2D logo will return to users’ phones next week. ...
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Amazon’s Alexa+ Now Produces AI-Generated ‘Podcasts’ Featuring Chats Between Two Robot ‘Co-Hosts’
The podcast sector suddenly may have a big new player: Amazon’s Alexa+ AI-powered voice assistant. Alexa has been answering billions of users’ queries since it was first released in 2014. Now Amazo...
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Newly Expanded Elton John Impact Awards Honoring LGBTQ Trailblazers and Allies Unveiled: Recipients Include Chappell Roan, Laverne Cox, Melissa Etheridge
Music icon Elton John already had an award named after him. Now it has become a bigger awards program: The Elton John Impact Awards, which are being presented to influential members of the LGBTQ+ c...
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Donald Trump as James Bond? White House Posts Image of President as Gun-Wielding 007
Donald Trump has shared AI images on social media of himself dressed as the Pope and as a Christ-like figure healing a sick man. Now Trump’s White House has extended his self-mythologizing tendenci...
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ESPN’s Mina Kimes Wins ‘Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars’ Final, Landing $1 Million for Her Chosen Charity
Mina Kimes’ degree in English from Yale served her well in the finale of “Celebrity Jeopardy! All-Stars”: The ESPN football analyst correctly answered the show’s game-deciding trivia question to wi...
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Spotify Debuts New Logo: A Disco Ball to Celebrate Its ‘Party of the Year(s)’
Spotify users who updated their mobile app this week saw something new and unexpected: a new icon on their phones that’s a shimmering green 3D disco ball. Spotify has been a bit coy about what the ...
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Donald Trump Discloses at Least $220 Million in Q1 Financial Transactions, Including Purchases of Paramount, WBD, Netflix, Disney and Comcast Securities
President Donald Trump disclosed thousands of financial transactions for the first quarter of 2026 with a total value of at least $220 million (and as much as $750 million), including those involvi...
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Byron Allen on How He Plans to Use BuzzFeed to Create a ‘Premier Global Free Streaming Service,’ What It Means to Be Taking Over Colbert’s CBS Time Slot and Why He Wants to Buy Starz
With two recent deals, Byron Allen has elevated his profile in both late-night TV and the digital media space. He’s about to take control of struggling media company BuzzFeed, and next week he is g...
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Charter Adds Discovery+ to Select Spectrum TV Plans for No Additional Cost, Joining HBO Max in Cable Company’s Streaming Lineup
Subscribers of Charter Communications’ higher-end Spectrum TV plans now have access to Warner Bros. Discovery’s Discovery+ for no extra charge. Of course, much of the content on Discovery+ (but not...
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Gap Inc. Hires Another Ex-Paramount Exec in Push to Expand Fashion Brands to TV, Film and More
Gap Inc. has enlisted former Paramount executive Lourdes Arocho as part of the retailer’s “Fashiontainment” strategy to ink partnerships for its apparel brands in music, TV, film, sports and more. ...
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Webtoon and Warner Bros. Animation Reveal Four More Webcomics in Development as Animated Titles
Webtoon Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation announced four new animated titles based on popular Webtoon webcomics that are in development as part of their strategic partnership. The companies ...
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YouTube Unveils Exclusive Shows From Alex Cooper, Trevor Noah, Kareem Rahma and More at Upfront
YouTube once funded creator-driven original content — but the streaming giant wound that down several years ago and instead embarked on a strategy to promote shows YouTubers are already producing t...
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Paramount Skydance Defends WBD Merger by Arguing That Neither Paramount+ nor HBO Max Could ‘Catch Up’ to Netflix, Disney or Amazon on Their Own
Paramount Skydance is continuing to insist that the David Ellison-led company’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery will bring “new competitive energy to the entertainment ecosystem,” i...
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EBay Rejects GameStop’s $56 Billion Takeover Bid: ‘Your Proposal Is Neither Credible nor Attractive’
Online retailing giant eBay has turned down GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen’s unsolicited $56 billion takeover proposal, calling it “neither credible nor attractive.” On May 3, GameStop submitted a nonbind...
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‘The Netflix Effect’: Streamer Claims It Has Contributed More Than $325 Billion to Global Economy in Last 10 Years, Launches Site Touting Impact
What’s good for Netflix is… good for the world? In January 2016, the streaming giant expanded its service to an additional 130 countries and territories, reaching more than 190 overnight. Now it’s ...
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Byron Allen Is Buying BuzzFeed, Will Become CEO
TV and media entrepreneur Byron Allen is acquiring a majority stake in BuzzFeed — investing $120 million in the 20-year-old digital media company — and will become CEO. Allen plans to expand BuzzFe...
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