Paramount+, Showtime merge / WBD FAST channels / New Fox and Hulu deal / "Last of Us" adds viewers

Plus today's calendar, Dynevor exits "Bridgerton," WGA West on WBD merger, FX cancels "Kindred," NBCU restructure, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network January 31, 2023

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Showtime's "Yellowjackets" Paramount Global plans to fully integrate the Paramount+ streaming service with the Showtime premium cable network. Executives cautioned that the change will lead to both changes in programming and layoffs over the next several weeks. More: The Showtime network and streaming platform will be rebranded as "Paramount+ with Showtime." The Showtime scripted drama series "Let the Right One In" and "American Gigolo" were both canceled after a single season. As well, the drama series "Three Women" -- based on a 2019 book by Lisa Taddeo -- will no longer air or stream on Showtime after completing production. Chris McCarthy will lead the Showtime TV network; Tom Ryan will oversee the streaming business. HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

HBO's "Westworld" Roku and Tubi will team with Warner Bros. Discovery on new free ad-supported streaming channels. These new so-called FAST channels will feature programming that was recently dropped from HBO Max, including "Westworld," "The Nevers," "Raised by Wolves," and "FBoy Island." More: In November, WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav told investors he was planning to introduce a FAST offering in 2023. The Roku WBD channels will launch in the spring of 2023 with 2,000 hours of on-demand content, including programming from HBO, HBO Max, Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, TLC, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Warner Bros. TV. Tubi announced 14 total WB-branded TV channels that will also have around 2,000 hours of content across them; these will include three new curated "WB TV" options along with selections organized by genre. VARIETY

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DAILY CALENDAR TUESDAY, JANUARY 31 PAMELA, A LOVE STORY: Documentary profile of model and actor Pamela Anderson, produced with her participation and featuring her own insights into her life story, along with archival footage and material from her personal journals. Ryan White ("Good Night Oppy") directed. [Netflix] CUNK ON EARTH: 2022 mockumentary comedy series from the UK, parodying BBC history programs, starring Diane Morgan as clueless TV presenter Philomena Cunk. The show follows Cunk as she speaks with various real-world experts about the progress and development of humanity through the ages. [Netflix] THE WATCHFUL EYE: Debut mystery-drama series from Freeform, starring Elena Santos as a young woman with a mysterious past who accepts a job as a live-in nanny for an affluent Manhattan family. She soon discovers that everyone around her is hiding dark secrets of their own. Julie Durk ("Grace and Frankie") created. New episodes air Monday nights on Freeform and hit Hulu on Tuesdays. [Hulu] NATE BARGATZE: HELLO WORLD: The comedian's new stand-up special was filmed on a 360-degree stage at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona, and features material about growing up in the '80s, saying dumb things, and staying married. [Amazon] ORPHAN: FIRST KILL: 2022 horror film serving as a prequel to 2009's "Orphan," relating the story of how 31-year-old Estonian psychiatric patient Leena Klammer (Isabella Fuhrman) escaped custody, traveled to the US, and started posing as a 9-year-old girl. Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa, and Matthew Finlan co-star; William Brent Bell ("The Boy") directed. [Amazon]

Fox's "Family Guy," "The Accused," and "The Masked Singer" Fox Entertainment and Hulu reached a new multi-year deal to bring current season episodes of the network's shows to the streaming platform. The agreement -- reached following lengthy negotiations -- also includes a marketing partnership to promote the content. More: All Fox primetime entertainment will continue to stream on Hulu the day after it debuts on television. Fox's marketing efforts will now include joint Fox-Hulu branding across all platforms. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal with Hulu was apparently a factor in Fox's recent decision to renew its line-up of animated comedies -- including "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" -- for two additional seasons. DEADLINE

6.4 million viewers watched the third episode of HBO's "The Last of Us" on Sunday across all platforms, a 12% increase over last week's entry. The latest episode also jumped 37% in Sunday viewership over the series premiere. More: These numbers are based on both data from Nielsen and HBO's own internal figures. The first two episodes of "The Last of Us" are now averaging 21.3 million viewers. That means four current HBO series now receive more than 15 million viewers per episode across both TV and streaming platforms, a first for the company. The other shows on the list are "House of the Dragon," "Euphoria," and "The White Lotus." According to Spotify, Episode 3 also led to a 4900% surge in US streams of the 1970 Linda Ronstadt song "Long, Long Time." DEADLINE

Phoebe Dynevor announced her exit from Netflix's period romance "Bridgerton" ahead of the show's third season. After starring in Season 1 as new Duchess of Hastings, Dynevor played a more limited role in Season 2, appearing in just five episodes. More: Regé-Jean Page, who portrayed her husband The Duke of Hastings, left the series after Season 1. Season 3 of "Bridgerton" will follow Penelope Featherington's (Nicola Coughlan) search for a suitable husband, which will allow her to continue her double life as Lady Whistledown. Luke Newton and Claudia Jessie co-star. Dynevor appears in the breakout Sundance hit "Fair Play," which was acquired by Netflix in a $20 million deal. DEADLINE

Showrunners from a number of canceled WB Discovery series collectively published an editorial in collaboration with the Writers Guild of America West. The piece -- titled "How the Warner Bros. Discovery Merger Hurts Workers and Diversity" -- was published as an addendum to WGA West's December 2021 report about the harmful impact of "mega-mergers." More: The post cites numerous titles scrapped by a post-merger Warner Bros. Discovery that centered the experiences of women and people of color, including "Batgirl," "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee," "Gordita Chronicles," "Tuca & Bertie," and "Chad." Currently, there are widespread concerns that an industry-wide writers strike could be on the horizon. In a statement to Variety, WBD said it was "committed to facilitating greater inclusion of underrepresented groups in larger numbers both in front of and behind the camera." VARIETY

QUICK HITS This year, try a resolution that sticks - going to therapy with BetterHelp. Save 25% off your first month.* FX canceled the fantasy drama "Kindred" -- based on the 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler -- after a single season; showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will apparently shop future seasons of the series around to other networks and platforms. NBCUniversal completed an executive restructure of its advertising and partnerships group. Starz renewed the prequel series "Power Book II: Ghost" for a fourth season, which will add actor Michael Ealy as a regular; Season 3 premieres on March 17. Vanity Fair got an early peek at "Swarm," Donald Glover's new Amazon series starring Dominique Fishback as a young woman who's obsessed with a Beyoncé-inspired pop star. Cindy Williams, who starred as Shirley Feeney on the classic sitcoms "Happy Days" and "Laverne & Shirley," died at age 75 on Wednesday following a brief illness. Apple renewed the bilingual period comedy series "Acapulco" for a third season; the series is a prequel to the 2017 film "How to Be a Latin Lover." Hulu canceled the comedy series "Reboot" -- the first new series from creator Steve Levitan following the end of "Modern Family" -- after a single season. The YES Network, Sinclair's regional sports network (RSN) featuring New York Yankees home games, plans to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service in March. Automation is your finance team's best productivity strategy. See five finance tasks you should be automating today.* *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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