Roku layoffs / YES Network launches / "Scott Pilgrim" anime series / "The Night Agent" renewed for S2

Plus today's calendar, Netflix "No Limit" lawsuit, Zaslav earned $39.3M in 2022, "Wonder Man" casts Grim Reaper, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network March 30, 2023

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Roku announced another round of layoffs, with plans to cut around 200 employees, or 6% of its remaining workforce. Roku laid off around 200 staffers last fall as well. More: In a statement, Roku explained that it was attempting to lower operating expenses as the company shifted priorities. The layoffs will also open up office space that the company no longer requires. The restructuring will cost Roku around $30-$35 million, which will be applied in the current first quarter of 2023. DEADLINE

The Yankee Entertainment and Sports (YES) Network -- a regional channel broadcasting New York-area sporting events -- introduced a new subscription streaming service. No cable plan is required to stream YES Network content, which costs $24.99/month or $239.99 for a year, but subscribers must live in the New York metropolitan area. More: The YES Network features games from the New York Yankees, the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, and the WNBA's New York Liberty. For cable subscribers who already have the YES Network as part of their plans, the streaming service will be a free add-on. Apple will also stream two Yankees games this year as part of its "Friday Night Baseball" broadcasts. THE VERGE

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DAILY CALENDAR THURSDAY, MARCH 30 RIVERDALE: The teen drama series returned on Wednesday night for its seventh and final season to TV; new episodes hit the CW app and website on Thursdays. This year, the gang finds themselves transported back in time to Riverdale in the 1950s, with no idea how to get back to their own world. KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, and Madelaine Petsch co-star. [CW] UNSTABLE: Debut comedy series starring real-life father-son duo Rob and John Owen Lowe, who both also executive produce. John plays a shy man who goes to work for his eccentric and self-centered father at a high-tech bio-research facility. Sian Clifford, Emma Ferreira, and Fred Armisen co-star. [Netflix] FROM ME TO YOU: KIMI NI TODOKE: Debut live-action romantic drama series from Japan, based on the classic manga by Karuho Shiina. Minami Sara stars as a sweet and unassuming social outcast whose life changes when she falls for a popular boy (Suzuka Ouji). [Netflix] BIG MÄCK: GANGSTERS AND GOLD (GANGSTER UND GOLD): German true-crime documentary relating the story of Donald Stellwag, who spent 9 years in prison for his involvement in a bank robbery, only to be exonerated and then later have his innocence once again called into question. [Netflix] RAPCAVIAR PRESENTS: Six-part docuseries -- inspired by the Spotify playlist -- in which various hip-hop artists provide their takes on current events and other issues facing their communities, from law enforcement to mental health and beyond. Season 1 guests include City Girls, Tyler the Creator, Polo G, Roddy Ricch, Coi Leray, and others. [Hulu] THE CROODS: FAMILY TREE: Animated comedy series, spun off from the DreamWorks movie franchise, about two very different prehistoric families living together in the same treehouse. Season 6 lands today on both Hulu and Peacock. [Hulu and Peacock] THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND: Reality series in which sibling treasure hunters Rick and Marty Lagina use various techniques to scan and scour the island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, searching for a legendary pirate bounty. Season 9 aired last year on History Channel and hits Hulu today. [Hulu] HUNT: This 2022 South Korean spy thriller is the directorial debut of "Squid Game" star Lee Jung-jae, who also co-wrote the script and stars. It centers on a covert North Korean plot to assassinate the South Korean President in the 1980s. [Hulu] THE FOLLOWERS (AS SEGUIDORAS): Brazilian dark comedy-thriller series starring Maria Bopp as an online influencer who becomes so fixated on increasing her follower count, she turns to serial killing as a new strategy. Raissa Chaddad, Gabz, and Tatsu Carvalho co-star. [Paramount+] THE DREAMER - BECOMING KAREN BLIXEN (DRØMMEREN): Biographical period drama series from Denmark, following the future author's return to her childhood home in Denmark as a broke divorcee, following years abroad in East Africa. Connie Nielsen stars as Blixen. [Viaplay]

Netflix ordered a first season for a new anime series based on the "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novels. The main cast of the 2010 live-action film adaptation, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," will reprise their roles for the animated series. More: Returning cast members include Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza, Mae Whitman, Jason Schwartzman, and Satya Bhabha. "Scott Pilgrim" movie co-writer/director Edgar Wright is onboard the show as an executive producer. Animation studio Science SARU ("Japan Sinks: 2020," "Devilman Crybaby") will produce the series. The story centers on a Toronto musician who falls in love with a girl, but must defeat her 7 "evil exes" in battle before they can date. The 2010 "Scott Pilgrim" film is currently streaming on Netflix in the US. VARIETY

Netflix renewed the action thriller series "The Night Agent" for a second season. The show became an instant hit on the platform after debuting one week ago, and was viewed for around 168.71 million hours in its first four days online. More: As with Season 1, the second season will consist of 10 episodes. The series is based on a novel by Matthew Quirk, and stars Gabriel Basso as an FBI agent working in the basement of the White House who stumbles into a vast and deadly conspiracy. "S.W.A.T." and "The Shield" vet Shawn Ryan created the series and serves as showrunner. VARIETY

2022's "No Limit (Sous Emprise)" Free diver Francisco "Pipín" Ferreras filed a legal complaint against Netflix and the 2022 French-language film "No Limit (Sous Emprise)," alleging defamation and invasion of privacy. Ferreras claims that the film implicates him in the real-life 2002 death by drowning of his wife, Audrey Mestre. More: Mestre died in 2002 at age 28 during a 171-meter dive in the Dominican Republic, after an air balloon failed to quickly bring her to the water's surface. The film "No Limit," which was billed as "inspired by real events," centers on an abusive and controlling relationship between two free divers, and strongly implies that one sabotages the other's air tank. Ferreras' complaint claims that the 2002 incident was an accident, and that the filmmakers deliberately blur the lines between reality and fiction "for dramatic purposes"; he's seeking actual and presumed damages, along with punitive damages, and wants the sequence removed from the film. EW

David Zaslav According to a new SEC filing, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav earned around $39.3 million in total compensation in 2022. The previous year, Zaslav had made $246 million, including a large option grant relating to the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. More: In 2022, Zaslav was paid a base salary of $3 million, along with stock and option rewards of $1.2 million and $1.4 million apiece, and an executive bonus of $21 million. WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels earned $13.5 million in 2022, up from $11.3 million the year before. Zaslav now ranks among the highest-paid CEOs in the US. Warner Bros. Discovery also announced it will hold its annual shareholder meeting on May 8. DEADLINE

QUICK HITS Introducing Wander REIT: Targeted 8% annual dividend and 14% total return with the first Vacation Rental REIT.* "Fear the Walking Dead" vet Demetrius Grosse will co-star in the upcoming Disney+ series "Wonder Man" as the villainous Grim Reaper; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars as the Marvel Comics hero. A new report from UCLA found that original streaming films are now, on average, far more diverse than their theatrically-released counterparts; jobs for women and people of color in theatrical films has actually backslid a bit in the last few years, dropping back to 2019 numbers. Peacock entered development on "Queen of Flow," an English-language adaptation of the Colombian telenovela "La Reina Del Flow"; actor and musical artist Becky G is in early discussions to star. Vizio expanded its multi-year agreement with AMC Networks and will add five additional channels of content and 159 on-demand movies to its WatchFree+ platform. Paramount+ greenlit the UK drama series "Insomnia," based on the novel by Sarah Pinborough; the book, which the author will adapt herself, centers on a professional woman suffering from debilitating sleep deprivation just weeks before her 40th birthday. HBO posted a full trailer for Season 4 of the comedy-drama series "Barry"; the new episodes premiere on April 16. The highly-anticipated anime series "Heavenly Delusion" will premiere simultaneously on Japanese TV and Disney streaming platforms around the globe; only the subtitled version will be available at first, with a dubbed English-language edition hitting the US at a later date. Sign up for Lemonade and have your claim paid faster than it took you to read this ad. No joke.* *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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