English Entertainment
America picks country girl Carrie Underwood its ‘Idol’
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MUMBAI: America’s sweetheart. That could well describe Carrie Underwood, a small town country girl from Checotah, Oklahoma, who on Wednesday was crowned the fourth American Idol. And there were not too many that were surprised when the winner was announced following Tuesday’s season finale that pitted Underwood against long-haired Southern rocker Bo Bice, 29, of Helena, Alabama. There was also another reason that the 22-year-old student’s win was historic — Underwood is the first country singer to win American Idol.  |
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The newly crowned Idol also walked away from the show with a record contract. Underwood will release her first single Inside Your Heaven on 14 June. She will form part of an American Idol group that includes Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino. Runner-up Bice is also unlikely to have any worries on that score. No less a mortal than Clive Davis, chairman and CEO of BMG International, was quoted last week as saying “they’d (as in BMG and Bice) have a great time making a record together.” |
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The two-hour live finale episode showcased both Underwood and Bice being presented with new red Ford mustangs from one of the show’s biggest sponsors and video clips from both finalists’ hometowns were shown, as well as montages of their Idol journeys. Underwood and Bice were the final two of more than 100,000 Idol hopefuls who auditioned for the show last summer. Over the course of the season, more than 500 million votes were cast for contestants. The race for the next Idol, the American Idol Season 5 auditions kick off soon. And the auditions will be taking place in Austin, Memphis, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver and Boston. This finale week caps a strong year in the ratings. Tuesday’s performance finale attracted 28.1 million viewers, 3 million more than the same show last season. For the season, Idol is up 5 per cent in viewers and 4 per cent among young adults, vaulting Fox to its first full-season win among ages 18 to 49. One media report perfectly summed up the story thus: “The country girl with heart beat the Southern rocker with soul.” |
According to media reports, both contestants choked during their first time on-stage in front of 3,000 audience at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
