English Entertainment
‘Pretty Little Liars’ renewed for seasons 6 and 7!
MUMBAI: In anticipation of the fifth season premiere of Pretty Little Liars (PLL), ABC Family president Tom Ascheim and ABC Family executive VP original programming and development and chief creative officer Kate Juergens have announced that the network has picked up unprecedented two seasons of its longest-running original hit series, Pretty Little Liars, from Warner Horizon Television. Season six is set to air mid-2015, and season seven in mid-2016 on the American network ABC Family.
According to the Nielsen US television viewer ratings, Pretty Little Liars is ABC Family’s #1 series in the network’s history in Total Viewers (3.8 million) and across all target demos: Adults 18-34 (1.5 million/2.2 rating), Women 18-34 (1.3 million/3.7 rating), Adults 18-49 (2.0 million/1.6 rating), Women 18-49 (1.7 million/2.7 rating), Viewers 12-34 (2.6 million/2.8 rating) and Females 12-34 (2.3 million/4.9 rating).
Pretty Little Liars holds the record as the most-tweeted scripted-series telecast of all time, and across all genres, it holds 7 of the Top 15 most-tweeted series telecasts ever. The show also generated the highest average number of tweets per episode (675,000 tweets) of any TV series during the 2013/14 broadcast season. Based on total followers, Pretty Little Liars recently became the #1 scripted television series on Instagram, according to ListenFirst Media.
“Pretty Little Liars has taken its place in the zeitgeist and reigns supreme in pop culture,” said Ascheim in a statement. “I am glad to bring another two seasons to our audience because ‘A’ has a lot in store for our Liars.”
The season five premiere of Pretty Little Liars, entitled ‘Escape from New York’ aired in the US on Tuesday, 10 June and the storyline picked up where the season four finale left off, with Aria and the Liars reeling from Ezra’s shooting at the hands of “A.” The five girls quickly realise that as the one person who truly knows “A’s” identity, Ezra is in grave danger. While Aria watches over Ezra at the hospital, Alison and the PLLs lay a trap to finally flush out “A” and are shocked by who is ensnared. Meanwhile, Detective Holbrook steps up his efforts to find the girls and puts the Hastings family on alert. And as news of Alison’s “resurrection” spreads, Mona is not pleased.
The new season of Pretty Little Liars will debut in India on 14 June, airing Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m., exclusively on Zee Cafe!
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.
