Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni gets the legendary SNL creator Lorne Michaels on the line for a rare, unvarnished interview. Lorne dishes about The Late Show’s cancellation (and the political impact on Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon at NBC), the pressures of producing late-night TV in the Trump era, his plans to shake up the cast next season, and much, much more…

Plus, below the fold: Julia Ioffe investigates how Trump and his envoys keep getting played by Putin. Ian Krietzberg digs into the drama surrounding Meta’s reshuffled A.I. division. John Ourand explains why cable distributors are seething about ESPN’s D.T.C. launch. And exclusively for Inner Circle members, renowned fashion reporter Teri Agins charts how the rise of fast fashion accelerated luxury’s decline.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander reunite on The Grill Room to contrast ESPN’s new app with the Fox One streamer. On Fashion People, Lauren Sherman and Hunza G co-founder Georgiana Huddart discuss how she revived the long-dormant ’80s label. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Leigh Ann Caldwell exchange notes on the redistricting war and Gavin Newsom’s ’28 ambitions.

HOLLYWOOD

In a rare interview, the 80-year-old SNL creator promises a major shake-up to the cast, reflects on The Late Show’s cancellation (and the impact on Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon), and weighs the pressures of producing late-night TV in the Trump era.

WASHINGTON

In recent days, Trump and his team have announced a series of breakthroughs in Russia-Ukraine negotiations, only to find out they’ve misunderstood the Russian position. Now it seems the only security guarantees Ukraine will get are none at all.

A.I.

In the span of a few months, Meta has split its A.I. unit in two, launched a superintelligence lab, gone on a multibillion-dollar hiring spree, and restructured the same unit again. Now, it has put 28-year-old Alexandr Wang in charge of the whole enchilada. Meta says there’s nothing to see here, but the scramble says a lot about where the industry is now—and where it’s headed.

SPORTS

When the opening day cheers subside for ESPN’s new streamer, some of the distributors who helped build the poky cable channel into a sports juggernaut may worry they’ll end up with Venu by another name.

FASHION

In the 2000s, fast fashion learned to undercut the luxury business and never turned back. And yet, the underside of today’s cheap-and-cheerful fashion math is its boring sameness.

MEDIA

Julia Alexander reunites with Dylan to break down ESPN’s long-awaited “super app,” which launched yesterday as the network’s boldest bid yet to remain the central hub for sports fans in an increasingly crowded rights landscape. They also touch on Fox’s new streaming gambit, Fox One—a leaner, no-frills play for cord-cutters—and what these parallel moves reveal about the shifting future of sports media.

FASHION

Lauren is joined by Georgiana Huddart, co-founder and creative director of British swimwear brand Hunza G. Georgiana shares the fascinating story of how she pulled the label, originally popular in the 1980s, out of obscurity. Today, Hunza G is not only one of the most popular swimwear brands on the market, it has also influenced fashion trends writ large. Its proprietary crinkle fabric is copied endlessly: They talk about outrunning the knockoffs, her aspirations for the company, and much more.

WASHINGTON

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter to puzzle over the latest congressional maps, from Texas and California to Indiana, where Trump wants to lock Democrats out of power forever. Then they size up Gavin Newsom’s palpable 2028 ambitions, as liberals go gaga for a Trumpian fighter of their own.

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