Welcome back to What I’m Hearing...

Happy Thursday. As a reminder, you're receiving the free version of this email at {{customer.email}}. For full access to Puck, you can subscribe here.

Thanks to Puck’s Inner Circle members who joined my private conference call yesterday with my colleague Eriq Gardner. Eriq gave an update on a few potentially impactful legal cases, and we predicted which big media deals will survive government review. We’ll do more of these calls, so if you want to upgrade your membership, email us at [email protected].

First, a big congratulations to the two winners of my Super Bowl ratings contest. Taylor Mucaria, an accountant, and a humble PR executive, who prefers not to be named, both guessed 112 million viewers, just under the final tally of 112.3 million across NBC’s linear and streaming platforms. Congrats! They both win status-defining Puck tote bags. I got hundreds of submissions, so thanks to everyone for participating, even the people who guessed 36 million and 167 million.

Also, one programming note: Thanks to the long weekend, the next What I’m Hearing will hit inboxes on Monday evening, rather than Sunday. Happy President’s Day.

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Thursday Thoughts (Supersized Edition)…

 – Is it 2022 or the 1980s?: TV’s hottest writer is arguably David E. Kelley, and just this week, I’m told, Amazon Studios committed to a huge film project written by Lethal Weapon wunderkind Shane Black, and produced by the apparently unsinkable Joel Silver. Robert Downey, Jr. is starring and producing with his wife, Susan, and it’s based on the Parker crime novels by Richard Stark. Big deals for all involved, with the potential for a spinoff series and movies.  

 – Kaluuya tells CAA to get out: An update to my item last month on Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya and Heir Holiness, the self-described “life strategist” and “Head Mistress” for “The International Alma Mater, Blessed University,” who claimed on her LinkedIn to be Kaluuya’s “personal manager” (though she deleted her profile after I wrote about it). Holiness’ behavior during the filming of Jordan Peele’s Nope, in which Kaluuya stars, caused people on set to be concerned about her influence over the British actor. Those same people might like to know that, just this week, Kaluuya abruptly fired CAA. Management360 still reps him, though. (CAA declined to comment.)   

 – Agents in the incoming call business: Speaking of CAA, the D.O.J. probe of the agency’s purchase of ICM Partners has hit New York...

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