Good evening, and welcome back to What I’m Hearing. Apologies for missing Thursday’s issue, I wasn’t feeling great. But I’m back, and fully re-charged.

Reminder: This week on The Town: Lucas Shaw and I debated if Bob Iger will bail on Hulu; James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams revealed secrets of Sumner Redstone’s girlfriends, and I surveyed the media deals landscape with Axios’ Sara Fischer. Subscribe here, and if this email was forwarded to you, click here to become a card-carrying Puck member.

And please take a second to fill out our reader survey if you haven’t yet—we seriously appreciate your feedback.

Discussed in this issue: Bob Bakish, Rupert Murdoch, Kevin Costner, Suzanne Scott, Nina Diaz, Lawreen Loeser, Brad Slater, Lina Khan, Marty Singer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris McCarthy, and Tom Cruise’s big CAA ovation…

But first…

Runner up: Austin Butler, BAFTA winner. Is this dude really the Oscar frontrunner now? Over Colin Farrell and Brendan Fraser? Really? Let’s think this one through, Academy.

Now let’s dig into the highest-stakes TV standoff in years…

Nice. The missive about the hit series—which, I’m told, made its way to Sheridan, Paramount Media Networks president and C.E.O. Chris McCarthy, and others on the Yellowstone team before it was deleted—only exacerbated what has become a frayed and possibly severed relationship between Paramount’s cash-cow Sheridan machine and Costner, the star of the biggest show on television. So when rumors leaked earlier this month that Yellowstone may end after its current fifth season because Costner is locked in a standoff over his shooting dates, few associated with the show were surprised. The battle lines had been drawn.

So, what’s actually happening here? After looking into this for the past couple weeks, I learned many of Costner’s Yellowstone cast, crew, and executives have been frustrated by his ego and his unavailability for a few years now. I know, get in line. Aging Movie Star Doing Television Has Inflated Sense of Self sounds like an Onion headline. And besides, this is a larger trend: as more bigger names work on TV series, they often don’t want to make series commitments, forcing the shows to contort their schedules to shoot their stars in and out. It’s an industry-wide problem.

Costner tried noting Sheridan during the first couple seasons of Yellowstone, which I’m told didn’t go over well. And once the show became a smash hit, Costner is said to have begun squeezing. He demanded to be compensated for promotion days, say two sources, despite a contract that pays him $1.2 million per episode for the 16 episodes of this fifth season, rising to $1.5 million per episode if there is a Season 6, plus an overall deal with MTV Entertainment Studios that runs through 2025. A couple seasons ago, Costner’s WME team closed a major renegotiation, then he went back to his lead agent of ten years, Brad Slater, who had put Costner in Yellowstone in the first place, and demanded that Slater re-open the deal for additional asks.

This was right as Covid hit and Paramount was laying off employees, so Slater declined. A heated exchange occurred, and Costner removed Slater from his team. (WME declined to comment. The usual disclosure: WME represents Puck but not me personally.) Now Costner’s team includes WME; a scorched-earth lawyer, Howard Kaplan; and another screamer, his longtime manager and producing partner Rod Lake. They’ve been in the driver’s seat on the current impasse.

Costner sees it differently, according to another source close to the production. Season 5 was supposed to finish shooting in its entirety in 2022. But Sheridan—busy with tons of other projects—failed to deliver scripts on time and constantly moved the schedule around, this source counters. When the Covid delay hit, Costner did charge those days to his window of availability, but he performed exactly as his contract required. “The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of Season 5 of Yellowstone is an absolute lie,” Costner’s litigator, my buddy Marty Singer, told me on Friday. “It’s ridiculous—and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second. As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success.” In response to Singer, a Paramount rep told me today, “As we previously stated, Kevin has been a key component of the success of our Yellowstone series, and we hope that continues from here on out.” Who’s right here? It’s complicated by semantics because the 5B episodes, thanks to the delays, are now on track to shoot in summer and fall, and air in November, essentially on the timeline of what was supposed to be Season 6 way back when.

It’s true that Costner wasn’t bailing on Yellowstone to lounge in Montecito. His contract carved out the time last year to focus on Horizon, the first of a planned series of independently-financed Civil War-era Western films that Costner is co-writing, producing, directing, and starring in. The first movie, budgeted at more than $100 million, and shot last year, is still awaiting a release date from Warner Bros., which invested a small amount of money in exchange for domestic distribution rights. I’m told that Costner recently showed about 30 or 40 minutes of footage to Warner Bros. Discovery C.E.O. David Zaslav (Costner is buds with Zaz and attended his recent birthday dinner at Mr. Chow) and Warners film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, and he’s been pushing for a late 2023 release. But Warners already has a packed Q4. Dune: Part Two, Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka prequel, and Aquaman and the Last Kingdom are already scheduled, so the studio hasn’t been willing—or even able, given its financial issues—to add Horizon to the ’23 slate.

That situation actually contributed to the Yellowstone intrigue. In December, amid the Costner availability standoff, his lawyer Kaplan began pressing Paramount to possibly take over domestic distribution from Warners, going directly to Keyes Hill-Edgar, C.O.O. of Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios, and Dan Cohen, chief content licencing officer for Paramount Global. It wasn’t an express quid-pro-quo situation, but the Paramount people certainly felt Costner might suddenly become more available for Yellowstone if the company agreed to board Horizon and give it a late ’23 release, as Costner desired. Alas, Paramount declined to do so and the impasse continued. (Warner Bros. declined to comment.) Now, despite not yet having a release date for the first Horizon, Costner has begun casting the second film, per a Breakdown notice I saw last week that included a late April or early May start date. He has told Paramount he’s busy with Horizon 2 from March through October.

Figuring out the premium content mix has fallen to McCarthy, a Hollywood outsider and longtime reality TV executive who signed and nurtured Sheridan before super-sizing him. For better and worse (a lot of L.A. people still look down on him creatively), McCarthy is a franchise guy who leveraged the success of the Sheridan widget into oversight of Showtime and the other networks. In turn, he put deputy Nina Diaz, a former MTV and VH1 executive, over Showtime, along with scripted chief Keith Cox. That means Amy Israel, the executive VP for Showtime original scripted shows, will now report to the woman behind Love and Hip Hop, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and, my favorite, The Challenge. Showtime may be over as a real premium network, but that’s just where these companies are these days, and when it comes to McCarthy, success is success. He’s delivered for Shari and Bob.

Amid that backdrop, as Redstone and Bakish are trying to figure out Paramount’s future—consolidating Showtime into Paramount+, raising prices, and firing 120 people last week amid an advertising slowdown that led to a revenue decline of about 7 percent—they have one seriously great thing going for them: Sheridan.

The guy’s no picnic either—one source described the Sheridan-Costner dynamic as “Brady and Belichick,” and another said “Silverbacks wrestling”—but he’s truly a unicorn, seemingly able to simultaneously write and produce Yellowstone, its direct prequels 1883 and 1923, new shows like Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, the upcoming Lioness, Land Man, and Bass Reeves, and further planned Yellowstone prequels, all while drawing movie stars like Harrison Ford, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Renner, Stallone, Zoë Saldana, and David Oyelowo into the fold. This quarter, Paramount+ added nearly 10 million subscribers—more new subs than any other service—and hit 56 million worldwide. While Top Gun: Maverick, the NFL and a deal with Wal-Mart certainly helped, nearly one in four Paramount+ viewers only watch Sheridan projects on the service, according to SambaTV. One in four. And remember, this service also carries nearly the entirety of the CBS lineup.

That said, I don’t want to minimize Costner’s value here. He’s a real star, certainly the reason that I (and millions of others) checked out Yellowstone in the first place, and he continues to be an anchor of credibility and gravitas on what is essentially a silly soap opera. Plus, Paramount has successfully leveraged the O.G. Yellowstone and its franchise-leading 17 million weekly linear viewers to tease and relentlessly plug the other “Sheridan-verse” entries on Paramount+.

That’s sort of been McCarthy’s whole M.O., the one that got Bakish to give him Showtime, where he’s trying to replicate the strategy with Dexter and Billions. I don’t think that will work, but I wouldn’t have guessed “Taylor Sheridan Universe” would be a thing, either. Still, if that first Yellowstone ends, there’s no guarantee that whatever replaces it—even if it stars Matthew McConaughey, even if it features several current cast members—will deliver that same audience or serve as the same promo platform. Without its foundation, the House of Sheridan could even begin to crumble.

But at this point, I seriously doubt it. Yellowstone as a franchise has outgrown its star. And in fact, there are benefits to Yellowstone ending, namely the notorious Peacock deal, wherein Paramount’s rival streamer has been dining out in the U.S. on Paramount’s biggest hit. I’m told the digital rights don’t revert until at least four years after the last episode airs on linear, which is a lifetime in the current streaming environment—Paramount could even be acquired by Peacock’s owner Comcast before then. But the sooner Yellowstone is replaced by McConaughey’s Yellowstone: Texas or Yellowstone: Alright Alright, or whatever they call it, the sooner that clock starts ticking.

So sure, this could all be a big, noisy negotiation. Perhaps Costner’s blustery team will calm down and work out a deal that lets him shoot his movies and still remain involved in the show in some way. Before Horizon, Costner hadn’t directed a film since Open Range flopped in 2003; Yellowstone no doubt returned to him the cachet he needed to raise financing. Fans love the character, he’s relevant culturally again, he’s toured with his rock band using the Yellowstone branding, and he’s probably never going to find another $20 million-a-season payday.

But more likely, this is a relationship that has run its course. Sheridan is certainly furious, I’m told; he can’t finish writing the 5B episodes until the Costner drama is resolved and his star is either in or out. McCarthy, Sheridan and lead producer David Glasser are said to have been planning for Costner’s eventual exit for a while. And Sheridan has considered killing off John Dutton before, but this time, as they say, it’s personal.

If Costner does indeed leave and the show ends, Sheridan could write a window for him to return someday—or he could go Full McDreamy and blow him to smithereens. At this point, I’m guessing Sheridan and the rest of the Yellowstone cast would opt for the latter.

“It would be irresponsible to put him on the air” and “could impact a lot of people in a negative way.” –Lauren Petterson, a Fox News executive, vetoing Trump’s plan to call into Lou Dobbs’ show after the Jan. 6 riot, acknowledging that newsworthiness—Fox’s defense in this case—doesn’t always trump other concerns (pun intended). Rating: 💩

“Please get her fired. Seriously … what the fuck? I’m actually shocked … It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company.” –Tucker Carlson, texting Sean Hannity about Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich fact-checking Trump lies on Twitter. Hannity responds that he’s discussed with C.E.O. Suzanne Scott, showing Fox stars conspired to suppress reporting to win back audiences. Rating: 💩💩

A tie:
“Getting creamed by CNN!” –Rupert Murdoch, lamenting Fox’s ratings on Nov. 8, 2020.

“Would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen.” –Murdoch, on possibly having Carlson, Hannity, and Laura Ingraham declare that Biden won the election. (It never happened.) Rating: 💩💩💩

“I have it tattooed on my body at this point.” –Dave Clark, a Fox senior vp, describing Dominion’s frequent “Setting the Record Straight” emails correcting election lies (and providing great evidence Fox knew they were lies and aired them anyways). Rating: 💩💩💩💩

Puck legal expert Eriq Gardner’s take: The nuances of this defamation case are quite a bit more complicated. Take Maria Bartiromo’s harebrained comment on her show: “I have never seen voting machines stop in the middle of an election, stop down, and assess the situation.” Delaware judge Eric Davis will have to determine whether that was a false assertion of fact or some sort of color commentary. Did the statement actually assert a damaging implication about Dominion? Was there evidence of actual malice?

More of Eriq’s Fox analysis in his Rainmaker newsletter here.

How bad is the RSN situation getting? Diamond Sports missed an interest payment and we’re now talking about what kind of bankruptcy awaits. Disney may have overpaid for Fox, but being forced to unload Fox’s RSNs to Sinclair for $10.6 billion in 2019 was very fortuitous. [CNBC]

Brian Stelter digs into the Fox News court filing and marvels at the disdain Fox has for its own audience. [Atlantic] Ditto John Oliver’s amusing segment last night. [YouTube]

A couple liberals on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Clarence Thomas have something in common: They’re skeptical of Section 230, which heads to the Supreme Court this week to decide whether YouTube and others can be sued for algorithms and targeted recommendations. [LAT]

Maureen Dowd asks John Leguizamo if he’d still play his Golden Globe-nominated role as a drag queen in 1995’s To Wong Foo: “I don’t think it would be fair nowadays. I’d be taking the role away from somebody who should be telling the story.” [NYT]

Don’t expect YouTube to change much under new leader Neal Mohan. [Bloomberg]

The Spielberg–Cruise B.F.F. moment at the Oscar nominees lunch reminded Kim Masters of Steven’s fury over the Scientology nonsense on the set of War of the Worlds. [The Business]

Happy 100th birthday to the Hollywood sign, which appeared in 1923, the year of L.A.’s civic “big bang.” [LAT]

“Ovitz would have shut that shit down in a half second.”

“Craig Mazin used to post himself singing Death Cab for Cutie songs on his blog. I hope those are still around somewhere.”

“You are not writing about Blue Bloods.”

“If you’re in Vegas, bet the opposite of whatever the Writers Guild says.”

“A few more layoffs so Zimmer can buy another ivory backscratcher.”

“So….Lipin > Morrell > Moonves ?”

“Your podcast puts me to sleep at night (a compliment).”

Got a question, comment, complaint or a good title for the McConaughey Yellowstone show? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.