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Speaker 1: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 1: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, February twenty third,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am

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Speaker 1: co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm

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Speaker 1: in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters

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Speaker 1: around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll hear from Variety's Rebecca Rubin on why the Sony

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Speaker 1: Pictures family film Goat topped the box office and how

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Speaker 1: Elvis in Imax can still pack them in. And Variety's

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Speaker 1: Aramade Tanubu discusses some of the overlook gems on her

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Speaker 1: recent list of the best black led TV series of

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Speaker 1: the past ten years. Before we get to that, here

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Speaker 1: are a few headlines just in this morning that you

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Speaker 1: need to know. Where are we in the renewed bidding

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Speaker 1: process for Warner Brothers Discovery. By many accounts, Para Skuidance

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Speaker 1: is about to up the ANNIE to thirty two dollars

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Speaker 1: a share. That's a significant jump from its previous thirty

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Speaker 1: dollars a share all cash offer, and higher than Netflix's

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Speaker 1: deal all in. If Paramount does raise its bid, Flix

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Speaker 1: will have to make a move. Stay tuned to Variety

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Speaker 1: dot com and our social handles for the latest. And

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Speaker 1: if you missed it on Friday, please seek out my

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Speaker 1: interview with Netflix co CEO Ted Sarandos. It was published

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Speaker 1: on Daily Variety's Sibling Interview podcast Strictly Business. Sirandos makes

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Speaker 1: the case very eloquently and very passionately for why Netflix

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Speaker 1: is the best owner for Warner Brothers and HBO. Sony

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Speaker 1: Pictures TV is going for it with the Reading Rainbow relaunch.

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Speaker 1: The studio launched four episodes of the beloved children's show

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Speaker 1: last fall on Sony's Kidzuko YouTube channel. Sony has ordered

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Speaker 1: twenty four more episodes of the series, hosted by social

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Speaker 1: media star Michael the Librarian, and is shopping it to

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Speaker 1: other outlets. Ashley Lyi and Bart Nicholson, creators of Yellowjackets,

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Speaker 1: have struck an overall deal with Paramount Television Studios. Harry

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Speaker 1: Styles will be back on Saturday Night Live on March fourteenth.

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Speaker 1: It will be his second time out doing double duty

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Speaker 1: as host and musical guest. All of these stories and

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Speaker 1: so much more can be found on Variety dot Com

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Speaker 1: Right now and now it's time for conversations with Variety

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Speaker 1: journalists about news and trends and show business. If it's Monday,

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Speaker 1: we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin, Senior film and

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Speaker 1: media reporter and Variety's box office chief. Rebecca walks us

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Speaker 1: through a weekend that saw a quartette of new titles,

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Speaker 1: but it was led by weekend two of the animated

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Speaker 1: family film Goat from Sony Pictures and Steph Curry's Unanimous

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Speaker 1: Media Banner. Rebecca Rubin, thanks for joining me. I have

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Speaker 1: spent the last couple of days watching people compete in

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Speaker 1: various snow sports in Dad Bob sleds and toboggans and

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Speaker 1: on skis. I've been enjoying the Olympics. You have been

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Speaker 1: watching a race at the box office between Goat and

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Speaker 1: Weathering Heights. Tell us who won this weekend, Rebecca.

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Speaker 2: It was not as exciting of a race as some

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Speaker 2: of the Olympic Games, I'll just say that much. But

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Speaker 2: heading into the weekend, it looked like it was going

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Speaker 2: to be closer between Weathering Heights and Goat for number one,

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Speaker 2: and Goat actually ended up pulling ahead. It made around

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Speaker 2: seventeen million dollars in its second weekend, and then Weathering

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Speaker 2: Heights made about fourteen million in its second weekend. So

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Speaker 2: the fact that that Goat, which is an original animated movie,

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Speaker 2: a kind of film that has been struggling since really

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Speaker 2: the pandemic, it's it's just a testament to the fact

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Speaker 2: that family audiences are really really hungry for new films.

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Speaker 1: How is Goat doing overseas?

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Speaker 2: So it hasn't opened yet in a handful of markets,

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Speaker 2: but right now it's made about forty million overseas, which

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Speaker 2: brings its global tally to just over one hundred million.

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Speaker 2: And it's an encouraging sign that original animation, when it's

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Speaker 2: done well and when people seem to like it, families

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Speaker 2: will go out and see it.

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Speaker 1: How would you assess weekend two for Weathering Heights?

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Speaker 2: It continues to really impress internationally. Over the weekend it

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Speaker 2: made twenty six million dollars, and so far it's made

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Speaker 2: ninety one million dollars at the international box office and

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Speaker 2: just over one hundred and fifty million dollars globally. So

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Speaker 2: for a film of this size, Warner Brothers spent eighty

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Speaker 2: million dollars to produce it not including the marketing spend.

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Speaker 2: It's not a runaway hit by any means, but I

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Speaker 2: think it's doing well enough.

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Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that it just seemed like

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Speaker 1: this week you had a real diverse slight of smaller releases,

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Speaker 1: everything from an A twenty four black comedy starring Glenn

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Speaker 1: Powell to a new Elvison concert movie assembled by Baz

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Speaker 1: Luherman to a curious entry from twentieth Century Studios in Disney,

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Speaker 1: Psycho Killer. Was there anything about any of the newcomers

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Speaker 1: that stood out to you this weekend?

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Speaker 2: The biggest of this weekend's new releases was the faith

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Speaker 2: based film I Can Only Imagine two, which is from Lionsgate,

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Speaker 2: and it made eight million dollars in its opening weekend,

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Speaker 2: and that's pretty far behind its predecessor, which was twenty

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Speaker 2: eighteen's I Can Only Imagine, and that film opened to

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Speaker 2: seventeen million, which was a huge result for a film

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Speaker 2: of this size and scale. It carries a pretty modest budget.

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Speaker 2: These films had to do better domestically than they do internationally,

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Speaker 2: and so I don't think it'll be quite the breakout

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Speaker 2: success of the first film, which ended up making eighty

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Speaker 2: six million dollars worldwide, but it should probably be a

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Speaker 2: tidy little wind for Lionsgate.

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Speaker 1: Did people turn out for the epic Eleving concert movie?

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Speaker 2: The Elvis in Concert Documentary is doing very well. Actually,

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Speaker 2: it open to three point two million dollars, and it's

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Speaker 2: significant because it's actually playing on only three hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty five IMAX screens, and so that's a very small

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Speaker 2: footprint to have made three million dollars. It's going to

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Speaker 2: expand in the coming weeks. But it's the only film

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Speaker 2: that managed to crack the top ten that's playing on

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Speaker 2: less than a thousand screens, and it's gotten really rapturous

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Speaker 2: reviews from critics. So I imagine this one will be a

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Speaker 2: nice little breakout in the concert films documentary space.

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Speaker 1: Elvis still has his pull. That's kind of heartening on

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Speaker 1: some level. It's going to play more than a couple

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Speaker 1: of weekends, right Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Alion is releasing it and they are intending to expand

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Speaker 2: it in the next few weeks.

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Speaker 1: Have you talked to folks about the year to date,

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Speaker 1: any sense of just in general, how people are feeling

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Speaker 1: right now about the box office year to date?

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Speaker 2: Every year, I think bibitor start out cautiously optimistic, and

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Speaker 2: this January and February has been pacing ahead of twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five, although that year was behind twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 2: So the year needs to really pick up to get

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Speaker 2: back to levels that resemble more pre pandemic times. And

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Speaker 2: right now the year to date is five percent over

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Speaker 2: last year. The issue is that that percentage keeps shrinking

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Speaker 2: as winter has drawn on. The good news is that

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Speaker 2: there are some upcoming releases that should be promising. I

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Speaker 2: think next weekend Scream seven is supposed to have a

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Speaker 2: big debut. Then there's a new Disney Pixar film, Hoppers,

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Speaker 2: and it's supposed to be very good. And if that

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Speaker 2: can have the legs that some of these other family

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Speaker 2: films that we've been talking about have, that's a great

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Speaker 2: sign as well for theaters. And then the first big

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Speaker 2: blockbuster of the year should be the Super Mario Galaxy

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Speaker 2: movie in early April, and so that's the one that

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Speaker 2: really everybody's holding their breath for. And we saw that

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Speaker 2: actually with the first Mario movie that came out a

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Speaker 2: few years ago. We've seen in the past few years

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Speaker 2: that January, February and kind of March have been a

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Speaker 2: bit slow, and then everybody waits to just go to

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Speaker 2: one movie and that will probably be again the Super

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Speaker 2: Mario Galaxy movie, and so I'm expecting that to have

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Speaker 2: the biggest opening weekend of the year so far.

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Speaker 1: You end your story today with Mario and Luigi to

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Speaker 1: the rescue. Thank you so much for breaking this down

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Speaker 1: for us, Rebecca, We'll check in with you next week.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: And now we turn to Arominatee Tanubu, Variety's TV critic,

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Speaker 1: who walks us through her detailed list of the best

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Speaker 1: black led TV series of the past ten years. Hello,

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Speaker 1: Aramedate Tanuboo, Thank you so much for joining me.

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Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for inviting me CID. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: You have just put up a critics list that is

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Speaker 1: very valuable. I think in this day and age when

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Speaker 1: it is very easy to lose track of show's list

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Speaker 1: that say hey, here's shows that you might have missed

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Speaker 1: aura extremely valuable and I love your voice on those things.

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Speaker 1: You have come up with a collection of titles tied

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Speaker 1: to Black History Month that you would suggest that people

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Speaker 1: stop and take a second look out. Was there one

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Speaker 1: show that you really loved that you wanted to write

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Speaker 1: about that led you to doing this larger look.

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Speaker 3: There's a show that has haunted me, and I think

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Speaker 3: it haunts a lot of people actually, and that's Lovecraft Country.

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Speaker 3: It came out on HBO in twenty twenty, right as

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Speaker 3: the George Floyd of Risings were happening, and it was incredible,

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Speaker 3: the Misha Green production, and it was starring Jonathan Majors.

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Speaker 3: We know that he has had his issues now, the

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Speaker 3: late Michael K. Williams and Journey small Lett along with

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Speaker 3: Courtney B. Vance and it is an exquisite piece of television.

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Speaker 3: And it was Emmy nominated, I believe Emmy Award win

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Speaker 3: and it completely got canceled. I think this was before

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Speaker 3: Major's had his things. I believe the following year. Unfortunately

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Speaker 3: Michael kay Williams passed away. But it was just such

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Speaker 3: an important, riveting, stunning work. It was shocking when it

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Speaker 3: got canceled. But we were at this moment kind of

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Speaker 3: between administrations things were happening, so it was a shock

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Speaker 3: that it got canceled. And one thing that I have

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Speaker 3: noticed is since we're in a sort of current new

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Speaker 3: wave of an administration that's kind of dismantling DEI we're

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Speaker 3: seeing again a sort of rollblack of black led shows.

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Speaker 3: So I wanted to look at the landscape over the

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Speaker 3: last decade and see what happened.

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Speaker 1: Did you find even more than you remembered? That was

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Speaker 1: worth taking that second lookout definitely. So the list is

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Speaker 1: comprised of thirty two shows, which was quite a feat.

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Speaker 1: That's why I narrowed it down from twenty sixteen to present,

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Speaker 1: because if I went back even further it would be

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Speaker 1: an endless show. But these are things that are readily

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Speaker 1: accessible to people who have access to streaming services and

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Speaker 1: things that they just again might have overlooked. Or there's

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Speaker 1: amazing shows obviously abbed Elementary and Paradise that are black

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Speaker 1: lead that are still on the air. And some of

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Speaker 1: the shows on my list are actually on the air,

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Speaker 1: but they might be on smaller networks like a Stars

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Speaker 1: or when I started looking back at twenty sixteen, another

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Speaker 1: one of Mesha Green show that made it onto my

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Speaker 1: list is Underground. It came out on WGEN America. That

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Speaker 1: network no longer exists, but it is available to stream

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Speaker 1: on Hulu. So I also wanted to point our readers

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Speaker 1: into the direction of where to find these shows, and

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Speaker 1: it was important to me to get a spectrum. So

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Speaker 1: there are of course slavery set and Antebellum set series,

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Speaker 1: but there's also modern day series like Queeni that are

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Speaker 1: set in the UK and Damascus, which is said it's

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Speaker 1: sort of an alternative universe. Something like Boots Riley's I'm

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Speaker 1: a Virgo is set in an alternative universe that's kind

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Speaker 1: of a like our world but not quite our world.

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Speaker 1: And I just want to get people talking about these series.

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Speaker 1: I know, for me, representation has always been so important

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Speaker 1: and why I got into this business, and I know

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Speaker 1: for a lot of black people and people of color,

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Speaker 1: representation continues to be extremely important, especially in this landscape.

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Speaker 1: Did you find where they're producers that had shows that

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Speaker 1: were just kind of overlooked who have now gone on

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Speaker 1: to bigger and better things.

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Speaker 3: For sure, With Misha Green, I thought that was a

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Speaker 3: really interesting to see her show in twenty sixteen get

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Speaker 3: canceled and then see a twenty twenty show at a

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Speaker 3: different network get canceled. I thought it was also interesting

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Speaker 3: a lot of these one season or two season shows

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Speaker 3: they were had playwrights behind them, so maybe people who

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Speaker 3: are crossing over from theater into television a lot of

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Speaker 3: more like Vince Staples, for example, had the Vince Stables Show,

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Speaker 3: which was on Netflix for two season, so like creators

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Speaker 3: Kevi on stage his name is Kevin Fredericks in real

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Speaker 3: life had a series called Church You on BT Plus

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Speaker 3: that's kind of been limbo. So there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: limbo things and then a lot of interesting things in

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Speaker 3: terms of we don't really know if these shows are

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Speaker 3: canceled or we don't know when they'll come back. So

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Speaker 3: Katori Hall, who was also a huge playwright, her series

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Speaker 3: p Valley debuted rave reviews in twenty twenty on Stars

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Speaker 3: and I know it's been the first second season have

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Speaker 3: come out. The third season, I believe was shot last summer,

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Speaker 3: but there's no word yet or when that will premiere.

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Speaker 3: Or even someone like Natasha Rothwell, who we all know

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Speaker 3: from Insecure and from The White Lotus. Her series How

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Speaker 3: to Dialog came out on Hulu last year, a fantastic

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Speaker 3: series like brilliantly written, brilliantly done and reviewed and then

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Speaker 3: it was canceled unceremoniously. So that is a bit heartbreaking.

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Speaker 3: I know that's not just black led shows. But because

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Speaker 3: we have so fewer of our series and showers and

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Speaker 3: stories being told, it hurts a little bit worse when

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Speaker 3: they're just erased, seemingly for no reason. That's why these

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Speaker 3: lists are so valuable, Aramede. In terms of really recent stuff,

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Speaker 3: what are the one or two titles that you'd highlight

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Speaker 3: for folks to make sure that they don't miss Right

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Speaker 3: now for sure. A couple of years got Kindred, which

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Speaker 3: was an adaptation of Octavia Butler's The Love Novel, came

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Speaker 3: to Hulu. It is incredible, well, it only lasted one season.

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Speaker 3: It's about a young black woman in twenty eighteen in

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Speaker 3: Los Angeles and she gets suck back in time to

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Speaker 3: eighteen fifteen on a Georgia plantation. The book is also amazing.

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Speaker 3: You can see the full complete story there, but an

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Speaker 3: incredible piece of work. It's only one season, but I

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Speaker 3: think it's absolutely worth the watch. Another Hulu cancelation was

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Speaker 3: Black Cake, again adapted from a novel that came out

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Speaker 3: I believe in twenty twenty three. A great, fantastic watch.

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Speaker 3: Definitely something to put your eye on. Another show that's

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Speaker 3: ongoing right now is PowerBook three, raising Canaan It is

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Speaker 3: an incredible crime drama helms I believe by Sasha Penn.

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Speaker 3: It's on Stars, and it had just was renewed for

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Speaker 3: its fourth and final season, so that's coming back hopefully

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Speaker 3: this year or next year. But again, there's thirty two

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Speaker 3: on this list, and that's just within the past decade,

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Speaker 3: so I encourage anyone to check them out.

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Speaker 1: I so appreciate your expertise and your fluency with all

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Speaker 1: of this. Thanks so much, Thank you, Cynthia.

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Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: As we close out today's episode, here's a few things

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Speaker 1: we're watching for. On Wednesday, Paramount's Guidance reports its fourth

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Speaker 1: quarter earnings. Warner Brothers Discovery unveils its fourth quarter numbers

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Speaker 1: the following day. Surely they'll be more jousting between these

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Speaker 1: two companies before and after. ESPN on Wednesday launches the

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Speaker 1: women's soccer docuseriies NWSL The Final Third. It follows the

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Speaker 1: end of the twenty twenty five regular season for women's soccer,

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Speaker 1: with a specific focus on Los Angeles' Angel City FC,

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Speaker 1: the Washington Spirit, and the Kansas City Current. Don't miss

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Speaker 1: my colleague Clayton Davis's column that he wrote in response

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Speaker 1: to what happened Sunday at the BAFTA Awards in London.

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Speaker 1: What emerged was a heartbreaking and very complicated situation. Clayton

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Speaker 1: gives us a clear eyed view of what went wrong

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Speaker 1: and why. We love to hear from our listeners, so

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Speaker 1: please send thoughts Gripe. It's another feedback about Daily Variety

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Speaker 1: two podcasts at Variety dot com. Before we go, congrats

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Speaker 1: to Katherine Pope, the president of Sony Pictures Television Studios,

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Speaker 1: will be honored by the Alliance for Children's Rights with

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Speaker 1: the organization's Champion for Children Award. The Alliance is an

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Speaker 1: incredible and enduring organization that does amazing work for children

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Speaker 1: in desperate straits. The event is March nineteenth, then Beverly Hills.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. This episode was written and reported by

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Speaker 1: me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin and Aramade

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Speaker 1: to Nuboo Stick Snick's hick Picks. Please leave us a

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Speaker 1: review at the podcast platform of your choice, and please

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Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.