Ankler Agenda

Look! Up in the sky! It’s another Hollywood exec shakeup. This time, it’s James Gunn and Peter Safran, abruptly ousted as DC Studios chiefs just weeks after their inclusion in the new Skydance leadership team. Their replacement? Jeremy Latcham, a former Marvel executive whose appointment signals more than a changing of the guard: DC will now report up through Skydance film chiefs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein rather than directly to David Ellison — oh wait, except for the part that’s going to ascendant Casey Bloys.

But the bigger question hanging over Hollywood is where Ellison plans to find the $6 billion in cuts he’s promised in order to manage that $80 billion in debt. And the clues are already there: In the first nine months of 2026, Paramount slashed its combined television and streaming spending by $570 million compared with the previous year. Now Ellison is preparing to apply that same playbook to the much larger Warner Bros. — with $1.8 billion in savings targeted for 2027 alone. Elaine Low and Sean McNulty unpack when the layoffs could hit, where else the cuts will come from, and whether Ellison can slash his way to profitability without gutting the business he’s just bought.

Plus: Why Skydance is licensing more content to rivals like Netflix, when HBO Max and Paramount+ could finally become one streaming service and why the 2028 Super Bowl may be the deadline to watch. (Just don’t ask about Digger.)

00:00 The next era of the streaming wars00:19 DC Studios shake-up: Gunn and Safran are out02:11 Who is Jeremy Latcham?03:47 The return of executives from the producing world05:17 What changes for James Gunn and DC?07:52 What happens to DC’s TV slate at HBO?09:05 Skydance’s earnings call and savings targets10:23 Where could the $6 billion in cuts come from?11:08 Layoffs, real estate and vendor cuts14:13 Paramount’s results and the shrinking linear-TV business16:41 Can the Paramount playbook work at Warner Bros.?18:12 Licensing libraries to boost revenue19:34 Why streamers are licensing older shows21:24 The Paramount+ and HBO Max bundle22:47 When could the combined streaming offer launch?24:51 The next streaming wars—and the rise of vertical video27:25 Will vertical video last?27:43 Wrap-up
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Last month, when asked about Disney’s seemingly endless rounds of layoffs, Dana Walden called it an “exaggeration” to suggest the company was cutting jobs every six months.

Technically, she’s right. It’s happening a lot more often than that.

Disney has already gone through five rounds of layoffs this year. And now an even bigger bloodletting may be coming, with some departments reportedly being asked to cut costs by as much as 20 percent — even as the company’s financial results look pretty good.

So what exactly is new CEO Josh D’Amaro‘s plan? And who survives it?

Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey examine the disconnect between good numbers and tough announcements, and unpack the strategy behind Disney’s latest cuts, the potential shakeup of its sprawling TV empire and D’Amaro’s aggressive bet on AI. (Elaine was at Disney this week, where every single company in its latest accelerator class was AI-focused.)

They also examine the ambitious “One Disney” plan to bring D’Amaro’s three pillars — streaming, movies, theme parks — into a single ecosystem, and what that means for the executives, divisions and thousands of employees potentially caught in the middle.
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How do you solve a problem like Netflix Film, and who is best positioned to figure it out?

“As currently constructed, it’s an impossible job,” Richard Rushfield tells Elaine Low and Sean McNulty on this week’s pod. The problem? Netflix wants to churn out 30-plus movies a year, deliver the next KPop Demon Hunters, compete for Oscars and somehow make films that actually become cultural events. And it’s increasingly failing at that last part. Netflix, Richard warns, is “starting to look like the Walmart of streaming” — and losing market share in the process.

With Dan “Lego” Lin out after just two years, Rice faces a fundamental choice: Does Netflix need more crowd-pleasing programmers (even if the mission is now steaks, not gourmet cheeseburgers), bigger theatrical swings or the kind of movies that restore its reputation as Hollywood’s most exciting disruptor? Or, frankly, all of the above?

Two years ago — with prescience and accuracy that would make the prediction markets blush — Richard said Lin should get the top job. The suggestion was so unexpected that even Netflix itself hadn’t thought of the prolific producer until Richard’s column. Now Richard’s back with his crystal ball. Obvious contenders include former Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, along with veteran Emma Watts. But Richard has a much more provocative proposal about who ultimately gets the job.

Take a listen to find out Richard’s surprise picks — and whether he’s about to call Hollywood’s biggest hiring decision right for a second time.
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To hear Ted Sarandos tell it, things are going great at Netflix.

“Our business and our business flywheel are working,” the co-CEO said on this week’s earnings call — a week after laying off a thousand employees, and unceremoniously firing content chief Bela Bajaria, whose sudden perp-walk out of the company’s HQ has shaken even an industry accustomed to volatility.

So while revenue was up, engagement was up and churn was down, strange things are afoot at Netflix — and it’s now legacy studio operator Peter Rice‘s job to sort things out; to turn some of Netflix’s “doubles and triples,” in Sarandos’ words, into home runs.

Is Netflix simply pivoting to a new growth era, or is the underlying streaming game going the way of basic cable did 10 years ago — disrupted by a player taking audience, in this case, YouTube.

Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey tackle that question and more this week — reading between the lines of the earnings call. What challenges does Rice face (local-language production, anyone)? How does the gutting of women and people of color from the top of the Hollywood food chain impact what stories are told? And are gourmet cheeseburgers still the right business model for Netflix?
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Steve Hilton has been talking with David Ellison, Ted Sarandos and Trump Hollywood ambassador Jon Voight about how to bring production back to California. And the Republican candidate for governor has a big idea: blow past the state’s existing film tax incentives with an uncapped credit that could reach 40 percent, covering everything from stars’ salaries to animation and postproduction.

“We cannot let it collapse,” Hilton tells Elaine Low in a wide-ranging interview about Hollywood’s economic crisis, his conversations with industry power players and why he believes California is driving businesses away. He also calls the state’s now-settled legal challenge to the Paramount-Warner merger a “politically motivated stunt” and defends his campaign’s use of AI-generated political ads — even as he insists he’s on the side of Hollywood’s artists and creators.

But Hilton isn’t the only candidate promising a Hollywood rescue. With Election Day nearing, Matt Hamilton of L.A. Material joins to break down the increasingly bitter Los Angeles mayoral race between Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, the lingering Spencer Pratt effect, and Democrat Xavier Becerra‘s proposal to force streamers to reveal more of their closely guarded viewing data. The question for an industry desperate for help: Who’s offering an actual plan — and who’s just campaigning?
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