By FishbowlLA Staff
We held last Friday for lack of verifiable material, so this one covers the full fortnight — and it turned out to be a busy two weeks. The Television Academy handed out its nominations, Nielsen’s first clean read on the KNX breakup finally landed, and the writers’ guild dragged the Paramount–Warner megadeal into a Northern California courtroom. Here’s the catch-up.
Emmy nominations land: HBO Max tops the field as “The Pitt” and “Hacks” clean up
The Television Academy unveiled the 78th Primetime Emmy nominations Wednesday, July 8, and the streamer scoreboard produced a mild upset: HBO Max led all comers with 122 nominations, edging a Netflix that most handicappers had pegged for the top slot at 111, with Apple TV a distant-but-respectable third around 87. The muscle behind HBO Max’s morning was familiar — the hospital drama The Pitt paced the entire field with 25 nods, while Hacks topped the comedy race with 24, a single-season comedy record.
The snubs will sting longer than the totals. FX’s The Bear, in its final season, watched Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach — both prior winners — get shut out of the acting categories entirely, and Netflix’s Stranger Things closed out its run without a single acting or directing nomination to show for it. For Angelenos the payoff comes in the fall: the ceremony returns to the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in September, which means another few months of studio-lot campaign billboards up and down the 101.
June book confirms it: the KNX split is real, and KFI is feasting
The one we told you to watch is here. Nielsen released the June PPM book (the May 28–June 24 survey) on Monday, July 13 — the first full monthly with KNX news gone from the FM dial after Audacy’s May breakup of the simulcast. The verdict is unkind to the newser: KNX-AM has now slid three straight books, 4.1 to 3.5 to 3.2, its FM audience evaporated. The replacement sports format on 97.1, “The Fan,” doubled its share — to a whopping 0.2.
The winner in all this continues to be the competition. KFI, iHeart’s news/talk workhorse, climbed again to a 4.5, capping a remarkable run up the chart (3.2, 3.5, 3.9, 4.5) that suggests displaced KNX listeners are shopping and finding a new home at 640 AM — even as KFI’s corporate parent guts staff in other markets. Up top, KOST is still wearing the crown at 7.1. And 97.1 isn’t giving up: Audacy this month named James Koh its new night host, filling out a lineup it’s still building from scratch.
The writers — and a dozen states — go to court to stop the Paramount–Warner megadeal
The $111 billion Paramount Skydance takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery cleared the Justice Department last month, but the home team isn’t conceding. On July 13, a coalition of 12 attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta sued to block the deal, arguing it violates the Clayton Act by throttling competition in theatrical distribution and basic-cable licensing. One day later, on July 14, the Writers Guild of America West and East filed their own antitrust suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The guild’s theory is blunt and close to home: a merged Paramount-Warner would be the single largest employer of film and TV writers in the country, and with fewer buyers competing for their scripts, the combined studio would have both the incentive and the muscle to pay writers less and greenlight fewer shows. This is Hollywood’s own labor force and its own state AG lining up against a deal Washington already blessed — and the fight is now being waged in a courthouse a short flight up the coast rather than inside the Beltway.
That’s the week
That’s the fortnight in LA media. Working a newsroom, a station, or a studio lot with a story the trades haven’t caught yet? Our fishbowl is always open — send us a tip and we’ll keep you anonymous. Back next Friday.