THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 67 OCTOBER 16, 2019
like Mission: Impossible plus
prestige fare à la Westworld — are
series Lovecraft Country (HBO) and
Little Voice (Apple+) as Abrams
unleashes Star Wars: The Rise of
Skywalker in December.
GO-TO PODCAST FOR A LONG DRIVE
“Is there anything better than
This American Life?”
20 RYAN MURPHY
Writer-producer
The prolific Murphy — who taps
more quickly and viscerally into the
zeitgeist than any other Hollywood
creator — is already at work on
his $300 million deal with Netflix.
He launched his first series, The
Politician, in September, with Sarah
Paulson starrer Ratched up next —
both holdouts from his prior pact at
20th TV. His first all-Netflix show
will be the Darren Criss-led limited
drama Hollywood. With his move to
Netflix, Murphy, 53, also expands
into film, adapting Broadway’s Boys
in the Band and The Prom.
SONY
21 TONY VINCIQUERRA
Chairman/CEO
Sony Pictures Entertainment
TOM ROTHMAN
Chairman Motion Picture Group
MIKE HOPKINS
Chairman Sony Pictures TV
While Vinciquerra, 65, continues to
focus on restoring fiscal responsi-
bility across the company, Rothman
made gains with Spider-Man: Far
From Home, the studio’s top-gross-
ing film of all time ($1.13 billion), and
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
($364 million). He and Vinciquerra
also are back in business with
Marvel after a very public stand-
off with Disney. “It’s a win-win,”
says Rothman, 64. The TV side
still struggles to attract top-tier
showrunners since it isn’t vertically
integrated and doesn’t have its own
channels, but Hopkins, 50, shep-
herded two key Seinfeld deals; one
with Netflix for SVOD rights, one
with Viacom for domestic cable. He
also renewed pacts with the likes of
Phil Lord and Chris Miller as well as
Norman Lear.
GO-TO PODCAST FOR A LONG DRIVE
Rothman: “I listen to sports radio.”
Hopkins: My Favorite Murder.
22 MARK LAZARUS Chairman Broadcast, Cable,
Sports and News, NBCUniversal
COMCAST/NBCUNIVERSALSince joining NBCUniversal in 2008
from Turner, Lazarus, 56, has seen
his portfolio expand from cable
sports to the company’s entire East
Coast content business includ-
ing entertainment brands (USA,
Bravo and E!, which he relocated
to New York), news assets (NBC
News, MSNBC, CNBC) and owned
stations. His January promotion
to his current title put him right
under CEO Steve Burke on the org
chart, setting up succession bake-
off speculation with Universal’s
Jeff Shell. Lazarus continues to
hammer out sports rights mega-
deals, including $7.7 billion for
the Olympics through 2032 (the
company projects $1.2 billion in ad
revenue for the 2020 Games), and
has taken a hands-off approach to
his profitable news assets. That
may change as Ronan Farrow’s
new book has news execs mired
in questions about their handling
of claims against fired To d ay host
Matt Lauer.
YOU FIND BOB IGER’S PHONE.
WHICH CONTACT DO YOU CALL?
Steve Burke.23 RICHARD LOVETTPresident/managing partner
KEVIN HUVANE AND
BRYAN LOURD
Managing partners
CAAThe agency lost a large chunk of
writing business from top clients(David Simon and J.J. Abrams
among them) amid the Association
of Talent Agents’ dispute with the
WGA. But in the past year, CAA
represented the most winners
at the Oscars, Golden Globes,
SAG Awards and Grammys of
any agency, and its movie star
clients accounted for 81 percent
of the worldwide box office. Rival
Endeavor’s aborted IPO sheds
a flattering light on CAA’s more
conservative strategy, and Lovett,
59, who leads the agency alongside
Huvane, 60, and Lourd, 58, says
his focus for the upcoming year
is a culture “in which colleagues
support one another as their first
priority.” CAA was the first agency
to build a sports business, which
this year along with its invest-
ment bank Evolution Media Capital
advised on more than $6.75 billion
in media rights deals, while CAA’s
Media Finance division worked on
client James Gray’s Ad Astra, Rian
Johnson’s upcoming Knives Out
and Sam Mendes’ 1917.ENDEAVOR24 ARIEL EMANUEL
CEO
PATRICK WHITESELL
Executive chairman
ARI GREENBURG
President WMEThe ambitious media firm abruptly
pulled the plug on its IPO on
Sept. 26, a day before it was poised
to go public with a valuation it
estimated as high as $8 billion. It’s an
undeniable loss of face for Emanuel,
58, and Whitesell, 54, but Endeavor
remains formidably diversified:
It extended the UFC’s five-year,$1.5 billion deal with ESPN by two
years. And despite serving as the
biggest offender in the WGA’s eyes
in the battle over affiliate production
and packaging fees, the company
— which elevated Greenburg, 47, in
December — continues to package
(half of HBO’s current originals and
half of 2018’s new broadcast series
orders), produce (via Endeavor
Content, which has awards con-
tender Just Mercy) and lure top
talent (Alfonso Cuarón, Kristen
Stewart, Matthew McConaughey).25 CASEY BLOYS
President of programming HBO
WARNERMEDIAAmid a game of executive musical
chairs following AT&T’s $85 billion
acquisition of Time Warner that saw
HBO CEO Richard Plepler exit and
Bob Greenblatt take the top con-
tent job at WarnerMedia, Bloys, 47,
has stood firm. Despite the threat of
Netflix, HBO remained on top at the
Emmys, taking home 34 primetime
trophies (12 for Game of Thrones).
With GoT and Veep bidding fare-
well, the cabler is ushering in a new
era led by breakouts Succession,
Euphoria and, it hopes, Watchmen.
A TOP TALENT (NOT ON YOUR
PLATFORM) WHOM YOU ADMIRE
“Beanie Feldstein. Looking forward
to her as Monica Lewinsky.”26 JIM GIANOPULOS
Chairman
PARAMOUNT PICTURESWhen he visited the set of Eddie
Murphy’s Coming to America
sequel, Gianopulos laughed so hardUP(^) fr
om
(^20)
(^18)
(^) Li
st
DO
W
N
fro
m
(^20)
(^18)
(^) L
ist
NO
(^) C
ha
ng
e
RE
TU
RN
(^) to
(^) th
e (^) l
ist
(^) af
te
r (^) a
n (^) a
bs
en
ce
NE
W
(^) to
(^) th
e (^) T
HR
(^10)
0
THR 100 SURVEY
WHO’S YOUR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT?
34%
Anyone but
Donald Trump
22%
Kamala Harris
22%
Elizabeth Warren
13%
Andrew Yang,
Cory Booker,
Pete Buttigieg
9%
Joe Biden
“How dare you!
That is private.
But probably the
gay one.”
ELLEN DEGENERES
“Grover Cleveland.
Bring back
the gold standard!”
PETE DOCTER
“Steve Rogers.”
JOE AND
ANTHONY RUSSO