THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 66 OCTOBER 16, 2019
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N/GETTY^ IMAGES.^1 3 DANA WChairman Disney ALDEN
Television Studios and
ABC Entertainment
THE WALT DISNEY CO.
The Disney era has given Walden,
55, one of the biggest reaches in
TV. Not only does she oversee the
acquired 20th Century Fox TV, which
she built into a powerhouse over two
decades, she’s got ABC Studios, ABC
Entertainment, Freeform and, as of
August, Hulu. So while many others
at the company focus on Disney+,
Walden must keep her studios
competitive while improving the
broadcast flagship’s showing; it again
ranked No. 4 for the 2018-19 season.
A TOP TALENT (NOT ON YOUR
PLATFORM) WHOM YOU ADMIRE
“Jesse Armstrong. Everyone in our
office is obsessed with Succession.”
1 4 DONNA LANGLEY Chairman Universal Filmed
Entertainment Group
COMCAST/NBCUNIVERSAL
With her promotion in January,
Langley, 51, took on new oversight
— global distribution and home
entertainment — while continu-
ing to lead the film studio, home
of three 2019 originals that have
opened at No. 1 at the box office
(Us, Good Boys and DreamWorks
Animation’s Abominable), a notable
feat in a year of Disney dominance.
“Originality and a twist” is the
formula, says Langley, who suc-
cessfully spun off Fast & Furious
with Hobbs & Shaw and has pur-
view over Focus Features, home of
recent hit Downton Abbey. Big 2019
swings include Cats (Dec. 20) and
Sam Mendes’ 1917 (Dec. 25).
A TOP TALENT (NOT ON YOUR
PLATFORM) WHOM YOU ADMIRE
Zendaya.
1 5 OPRAH WCEO INFREY
OWN
Few Hollywood luminaries man-
age to juggle like Winfrey. The
65-year-old mogul with a slew
of powerful names on speed dial
continues to cement her singular
status as America’s most trusted
star while overseeing thriving
cable network OWN, churning out
best-sellers on a nearly annual
basis (2019’s The Path Made Clear:
Discovering Your Life’s Direction
and Purpose) and forging new
pacts in the changing entertain-
ment landscape. Her multiyear
deal with Apple kicked off with
the September launch of the new
Apple-fied version of commerce-
driving Oprah’s Book Club.
YOU FIND BOB IGER’S PHONE.
WHICH CONTACT DO YOU CALL?
“I’d call Bob. ‘Bobby, you lost your
phone. Aren’t you glad I found it?’ ”AT&T/ WA R N E R M E D I A1 6 ANN SARNOFF
Chairman/CEO Warner Bros.
TOBY EMMERICH
Chairman Warner Bros.
Pictures Group
PETER ROTH
President/chief content officer
Warner Bros. TV GroupSarnoff’s hire to succeed Kevin
Tsujihara caught many in
Hollywood by surprise, but her
decades of experience in media
and entertainment — most recently
at streamer Britbox and BBC
Studio Americas — impressed
WarnerMedia chief John Stankey
and his AT&T bosses. The first
woman ever to run the storied
studio has a mandate to make
Warner Bros. more cohesive. “It’s
no secret it was a very siloed
company before,” says Sarnoff, 57,
who stepped up in August follow-
ing a tough summer for film. But It:
Chapter Two ($445.8 million) and
Joker ($548.3 million) have been
wins for Emmerich, 56; Warners is
second in theatrical market share
after Disney. Roth, who helped cor-
ral J.J. Abrams for his $250 million
overall deal, has HBO’s Watchmen,
The CW’s Batwoman and Sandman
for Netflix.
GO-TO PODCAST FOR A LONG
DRIVE Sarnoff: Freakonomics.
Emmerich: Revisionist History.
Roth: Fresh Air.1 7 JENNIFER SALKE Head Amazon Studios
AMAZONSalke, 55, has shown her buying
power in 2019, shelling out $47 mil-
lion for Sundance darlings like
The Report. But she’s struggled
to define a film strategy, and after
dim box office for Mindy Kaling’s
Late Night ($15.5 million domestic)
and The Goldfinch, which Amazon
co-financed ($5.3 million in the U.S.),
she’s shifting the windowing of films
to favor Prime’s 100 million-plus sub-
scribers. TV remains a bright spot as
Amazon scored 15 Emmys, including
four for Fleabag. But perhaps Salke’s
biggest coup came two days after
the kudos, when she landed an over-
all deal with the show’s in-demand
creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.1 8 BOB GREENBLATTChairman Entertainment and
Direct-to-Consumer
KEVIN REILLY
Chief content officerWARNERMEDIAOnetime broadcast rivals
Greenblatt, 59, and Reilly, 57, aretogether charged with populat-
ing streamer HBO Max — AT&T’s
crucial play at making good on
its $85 billion investment in the
former Time Warner. Early buys for
the service include sitcom heavy-
weights Friends and The Big Bang
Theory and a reboot of Gossip Girl.
Meanwhile, Reilly retains program-
ming oversight of Turner’s cable
entertainment portfolio (TBS, TNT
and now truTV) and Greenblatt
has crown jewel HBO under
his purview.
GO-TO PODCAST FOR A LONG DRIVE
Greenblatt: The Moth. Reilly: Conan
O’Brien Needs a Friend.1 9 J. J. ABRAMS
Chairman/co-CEO
BAD ROBOTStreamers and studios breath-
lessly courted Abrams, 53, and
his wife and Bad Robot partner,
co-CEO Katie McGrath, for months
before the duo decided to stay at
WarnerMedia in a five-year pact
worth over $250 million. Amid the
massive trove of content coming
from Bad Robot — which rose to the
top of Hollywood’s creative hierar-
chy on the strength of blockbustersOprah Winfrey