Can Paramount Solve Its Impossible Trump Problem?

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the latest twist in the saga of Paramount, '60 Minutes,' and Trump after the show's executive producer Bill Owens stepped down because he “felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.” Matt and Lucas look at how the '60 Minutes' drama complicates things for Paramount head Shari Redstone, who desperately wants the Paramount-Skydance merger to close, and what her options are as this endless saga continues (03:01). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about Taylor Sheridan’s future with Paramount and his relationship with Paramount executive Chris McCarthy (25:06).For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠click here⁠.Email us your thoughts! ⁠[email protected]⁠Host: Matt BelloniGuest: Lucas ShawProducers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie LopezTheme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you care about Hollywood, and I assume you do if you're listening to the town, you should really be getting the whole story about Hollywood.
0:06.2	That's what you get with Puck.
0:07.5	I'm a founding partner at Puck, and I write a newsletter called What I'm Hearing.
0:10.6	It's got exclusive news for insiders and analysis of the biggest stories.
0:14.9	Puck has a bunch of great journalists.
0:16.5	We just hired Kim Masters, who also covers Hollywood from the inside, plus media, sports, fashion,
0:21.7	politics, and finance. It's a must have for plugged-in people. Fans of the town get a
0:26.6	discount on the description page of this episode or at puck.news slash the town. Go further into
0:32.1	Hollywood by becoming a puck member today. It is Monday, April 28th. If you're a 60 Minutes viewer, as 8.4 million Americans are,
0:42.5	including myself, you might have been a bit surprised by a segment that aired last night.
0:46.9	Scott Pelly, the longtime correspondent, he started discussing the planned sale of CBS's
0:51.8	parent company, Paramount, to Skydance, is subject very familiar to listeners
0:56.1	of this show, as well as the recent resignation of Bill Owens, the show's longtime executive producer.
1:02.5	Because the Trump administration's FCC must approve that sale, quote, Paramount began to supervise
1:08.9	our content in new ways, Pelly told viewers.
1:12.0	None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he had lost the independence that
1:16.2	honest journalism requires.
1:18.2	No one here is happy about it.
1:20.2	A pretty extraordinary moment on the number one news program on television, and it's yet
1:24.3	another twist in this remarkably tortured sale of Paramount. Sherry Redstone,
1:29.3	the Paramount owner, she very much wants her $8 billion deal to close, at least because it includes a
1:35.1	$2.4 billion payment to her family. David Ellison, the producer and Oracle Air, who negotiated for a
	...

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