One nepo baby to rule them all

Summary

Podcast Summary: Today, Explained – "One Nepo Baby to Rule Them All"

Date: March 13, 2026
Hosts: Sean Rameswaram, Noel King
Guests: Joe Adalian (Vulture), Reeves Wiedeman (New York Magazine)

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Overview

This episode dives into the historic acquisition of Warner Brothers by David Ellison, son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, following his recent buyout of Paramount. With the merger reshaping a significant chunk of Hollywood—and ownership of iconic properties like Batman, CNN, and HBO—the hosts dissect what this means for the entertainment industry, its workforce, and American media audiences. The episode explores the concept of the "ultimate nepo baby" wielding unprecedented power, industry reactions, and the broader implications for competition, content, and news.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Paramount-Warner Brothers Mega-Merger

• Deal Summary: Larry Ellison buys Warner Brothers for his son David, who had previously acquired Paramount.
  • This includes the rights to major cultural properties (Batman, Mad Max, Friends, HBO, CNN, etc.) [00:00–00:53]
• Industry Impact: Multiple mergers in a decade have left Warner Brothers employees facing another round of layoffs, morale challenges, and operational shake-ups.
  • "People who are at Warner Brothers now are going to go through yet another merger, the third in about a decade." – Joe Adalian [02:14]
• Layoffs and Consolidation: More job losses expected; uncertainty distracts creative talent from their work.
  • "For the next year, year and a half or so, rather than just focusing on making shows, people are going to be distracted..." – Joe Adalian [03:08]

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Creative & Consumer Consequences

• Reduced Competition: Fewer independent studios mean less bidding on projects, less risk-taking in greenlighting content, and likely lower pay for talent.
  • "There's one less independent voice deciding whether their project can get made... They’re going to pay talent a lot less because they can." – Joe Adalian [03:40]
• Movies and Streaming:
  • Studios may produce fewer movies, focusing only on blockbusters and pipeline-filling content for their merged streaming platforms (HBO Max, Paramount+).
    • "You probably don’t need as many movies." – Joe Adalian [05:08]
  • Even if the merger went to Netflix, fewer high-budget original films would likely be made—emphasis would shift to cheaper, mass-appeal content. [06:27]
• HBO’s Fate:
  • Despite platform changes, HBO is expected to retain its prestige and creative team, functioning as the "premium brand" anchor for Ellison’s media holdings.
    • "If HBO can survive the barbarians at the gate... I think they can probably survive Paramount. David Ellison actually does like movies." – Joe Adalian [07:44]
• CNN’s Future:
  • Concerns arise about potential political influence, especially with combined CNN-CBS news operations possibly shifting further right under current leadership and new ownership.
    • "If it’s Bari Weiss... then yeah, there’s probably reason for some people to be afraid of CNN going the way of CBS News and tilting further rightward." – Joe Adalian [08:26]

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Winners and Losers: Who Benefits?

• Consumers:
  • Short-term positives include easier show discovery and potentially lower subscription costs due to bundling.
    • "There is some win for consumer in that you will be able to more easily access the shows you want." – Joe Adalian [10:03]
• Netflix:
  • Though Netflix "lost" the merger, it receives a $3B consolation payment, useful business insights from Warner Brothers, and future strategic opportunities if this mega-merger fails. [10:03–11:38]
• General Public and Industry:
  • Fears dominate: less creative output, fewer opportunities for talent, increased political maneuvering, and a worrying precedent for media consolidation. [09:48–12:30]

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The Nepo Baby Discourse: David Ellison's Journey

• Background: Feature with Reeves Wiedeman exploring Ellison's "nepo baby" credentials, journey from failed actor to Hollywood mogul, and the formation of his production company Skydance, bankrolled primarily by his father Larry Ellison. [15:10–17:33]
  • "David had gotten a connection... Larry had contributed a lot of the money for the budget and lo and behold, David got a role in the film." – Reeves Wiedeman [16:36]
• Track Record:
  • Skydance initially succeeds by co-financing big Paramount franchises, but Ellison’s solo ventures have a mixed critical record (ex: Flyboys, Terminator Genisys). Only Tom Cruise collaborations (Top Gun: Maverick) break through as both critical and commercial successes. [17:33–20:15]
    • "Generally, the ones with Tom Cruise were pretty good... without Tom Cruise, not so good." – Reeves Wiedeman [19:57]
• Hollywood’s Reception:
  • Top Gun: Maverick’s success temporarily boosts Ellison’s reputation, but his increasing political entanglement—especially courting the Trump administration to secure deals—raises industry unease and concern about his taste and leadership.
    • "[...] David spent a good portion of that year basically catering to the Trump administration’s needs and wants and desires in order to get this deal approved." – Reeves Wiedeman [21:10]
  • Some creatives vow to avoid Paramount/Warner under Ellison, but acknowledge that financial incentives could ultimately sway them. [24:06]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On New Ownership Fatigue:
  "People are going to be distracted about new bosses, new ways of doing things, colleagues going away, new colleagues coming in to do their jobs."
  – Joe Adalian [03:08]

• On Industry Downsizing Post-Merger:
  "...what was already a lean operation there... gets even leaner."
  – Joe Adalian [02:51]

• On Why Consolidation is Bad for Creatives:
  "There's less competition. So that means big things might not get made, or if they do get made, people will make a lot less money of it."
  – Joe Adalian [03:40]

• On the Myth of Increased Movie Output:
  "Even though Ellison has said that he will continue to do a full, robust supply of big feature films for both studios... almost nobody believes them."
  – Joe Adalian [03:40]

• On HBO's Endurance:
  "If HBO can survive the barbarians at the gate of AT&T and David Zaslav... I think they can probably survive Paramount. David Ellison actually does like movies."
  – Joe Adalian [07:44]

• On the "Nepo Baby" Label:
  "The only credit I'll give David Ellison... is he did go into a completely different industry than his dad... more money than any Nepo baby has taken, tens of billions of dollars at this point of tech money and is now pouring it into Hollywood."
  – Reeves Wiedeman [15:25]

• On Hollywood’s Mood Under New Regime:
  "He kind of went from being a midshipman to being the captain of the Titanic, literally, because he now owns the movie Titanic..."
  – Cited to a Hollywood executive via Reeves Wiedeman [24:01]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Deal Announcement & Scope: [00:00–02:14]
• Layoffs, Creative Impact, and Merger Fallout: [02:14–03:40]
• Industry Consolidation, Movie Output: [03:40–05:08]
• Streaming and Pipeline Strategy: [05:08–06:55]
• HBO and CNN Uncertainties: [06:55–09:48]
• Winners and Losers Analysis: [09:48–11:38]
• Deal Status & Regulatory Hurdles: [11:38–12:30]
• The "Nepo Baby" Feature: David Ellison’s Rise: [15:10–20:15]
• Hollywood’s Skepticism and Executive Sentiment: [22:58–24:57]

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Conclusion

The episode lays out a bleak but clear-eyed view of the Warner-Paramount deal: consolidation likely means fewer creative opportunities, harsher conditions for creatives, and perhaps a more monopolistic, risk-averse Hollywood. Winners are few, with the main beneficiaries in the short term being Ellison, Netflix, and possibly consumers seeking aggregated content. The legacy, however, is a Hollywood ruled by the ultimate "nepo baby," with all the privilege, controversy, and uncertainty that entails.

For further reading, the episode references Reeves Wiedeman's profiles of David Ellison at New York Magazine, and Joe Adalian’s detailed coverage at Vulture.

Transcript

[Sean Rameswaram]

All right, what's the craziest thing your daddy ever bought you For David Ellison, son of Orra Clary, the answer would be Warner Brothers, not the actual brothers. Larry Ellison bought his best boy, David the studio. Larry had already bought David Paramount the studio. And Paramount the studio just beat Netflix out in a long drawn out saga to acquire the wba, the debt ridden studio that owns Batman, Bugs, Harry, Carrie, Mad Max, the Matrix, Tony, Tyrion, all six friends, the Lego Cinematic Universe and the Lasan Al Gaib. You sound Al Qaid. Oh, and cnn. You just bought Wolf Blitzer.

[Joe Adalian]

Blitzer.

[Sean Rameswaram]

The biggest night in Hollywood is around the corner, but we're gonna talk about the biggest deal in Hollywood and why it's probably gonna be bad for you. On TODAY Explained

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[Joe Adalian]

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[Sean Rameswaram]

Ellison's Me Today explained Joe Adalien is the west coast editor for Vulture, where his piece on the megadeal between Paramount and Warner Brothers was titled Paramount Wins, Everybody Loses.

[Joe Adalian]

I think the Ellison sort of went for this in the short term, but even then I do think you can break down the whole sort of idea that in the end everybody could lose because people who are at Warner Brothers now are going to go through yet another merger, the third in about a decade. We are going to move now to this breaking news from Washington. A federal judge there has approved without any conditions the $85 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner.

[Ad Read Announcer]

Meanwhile AT&T just announced a multibillion dollar deal that combines its media unit, which is WarnerMedia, with Discovery Communications, which means

[Joe Adalian]

another round of layoffs, another round of divisions getting consolidated into other division. What was already a lean operation there, as so many places in Hollywood are now much leaner than they were 10 years ago, gets even leaner.

[Ad Read Announcer]

We are continuing to monitor some of those layoffs coming out of Warner Bros.

[Joe Adalian]

Discovery, Paramount, Skydance is laying off more than 1,000 employees. As the entertainment industry continues to struggle. It means that for the next year, year and a half or so, rather than just focusing on making shows, people are going to be distracted about new bosses, new ways of doing things, colleagues going away, new colleagues coming in to take their or to do their jobs. So Warner Brothers sort of loses.

[Sean Rameswaram]

So employees at Warner Brothers right out the gate looking straight down the barrel of layoffs.

[Joe Adalian]

Right. People who are creatives, people who write and produce and direct TV shows and movies will be losers, too, because there's one less independent voice deciding whether their project can get made. You know, you can't have a bidding war now against Warner Brothers and Paramount for the same project. You know, Paramount and HBO Max, for the most part, don't actually compete right now for shows, but it means that for big movies, there is less of a battle that could go on. And even though Ellison has said that he will continue to do a full, robust supply of big feature films for both studios, as many as 30 a year, almost nobody believes them. And even if they make that same number of movies, they're going to pay talent a lot less because they can. Right? There's less competition. So that means big things might not get made, or if they do get made, people will make a lot less money of it. So from that sense, consolidation is bad.

[Sean Rameswaram]

When people think of Warner Brothers, hello, My Baby, they probably think about movies. They probably think about Batman, I'm Batman. They probably think of Sinners.

[Ad Read Announcer]

These ain't hates, they vampires.

[Sean Rameswaram]

And one battle after another from last year, I've had a few.

[Ad Read Announcer]

A few what?

[Joe Adalian]

A few small beers.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Why is it, despite Ellison's promises here you say that we won't be getting as many movies as we previously did

[Joe Adalian]

because they simply don't need to fill the pipeline as much as they did. They don't need to compete as much right now. You know, the studios compete against each other for every weekend, and they want to have the movie that's going to win. And that doesn't mean that you can't have Disney. Sometimes we'll have two Movies in the marketplace. It does happen, but it means that you don't. You're not going to take as much risks because you're not. You're not going to want to cannibalize your bigger picture, your bigger project. And you only need so much to fill your pipeline, too, because one of the reasons studios make movies is to fill their television pipeline. So Warner Brothers now is making movies with the eye on what's going to play on HBO Max and what they can sell on the secondary market. Paramount for Paramount. Plus, when you have one consolidated platform, you probably don't need as many movies. And had this deal gone to Netflix, by the way, there also would have been fewer movies. Not for the reason that everyone thinks, because Netflix doesn't want to do movies. I think Netflix would have continued, would have gotten into the theatrical business. I really do. But they probably would have made fewer Netflix original movies that were really expensive. A movie like the Rip, for example, with Affleck and Damon. Hey, what's in this attic? Desi, what's up there? Don't know. Never been.

[Sean Rameswaram]

I already told you, I don't have any drugs.

[Joe Adalian]

Dog doesn't alert for drugs. Alerts for money. You know, do you really need to spend $200 million to get that sort of blockbuster feel? If Warner Brothers is already doing that kind of movie and you can monetize it in theaters, you maybe don't need to do. You can make your Netflix original films more like the Kissing Booth.

[Ad Read Announcer]

Truth be told, I've never kissed anyone before.

[Joe Adalian]

Something that cost 20 or 30 million and still does a big audience Are K Pop demon hunters an acquisition that becomes the biggest movie Netflix has ever had.

[Sean Rameswaram]

It's funny how a conversation about the movies invariably leads to conversations about streaming, because, of course, so many are experiencing the movies through their streaming services. People directly associate Warner Brothers with hbo. What's gonna happen to what used to be, like, the marquee premium cable service hbo? Is it gonna have a name change again, Joe?

[Joe Adalian]

Well, look, in fairness, and I've covered this before, HBO has always been HBO and is still HBO and never changed. Right. But the bigger point is, does HBO survive? Is that I feel confident saying some form of HBO as we've known, that has a team that does shows like the White Lotus.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

Piper.

[Joe Adalian]

No. Which I know you love. Sean.

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Who told you that?

[Joe Adalian]

And a little birdie. I just. I just guessed.

[Sean Rameswaram]

I'm more sad about Chris Fleming, like Live at the Palace.

[Joe Adalian]

Personally, I recently disgraced myself in front of Lin Manuel Miranda. This new company needs a Premium brand and they're going to get the godfather of all premium brands, no pun intended, with hbo. And if HBO can survive the barbarians at the gate of AT&T and David Zaslav from Discovery Networks, I think they can probably survive Paramount. David Ellison actually does like movies.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Okay, so don't worry so much about your HBO, but what about if you love CNN? Should you be worried that CNN's about to get CBS'd, if you know what I mean?

[Ad Read Announcer]

CBS News, America's newest place to CBS News?

[Joe Adalian]

Yeah, I mean, well, look, if you love CNN as it is, you probably like really mainstream centrist news. I'm just gonna say it because it's certainly over the last couple of years under David Zaslav, who is also and with his own masters sort of tried to, his corporate masters has tried to make CNN more middle of the road and a little more maga friendly Democrats. They are for things. Illegal aliens. You're for boys and girls, sports. I do think there's some reason for concern, yes, at least in the short term. You know, there have been reports, credible reports that people close to Paramount have assured the White House that we are going to change up CNN and make it better for you. How much of that is simply, you know, the messaging that now has to go on with so many of these big companies, you know, once the deal closes, they're less beholden to the government because at least on the CNN side, because CNN is cable and the FCC doesn't directly control cable. The real worry is who runs this combined, almost certain to be combined news operation of CBS and cnn? If it's Bari Weiss, the woman who is now in charge of CBS News, then yeah, there's probably reason for some people to be afraid of CNN going the way of CBS News and tilting further rightward, not just centrist, but center, right? Marco Rubio, we salute you. You're the ultimate Florida man.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Okay, so to review here, we've got a lot of losers, potentially all of us, because we're getting less stuff. Well, right, but surely there are some winners here, right? Because a bunch of people just made a ton of money.

[Joe Adalian]

Well, you know, but let's talk about the consumer part of it. In the short term though, there are some wins for consumers because let's face it, people are frustrated as it is now of trying to find the shows they want across multiple platforms and keeping track of too much TV and what's it on and when, if you get the consolidation where by themselves Paramount plus and HBO Max are sort of second rate services. But if you what Ellison wants to do works. If he thinks that by getting this sort of big scale, he can more effectively compete at the level of Netflix, at the level of Disney plus Hulu. There is some win for consumer in that you will be able to more easily access the shows you want. You might be able to keep track of them and maybe in the short term you might even pay a little bit less, depending upon what you already subscribe to. Other winners in the short term, oddly enough, Netflix, even though Netflix lost this deal, in a way they've won because as part of losing the deal, David Ellison has to pay. Netflix has paid Netflix almost $3 billion sort of as a consolation prize. And they've also gotten a look inside Warner Brothers books. They've sort of gotten a better sense of how Warner Brothers business worked. It's certainly an ego loss for them. But in terms of long term investors, like the fact that they didn't get burdened by future debt and this. And they can sort of also be there if the merger fails in five years. Maybe they pick up Warner Brothers for cheaper.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Okay, with all that said, Joe, with the winners with the losers, it feels like this is a done deal. But it isn't, right?

[Joe Adalian]

No, it's not. I mean, it's doubtful the Trump administration is going to throw up many roadblocks at this unless they think of some new ways to sort of extort something out of the Ellison family, you know, but they're pretty close. But there are scenarios where the California Attorney General and others Attorneys general team up and file lawsuit against this, which they would possibly lose, maybe win. But even if they lose, they could call for some changes to the deal or some guarantees. We don't know. So again, likely to close? Yes. Guaranteed, not at all.

[Sean Rameswaram]

If this deal goes through, David Ellison becomes the king of the Nepo babies. Who is the man that might be in charge of what feels like half of our American media? When Today Explained is back. Support for the show comes from Quince. A thoughtful wardrobe starts with quality over quantity. Is your wardrobe thoughtful? I like to think mine is. Quince can help. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics like 100% European linen. Sorry, 99% European linen. Also they do 100% silk, sorry, 99 silk and organic cotton poplin. They say that by working directly with top factories, they can cut out the cost of the middle bed, which means you won't pay for a brand markup, just quality clothing. Guess what? Our colleague Nisha Sheetal has tried Quince.

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[Joe Adalian]

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[Reeves Wiedeman]

Explained. My name is Reeves Weideman and I am a features writer at New York Meg.

[Joe Adalian]

Great.

[Sean Rameswaram]

And lately you've been writing features about one individual. Is it fair to say said individual is like maybe the biggest Nepo baby on earth at the moment, at least.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

Well, the only credit I'll give David Ellison in the scheme Nepo babies is he did go into a completely different industry than his dad. He took his dad's money, maybe more money than any Nepo baby, has taken tens of billions of dollars at this point of tech money and is now pouring it into Hollywood. He talks about how as a kid he loved the movies like many kids do. He went to the movies with his mom every weekend, did sort of movie marathons and he, he actually went to college for business, but quickly figured out that was actually not what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to film school, went to film school at usc and initially he was trying to kind of do any and everything. He was interested in acting, interested in writing, directing maybe. And his first foray into Hollywood was acting in a movie, a World War I movie starring James Franco.

[Joe Adalian]

Where are we going? I don't know.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Let's just fly around a little, have some fun.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

And the way that David Ellison got this role was his dad's money. And basically, to put it bluntly, I mean, David had gotten a connection to these people making this movie. Larry had contributed a lot of the money for the budget and lo and behold, David got a role in the film. And so I don't think moguldom was necessarily in the cards at the very beginning. But from his earliest days, David did want to be in Hollywood in some way.

[Sean Rameswaram]

How was his big debut in Flyboys? Was it well received?

[Reeves Wiedeman]

It was not great.

[Joe Adalian]

This is a veritable roll call of war movie cliches.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

He's not a natural actor. He's not a naturally charismatic person, which I think has sort of carried over into his business life a little bit. So I, thankfully for him, he realized pretty early on the acting thing was not exactly going to take and he was going to have to figure out some other way to make it in the business.

[Sean Rameswaram]

And so he becomes a money man basically.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

He sort of got this notion that many people get when they get into Hollywood, especially when they have a little bit of money behind them, is, I'm going to start a production company. And he actually initially went around, tried to sort of find some investors to pour some money into this company that would make various movies. Primarily sort of focused on the kinds of movies David liked, which were sort of action adventure movies, movies with planes. Apparently movies with planes was kind of. There was has been a running joke that David, who was a pilot himself when he was younger, sort of a stunt pilot, doing like 360 barrel rolls, those kinds of things that if you put a plane in a movie that David was going to be into it. Explosions, those kinds of things. Ultimately he got basically all of the money for the company came from his dad.

[Sean Rameswaram]

And the company is Skydance.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

Company's called Skydance. And what they were able to do very early on is they got a deal with Paramount. And Paramount at the time was kind of a struggling movie studio. It's one of the legendary movie studios in Hollywood. But at the time it was sort of being mismanaged and not that successful. And they were happy to have David come in with some money to help them finance and make some movies. And in exchange for doing that, David was allowed to participate in, as they put it in Hollywood, some of the big franchises that Paramount has.

[Joe Adalian]

What's done is done. When we say it's done, you don't just protect the bay. You are the bay. My name is Khan.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

And some of those movies were great big blockbusters. A lot of them David didn't have a ton to do with. And then eventually, he eventually started kind of trying to make movies on his own. Some of them were based on kind of original ideas that he and others had. And then he also had this long standing goal of making a Terminator movie. Terminator and Terminator 2 were two of the movies he loved as a kid.

[Joe Adalian]

Of course, the Barons are Dead.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

And he made a version of the movie Genisys.

[Joe Adalian]

I've been waiting for you.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

Also not great. And so he had this kind of mixed track record of making these big action movies. Generally, the ones with Tom Cruise were pretty good. What are you waiting for?

[Joe Adalian]

I'm jumping out a window.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

Generally the ones without Tom Cruise based on kind of original ideas, not so good.

[Sean Rameswaram]

And then he makes a really good movie with Tom Cruise, inarguably, sort of

[Reeves Wiedeman]

one of the best, maybe the best critical and commercial film of, you know, the last few decades. Top Gun, Maverick.

[Joe Adalian]

Come on, Dick, you can do it. Don't think, just do.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Does that change how Hollywood sees him? Does he become less of a Nepo baby scion and more of a legitimate player?

[Reeves Wiedeman]

I think it was really good timing because that movie came out, did incredibly well. Everyone in Hollywood loved it. Tom Cruise is here to save the movies. David Ellison is, you know, the one who's supporting him. Maybe he's not so bad. And right at that moment was when David had started his pursuit of Paramount. It became public at the end of 2023 that he was interested in buying it. The Redstone family was going to sell the company. And so there was this real moment where, you know, Hollywood, like many industries, but maybe Hollywood in particular has. Is going through this real period of disruption. Spending was down, money was down. Covid sort of changed the movie business in particular. And so I think there was this feeling, at least at that moment, that, you know, if not the savior of Hollywood, that David was maybe the best possible person you could have to take over a studio like Paramount. I think where the opinion of him started to change was in the year between 2024 into 2025, between when the deal was announced and when it actually went through. A lot of things happened during that point, and the biggest was that Donald Trump was elected president. And Paramount is not just a movie studio. Paramount owns CBS most. And people will, I'm sure, remember all of the drama that surrounded 60 Minutes and Trump's lawsuit against 60 Minutes. And David spent a good portion of that year basically catering to the Trump administration's needs and wants and desires in order to get this deal approved. So David, who had up to that point barely been involved in politics at all. He was not someone who was even really a big donor to politicians prior to 2024, you know, really became tied to the Trump administration in ways that made people uncomfortable in. In all kinds of ways. Then once he took over the studio, and particularly once he started to pursue Warner Brothers, I think people also started to take a closer look at his record at making movies and start to realize, wait a second, a lot of these movies are not very good. Is this the guy that we actually want running not just one studio, but potentially two of the biggest studios in Hollywood?

[Sean Rameswaram]

And you've done a bunch of interviews, you've spoken with anonymous Hollywood executives, It sounds like. Are they feeling more hopeful in a moment like this where there's been a bunch of consolidation, but also a ton of money infused into the industry, or are they terrified that this is all gonna implode?

[Reeves Wiedeman]

I did not get any inklings of hope, I don't think. And some of that, unfortunately, you know, I think there's a certain realism that people have. You know, consolidation was gonna happen, which we all know the history of that in any business is just things tend to get smaller combined with the politics, the fact that David has catered so much to the Trump administration and whether that's going. And then thirdly, yeah, his taste and his abilities as an executive, like he is now, as one Hollywood person pointed out to me, you know, he kind of went from being a midshipman to being the captain of the Titanic, literally, because he now owns the movie Titanic, which was a Paramount movie.

[Joe Adalian]

I'm the king of the world.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

There's a lot of people kind of talking about. And I heard about this from some big name filmmakers, directors, producers, who are just kind of like, you know what? Life is short. I don't want to deal with this guy. I don't want to deal with Paramount. They're in bed with the Trump administration. That is just not what I want to be involved with. We'll see what happens when Paramount and or Warner Brothers offers them more money than Netflix does for their next movie. Will people's sort of, you know, morals stand up to that? Because I think that at the end of the day, everyone in this business is in it to make movies, TV shows, and to make money. And David Ellison has a lot of money, and he is going to be making a lot of the movies and TV shows that we get to watch.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Reeves Wideman wrote the two definitive profile y pieces about David Ellison. They're called one Nepo to Rule Them all and the Sun King of Hollywood. And you can find them both along with the writings of our guy Joe from earlier in the [e-mail]

[Reeves Wiedeman]

and the

[Sean Rameswaram]

Academy Award for achievement in casting goes to Today Explained. Oh my gosh. Gotta thank Kelly Wessinger and Abishai Artsy who made today's show. Amina Aladdi, Andrea Lopez Crusado, David Tadashore and Patrick Boyd who helped. Who else? Oh, the clock is counting down. Jolie Myers, Miles Grind, Hadi Mwogne, Peter Balon on Rosen, Danielle Hewitt, Ariana Spuru, Dustin Desoto, Estad Hearnd no, no I'm not Don't play me off no I'm not gonna stop Miranda Kennedy and Noel King who makes all this possible but Breakmaster Cylinder the Bops. I'm Sean Ram Today explains distributed by wnyc the show the part of the Box Media podcast network. For more Oscar winning podcasts go to podcast vox media.com you can listen ad free by going to vox.com members. Thanks mom.

[Reeves Wiedeman]

Blitz.