Dax Tejera, the executive producer of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” died suddenly Friday at the age of 37.
ABC News President Kim Goodwin announced “with a heavy heart and great sadness” that Tejera died of a heart attack on Friday night, according to a memo she sent to company staff obtained by Mediaite.
He is survived by his wife Veronica and their two young daughters. Goodwin said in the memo she would be sharing more information in the coming days.
Tejera joined ABC News in 2017 as a senior producer before being promoted to the executive producer of Stephanopoulos’ show in February 2020, his Linkedin profile states.
He previously worked for five years at NBC as a researcher, editor and then producer and for four years as an executive producer on “America with Jorge Ramos” on Fusion Media Network.
He graduated from Dartmouth with a bachelor’s in history before attending Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Fellow colleagues took to social media to mourn Tejera’s sudden passing and pay tribute to the beloved newsman.
“Sad day for abc. A good friend and groundbreaking ABC executive passes unexpectedly at 37. Dax Tejera i only have good thoughts my friend,” tweeted ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jim Avila.
“Absolutely tragic for ABC and the news industry,” former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter tweeted.
“Your smile. Your laugh. Your dedication. Your profound love of Veronica and your beautiful daughters. Your pride in your work. The way you looked out for the next generation and fought to pave the way for Latinos coming up. The way you broke barriers yourself,” ABC White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega wrote in an Instagram post.
“Dax Tejera, you are gone too soon. We will miss everything about you.”
CNN host S.E. Cupp also joined the tribures, tweeting: “The worst kind of news. Heartbreaking to lose friend and colleague @DaxTejera, one of the kindest and brightest lights.”
CNN began a long-expected round of layoffs on Wednesday as president Chris Licht and other executives at WarnerBros. Discovery trim costs at the struggling cable news network.
Licht informed CNN employees of the cuts in a memo and acknowledged “it will be a difficult time for everyone” at the company.
“It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team, much less many. I recently described this process as a gut punch, because I know that is how it feels for all of us,” Licht said in the memo, which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
Licht said the pink slips would begin with “a limited number of individuals, largely some of our paid contributors” on Wednesday as part of a “recalibrated reporting strategy.” The company will begin notifying other impacted employees on Thursday, with additional detail from Licht on CNN’s next steps to follow by that afternoon.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many CNN employees are being laid off. The Post has reached out to CNN for further comment.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer called for the firing of Disney CEO Bob Chapek after the Mouse House turned in dismal fourth quarter earnings earlier this week.
“Disney, they have ESPN. If we were on ESPN, we would say he’s got to be fired. That’s pretty cut and dry,” Cramer said on CNBC’s business news program “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning. “The losses here are just mind-boggling. When you’re going over the quarter, it’s stunning.”
Cramer slammed Chapek for his “delusional” characterization of the quarter, in which the streaming service Disney+ took a $1.5 billion loss, causing the media giant to miss Wall Street’s projections.
“Our fourth quarter saw strong subscription growth with the addition of 14.6 million total subscriptions, including 12.1 million Disney+ subscribers,” Chapek said in his statement Tuesday.
“The rapid growth of Disney+ in just three years since launch is a direct result of our strategic decision to invest heavily in creating incredible content and rolling out the service internationally,” Chapek continued, “and we expect our DTC operating losses to narrow going forward and that Disney+ will still achieve profitability in fiscal 2024, assuming we do not see a meaningful shift in the economic climate.”
Comparing Chapek to a pro-sports coach, the “Mad Money” host said Chapek “absolutely” should be fired because the “team” has been “going downhill.”
“There is just no doubt that he has to go,” Cramer said. “The way he handled it, he made it sound like it was a four-star quarter. Delusional.”
Chapek has had a bumpy ride as CEO at Disney, having grabbed the reins at the House of Mouse in 2020 after Bob Iger retired from his 15-year stint at the company. The former chairman of Disney’s lucrative theme parks division expressed how difficult his time as CEO has been during a panel at The Paley Center for Media in New York on Wednesday.
“It was really scary for me,” Chapek said, referring to the first few weeks as CEO, which was marked by the onset of the pandemic and the temporary closure of Disney’s theme parks.
“There’s no playbook on it,” he said, referring to the response to the pandemic. “You don’t know what challenge lays around the corner [as CEO].”
Walt Disney said Tuesday its marquee streaming service, Disney+, gained more subscribers than Wall Street had expected, but investment costs dragged quarterly earnings below analysts’ targets.
Shares in Disney fell 5% in after-market trading.
The entertainment company is spending billions to compete with Netflix and others for streaming television customers as traditional TV declines in popularity. Disney+ reported 164.2 million subscribers in the fiscal fourth quarter, surpassing Factset estimates of 161 million.
The cost to build Disney’s streaming business led to a $1.5 billion loss in the direct-to-consumer unit, which hurt quarterly earnings.
Net income from continuing operations rose 1% to $162 million. Excluding some items, Disney earned 30 cents per share, missing Wall Street’s target.
Revenue of $20.15 billion for the July-to-September quarter also fell short of the consensus estimate of $21.25 billion. Disney said it recognized $1 billion in lost revenue in the quarter from terminating a film and television contract early so it could use content on its own streaming services.
Disney has amassed a total of 235 million subscriptions across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ streaming services, a gain of 14.6 million from the previous quarter. Hulu reported 47.2 million subscribers, up 8% from a year ago, and ESPN+ logged 24.3 million, a gain of 42% from a year earlier, and Disney+ is up 39% from a year ago.
“We expect our DTC operating losses to narrow going forward and Disney+ will still achieve profitability in fiscal 2024,” said Chief Executive Robert Chapek. “Assuming we do not see a meaningful shift in the economic climate.”
The ad-supported version of the Disney+ service will launch in the US on Dec. 8, bringing a new source of revenue to underwrite the billions the company spends creating original movies and series for the services. Macquarie Research analyst Tim Nollen estimated the ad tier could bring an additional $800 million in ad sales next year.
Disney theme parks posted robust growth despite COVID-19 related travel restrictions in China and Hurricane Ida forcing the temporary closure of Walt Disney World in Florida in September.
Disney’s parks, experiences and products group reported revenue of $7.4 billion in the quarter, beating analysts’ forecasts. Operating income reached $1.5 billion, more than double a year ago.
Nollen wrote that higher prices, and the technology Disney uses to distribute demand, have resulted in a 40% increase in spending per person since 2019.
For the fiscal year, Disney reported per-share earnings of $3.53, excluding certain items, on revenues of $82.7 billion.
I admit it. I’m jealous, envious and more than a little resentful. It’s why I can’t have nice things.
Throughout this World Series you had the option to save your sanity by eliminating the sound of Fox’s John Smoltz’s relentless, sleep-inspiring pitching recipe recitals that reduced the Series to a late night curative for enjoyment.
I was, however, stuck with him, like a schnook assigned to cover the annual Diet Ginger Ale Festival in Lambertville, N.J.
As Groucho Marx, in the role of Professor Wagstaff, told the audience in the 1932 movie “Horse Feathers”: “I’ve got to stay here, but there’s no reason why you folks shouldn’t go out into the lobby until this thing blows over.”
As the insufferable comes with the annual understanding that it defies treatment and defines neglect, Fox again proved there is only one party that finds Smoltz both irreplaceable, unredeemable and irresistible: the head shot-caller at Fox.
Again, this Series, there wasn’t even evidence that Fox suggested to Smoltz that he take even one pitch off from being the guy no one wants to sit beside.
Reader Larry Trent suggests that MLB is instituting a pitch clock only to limit “Smoltz’s interminable dissection of every pitch and release point.” Hadn’t thought of that.
And the four-seam spin rate is apparently directly proportionate to viewers’ audio exit velocities.
If the pitch is swung at and missed, Smoltz delivers a scientific, microscopic tribute to the pitcher. If it’s hit, an autopsy follows.
But to his credit, Smoltz doesn’t cause headaches; he causes brown-outs, make the lights dim. He saves us money on our electric bills.
Surely, he must say something worth hearing over three-plus hours, but that has been drowned in his vat of dreary stew within minutes of the national anthem.
The sorriest part is that Smoltz is no better and no different from his first day in Fox’s booth in 2014. He still operates under the misconception that he should describe and examine every pitch until, somewhere in the second inning, we no longer pay attention.
But Fox’s overall productions were no easier on the better baseball senses. Crowd shots — endless, countless, redundant crowd shots — supplanted the logical design to televise World Series baseball.
Runners on base? Who cares where the defense is playing? The length of a runner’s lead? No extra charge for inattention to game circumstances.
Fox, again, will scour the stands to find an overly wrought woman, her hands clasped in despair or prayer, awaiting the next pitch as if on the precipice of madness.
It’s part of all networks’ plan to best serve those least likely to be watching.
Of course, the one “play” Fox paid closest attention to wasa bat flip by Houston’s Kyle Tucker after he hit his second home run in Game 1. Fox made sure to show that several times, and at least once in slow-motion. Though Tucker’s team lost the game, that move is now the essence of televised baseball.
But why, in 2022, would we have expected better?
Unnecessary violence is perfectly legal in NFL
For all the NFL rules designed to protect players from needless injury, among the most indefensible and inexcusably dangerous “tackles” remains ignored — and technically legal.
You’ve seen it countless times, but let’s use the Patriots-Jets game last week on CBS as an example.
Pats QB Mac Jones was forced to run. He sprinted toward the far sideline. Heading out of bounds to avoid a hit, he couldn’t have stopped if he tried.
But as he was about to step out of bounds, defensive back D.J. Reed lowered his shoulder and blasted Jones. No flag — it was a legal hit, because Jones was still in-bounds by inches — but a sideline hassle, naturally, erupted as the Jets celebrated Reed’s brutal hit as if he’d done something special other than creamed canned corn.
All Reed needed to do was nudge, push or, at most, shove Jones, and he’d have been out of bounds.
After Bears wide receiver N’Keal Harry caught a short touchdown pass in man-to-man coverage against the Cowboys last Sunday, Fox’s Daryl “Moose” Johnston gave it the Moose Johnston replay treatment, meaning he spoke an endless stream of genuine gridiron gibberish:
“Now here is [DB] Kelvin Joseph right here (Johnston circled him with his telestrator). Now, he has no help to the left. He is playing heavy outside leverage in their coverage.
“There is nobody to his left. He has no help on that side. Don’t know why he was playing such heavy leverage to the side of the field where he had some help.”
Got that?
The replay simply showed Harry making a quick, tight move to the outside, Joseph doing a pretty good job sticking with him, and QB Justin Fields hitting Harry with a nice, tight pass.
Heavy leverage? That was Harry’s first TD catch since 2020. Previously this season, he’d caught one pass. Was Johnston advocating double coverage? If so, who would he have left in single coverage or uncovered?
Or was Johnston just eager to use the term “heavy leverage,” whatever it meant?
But now in its 20th season of throwing Johnston at us, Fox surely knows what it’s doing.
In comes stream madness
So, The Eagles-Texans NFL game and the NHL’s Rangers-Bruins game on Thursday night were both the exclusive viewing property of streaming networks. Brilliant marketing.
Those who pay for the Rangers over MSG were given the cool breeze. More to come, a la the Yankees and Mets this past season.
This is known as teaching fans to live without — abandoning longtime detovees to cast bait among the young.
Look what pay-per-view did for boxing. Go ahead, try it: Name the current middleweight champion of the world. Choose from any of the six now listed. Last we knew was Bernard Hopkins, more than 10 years ago.
Reader Ed Grant claims there is no more redundantly stupid new-age expression in broadcast sports than football’s “positive gain.” Yeah, that one makes me perspire sweat.
Still, the kings of them all — the ones that makes me revert back to the past — are the triple-redundant, “bases-loaded, grand slam home run” and the “leadoff, solo home run to start the game.”
Time for Kyrie Irving to make up his mind. Are Jews agents of Satan or is he letting them off the hook? Did the Holocaust occur or didn’t it? Are Jews going to hell or aren’t they? The world awaits.
In the meantime, Kyrie, what should Jews do with all those slaves they’re holding?
One last thing, Kyrie: Wanna buy some Nets tickets? I’ve got two down low for Fringe Lunatic Appreciation Night.
Reader Of The Week comes right out of Ripley’s Believe It or Get Lost:
Shortly after the Nets fired coach Steve Nash and were in the throes of Irving’s profoundly ignorant social media seminar on world and religious history, reader Ron Zajicek emailed that the team is so messed up it might now hire disgraced, suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka.
This email, time coded, arrived roughly two hours before word was first delivered that the Nets had asked for and been granted permission to solicit Udoka!
“I was just joking!” Zajicek later wrote.
That’s the problem, the NBA has become bad joke-proof, drowning in its own bilge.
More than 200 Gannett staffers are staging a day-long strike on Friday as they demand better wages and benefits — a fresh burst of unrest following recent layoffs at the newspaper giant.
The NewsGuild, which represents staffers at Gannett — which owns USA Today and a slew of local papers such as the Detroit Free Press, the Bergen Record and the Indianapolis Star — said Friday that 14 of the company’s newsrooms, won’t work at all on Friday,
Those include employees from publications in New Jersey, New York, Arizona and California. Workers in Florida, Texas and Ohio, meanwhile, will stage a lunch-time walkout.
A rep for the NewsGuild said the strikes were in response to the company laying off 400 employees and cutting another 400 open positions in August, which represented 3% of staff.” Those cuts were followed by more belt-tightening in October, which included furloughs and cuts to the 401k plan.
“These devastating cuts to local newsrooms come on the heels of Gannett announcing a $100M stock buyback program for shareholders in February, directing critical funding away from local newsrooms and to rich shareholders,” the rep said.
Gannett did not immediately return requests for comment. The company told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, that the strikes won’t interfere with putting out the news to its readers.
“We continue to bargain in good faith to finalize contracts that provide equitable wages and benefits for our valued employees,” the company said.
The McLean, Va.-based Gannett said in a recent securities filing that as of last December, it employed roughly 4,846 journalists across local papers, USA Today and in its U.K. publications.
On Thursday, the publisher swung to a third-quarter net loss of $54 million, and said it expected to post a loss for the full year. Chief Executive Michael Reed cited inflationary pressures and macroeconomic volatility/
“There seems to be no limit on their appetite for ripping on the royals to whom they owe all of their fame and literally most of their fortune,” Kelly said of the couple.
She played several clips of their infamous interview with Oprah Winfrey, during which they described their experiences as working royals.
Kelly noted that Markle has a “less than 22% approval rating” in the UK.
She also called Markle a “liar” for claiming that she never researched the royal family before marrying Harry in 2018.
Kelly then noted that during a recent episode of Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast, she refers to Prince Harry as “my husband” when she was “talking about him helping her get the kids ready in the morning.”
“We get it. You bagged the gorilla,” Kelly said of Markle marrying the British royal.
“Congratulations! You got the big bear,” Kelly continued. “You want us to know.”
Kelly made the comments during an interview with author Christopher Anderson, who is coming out with a new book about King Charles III titled “The King: The Life of Charles III.”
Stephen A. Smith’s idea for who should play him in an eventual biopic changed with the Slap Heard ‘Round the World.
Smith appeared on Comedy Central’s “Hell of A Week with Charlamagne Tha God” on Thursday and was asked about who should portray him in the eventual movie.
“Dammit it would’ve been Will Smith before the slap!” Smith said. “But I can’t go with him now.”
At this year’s Academy Awards, Smith bristled at a joke that Chris Rock made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia and proceeded to walk up to the stage and slap the comedian in the face.
For this behavior, Smith has effectively been placed in the Hollywood penalty box indefinitely.
Charlamagne interjected that Will Smith would be back one day: “He ain’t going nowhere.”
“Listen. He’s Will Smith. We know he’s gonna be back,” Smith responded. “We got love for him. But you just don’t do something like that. You know what I’m saying? Stephen A. wouldn’t do something like that.”
So, who is not disqualified from the role?
“Michael B. Jordan. Omari Hardwick,” Smith suggested. “They both look a hell of a lot better than me but dammit I’m stealing from them so what do you want me to do?”
Smith said his friend Jamie Foxx would’ve been another choice, because Foxx is trying to do “Tyson,” a biopic of boxer Mike Tyson.
Charlamagne said that Foxx does a great Stephen A. impression.
“He does Tyson exceptionally well,” Smith said. “He does me aight.”
CNN anchor Don Lemon revealed Thursday that he felt the political focus of his nixed primetime show had gotten stale prior to his move to the struggling cable network’s revamped morning show.
Lemon, who is set to serve as co-host of the new “CNN This Morning” beginning Nov. 1, said he grew “tired” of the politically charged nature of primetime news.
“I would be lying to you if I didn’t say that was a factor,” Lemon told Semafor in an interview published Wednesday.
The left-leaning anchor was known for frequently targeting former President Donald Trump in nightly monologues.
“Look, has it been frustrating over the last couple of years having to deal with politics in the way it’s been dealt with in primetime? Yes. Was I tired of it? In some ways, yeah it’s gotten old,” Lemon told the outlet. “But I also think we were transitioning to a different time.”
Lemon noted changes in the news cycle as the war in Ukraine supplanted Trump mania as CNN’s main topic of conversation in primetime, adding he “was ready to move on and I think the audience is ready to move on as well.”
The 56-year-old anchor couldn’t resist taking another shot at Trump, telling Semafor the former president “didn’t have the courage” to submit to an interview on his primetime show, “Don Lemon Tonight.”
Lemon is moving from primetime to mornings as CNN President Chris Licht leads an overhaul at the network. Licht and top brass at WarnerBros. Discovery are trying to shift the network toward centrist news coverage rather than the opinion-based programming that has seen its ratings crater.
Lemon denied the network’s nudging under new leadership has been “uncomfortable” and expressed support for Licht’s vision.
“I really like Chris. When I read stories about what’s happening at CNN and about Chris and what he’s doing, I think it’s unfair,” Lemon said. “I think people should give him a chance. Everyone has a new vision when they come in as a new boss. Let’s see what his vision is and how it plays out.”
The nixed “Don Lemon Tonight” struggled with low ratings prior to CNN’s shakeup. Despite losing a coveted primetime gig, Lemon has insisted his shift to mornings is a “promotion.”
Lemon is set to host “CNN This Morning” alongside fellow anchors Kaitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow. The show will air weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
He also provided a glimpse into how he plans to approach his new gig, telling Semafor that he will “be wearing what I wear in my normal everyday life” to reflect the more casual environment.
“I’m just going to be myself. It seems to have worked for the past however many decades in the business,” Lemon said. “I’m really not concerned about the ratings. I’m concerned about making it the best morning show possible and appealing to multiple demographics and people who are interested in other things than raw, tribal politics.”
Ratings-challenged CNN will reshuffle the deck chairs on the slowly-sinking network, pushing out left-leaning primetime host Don Lemon from his plum solo slot to a newly-created morning team, boss Chris Licht announced Thursday.
Lemon’s long-anticipated demotion comes after Licht was tasked by new corporate overlord Warner Bros. Discovery to shift CNN away from opinion-based shows to more centrist reporting of the news.
Last month, the network canned Brian Stelter, the outspoken host of the now canceled “Reliable Sources.”
Lemon — who often espoused his liberal opinions on his 10 pm show “Don Lemon Tonight” — helmed the lowest-ranked program in primetime in August, averaging 660,000 viewers to finish a distant third to Fox and MSNBC.
A rep for CNN said the network will be making an announcement on who will replace Lemon in the next few weeks.
Insiders have earmarked Kasie Hunt as a possible replacement for Lemon, or for the 9 p.m. slot, which was left open when Chris Cuomo was fired last year over his role in advising his older brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his sex harassment scandal.
In August, Fox News dominated with nine shows making the top 10 highest-rated cable news shows. Only MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pulled out a fifth-place ranking with 2.7 million viewers, lagging behind Fox’s “The Five” (3.4 million), “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (3.3 million), “Hannity” (2.9 million) and “Jesse Watters Primetime” (2.9 million).
The only CNN show to crack the top 25 was “Anderson Cooper 360” — in 25th place with 950,000 viewers.
Meanwhile, “New Day,” came in 42nd place out of 82 cable news shows, bringing in 396,000 total viewers.
CNN did not provide a start date for the changes but said it will rename “New Day” and update its set later this year. Berman and Keilar will remain at the network, Licht said.
The exec is known for his previous success launching MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and revamping CBS’ morning show, which was then called “CBS This Morning.” Both shows brought about a lively conversation about current topics and news of the day with a broad selection of guests.
“There is no stronger combination of talent than Don, Poppy and Kaitlan to deliver on our promise of a game-changing morning news program,” Licht said Thursday. “They are each uniquely intelligent, reliable and compelling; together they have a rare and palpable chemistry. Combined with CNN’s resources and global newsgathering capabilities, we will offer a smart, bold and refreshing way to start the day.”
Harlow has most recently served as an anchor of “CNN Newsroom,” as well as a relief presenter at “New Day,” while Collins served as a White House correspondent for the network.
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