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Hey, good morning. Here's the latest on Apple, Stephen Colbert, Anderson Cooper, Casey Wasserman, Seedance, Bunnie XO, and more. But first...

The WBD plot thickens

Warner Bros. Discovery wants to hear Paramount's "best and final proposal" for the media company, and is opening a brief window for discussions about a bid, while also moving forward with its Netflix merger and urging shareholders to reject Paramount's current hostile bid.

If that sounds convoluted, that’s because it is.

WBD's board is trying to ensure it squeezes every possible billion out of its suitors. (And maybe trying to avoid more legal squabbling.) So it's reopening talks with Paramount, in pursuit of a higher price, while recognizing that Netflix can and likely will match the price.

Netflix, for its part, is aggressively criticizing Paramount, saying that the much smaller company's "financing challenges and rapid deleveraging plans pose tremendous risk to the entertainment industry."

Here's my CNN.com story about all of this morning's developments. In short: 

 >> WBD has been told that Paramount is willing to raise its $30-per-share offer above $31. So it has received a limited waiver from Netflix to talk with Paramount for the next seven days.

 >> "We seek your best and final proposal," WBD said in a letter to Paramount's board this morning. The letter basically says it's time to put up or shut up.

 >> "None of this means the existing deal Netflix has with WBD goes away," Business Insider's Peter Kafka wrote. "For starters, WBD continues to formally endorse its Netflix deal. More important: If Paramount does increase its bid, Netflix will have the ability to raise its offer, too."

 >> WBD has scheduled its shareholder vote on the Netflix deal for March 20.

Netflix takes the gloves off

If you're able to translate corporate-speak, you'll notice that Netflix's new statement is downright scathing toward Paramount. Using Paramount's stock ticker name, Netflix says, "While we are confident that our transaction provides superior value and certainty, we recognize the ongoing distraction for WBD stockholders and the broader entertainment industry caused by PSKY's antics.”

Netflix also says a Paramount-Warner tie-up would lead to "consolidation and layoffs," accuses Paramount of misleading WBD shareholders "about the real risk of their regulatory challenges around the world," and says "the foreign funding behind PSKY's bid is already raising serious national security concerns."

The statement even hits Paramount for "undershooting its financial projections," and concludes, "A business plan that is dependent upon $16 billion in cost savings should be an unmistakable red flag for regulators, policymakers, union leaders and creatives."

Paramount has not yet responded. But PSKY shares are up more than 7% in morning trading while Netflix shares are down about 2%...

'Succession,' but make it real...

It's just like Rich Greenfield recently said: "The battle for Warner Bros. will make a great 'Succession' spinoff series on Netflix" someday.

Until then, we have HBO's John Oliver. In his "Last Week Tonight" season premiere on Sunday, Oliver quipped, "I don't even know which of these companies is gonna be my new business daddy yet. It's like a 'Mamma Mia!' situation except less fun and way less sexy."

Colbert says CBS nixed his Talarico interview

The NYT's brilliant headline this morning: "Colbert Doesn't Give an FCC About Calling Out CBS."

Yesterday, Stephen Colbert taped a "Late Show" interview with James Talarico, a candidate in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas, but then CBS lawyers intervened. 

"We were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast," Colbert said. This is a result of FCC chair Brendan Carr's recently revised guidance about the "equal time" rule, which is being used to scrutinize talk show guests, thereby opening up another front in the Trump admin's multi-front effort to punish critical speech.

So Colbert explained the situation in detail to viewers last night, saying, "Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump's administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV. Because all Trump does is watch TV." LateNighter has a full recap here.

Can't air it? Upload it...

Colbert's show posted the Talarico interview on YouTube as an "online-only exclusive" since the FCC rules don't apply there.

In the interview, Talarico actually called out the FCC's revisiting of the "equal time" rule, though not by name: "This is the party that ran against cancel culture, and now they're trying to control what we watch, what we say, what we read. And this is the most dangerous kind of cancel culture, the kind that comes from the top. They went after 'The View' because I went on there. They went after Jimmy Kimmel for telling a joke they didn't like. They went after you for telling the truth about Paramount's bribe to Donald Trump."

 >> Talarico wrote on X overnight, "This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see. His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert. Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas."

Anderson Cooper leaving '60 Minutes'

Lachlan Cartwright broke the news for Breaker yesterday: Anderson Cooper "has decided to pass on a renewal offer with CBS" and leave "60 Minutes" after nearly 20 years (!) as a part-time correspondent. In a statement several hours after the news broke, CBS effusively praised him, saying, "60 Minutes will be here if he ever wants to return."

Officially, Cooper cited work-life balance for his decision: "For nearly twenty years, I've been able to balance my jobs at CNN and CBS, but I have little kids now and I want to spend as much time with them as possible, while they still want to spend time with me."

My kids are a little older than Anderson's, so I know exactly how he feels. And/but CBS staffers saw through the niceties and recognized that Cooper was uneasy with the Bari Weiss-led overhaul of CBS News. In Status last night, Oliver Darcy quoted an insider saying "he wasn't comfortable with the direction the show was taking under Bari, and is in a position where he doesn't have to put up with it." Cooper re-upped his long-term deal with CNN last year.

The big questions about '60'

Which other correspondents are going to leave, and on what terms? Weiss wanted Cooper to stay, but she reportedly wants others to go. Sharyn Alfonsi's contract expires in just a few months and Weiss allies have blamed Alfonsi for inflaming the infamous "Inside CECOT" situation. At least one other correspondent is on the way out, I'm told. The risk is obvious: Loyal "60 Minutes" viewers will leave along with the correspondents they like to watch...

Sheriff tries to dispel conspiracy theories about Guthries 

"We haven't felt this united over something in this country in so long," Carson Daly said on "Today" yesterday. But as the days turn to weeks, it is getting harder to remain hopeful that Nancy Guthrie will be found alive.

This morning's "Today" led with the sheriff's (belated) statement saying that none of the Guthrie family members are suspects. The statement sought to dispel the online guessing games and conspiracy theories that have been, at best, distracting and, at worst, actively harming the investigation.

"Let's hope this puts an end to the reckless and malicious nonsense," a longtime friend of Savannah's remarked to me. 

The sleuthing spectacle

On one level, the online energy about the Nancy Guthrie case is completely understandable. People want to help solve a terrible mystery. Some "armchair detectives" and amateur sleuths are acting in good faith. And some "true-crime influencers" are live-streaming coverage that clearly meets a market demand. 

But "the circus of so-called 'journalists' flooding into our city right now is not helpful, and they know it," Arizona state lawmaker Alma Hernandez said over the weekend, decrying those treating the crime as "online entertainment." I filed a piece for "Laura Coates Live" about this topic last night...

📺 True crime in real time 

By the time a true-crime story "filters down to 'Dateline' or Investigation Discovery, enough years have passed that the victim's relatives, attorneys and investigators can be persuaded to revisit the worst chapter of their lives. This is how the scores of docuseries and podcasts populating the genre transform actual horror into digestible content," Salon's Melanie McFarland writes.

But the Guthrie case is different: It's "playing out in real time on our TV and phone screens, in an age where parasocial relationships with celebrities have been normalized."

 >> Related reading from WaPo's Monica Hesse: "Just because it’s happening on a screen doesn’t mean it’s happening for your entertainment."

 >> One more note: Hoda Kotb is continuing to fill in on "Today," and will do so all this week, as the show continues to take things day by day. 

COMING UP TODAY...

Today's new nonfiction releases

Former public defender Emily Galvin Almanza is going to open eyes with "The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America."

 >> Also out today, and #1 on Amazon's new releases list, is Bunnie XO's memoir "Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic." Jon Meacham's "American Struggle" and Buck Sexton's "Manufacturing Delusion" are also high on the list. 

 >> Plus, for "Twins Peaks" fans, entertainment journalist Scott Meslow is releasing "A Place Both Wonderful and Strange: The Extraordinary Untold History of Twin Peaks."

Apple's new video podcasting push

Yesterday Apple announced "that it will bring a new integrated video podcast experience to Apple Podcasts this spring," CNBC's Zach Vallese writes. "The update brings Apple Podcasts more in-line with its competitors Spotify, YouTube and now Netflix." Details here...

ICYMI...

Other news from over the holiday weekend:

 >> Don Lemon pled not guilty and said "people are finally realizing what this administration is all about. For them, the process is the punishment." (CNN)

 >> "The administration's attacks on Lemon and independent journalists have boosted their online attention and revenue," Drew Harwell noted. (WaPo)

 >> Casey Wasserman put his eponymous talent agency up for sale amid Epstein files revelations. Sharon Waxman reported that "Providence Equity, the private equity partner that owns 60 percent of the agency, pushed hard for Wasserman's exit." (TheWrap) 

 >> Yesterday, LA mayor Karen Bass told Dana Bash that she thinks Wasserman should step down as head of the city's 2028 Olympics organizing team. (CNN)

 >> Barack Obama sat with progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen for a wide-ranging interview in which Obama said "they're real" when asked about aliens (he later clarified himself), and addressed Trump's racist ape repost. (YouTube)

 >> George W. Bush joined Substack and wrote an essay for In Pursuit about George Washington and presidential humility — an unsubtle jab at the current president, many have observed. (Substack)

Briefly...

 >> Rev. Jesse Jackson died this morning at 84. CNN has a live story on all the tributes pouring in for the late civil-rights leader and political media fixture. (CNN)

 >> A striking column by Lydia Polgreen: "I Trusted Jeff Bezos. The Joke's on Me." (NYT)

 >> "Citing Orwell's '1984,' judge orders Trump administration to return slavery exhibits removed from Philadelphia museum," reports Piper Hudspeth Blackburn. (CNN) 

🏀 NBA's All-Star pivot pays off?

Andrew Kirell writes: Sunday night's NBA All-Star Game, the first to broadcast on NBC since 2002, "averaged 8.8 million viewers across broadcast and streaming, marking the event's biggest audience since 2011," nearly doubling last year's TNT broadcast, Reuters reports, based on preliminary Nielsen numbers.

It would be easy to declare this simply a win for the NBA's new US vs. World round-robin tournament format — designed to lift both fan and player interest — but the full day's worth of Milan Olympics lead-in coverage and an all-new 5 p.m. ET start time certainly helped a lot...

Taming Seedance?

"ByteDance says that it’s rushing to add safeguards to block Seedance 2.0 from generating iconic characters and deepfaking celebrities, after substantial Hollywood backlash after launching the latest version of its AI video tool," Ars Technica's Ashley Belanger writes.

 >> Context: Over the weekend Disney sent a cease and desist letter that certainly got ByteDance's attention. The NYT's Derrick Bryson Taylor has a strong piece about how SeeDance "spooked Hollywood" here...

Even more regulatory pressure on X

"The European Union's data privacy watchdog has launched an investigation into Elon Musk's X over sexualized images generated by the social media site’s AI chatbot, Grok," CNN's Hanna Ziady reports.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Remembering Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall died Sunday at age 95. Brian Lowry looked back at the Oscar winner's long, illustrious career in this CNN obituary. NPR's Glen Weldon writes on how Duvall "brought a compassionate center to edgy hard roles," including his Oscar-nominated turns in "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now."

One role that feels especially resonant these days: Duvall in 1976’s "Network," playing Frank Hackett, a ruthless, ratings-obsessed programming executive who personified the TV news pivot from public-service journalism to content-is-king infotainment. Timeless!

This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.