EXCL: Sinners studio Warner Bros complained about the involuntary racial slur during BAFTA Film Awards ceremony, requesting it be cut from BBC broadcast. Warner sceptical of BBC/producers’ position that they were unaware of incident until it was too late. deadline.com/2026/02/warn...

Update: The BBC has now removed the BAFTA Film Awards from iPlayer after initially failing to cut a racial slur involuntarily shouted by an audience member with Tourette syndrome. bsky.app/profile/jake...

The BAFTA Film Awards' TV broadcast is on an anachronistic two-hour time delay, so why was John Davidson's involuntary racial slur not bleeped or dipped by the BBC, even if not clearly audible? And why does the incident remain on iPlayer? Crickets from the BBC this morning.

Always funny when CEOs talk down their biz to calm monopoly fears. Ted Sarandos tells @mattbelloni.bsky.social that Adolescence is only second time Netflix cracked UK's top 50 series/films. Wrong! Last year alone, Netflix featured 38 times in Britain's big league. KPop made list for 19 weeks.

There's always a BBC angle. And yes, Mandelson was involved. deadline.com/2026/02/jeff...

Bit of TV history this: YouTube unseats BBC as UK's most-watched service, per monthly audience reach figures published by Barb. The BBC remains well ahead in other areas, but for it to be beaten on even a single monthly metric upsets British TV's natural order. deadline.com/2026/01/yout...

Some weekend fun: the inside story of a fairly elaborate hoax that succeeded in putting an unknown ginger actor in the frame to play James Bond. A tale that says stuff about our attention economy, but also features a silly faked script. deadline.com/2026/01/jame...

Earlier this year, I took a plunge into the weird world of AI-fuelled fake movie trailers on YouTube. I found channels exploiting YouTube's algorithm and duping/irritating millions. Today, YouTube shut down two of the biggest fake trailer farms. deadline.com/2025/12/yout...

Here's my first cut on the government's fairly radical plans for the BBC. Not sure the BBC even wants this (Tim Davie's rhetoric is universality, universality, universality). Also, can already see pitchforks at ITV and Netflix over a BBC fattened by ads/subs. deadline.com/2025/12/bbc-...

The Trump lawsuit is hideous for the BBC, but I'm in love with the idea of Floridians desperately seeking out obscure VPNs to feed their Panorama habit.

@danaterrace.bsky.social Hi Dana. I'm a journalist for Deadline. I'm speaking to some artists/animators for a piece I'm writing about Disney's partnership with OpenAI. I would love to get your thoughts, if possible? I'm on [email protected], or have followed for DM.

Movement on Channel 4 CEO job. Emma Lloyd, Netflix VP of partnerships, has removed herself from process amid speculation she was frontrunner. Ex-BritBox CEO Reemah Sakaan in the running. Top internal candidate is COO Jonathan Allan. Decision expected very soon. deadline.com/2025/12/chan...

New: BBC confirms plans to save £100m under radical workforce overhaul. A source grumbles that the BBC emailed thousands of employees to tell them “right before Christmas, that your job is at risk in the New Year.” deadline.com/2025/11/bbc-...

Yesterday's dreary BBC hearing made me pine for days of yore. So much to like about this: Philip Davies' robust questioning, Lord Patten's waspish replies, and the utterly evergreen line: "Trust in the BBC, despite recent events, is greater than any other news org." www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4YG...

Exclusive: Inside Project Ada at the BBC, the £100m savings plan that could result in thousands of job cuts. Tim Davie pressing on with sweeping transformation project despite his shock resignation. deadline.com/2025/11/bbc-...

Genuinely cannot recall a culture secretary delivering such a full-throated and caveat-free endorsement of the BBC, which Lisa Nandy describes as a "light on the hill." deadline.com/2025/11/bbc-...

Interesting nugget from BBC staff call this morning: Tim Davie said the biggest number of complaints the BBC is handling right now concern the corporation giving Nigel Farage's Reform too much airtime. bsky.app/profile/jake...

New: BBC employees in open revolt about Robbie Gibb on all-staff call this morning. BBC chair Samir Shah said attacks on board members are "disrespectful" and shut down talk of a Conservative coup as "fanciful." deadline.com/2025/11/bbc-...

My snap analysis from last night: why the “mangled” Trump edit was a crisis too far for Tim Davie. Also, how Michael Prescott’s savage memo sowed division on the BBC board and was a factor in the corporation basically sitting on its hands for a week. deadline.com/2025/11/bbc-...

Massive record audience of 11m for The Celebrity Traitors finale last night. Just look at these numbers. Nothing on TV comes close right now.

A game I rarely tire of: comparing the anti-BBC opinion in certain newspapers with the TV recommendations in those same newspapers. Sometimes it comes together so perfectly.

The Celebrity Traitors watched by record live audience of 8.3m last night. The first two eps doubled their ratings with 7-day catch-up included (ep 1 jumped from 6m to 12.5m). Theoretically, if this trajectory continues, Celeb Traitors could hit 16m+ in coming weeks. Wild.

New: A brutal internal email has gone out to The Times newsroom about the botched Bill de Blasio interview. Senior editor says it was "humiliating." deadline.com/2025/10/bill...

Strictly, still the biggest show on TV on its day, but in a sticky spot. Tess and Claudia's exit adds to feeling that all that glitters is not gold. Star bookings are low wattage (injury crisis bady timed), and scandals have genuinely dented a once-Teflon brand. Still though, huge job for new hosts.

Celia Imrie's fart helped propel The Celebrity Traitors to a series high audience of 6.9m viewers, up 900k on last week's premiere. Not enough to trump The Traitors' best-ever overnight audience of 7.4m, but I suspect the celeb series will top this over the coming weeks.

If you've not watched Here We Go, you should watch Here We Go. Just delightful telly — and feels like a show that's ready for its breakthrough moment. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Wild story -- deadline.com/2025/09/marc...

I dug into two years of Netflix viewing figures — and just look at the Brits representing. Half of the Top 10 TV shows are made in the UK, and that's not even including Bridgerton, which is basically British. Remarkable clout. deadline.com/2025/07/netf...

In important, but quite dry, news: Ofcom says YouTube must give special prominence to content from the BBC, ITV, C4 and C5. If YouTube refuses (feels likely!), Ofcom says ministers should force its hand with legislation. Below, graphs showing why this is now getting existential for broadcasters.

New: Culture secretary Lisa Nandy’s repeated attacks on BBC boss Tim Davie have sparked independence concerns, with a Deadline analysis revealing the frequency of her interventions on editorial/operational issues when compared with Tory predecessors. deadline.com/2025/07/bbc-...

The BBC screwed up horrendously at Glasto and MPs have every right to be angry, but take a breath and read these quotes. It's starting to look an awful lot like a minister telling the BBC what to do. That doesn't feel like a desirable precedent for anyone - including Lisa Nandy.

Very serious attack on BBC chief Tim Davie from culture secretary Lisa Nandy: “When you have one editorial failure, it’s something that must be gripped. When you have several, it becomes a problem of leadership." deadline.com/2025/06/bbc-...

Exclusive: Bob Vylan dropped by agent UTA after scandal-hit Glastonbury set. deadline.com/2025/06/bob-...

Update: BBC Breakfast editor has "decided to extend the period of leave he was taking" while internal review is ongoing, per an internal email. No word on when he will return. bsky.app/profile/jake...

Exclusive: The BBC has drafted in a PwC consultant to help steer an internal review of bullying and misconduct allegations on Breakfast. deadline.com/2025/06/bbc-...

Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors boss Kate Phillips will be named as the BBC's new content chief, per sources and a Broadcast report. Deadline has reported since early May that she was the candidate to beat. She becomes the most powerful creative exec in UK telly, audio, and streaming.

Two stories in two days, The Sun has turned on BBC Breakfast boss Richard Frediani. The first big test for the BBC since the “line in the sand" of its workplace culture review? Here’s the Deadline story that started it all: deadline.com/2025/04/bbc-...

New: A handful of seasoned BBC News journalists have complained that they are the victims of ageism as they face being fired under plans to merge the corporation’s Home and Foreign newsdesks. deadline.com/2025/06/bbc-...

New: Channel 4 once described itself as the “sponsor and defender of free speech,” but a cache of documents seen by Deadline reveals it is restricting what aggrieved former staffers can say about the company. deadline.com/2025/06/chan...

Yeah, that wildly viral video of a Chinese paraglider accidentally flying as high as Everest, a video presented as fact by many major world news outlets, that video was likely AI. deadline.com/2025/05/nbc-...

My voyage into the underbelly of AI movie trailers on YouTube made it all the way to American network news — as did the consequences of the greatest week in my Spurs supporting life. www.nbcnews.com/now/video/yo...

This is big - and proper sign of the times stuff. ITV is cutting 220 jobs (half of its daytime teams) and dramatically reducing daytime output. The money will be reinvested in more streaming-friendly output, like drama and sport. deadline.com/2025/05/itv-...

Stunt performing is a glamour job — until someone gets hurt. For a special piece, stuntwoman Casey Michaels reveals to me how she won a huge £7m payout from HBO after a career-ending injury on Game of Thrones. She says her story exposes the dark underbelly of stunting. deadline.com/2025/05/game...

"They think it's all over – it is now" says @jakekanter.bsky.social on the departure of Gary Lineker on BBC News

Very BBC for the DG to make a thoughtful speech about safeguarding trust in UK media in the shadow of headlines about a BBC presenter's social media indiscretion bsky.app/profile/jake...

Ooft. BBC boss Tim Davie on Gary Lineker sharing a pro-Palestine video featuring a rat emoji: "The BBC's reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us. We absolutely need people to be exemplars of the BBC values and follow our social media policy. Simple as that."

Calling awards aficionados: can anyone recall an actor/actress winning an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Bafta for one role in a single awards season? I asked ChatGPT and it told me Helen Mirren (Elizabeth I) and Kate Winslet (Mildred Pierce), but it was wrong — neither won a Bafta.

Yeah, if this sticks (big if), it would be devastating for British production. The Hollywood strikes revealed how reliant we are on American's housing shoots here. Last year alone, US studios made £1.4bn worth of movies in the UK, 64% of all our film production. deadline.com/2025/05/trum...

New: As the BBC prepares to publish its workplace culture review on Monday, we can reveal that employees are keeping their jobs after sexually harassing colleagues. deadline.com/2025/04/bbc-...

New: BBC to publish workplace culture review next Monday, per internal email from chair Samir Shah. Four recent reviews relating to Huw Edwards, Strictly Come Dancing, Russell Brand, and Tim Westwood all found problems with BBC processes.