• Snapchat parent company Snap has announced two new executive hires following the departure of its chief strategy officer.
• Jeremi Gorman joins from Amazon, and Jared Grusd previously worked at The Huffington Post.
• The appointment comes ahead of Snap's Q3 earnings.

Snap, the parent company of messaging app Snapchat, has brought on two new executives from Amazon and The Huffington Post following the departure of its chief strategy officer.

The company hired Amazon's head of global advertising sales Jeremi Gorman to be its chief business officer, responsible for the company's "global business solutions, global online sales, customer operations, and business marketing," CEO Evan Spiegel said in an email to employees on Wednesday shared with Business Insider by a spokesperson. (You can read the full email below.)

And former The Huffington Post CEO Jared Grusd is joining as chief strategy officer, looking after "content, global strategy, partnerships, and corporate development."

The hires come after the September news of the departure of chief strategy officer Imran Khan, who had been with the company since 2015 and served as Spiegel's right-hand man. 

Snap stock briefly spiked around 2% on the news, but it has since largely leveled out. The company has struggled since going public in 2017, as Facebook aggressively moves in on its turf. Snap will announce its quarterly earnings on Thursday.

A Snap spokesperson also flagged a number of other recent hires at the company, including: A new director of EU policy, Jean Gonié, who previously worked at Amazon; new director of platform partnerships Alston Cheek, formerly at Apple; Steen Strand, a director of product design for Snap Lab, previously at ICON Aircraft, and new head of music partnerships, Ted Suh, formerly at Bytedance.

Here's the full email Evan Spiegel sent Snap employees about the hires:

I’m happy to announce two significant additions to our leadership team today that will help us deliver on the long-term promise and potential of Snap.

Jeremi Gorman will be our Chief Business Officer, managing Global Business Solutions, Global Online Sales, Customer Operations, and Business Marketing.

Jeremi joins us from Amazon, where she is the Head of Global Advertising Sales. In six years of increasing leadership responsibilities at Amazon, she oversaw business intelligence and analytics and the international expansion of Amazon’s advertising business.

Helping our partners build their businesses is a core element of Snap’s product value and I’m deeply proud of the great work you have all done to make sure our advertisers’ return on investment is unrivaled among our peers. Jeremi joins us with proven expertise and talent that will make our platform even better for our partners and I am excited to have her on our team.

Jared Grusd will be joining Snap as our new Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing Content, Global Strategy, Partnerships, and Corporate Development. Jared, who is an attorney by training, has held leadership positions at Spotify, Google and Oath, and for the past three years, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Huffington Post.

In his new role, Jared will work to expand Snap’s footprint and develop key relationships around the globe to scale user growth. We have an immense amount of running room to grow globally through the billions of people who do not yet use Snap. Getting them to experience the speed, ease and fun of Snap – that Snap is the fastest way to communicate -- will be a key in the coming months and years.  

I know our goals for the coming years are ambitious. But I have great confidence in our ambition because we have led our industry time and again in developing products people love. That’s all thanks to you, our incredibly smart, creative and kind team.  

I’m proud to have Jeremi and Jared join our team, where they will play an important part in shaping the next chapter for Snap. Thank you again for all of your hard work, and thank you in advance for welcoming Jeremi and Jared into our Snap family.

Evan

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's cloud transformation has it on track to be the next $1 trillion company

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• AT&T has become a big player in the TV business, both as a distributor with DirecTV and as a content creator with the acquisition of Time Warner.
• On AT&T's earnings call Wednesday, its CFO made comments about evaluating its DirecTV Now channel lineups to "align content costs with the price."
• These comments echo an industry sentiment that the bad margins of new digital TV bundles (VMVPDs) are not sustainable in the long term, which could lead to pain for TV networks which get cut out of packages in the name of cost control.
• Viacom's recent actions show a way forward for cable channels in a world in which virtual pay-TV bundles slim down and streaming services like Netflix rule entertainment programming.

AT&T has gone full throttle into the TV business, acquiring the likes of DirecTV and Time Warner, but on the telco’s earnings call Wednesday, its CFO said something that should scare some TV networks.

In recent months, subscribers have continued to flee traditional pay-TV bundles. For instance, AT&T reported Wednesday that DirecTV lost 359,000 satellite TV subscribers this quarter. That's more than the 245,000 Wall Street expected.

Since TV distributors (like DirecTV) pay TV networks a carriage fee for including channels in their bundles, when DirecTV loses subscribers, that hurts networks. Luckily, new digital TV packages (vMVPDs) have stepped in to pick up some of the customers lost by cable and satellite. These packages — from companies ranging from Hulu to YouTube to DirecTV itself (with DirecTV Now) — work much like a regular pay-TV bundles, but are delivered via data to your smart TV, laptop, and so on. Crucially, they also pay similar carriage fees to networks.

But though these new packages have racked up customers (DirecTV Now has 1.86 million), there is a big problem with them: their margins are terrible. Networks are making great money from them, but the distributors are not.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley recently broke down the math on Hulu’s live TV product and estimated that it didn’t break even on a per-subscriber basis.

"We estimate monthly programming costs per subscriber are in the $55-60 range in 2019 (including recently announced coverage of flagship Discovery networks), reflecting a premium paid for network carriage based on its new entrant scale," Morgan Stanley wrote.

"Based on core subscription ARPU of $32/month (excluding the $8 for the On-Demand product) and $10-15/month per subscriber generated through advertising and Live add-on features (expanded DVR, unlimited screens), we estimate Hulu Live currently does not break-even on a gross profit basis."

That bad math is similar for all these bundles, and there have been several indications that distributors are going to rethink the numbers.

On AT&T’s earnings call Wednesday, CFO John Stephens said the company was “evaluating our channel lineups” for DirecTV Now to “align content costs with the price.” That certainly sounds like some channels could be on the chopping block.

“It’s also about what customers want, and many want smaller, value-based video packages," Stephens said.

Hulu’s CEO made similar comments to The Information in a recent interview, speaking about potential skinnier bundles and saying the company wanted to "create packages that have a positive margin."

Translation: The size of these bundles might start to shrink, and that could mean major pain for some networks who get chopped out.

So what will happen?

One theory, espoused by Netflix on in its last earnings letter, is that live TV will start to resemble New Fox: news and sports. Everything else would become on-demand and direct-to-consumer, via a platform like HBO Now, Netflix, Hulu, or Disney’s upcoming streaming service.

Where would that leave entertainment-focused TV networks?

Becoming a streaming studio could be a path to survival

One potential path for entertainment-focused cable TV companies is to follow the strategy of Viacom, which owns channels like MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon.

Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said recently it would be too “capital-intensive” for it to build its own Netflix competitor, according to The Wall Street Journal. But that doesn’t mean it can’t become a premium supplier to those direct-to-consumer platforms like Netflix that do put in the capital.

In June, MTV launched MTV Studios to make shows for streaming platforms, and the company announced last week that new seasons of “The Real World” would appear on Facebook Watch.

"For scripted and animation, we are going to focus that more on an SVOD [streaming video on demand] partner," MTV president Chris McCarthy said of MTV's general strategy this summer. Unscripted, traditionally an MTV strength, will be more balanced between TV and streaming. But still, there’s a growing market for unscripted in streaming.

"If we did 'Laguna Beach' today, we would do it on" a streaming service, McCarthy said.

Viacom’s Paramount studio will also make the sequel to Netflix’s smash hit, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” according to the Journal.

But some TV companies don’t have the deep IP catalogue of Viacom to potentially help them weather the storm and become studios servicing the new streaming giants.

What will they do?

SEE ALSO: Netflix and YouTube combine for over 70% of the time teens spend watching video, as cable TV slumps

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• Jennifer Garner is reportedly dating John Miller, the CEO of the company behind CaliBurger. 
• CaliBurger is known for its stylistic similarities to In-N-Out and its burger-flipping robot, Flippy, which can grill 150 burgers an hour.
• Miller uses CaliBurger as a testing ground for technology that can transform the fast-food industry. 

Jennifer Garner's reported new boyfriend is one of the leaders of the movement to put robots to work in fast-food chains.

On Wednesday, Us Weekly reported that Garner has been quietly dating CaliGroup CEO John Miller for six months. 

While he isn't a typical Hollywood type, Miller has been making headlines for years. As founder, CEO, and chairman of CaliGroup, he has been the driving force behind a burger chain that looks like In-N-Out and uses robots to flip burgers. 

Here's everything we know about Miller, his relationship with Garner, and Flippy, the $100,000 robotic creation that grills 150 burgers an hour: 

SEE ALSO: This burger chain wants to replace cashiers with machines that analyze your face and know your order

Miller, 40, graduated from Stanford Law School, in the honor society Order of the Coif.

Source: CaliGroup

Miller is an expert in nanomaterials and nanoscale electronics, and he has published "The Handbook of Nanotechnology: Business, Policy, and Intellectual Property Law."

Source: CaliGroup

Prior to CaliGroup, Miller worked at Arrowhead, founding the biopharmaceutical company's electronics business unit.

Source: CaliGroup

• The "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise is reportedly being rebooted, according to Deadline.
• While the films after the original have received terrible reviews and box office has decreased domestically, the worldwide box office has made them hits — meaning it was inevitable that we would get more.
• Last year's fifth movie, "Dead Men Tell No Tales," made close to $800 million worldwide, and before that, "On Stranger Tides" grossed over $1 billion.

If you thought you had seen the last of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, think again. 

Deadline reported on Tuesday that Disney is eyeing a reboot of the franchise with "Deadpool" writers Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick. Critic reviews have been rotten since the first film, 2003's "The Curse of the Black Pearl," and domestic box office has been lacking for recent movies in the series. But the franchise is still a huge hit worldwide, meaning it was inevitable that we would get more "Pirates" movies.

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The franchise's five movies have made a combined $4.5 billion, and a most of that has come from international box office. The second movie, "Dead Man's Chest," made over $1 billion globally in 2006, as did the fourth film, 2011's "On Stranger Tides," despite a 32% critic score on review-aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

Even last year's fifth film, "Dead Men Tell No Tales," still made nearly $800 million worldwide.

Interest among moviegoers has decreased in North America since "Dead Man's Chest." After that, each film's domestic box office has been lower than the last, with "Dead Men Tell No Tales" only making $170 million in the US when adjusted for inflation. 

Read more: How 'The Nun' overcame bad reviews to be a box-office hit

But the strong global box office has ensured the franchise's longevity, as international audiences have become key to the success of some movies that otherwise wouldn't be hits. The biggest example besides "Pirates of the Caribbean" is the "Transformers" series.

Last year's "Transformers: The Last Knight," which was also the fifth film in the series, only made $133 million in the US, but $605 million worldwide. The fourth film, "Age of Extinction," made just $277 million in the US in 2014, but over $1 billion worldwide. A "Transformers" spin-off, "Bumblebee," comes to theaters this year.

To show just how important global box office has been for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, Business Insider made a graph that includes each movies' domestic and global total.

See the graph below:

SEE ALSO: Interest in Netflix's 'Luke Cage' and 'Iron Fist' dropped dramatically over time, and its other Marvel shows could also be in trouble

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• "Battlefield V" is set to launch on November 20th, but it will be missing Firestorm, a Fortnite-inspired battle royale mode that has been teased since the game was first announced.
• The game's creators have promised ongoing improvements and new content for "Battlefield V" in the months after launch, but Firestorm won't be ready until March 2019.
• The title's primary competition, "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4," recently joined the battle royale club with its own Blackout game mode when the game released in October.

Battle royale video games have quickly become the most popular sub-genre of first-person shooters, fueled by the popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds." When first unveiling their games at E3 2018, the creators of both "Battlefield V" and "Call of Duty" announced that the newest games in their respective series would feature their own battle royale modes, in an apparent effort to cash in on the trend.

"Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" came out on October 12 and its battle royale mode, Blackout, has been the game's most celebrated feature, with longtime fans and competitive gamers alike commending the game's polished take on the genre. Now the developers of "Battlefield V" have revealed that their battle royale mode, Firestorm, won't be ready when the game launches on November 20th. Instead, Firestorm will arrive in March 2019 as a part of the game's ongoing content release schedule.

In an October 24 blog post, "Battlefield V" developer EA DICE detailed what will be included in the game on launch day, and how new content and improvements will be added in the following months. DICE plans to roll out the World War II shooter's content in three phases using the game's live service, Tides of War. Each new chapter in the Tides of War service will add new maps, modes, and improvements to the game.

The first chapter is called Overture and will begin with the game's release. Players will be able to play the game's single-player campaign, battle on eight different multiplayer maps, and explore the game's wide array of weapons and vehicles for the first time. Chapter 2, named Lightning Strikes, will arrive in January 2019, incorporating cooperative multiplayer missions and the classic squad conquest mode. Finally, the third Chapter, Trial by Fire, will introduce the Firestorm battle royale mode and a new Greece map in March 2019.

DICE has promised that Firestorm will be a unique battle royale experience. Like some of the game's other multiplayer modes, Firestorm is limited to 64 players with four-person squads, but the map will be the largest in any "Battlefield" game thus far. Firestorm will also include the destructible environments and vehicles that define the series. Beyond fighting other players to survive, teams will also be able to clear specific objectives on the Firestorm map to access more valuable equipment during the match.

While Firestorm is one of the most anticipated additions to "Battlefield V," the game looks to have a healthy amount of content for players to dive into on release. With a roadmap of updates spanning into Spring 2019, early adopters will also have a clear idea of what's on the horizon.

"Battlefield V" will arrive on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on November 20th. Players who subscribe to EA Origin Access Premier will be able to play the full game on November 9th, while EA Access and Origin Access players will be able to try the game with their play first trial. Those who pre-order the deluxe edition will gain early access to the game on November 15th.

SEE ALSO: Why "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield" Battle Royale won't achieve the runaway success of "Fortnite"

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Forbes' annual list of the highest-paid television actors in the world is here, and it includes actors from just four shows: "The Big Bang Theory" as it enters its 12th and final season, "Modern Family," "NCIS," and "The Walking Dead," as lead actor Andrew Lincoln prepares to leave the series in its current ninth season.

Forbes says that the list is based on figures from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, Nielsen, and interviews with industry insiders from June 2017 to June 2018.

Lincoln, who came in tenth, earned an estimated $11 million for AMC's "The Walking Dead," which he is set to depart this year. Ty Burrell ($12 million), Jesse Tyler Ferguson ($13 million), Eric Stonestreet ($13.5 million), and Ed O'Neill ($14 million) — all from ABC's "Modern Family" — rounded out the bottom of the top 10.

The top five includes four actors from CBS' "The Big Bang Theory." According to Entertainment Weekly, the show is ending after Jim Parsons turned down $50 million over another two years because he wanted to depart the show.

The top five highest-paid TV actors in the world, according to Forbes, are below:

5. Mark Harmon

Show: "NCIS" (CBS)

Earnings: $19 million

3. (tie) Kunal Nayyar

Show: "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)

Earnings: $23.5 million

3. (tie) Simon Helberg

Show: "The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)

Earnings: $23.5 million

The biggest game of 2018 — a long-anticipated sequel from Rockstar Games, the folks behind "Grand Theft Auto" — is a surprisingly downbeat, maudlin affair.

On its surface, "Red Dead Redemption 2" is a cowboy game about six-shooters, robberies, and living outside the law. It's a Western-styled shooting game with a big open world. The game's advertising tagline says it all: "Outlaws for life."

After spending about 30 hours exploring Rockstar's fictionalized 1899 America, I found a gorgeous, deep, surprisingly slow-paced experience that focuses on one man's journey of self-realization.

"Outlaws for life" sounds like a battle cry, but in "Red Dead Redemption 2" it's actually a desperate attempt to hold together a lifestyle that's rapidly becoming untenable.

Like "Grand Theft Auto 5" before it, "Red Dead Redemption 2" is an incredible achievement. Also like "GTA," this game is a clear step forward for the entire medium.

Where "Red Dead Redemption 2" distinguishes itself from Rockstar's past works is in tone: "Red Dead Redemption 2" is somber, and subtle, and slow — for better or worse. It's a game that feels Important™, with all the grandeur and monotony that connotation evokes.

Here's what I mean:

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It all starts — and begins to end — with a job gone wrong.

"Red Dead Redemption 2" stars Arthur Morgan, the playable character and "protagonist" of sorts. But it really stars a wide cast of characters that make up the Van der Linde Gang. 

The gang is Arthur's home, embodied by a roving encampment that acts as a mobile headquarters for operations. It's where Arthur sleeps, eats, drinks, connives, plots, bemoans, and much more. 

But ever since a botched robbery that happens just before the game kicks off, the gang is on the run. Supplies are running low, as is cash, and it puts the gang in a tight spot: on the run with nowhere to go and little in the way of sustenance. 

It's this desperation that sets the tone for "Red Dead Redemption 2" — the feeling that there's no escape other than death.

The pervasive tone of sadness casts a shadow over "Red Dead Redemption 2."

There's bad luck and regret around every turn in "Red Dead Redemption 2." For every few steps forward the gang takes, another wallop sets them back far further. There's a sense that you're playing through the gang's last ride into the sunset.

It's often beautiful, and sometimes touching. It's also about as far from the black-and-white world of classic Westerns as you could imagine. 

Yes, there are shootouts, and even the occasional duel. I've leapt onto stagecoaches and commandeered trains in search of treasure in "Red Dead Redemption 2." I got into a pretty great bar fight that turned into a street fight in the mud:

But every one of those moments is bookended by a swift reminder from either the US government or titans of American industry that time was running out — a serious voice (or voices) stating clearly, "Playtime is over, gentlemen!"

Moreover, Arthur is questioning the increasingly murderous acts of himself and the gang.

A man and his horse.

Much of my time with "Red Dead Redemption 2" was not spent shooting, robbing, or being an outlaw.

The vast majority of my time with "Red Dead Redemption 2" was spent with my horse.

A lot of that was spent riding from place to place, but I voluntarily spent a lot of time grooming, feeding, and patting the horse. Yes, there's really a function to pat the horse built into the game:

There's even an in-game system for tracking Arthur's bond with his horse, which unlocks new riding abilities as the bond strengthens. That's before we start talking about differentiation in breeds and sizes and colors and saddles. If your horse runs off a cliff, or gets shot too many times, it'll die permanently. 

There's a lot of horse stuff.

I'm only offering this many details about the horse system in "Red Dead Redemption 2" to highlight how important of a role the horse has in this game. It's clear that the game's developers wanted players to enjoy spending time with that horse knowing just how much time they'd spend galloping through the game's massive open world.

Whether Rockstar pulled that off is another question: Tonally, I appreciate the long quiet moments. It was a risky move! Personally, though? It can get pretty boring watching Arthur riding a horse for minutes at a time.

• Comcast beat on both the top and bottom lines.
• The company added 363,000 internet subscribers, well ahead of expectations.
• Watch Comcast trade live here.

(Reuters) - Comcast Corp's quarterly profit and revenue topped Wall Street estimates on Thursday as it attracted more customers to its high-speed internet connections, offsetting a drop in cable TV subscribers that was also less severe than expected.

The show of continued momentum in the third quarter comes after the media conglomerate beat Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox to buy satellite TV broadcaster Sky for $40 billion in a sealed-bid auction in September.

Executives are expected to take a victory lap and spend an extra half hour on Thursday morning to introduce Sky Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Darroch to Wall Street analysts on a conference call.

Revenue from high-speed internet rose 9.6 percent to $4.32 billion in the quarter as the company added 363,000 internet subscribers, beating an average estimate of 294,000, according to research firm FactSet. The company said it was the best performance for the division in ten years.

Comcast also said in October its fastest-speed gigabit internet service reached more homes than any other provider in the United States after it completed a rollout to nearly all of the 58 million homes and businesses it serves.

The biggest U.S. cable provider said it lost 106,000 video customers, down from the 125,000 customers it lost in the same quarter last year, as some TV viewers dropped pricey cable bills for cheaper streaming options like AT&T Inc's newly-launched WatchTV or Netflix.

Wall Street had expected a steeper decline of 152,000, according to FactSet. Revenue from its video segment fell nearly 3 percent to $5.59 billion.

Net income attributable to Comcast rose 9.2 percent to $2.89 billion, or 62 cents per share, from $2.64 billion, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 65 cents. Analysts were expecting the company to earn 61 cents per share, according to Refinitiv data.

Philadelphia-based Comcast's revenue grew 5 percent to $22.14 billion, above the average estimate of $21.82 billion.

The company's total capital expenditures were down about 2 percent to $2.38 billion.

Revenue from the company's NBCUniversal segment rose 8.1 percent to $8.63 billion.

However, revenue from theme parks fell 1.4 percent to $1.53 billion due to weather-related disruptions.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham)

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• One of Robert De Niro's restaurants in New York, Tribeca Grill, received a package containing one device, New York police told Business Insider.
• It comes after several devices were sent by mail to prominent Democrats and critics of Donald Trump around the US.
• The package was addressed to De Niro at his production company, which shares the same address as the restaurant.
• It listed Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the sender, like all the other suspicious packages found earlier this week.
• The device at De Niro's restaurant did not detonate, and nobody was hurt.

A suspicious package has been sent to Robert De Niro's New York City restaurant, the New York Police Department has said.

A package containing one device was sent to Tribeca Grill, a restaurant the actor owns in Lower Manhattan, two NYPD spokesman told Business Insider on Thursday.

It came after several explosives were sent by mail across the US to prominent Democrats and critics of President Trump this week.

Multiple pipe bombs were addressed to the residences of offices of people including former president Barack Obama, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris.

The package found at De Niro's restaurant was addressed to the actor at his production company, Tribeca Productions, which according to LinkedIn shares the same address as the Tribeca Grill. ABC News correspondent Aaron Katersky tweeted a photo of the package.

Like all the other packages found earlier this week, the one found at Tribeca Grill listed Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee, as the sender.

The device did not detonate and nobody was injured, one of the spokesman said. It is now being removed to the NYPD's facility in the Bronx.

The package's exact time of arrival is not clear at this point.

De Niro is a vocal Trump critic, having used his appearance at the Tony Awards earlier this year to say "f--- Trump" earlier this year. He also said he had barred Trump from all the locations of his restaurant chain, Nobu.

During the 2016 presidential election he also appeared in a video calling then-candidate Trump a "con artist" and "embarrassment to this country," adding that he wanted to "punch him in the face."

CNN on Wednesday evacuated its New York bureau when another explosive was found in its mail room. That device was addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan, a frequent guest on the network. Brennan's name was misspelled on the package.

The Tribeca Grill package is still under investigation, and police have not linked it to the other explosives received around the country this week.

SEE ALSO: Here's what we know about the suspicious packages sent to top Democratic figures and CNN

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• Megyn Kelly wasn't presenting her usual "Megyn Kelly Today" breakfast show live on Thursday.
• Instead, NBC aired a rerun of her show from Friday, August 31.
• During her Tuesday show, Kelly defended using blackface as a Halloween costume. She apologized after facing criticism from her NBC colleagues, and people online, for the comments.
• CNN reported on Thursday that Kelly may never return.

Megyn Kelly wasn't hosting her NBC breakfast show live on Thursday, two days after she defended using blackface for Halloween costumes.

"Given the circumstances, Megyn Kelly 'Today' will be on tape the rest of the week," an NBC representative told Business Insider on Thursday morning.

Instead the network aired a rerun from Friday, August 31.

In a report published Thursday morning, CNN cited a source as saying Kelly could be gone from the show for good.

Entertainment Weekly on Wednesday quoted a "Today" source as saying Kelly would stay on as host until December, when, the report said, she had previously discussed leaving for a "different role within NBC News" having more to do with politics.

CNN reported on Thursday that she was scheduled to participate in NBC's midterm election-night coverage in November but that it was unclear whether she would still do so.

Kelly sparked a firestorm of criticism Tuesday by arguing that there were non-racist ways to paint your skin black while dressing up. Blackface is widely viewed as inappropriate regardless of the circumstances, given its racist history in the US.

In an on-air discussion Tuesday, Kelly said: "But what is racist? You truly do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween."

"That was OK when I was a kid, as long as you were dressing like a character," she added.

Here's a video of her comments, shared on Twitter by the Shareblue Media writer Tommy Christopher:

After Tuesday's show, Kelly was inundated with criticism and backlash on Twitter, and she apologized on her show Wednesday morning.

"I want to begin with two words: I'm sorry," she said.

Here's her full apology posted on the "Today" show's Twitter page:

The CNN reporter Tom Kludt said she sent an email to her colleagues that said: "I realize now that that such behavior is indeed wrong and I am sorry. The history of blackface in our culture is abhorrent, the wounds too deep."

On Thursday, Deadline reported that Kelly's management, Creative Artists Agency, had split with the TV host.

Other stars managed by the agency include like Ryan Gosling, JJ Abrams, and 50 Cent.

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• The game studio behind "Fortnite," Epic Games, is teaming up with Nerf to make "Fortnite"-themed Nerf guns.
• Nerf teased the partnership on its Instagram, where it showed off one of the guns — an AR-L from "Fortnite." 
• The toy will be available in June 2019, and will cost $49.99. 

If playing on nearly every game console wasn't enough, you'll soon be able to play "Fortnite" in real life — sort of. 

Nerf just announced the release of a toy gun straight from the "Battle Royale" game: the AR-L Blaster, which is based on the in-game weapon and will cost $49.99. The toy will be released in June 2019, according to IGN.

The AR-L Blaster will feature a 10-dart magazine (the darts are made of foam), and will use four AA batteries, IGN reports. In an Instagram post, Nerf advertised "motorized blasting action to create your own NERF Fortnite battles!"

It's unclear whether Nerf plans to release additional "Fortnite"-inspired toy guns. But Nerf is owned by toymaker Hasbro, which has signed a licensing agreement with developer Epic Games. The partnership has already yielded a "Fortnite" edition of "Monopoly" that draws upon dozens of notable locations from the "Fortnite" map. 

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Megyn Kelly's NBC show, "Megyn Kelly Today," is in jeopardy after she made comments defending blackface this week.
• But the show had already been a ratings nightmare for NBC, which signed Kelly for a reported three-year, $69 million contract last year.
• "Megyn Kelly Today" averaged 2.4 million viewers a day in its first year, lower than the competition, ABC's "Live with Kelly and Ryan," and her former show at Fox News.
• On top of the low ratings, Kelly has been unhappy with top executives at NBC and alienated colleagues, according to The New York Times.
• CNN Business reported that NBC is prepared to cancel the show.

Megyn Kelly's NBC show, "Megyn Kelly Today," is in jeopardy after the former Fox News host made racially insensitive remarks on Tuesday's show, in which she defended blackface during Halloween.

"But what is racist?" Kelly said during her program, which airs weekdays at 9 a.m. "Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was okay, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character."

Since then, Kelly has split from her talent agency, CAA, and did not appear on "Megyn Kelly Today" on Thursday. She is likely to not appear Friday either, with repeat editions airing instead. According to CNN Business, which cited anonymous sources, NBC is prepared to cancel the show, but negotiations are still underway.

But "Megyn Kelly Today" was a risky bet even before Kelly's comments this week, and one that hadn't been paying off for NBC, which signed her for a three-year, $69 million contract last year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In its first year, Kelly's show averaged 2.4 million viewers a day, a drop of 400,000 viewers from that hour's average before she began hosting, according to Nielsen (via The New York Times). 

For comparison, ABC's "Live with Kelly and Ryan," which also airs at 9 a.m., led "Megyn Kelly Today" in ratings by an average of 747,000 viewers a day, according to The Wall Street Journal, and saw a spike when Kelly began hosting at NBC in that time slot. And "The Kelly File" averaged 2.7 million viewers a day in her last year at Fox News.

On top of the disappointing ratings and the blackface comments, Kelly has been unhappy with top executives at NBC, according to The New York Times, and discussed with NBC News chairperson Andrew Lack a "winding down" of her show earlier this month. 

She has also "alienated" colleagues, the Times reported, with her coverage of certain sensitive topics, including how she reported on sexual misconduct allegations against NBC personalities Matt Lauer and Tom Brokaw.

On Wednesday, Kelly issued an apology during her show. But according to the Times, Lack held a staff meeting later that day in which he said, "There is no other way to put this, but I condemn those remarks. There is no place on our air or in this workplace for them."

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What movies do people love to watch on Halloween night?

To find out, streaming service FandangoNow surveyed more than 1,000 movie fans about the films they were most likely watch on October 31, and sent the findings to Business Insider.

The top choices might surprise you, since they aren't titles that bring the scares, like Netflix's new hit series "The Haunting of Hill House," but much tamer fare.

The top vote-getter was the 1993 Disney title, "Hocus Pocus." And if that comes as a surprise to you, it turns out the lighthearted teen tale of a coven of 17th century evil witches (played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy), who terrorize modern-day Salem, Massachusetts, has built an enormous cult following.

The FandangoNow survey shows that 96% of those polled who voted for "Hocus Pocus" have seen it multiple times as a Halloween tradition, and 73% wanted a sequel or remake of it.

And when you split the poll between men and women, it turns out the guys' top choice wasn't something too scary either. According to the data, women chose "Hocus Pocus" while the men chose Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Below are the top 10 titles people plan to watch on Halloween night, according to FandangoNow. And don't worry, some classic horrors made the cut:

SEE ALSO: Netflix's "The Haunting of Hill House" director explains what to expect in a potential season 2

10. "Practical Magic" (1998)

9. "Psycho" (1960)

8. "Edward Scissorhands" (1990)

• When you see a blockbuster film, you become part of a cultural phenomenon that translates to big box-office bucks for studios.
• But money isn’t the only thing that determines quality — and the top-grossing film may not have been the best one released that year.
• Here’s the best movie that grossed in the top 10 of the domestic box office for each year since 2000, from “Castaway” to “Black Panther.”

There are movies you see to escape, and then there are movies that allow you to become part of a larger conversation. Blockbuster films tend to be both, as they resonate with audiences to bring in huge box office earnings and spawn innumerable quotable lines and references.

To qualify as a "blockbuster" for this list, a film must have been one of the top 10 highest-grossing movies in the US during the year it was released.

But just because a movie performs well at the box office doesn’t mean it’s great, or even good. Other factors, like cinematography, music, emotional impact, quality of writing, acting, ambition, and rewatchability, play a huge role.

Here are the best hit movies of every year since 2000:

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2000: “Castaway”

This movie has everything you want in a blockbuster: A remote island; Tom Hanks at his best; and, of course, a great shipwrecked companion, Wilson. “Castaway” is still a major cultural touchstone, and Hanks’ largely solo performance carries it off effortlessly.

2001: “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”

The first “Lord of the Rings” film, directed by Peter Jackson, successfully balances worldbuilding with story and character development, all while paying an incredible amount of attention to aesthetic appeal. It is, quite simply, epic.

2002: “Chicago”

“Chicago,” which comes in as the tenth highest domestically grossing film of 2002, barely qualifies for this list. But its cabaret-esque songs, talented cast, and eye-catching set designs push it over the top.

NBC's huge bet on Megyn Kelly has gone bust.

Her daytime show, "Megyn Kelly Today," has been dealing with poor ratings, but the final straw came when she made remarks defending blackface during a segment earlier this week. According to the Daily Mail, Kelly is now out at the network. 

This is following the hefty $69 million salary (over three years) to lure Kelly from Fox News.

Last August, Variety compiled the biggest estimated annual salaries of reality, news, and talk show hosts. There were newbies to the game like Mike Meyers and Jamie Foxx, and big hitters like Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres, and Judith Sheindlin (you know her better as Judge Judy). 

Here were some of the top paid hosts, as estimated by Variety last summer:

Note: Some of these figures below include fees for producing and back-end compensation. 

SEE ALSO: The most popular movie to watch on Halloween is surprisingly not a horror flick

Mike Myers (“The Gong Show”) - $3 million

Jamie Foxx (“Beat Shazam”) - $ 3 million

Alec Baldwin (“Match Game”) - $3 million

Forbes has released its annual list of the highest-paid television actresses in the world. It includes more shows than its list of the highest-paid actors, including "Grey's Anatomy," "Law & Order: SVU," "Homeland," and "Scandal," which wrapped up its final season earlier this year.

Forbes says that the list is based on figures from IMDb, Box Office Mojo, Nielsen, and interviews with industry insiders from June 2017 to June 2018.

"NCIS" star Pauley Perrette, who left the show earlier this year, came in tenth with $8.5 million. Claire Danes was ninth with $9 million for "Homeland," which will air its final season next year. Danes is the only actress to make the list who stars on a non-network show.

Kerry Washington, who came in eighth, made $11 million for the final season of "Scandal." Rounding out the bottom five were "The Big Bang Theory" stars Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik, who were tied with $12 million.

The top five includes two actresses from the long-running ABC sitcom, "Modern Family."

The top five highest-paid TV actresses in the world, according to Forbes, are below:

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5. Julie Bowen

Show: "Modern Family" (ABC)

Earnings: $12.5 million

4. Mariska Hargitay

Show: "Law & Order: SVU" (NBC)

Earnings: $13 million

3. Ellen Pompeo

Show: "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC)

Earnings: $23.5 million

• Megyn Kelly is no stranger to controversy — earlier this week she defended blackface during a Halloween segment on "Megyn Kelly Today" and now reports say she'll be leaving NBC.
• The news anchor, journalist, and TV show host also made a controversial statement about Santa Claus' ethnicity on Fox News back in 2013.
• During a 2017 interview at Business Insider's IGNITION conference in New York, Kelly reflected on her past controversial remarks. 
• Watch the video above to see part of Kelly's 2017 interview and what she had to say about speaking her mind.

During a 2017 interview at Business Insider's IGNITION conference in New York, NBC's Megyn Kelly reflected on her past controversial remarks including a statement she made about Santa Claus' ethnicity on Fox News that made headlines in 2013.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Alyson Shontell: You know when you're constantly speaking your mind, you're going to say things that don't always resonate or people don't agree with. I think one notable one is 'Santa is white' on Fox as a moment.

(FOX News clip starts)

Megyn Kelly: In Slate, they have a piece on dotcom, "Santa Claus should not be a white man anymore." And when I saw this headline I kind of laughed and I said "this is so ridiculous. Yet another person claiming it's racist to have a white Santa," you know. And by the way for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white. But this person is arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa. But Santa is what he is and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it, kids.

(FOX News clip ends)

Shontell: The first week of your show, there were a few statements that rubbed people the wrong way about Jane Fonda and plastic surgery and things like that. Upon further reflection, do you regret anything you said out there and is Santa still white?

Kelly: I regret a lot of what I've said. I mean you're going to be on the air several hours a week live television, you're going to say stupid s---. That's just the reality you know, so yeah there's a lot I'd like to go back and say differently.

All I can tell you is I think the lens is a truth-teller and people who watch you day after day will see who you are without the caricature of you that's put out there by websites and so on looming over you. You know one of my great struggles at Fox was I felt everything I did was viewed through a negative prism by those who didn't like Fox or what it stands for and I hated that. You know I think there's a lot of people over there who are good people and solid journalists who I love who struggle with that. And I'm sure people at other stations have the same things, you know, people have a worldview about certain journalists or their organizations.

And I really hope that in my new position people will just see me for who I am and not through that not through that prism you know. So far I feel like it's happening, but I feel like time will tell. You'll see me and you'll see you'll figure out who I am and then people will accept or not accept based on what they see. And that's all that's all I can ask from anybody.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on November 29, 2017.

Listen to the full interview here, or listen later with the buttons below:

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The biggest game of 2018, "Red Dead Redemption 2," may be the most detailed game I've ever played.

It's certainly the most detailed game I've played since the last project from Rockstar Games, "Grand Theft Auto 5."

The simple act of walking through mud in "Red Dead 2" becomes a sight to behold. Fighting in it — during a light rain, no less — can be downright distracting:

Each individual footstep shows up in the mud, quickly filled by nearby puddles and topped-up by the rain.

I spent more time than I'm willing to admit simply staring at the mud. How could it be so detailed? How could there possibly have been this much attention lavished on the ground? 

Those stop and gawk moments were frequent while playing through "Red Dead Redemption 2" over the last week. It's a game that, even after dozens of hours, continues to surprise me.

Here's just some of the craziest, most impressive stuff I've seen:

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1. Let's start with the bear head hat.

There are quite a few hats in "Red Dead Redemption 2," and even more outfit combinations. That's to be expected in any blockbuster, character-driven game in 2018. Who doesn't want to play dress up?

What's not so expected is this outrageous bear head hat, which is a bear's head— a bear you'll kill in a relatively early mission. This hat is almost certain to become yours.

After taking the bear skin to a trapper, he'll offer to buy your legendary bear skin. In an instant, he turns that skin into a handful of different clothing items. The one I purchased immediately, of course, was the bear head hat you see above. It looks exactly like the bear I shotgunned in a panic.

2. Your outfit, including the bear head hat, shows up in every cutscene.

No matter how serious the moment, whatever silly outfit you're wearing is the outfit your character will wear in cutscenes. This is no small thing — most games don't bother with this level of consistency. 

And that's just the beginning.

3. If you're muddy from riding through mud, you'll appear dirty and people will react accordingly.

The main character, and the one you'll control throughout "Red Dead 2," is Arthur Morgan. If you get into a fight in the mud as Arthur, he'll get extremely muddy. When he walks into a bar, people will comment on his smell and demeanor. When he appears in a cutscene, he'll appear as a mud-covered maniac. 

There's a level of detail consistency throughout the game that's subtle at first, and becomes almost overwhelming as the game goes on.

• China is the world's largest video game market, but regulators in the country haven't approved any new games for sale since March 2018.
• Chinese officials are reconsidering the impact gaming has on the country's young people, which could lead to limits on playtime and additional censorship.
• Companies making games for Chinese audiences have reported more than $1 billion in lost sales due to the halt in approvals.

With about one-fifth of the world's total population, China is the largest video game market on the planet. Despite heavy regulations on media and online content in the country, Chinese gamers spent nearly $38 billion on video games in the past year, according to New Zoo.

But while China's audience for video games has seen consistent growth, officials in the country have expressed concern about potential gaming addiction and the impact video games have on the country's youth. As a result, Chinese regulators have slowed the approval process for new games in the country. The Wall Street Journal reports that less than 5,000 games have been approved so far this year, compared to more than 14,000 games released during 2017.

Approvals have primarily been reserved for major companies, and China is home to the biggest gaming company in the world, Tencent. However, Asia's largest company posted a decline in profits for the first time in more than a dozen years during August 2018, noting that Chinese regulators blocked the sale of major releases. Tencent's overall market value has tumbled more than $200 billion since peaking in January.

China's government is unapologetic about its efforts to monitor the release of new media in the country. There are strict limitations on the number of movies that are imported from the U.S. each year, and movies and games alike are deeply scrutinized for their portrayals of violence and offensive content. China overhauled its approval process in March 2018, establishing the State Administration of Press and Publication, but the new agency has been less than aggressive in addressing video games. Some Chinese officials believe the increased popularity of video games has had a negative impact on children, keeping them away from school and promoting addictive behavior.

Last year, in an effort to preempt new regulations, Tencent implemented oversight features for its most popular game, "Honor of Kings." The game automatically limits children under the age of 12 to one hour a day, adolescents between 12 to 18 are allowed two hours a day. Parents can also monitor the amount of time children spend playing and block their access to the game on specific devices. Tencent is now considering using facial recognition software to identify players by comparing their photo and information with a police database.

Mobile games dominate the Chinese video game market and the most popular games, like "Honor of Kings," earn more than a hundred millions dollars every month through microtransactions. Still, with the government reluctant to approve new games or allow monetization for popular titles, Tencent and other video game publishers are losing billions in potential revenue. The Wall Street Journal reports that gaming companies are currently losing as much as $200 million a month due to the lack of approvals.

Right now there are few signs that China is willing to expedite the approval process for video games and the issue raises a greater cultural question for Chinese officials. The country will eventually need to decide whether it wants to embrace video games as a growing part of the national culture, or continue to scrutinize the medium for possible negative influences. In the meantime, game developers will have to keep struggling to reach the world's largest market.

SEE ALSO: Tencent's profit drops for the first time in nearly 13 years

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