Paramount Global’s months-long internal struggles spilled into full view Monday as Chief Executive Bob Bakish was ousted and pressure mounted for the company’s directors to accept — or reject — a takeover bid by David Ellison’s Skydance Media.

Moments before the company announced its first-quarter earnings, Paramount issued a statement announcing Bakish’s departure. The company said three of its top entertainment executives would run the firm: Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins; CBS CEO George Cheeks; and Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios chief Chris McCarthy.

Bakish’s firing comes during a tumultuous period for the company as its traditional TV and movie studio businesses decline amid head winds for the media industry. Bakish also was at odds with controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, who is seeking an exit.

Redstone, who has presided over the steep decline of her family’s media heirloom, is in a bind. She doesn’t want the company built by her father, the late, ferocious mogul Sumner Redstone, carved up and sold for parts at auctions. Paramount includes the CBS television network, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET and the Paramount Pictures movie studio on Melrose Avenue.

But Paramount’s common shareholders are wary of the two-phased deal with Skydance because Redstone will get a premium for her family’s shares.

Paramount is in the midst of a 30-day exclusive negotiating period with Ellison, a tech scion whose Skydance Media has teamed up with investment firms RedBird Capital and KKR to acquire Redstone’s National Amusements holding company. On Sunday, Skydance sweetened its offer by $1 billion, with money earmarked for Paramount’s B-class, or nonvoting, shareholders, according to three people familiar with the deal but not authorized to comment. National Amusements holds 77% of Paramount’s voting shares.

The exclusive negotiating period ends Friday. It is unclear whether Skydance and RedBird have given Paramount’s board a deadline to accept its revised offer. Skydance and its partners have been wrangling with Paramount’s independent board members over how much money will go to common shareholders, two knowledgeable people said. Skydance and its partners have pressed for more of the proceeds to pay down Paramount’s debt.

The company’s credit last month was downgraded to “junk” status by ratings agency S&P Global.

Bakish was opposed to the Skydance transaction, a stance that infuriated Redstone, who in 2016 handpicked Bakish to run the company, then known as Viacom. In recent weeks, senior company executives also raised questions about Bakish’s leadership and the strength of his long-range plan in their conversations with board members — a development that expedited Bakish’s departure from the company, the sources said.

Bakish was more open to another proposed deal, favored by smaller shareholders, with private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which has offered $26 billion, including the assumption of Paramount’s debt. Sony Pictures Entertainment has been negotiating with Apollo to join that effort. Most insiders expect that Apollo and Sony would break the company apart, a scenario that Redstone does not want to allow.

Redstone, according to one person familiar with the matter, has also been frustrated with some of Bakish’s decisions, including not selling Showtime, the premium cable network that the company folded into its television networks and streaming effort. Bakish had dismissed a recent offer of $3 billion for the channel from investors, including former Showtime head David Nevins.

Paramount, meanwhile, has lost more than $2 billion on its streaming service, Paramount+.

“Paramount Global includes exceptional assets and we believe strongly in the future value creation potential of the Company,” Redstone said in a statement. “I have tremendous confidence in George, Chris and Brian. They have both the ability to develop and execute on a new strategic plan and to work together as true partners. I am extremely excited for what their combined leadership means for Paramount Global and for the opportunities that lie ahead.”

In addition, the company faces a crucial Wednesday deadline to strike a new deal with cable distribution giant Charter Communications, which runs the Spectrum TV service.

Paramount entered the Charter negotiations with a weak hand — its cable television channels have suffered from falling ratings amid consumers’ shift to streaming. Paramount relies heavily on the revenue it receives from Charter, Comcast, DirecTV and other distributors.

“Paramount still has a popular network, an esteemed studio, and solid streaming services, but its business prospects look tenuous as it looks to sell,” EMarketer senior analyst Ross Benes wrote Monday in an emailed statement. “Arranging a new quixotic leadership structure may appease those looking for new blood. But the dramatic removal evokes a feeling of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Less than two minutes after Paramount announced Bakish’s departure, the company reported its earnings results.

At the beginning of a call with analysts, company executives said they would not take questions after reporting their financial results. The call lasted slightly less than 10 minutes.

After Cheeks thanked Bakish for “his many years of leadership and steadfast support for all Paramount Global businesses, brands and people,” McCarthy tried to calm concerns about the new triumvirate leadership structure, saying that he, Cheeks and Robbins have worked together for years.

“It’s a true partnership,” McCarthy said. “We have a deep respect for one another, we’re going to lead and manage this company together.”

He said the company’s long-term strategic plan would be focused around three pillars — making the most of the company’s popular content, strengthening its balance sheet and optimizing its streaming strategy.

Paramount reported $7.68 billion in revenue for the three-month period that ended March 31, up almost 6% compared with the same period a year earlier. Paramount reported a net loss of $554 million, but that was less than its loss of more than $1 billion from a year earlier.

The company’s streaming division saw increased revenue of nearly $1.88 billion, up 24% compared with a year earlier. The segment’s quarterly loss was $287 million.

The company’s TV media revenue was aided by CBS’ February broadcast of the Super Bowl, which drew a massive audience. Revenue for the television networks division totaled $5.23 billion, up 1% compared with a year earlier. Paramount’s film division revenue totaled $605 million, up almost 3% compared with a year earlier.

The media empire now known as Paramount Global was formed in 2019 from the merger of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. But the combination never convinced Wall Street of its promise. In the last year alone, Paramount Global’s stock has lost nearly half of its value.

“While the mighty Viacom empire declined tremendously under Bakish, who profited handsomely personally, it isn’t clear that another appointed leader would have changed Paramount’s fortune,” Benes of EMarketer wrote in a note to investors. “With a mountain of debt and its primary assets, namely TV, continually losing value, the deep problems facing the company extend beyond any single executive.”

Bakish, who joined Viacom in 1997, was named CEO of Viacom in 2016, after the company’s stock had fallen 45% in two years due to falling ratings at some of its key networks, including Comedy Central and MTV, as well as struggles at its Paramount Pictures film studio.

After Redstone orchestrated the merger of Viacom with CBS, Bakish became CEO of the combined enterprise.

“The Board and I thank Bob for his many contributions over his long career, including in the formation of the combined company as well as his successful efforts to rebuild the great culture Paramount has long been known for,” Redstone said in her statement.

Paramount’s B-class stock rose 3% to $12.25 a share Monday before Bakish’s departure was officially announced. The shares continued to gain slightly in after-hours trading.

It took me by surprise when my son initially floated the idea of not going to college. His mother and I attended undergrad together. He was an infant on campus when I was in grad school. She went on to earn a PhD.

“What do you mean by ‘not go to college’?” I pretended to ask.

My tone said: “You’re going.” (He did.)

The children of first-generation college graduates are not supposed to go backpacking across (insert destination here). They’re supposed to continue the climb — especially given that higher education was unattainable for so many for so long. The thought of not sending my son to college felt like regression for our family. In retrospect, our conversation said more about the future.

A 2023 study of nearly 6,000 human resources professionals and leaders in corporate America found only 22% required applicants to have a college degree.

The labor shortage is one aspect of the conversation. The shift in academia’s place in society is more significant.

I’m sure that sounds like a good thing for young people joining the workforce. As an educator, my concern is what happens to a society if only the wealthy pursued higher education. Oh, that’s right: We did that already, back before there was a middle class … and paid vacations.

Though it must be said the lowering of hiring requirements isn’t the only threat to the college experience.

Academia has publicly mishandled the campus tensions and student protests that began after the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, and that certainly hasn’t been good for academia either. Neither has canceling commencement speakers … or commencement itself. Add in the rising costs — up nearly 400% in 30 years compared with 1990 rates — and, well, the college bubble hasn’t quite burst, but it’s hemorrhaging.

Forgiving student loan debt — whether you agree with the idea or not — addresses the past.

The future of colleges depends on the future of labor. If employers are making it easier to enter corporate America without a degree, then universities must adjust how much cash they try to extract from students and their families, because the return on investment will be falling.

College enrollment has already been declining for a decade, and it’s not because Americans have become less ambitious or less willing to invest in their children’s futures. It’s because of eroding confidence that a degree guarantees a higher quality of life.

Imagine that your high school senior is interested in going to college and wants to major in education or communication or the arts. The sticker price for tuition, even at a state school, is going to look pretty steep. If your child were headed toward a degree in engineering or business, that same tuition might feel like a better bet.

There’s no reason tuition rates couldn’t vary to reflect this reality. Colleges and universities should set tuition rates for classes based on the earning potential of the discipline studied.

If our groceries stores can figure out a way to charge us more for organic produce, then surely this great nation can devise a system to set college costs that accounts for future earnings.

For example, according to the National Education Assn., the starting salary for a teacher in California is about $55,000, the fourth highest in the nation. For California residents, the cost to attend UCLA comes to almost $35,000 a year, without financial aid. That math just doesn’t work.

It’s easy to see why 20% of the nation’s teachers work a second job during the school year to make ends meet. Between 2020 and 2022, the nation lost about 300,000 educators, and we’re facing a teacher shortage. To address the issue, a number of states have loosened the teacher certification rules to make it easier to get more bodies in the classroom, which sounds … less than ideal.

Instead, why not lower the cost of credit hours for college students pursuing a degree in education? Wouldn’t parents feel more comfortable knowing the people in the classroom set out to teach and earned the credentials?

If colleges don’t find ways like this to lower costs for at least some students, higher education will become a relic. Just as cable cutting reshaped the economics of the TV industry, the trend of corporate America moving away from degree requirements is going to put pressure on universities to make some big changes.

There have already been tectonic shifts in a short period of time. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges lost international students, who once propped up many institutions by paying higher rates than Americans.

Attendance by Americans is forecast to plummet starting next year. Because of low birth rates and low rates of immigration, the U.S. has fewer young people in the classes graduating from high school after 2025.

And perhaps most importantly, our confidence in college is slipping. In 2015, when my son graduated from high school, Gallup found nearly 60% of Americans had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in our higher education system. It was under 50% in 2018. It was under 40% last year.

No telling what that number is today.

Which is sad because there is still so much to value — beyond career choices — to a liberal arts education. Given how we live, college is one of the few places we have left in America where young people from different walks of life can meet. That’s important to the health of a nation as diverse — and segregated — as we are.

Colleges will naturally shrink because of demographics, and they can use this time to adjust their business models as well and charge fairer prices. We need young people to be able to replenish all career fields, and that includes art and music and education. It’s time to rethink the economic approach so they aren’t saddled with debt that those careers can’t repay.

@LZGranderson

“The Hardest Part,” a new song from indie pop artist Washed Out, is all about love lost, among the most human of themes.

But ironically, to illustrate the tune’s sense of longing, the musician turned to something far less flesh-and-blood: artificial intelligence.

With Thursday’s release of “The Hardest Part,” Macon, Ga.-based Washed Out, whose real name is Ernest Greene, has the first collaboration between a major music artist and filmmaker on a music video using OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video technology, according to the singer-songwriter’s record label Sub Pop.

The roughly four-minute video, directed by Paul Trillo, speedily zooms the viewer through key elements of a couple’s life. The audience sees the characters — a red-haired woman and a dark-haired man — go from making out and smoking in a 1980s high school to getting married and having a child. “Don’t you cry, it’s all right now,” Greene croons. “The hardest part is that you can’t go back.”

The couple aren’t played by real actors. They’re created entirely digitally through Sora’s AI.

The video could mark the beginning of a potentially groundbreaking trend of using AI in video production.

“I think where we are now — that’s about to explode, and so I look forward to being able to incorporate some of this brand-new technology and seeing how that informs what I can come up with,” Greene said in an interview. “So, if that’s pioneering, I would love to be part of that.”

“The Hardest Part” — the lead single from Greene’s new self-produced album, “Notes From a Quiet Life,” set for release on June 28 — is the longest music video made through Sora technology so far. The program creates short clips based on written text prompts. This enabled Trillo to build scenes in a way that would’ve been many times more expensive with actual actors, sets and locations.

“Not having the limitations of budget and having to travel to different locations, I was able to explore all these different, alternate outcomes of this couple’s life,” Trillo said.

Trillo is one of the creatives who has early access to Sora, which is not yet publicly available. OpenAI unveiled Sora in February and has been testing the system with directors and meeting with Hollywood executives and producers. It’s working out kinks and trying to address intellectual property concerns.

The innovations in AI have been hugely controversial in many corners, including in the music industry, which has been plagued by the use of “deepfakes,” or video and audio that falsely uses an artist’s image or voice. Musicians and others have pushed for legislation to combat such misleading creations, and talent agencies are working with tech startups to clamp down on unauthorized digital mimicry.

The introduction of Sora — coming from the same company that created the text-based AI model ChatGPT — raised concerns within Hollywood and elsewhere about its potentially devastating impact on jobs and production. Still, it inspired excitement among some creatives for the ways it could help them achieve their vision onscreen without being constrained by special effects budgets and travel limitations.

Both Greene and Trillo said they were able to do more with Sora than they would have with real-life sets on their budget. Sub Pop did not disclose the costs for the video. The music artist did not pay OpenAI to use the tech for the music video.

The two men had explored other ideas, including hiring dancers, and filming in a location that resembled the green hills in the art for Greene’s new album, but that proved difficult because of time and financial constraints. So Trillo suggested experimenting with Sora.

Greene, whose music TV audiences may recognize from the theme song of the satirical sketch comedy show “Portlandia,” was hesitant at first.

“I feel like with my music and most of the videos I’ve made over the years, it always starts from like a real emotional, sincere place,” Greene said, noting that many of the examples of AI video he’d seen existed in the dreaded “uncanny valley,” human-like but eerily artificial.

Nonetheless, Greene was willing to experiment. So Trillo tried out different concepts to see what would work in the video. Using the technology, he could explore all the various outcomes of the couple’s life across multiple locations by creating elaborate text-based prompts. He completed the video in about six weeks, editing together about 55 clips in the video from the roughly 700 that he generated using Sora.

“With this, there was no editing myself,” Trillo said. “I was really able to just try things and so that organically creates a different kind of story because of that, being able to throw so much at the wall and see what sticks.”

To generate usable clips, Greene needed to write prompts with enough specific details about not just the image itself but the shot angles and movements of the characters. “We zoom through the bubble it pops and we zoom through the bubblegum and enter an open football field,” Trillo wrote as part of his prompt for one brief snippet of video. “The scene is moving rapidly, showing a front perspective, showing the students getting bigger and faster.”

The final music video for “The Hardest Part” shows several locations, including a high school, a grocery store, rolling hills, a hallway with billowing white sheets and fire burning through the walls.

Ernest Greene, known as music artist “Washed Out,” will have a new album coming out at June 28.

(Ernest Greene)

There were some limitations. Sometimes Trillo would have an idea and Sora would nail it. Other times, it would create something chaotic and unusable. The videos would come out with inconsistencies, which Trillo would sometimes choose to just overlook. The characters look a little different from clip to clip, as does the couple’s child.

Part of the video’s artsy charm is its dreamlike state — recollections of a couple’s life that illustrate the murkiness of human memory.

“You have to know where to pick your battles with it,” Trillo said of Sora. “You kind of have to relinquish a bit of your free will in working with this thing and you kind of have to accept the nature of how chaotic it is.”

“I was certainly blown away with just how far he could take it in piecing a story together,” Greene said.

Both Greene and Trillo said they see AI as potentially opening more opportunities for people to push the music video art form forward. Music videos are a logical medium in which to play around with AI, because they’re usually short and cost much less to make than feature films and television episodes.

However, Trillo said, it’s important to him that this is not used as a new main method for creation but rather another tool in the tool belt.

“A lot of music videos just don’t have the budgets to really dream big,” Trillo said. “I think AI can help the music industry in terms of creating things that even Ernest could dream of that maybe he wouldn’t have dared to dream before.”