Paramount Global Chief Executive Bob Bakish is expected to be ousted from the company, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Bakish’s departure comes as Paramount’s future hangs in the balance.

The company is currently in a 30-day exclusive negotiating period with tech scion David Ellison, whose Skydance Media has teamed up with investment firms RedBird Capital and KKR to acquire Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s National Amusements holding company. That exclusive negotiating period ends in early May.

Under a complicated two-step proposition, Ellison would gain control of the media company, which includes the storied Melrose Avenue Paramount movie studio, broadcast network CBS and various cable channels such as MTV and Comedy Central. Ellison’s camp would pay $2 billion for National Amusements, and Paramount would then absorb Skydance.

But shareholders have balked at reports of Ellison’s proposal, arguing that it would value Redstone’s shares at a premium while diluting the value for them. Several shareholders have said they’d prefer a deal with private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which is offering $26 billion, including the assumption of Paramount’s debt.

Bakish is said to have been opposed to the Skydance transaction. Redstone, according to one person familiar with the matter, has also been frustrated with certain of Bakish’s decisions, including not selling Showtime. The company, meanwhile, has lost massive amounts of money on its streaming service, Paramount+.

The company now known as Paramount Global 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 its value.

Recently, Sony has engaged in talks with Apollo to potentially join its bid, which could give the Japanese entertainment and electronics company a significant majority stake in Paramount.

CNBC and Variety first reported the news of Bakish’s ouster. CNBC, in its report, said Bakish could be fired as soon as Monday, citing anonymous sources.

Representatives for Paramount declined to comment.

Bakish was named CEO in 2016, after a tumultuous year for the company then known as Viacom. At the time, the company’s stock had fallen 45% in two years as Viacom faced declining 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.

Bakish had been a Viacom executive since 1997. Before that, he was a management consultant with an MBA from Columbia Business School.

In 2016, Redstone described Bakish as “an exemplary forward thinker” who “embraces disruption and brings teams along with him.”

I’ll watch anything with Zendaya in it. Even without the genius-level marketing that was the Challengers press tour — complete with those tennis ball Loewe heels — I still would’ve rushed to the theater to watch Challengers. Due to last year’s strike, its delayed release made one thing obvious: anticipation really does make the reward that much sweeter. Challengers finally comes out on Friday, April 26th and after watching an early screening, I can confirm, it’s well worth the wait.

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What is Challengers about?

Challengers is about tennis. Challengers is about a love triangle. Challengers is about Zendaya’s bob. Directed by Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name, it’s no surprise that this movie is also about sex. It follows three young tennis players — two lifelong friends who are rising stars and superstar prodigy Tashi Duncan with whom they are massively enamored — over their messy love lives and careers.

Zendaya leads as Tashi Duncan, the intense and intensely ambitious woman at the center of this story. After a devastating injury, Tashi goes from the top of the game to her husband’s coach, trying to recall what she felt at the height of her career.

Ambition battles desire as the love story between the three twists and turns over the course of time. Shifting between time periods and storylines, it feels like a Christopher Nolan film if it slayed. And with Luca’s expert directorial eye, styling from JW Anderson’s Loewe, and Zendaya as heroine, it’s a cinematic feat — tense, vivid, and utterly irresistible. Zendaya herself recommends watching the movie at least three times while “viewing” it from each character’s perspective each time. Well, what Z says, goes.

Clearly, Mike Faist (Dear Evan Hansen, West Side Story) as Art and Josh O’Connor (The Crown, God’s Own Country) as Patrick have been inducted into the exclusive club of Luca’s muses. If you weren’t in love with them before, you will be by the movie’s end. The film has confirmed them as the white boys of the month. But they’re more than just pretty faces. They are Actors — with a capital A.

And Challengers is their launch pad for Hollywood’s latest leading men. Their performances are masterful, their characters are tight and consistent, and their chemistry is unmatched.

While their chemistry with Zendaya is electric, it’s their chemistry together that keeps the film pulsing with anticipatory tension. Whether they love each other or hate each other, the best scenes are those when Faist and O’Connor can play off each other — whether it’s literally tennis or a battle of wits and the battle for Zendaya’s heart.

Of course: we have to talk about that scene. Teased in the trailer and the promo images alike, everyone is all aflutter over the film’s alleged menage a trois. Appearing early on, it’s a taste of what the film does well: emphasizes sex appeal without denigrating any of its characters — especially Zendaya — as mere sexual objects.

Sex in this film is often implied. Yet, sensuality and the power exchange of desire are foregrounded. It’s about power. But it’s also a game. And, like tennis, Zendaya is a master. “You don’t know what tennis is,” she tells Art and Patrick. “It’s a relationship.” For the three of them, this certainly proves true. The central question here is: who will win?

This is a movie about tennis, actually.

The internet has noticed a strange trend: the women who’ve played Spiderman’s love interest in the major Spiderman franchises have all gone on to do movies about tennis. Kirsten Dunst did the underrated rom-com Wimbledon. Emma Stone portrayed Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes just three years after her term as Gwen Stacey. And now, Zendaya is playing her own version of a tennis star.

@jessthereporter The Spider-Man to Tennis pipeline – EXPLAINED #spiderman #challengers #zendaya #emmastone #kirstendunst #movienews #movietok ♬ original sound – Jess Lucero❤️🔥☕️

But this isn’t just a film about tennis players. It’s a movie deeply in love with the game of tennis itself. It plays with the form of the game by mirroring a tennis match — each act of the film feels like a set of a match. It moves through scenes and time periods like perfect volleys. The key scene that ties it all together is a tennis match. We watch the ball go back and forth as we are transported to and from the past, wondering which player will get the upper hand.

“What do you want?” The boys ask Tashi early in the film. “To watch some good fucking tennis,” she says.

In the end, the sentiment is repeated. In tennis, love means zero. And that’s the Challengers’ conceit. Sitting across from the umpire (who is — fun fact — played by her real-life assistant Darnell Appling) in the central tennis scene, her judgment is all. It’s like the final scene of Love and Basketball — they’re playing for her heart. And her heart is always with the game.

Challengers will make a tennis fan of you. While you don’t need to know the game in order to follow the plot, its artistic representation of the game — from the writing to the directorial shot list — will satisfy the superfans and intrigue the newbies.

Let’s get to the point (pun intended): Is Zendaya’s Tashi a triumph?

Earlier this year, Timothee Chalamet achieved the impressive feat of starring in two of the year’s highest-grossing films — Dune: Part Two and Wonka. I predict that by the time they stop this weekend’s Box Office count, Zendaya will achieve the same feat with Dune: Part Two and Challengers.

While she’s the heart of Dune: Part Two, she’s finally taking her rightful place as a leading lady with her turn as Tashi Duncan. After playing high schoolers for decades from Spider-Man to Euphoria, the role of Tashi is the perfect transition. We meet Tashi the summer after high school, before she heads to Stanford, and watch her grow into an adult in real-time. Zendaya and her character get similar arcs.

Zendaya deftly handles Tashi’s youthful confidence with her jaded older self while rocking that damn bob. It’s up to you to decide whether you love this character or despise her. There’s a viral interview in which an interviewer remarks that as much as he loves Zendaya, this character kind of made him hate her. Meanwhile, I — lover of maneaters and female manipulators — am pinning photos of Tashi to my vision board as we speak.

Audiences are split on their takes on Tashi but everyone agrees: Zendaya played her with the chill-inducing complexity she deserves. EGOT soon! This is Zendaya’s magnum opus — so far. She’s proven she’s a movie star, a leading lady, and an adult woman ready to play older roles. I can’t wait for what she does next.

Challengers will hit theaters on Friday, April 26th. Watch the full trailer here:

INDIO, Calif. — 

After Coachella’s back-to-back weekends, barely any grass remains on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club. But that hasn’t stopped tens of thousands of country fans from venturing here for Stagecoach, which got underway Friday afternoon and runs though Sunday night with headliners Eric Church, Miranda Lambert and Morgan Wallen. The Times’ Mikael Wood and Vanessa Franko are at the festival, notebooks in hand and bandanas in place. Here’s a rundown of the highlights and lowlights of Day 1.

Eric Church lives up to his name

Church used his fifth headlining appearance at Stagecoach as an opportunity to try something different: Instead of leading his sturdy road band through a set of the hits that have made him a kind of older-brother figure to the likes of Wallen and Luke Combs, Church turned the so-called Mane Stage into an open-air chapel (complete with stained glass) for a stripped-down acoustic performance in which he was backed by a 16-member gospel choir.

The set mixed originals like “Mistress Named Music” and “Like Jesus Does” with far-flung covers: “Amazing Grace,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “Take Me to the River” and “Gin and Juice.” His aim seemed to be to showcase the music that formed him as a kid growing up in small-town North Carolina — and to draw attention, in this year of Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter,” to the Black roots of country music. (The performance also shared some DNA with the solo-acoustic residency Church has going at Chief’s, his new bar in Nashville, where Wallen was arrested this month for throwing a chair off the roof.)

Energy-wise, it was a risky choice at the end of a day many spent drinking in the sun: Half an hour or so after Church opened with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” — probably not a song anyone still needs to keep doing, if we’re being honest — one guy near me yelled, “This is Friday night, not Sunday morning!” As they went along, though, Church and his accompanists picked up a righteous steam. — Mikael Wood

Dwight Yoakam and the fabulous flying fringe

If you’re going to wear a Canadian tuxedo, make it memorable.

While top-and-bottom denim is a perennial look for Yoakam, on Friday the troubadour paired it with his standard cowboy hat and boots, but the standout was the jacket covered in white fringe on the front and back.

Yoakam, whose name was misspelled on the official Stagecoach set-times sign outside of the Palomino stage (as was Nickelback’s), started about 10 minutes after his scheduled start of 7:20 p.m.

Back to the fringe, it was almost hypnotic to watch it bounce and sway as Yoakam shimmied and shuffled across the stage while he and his band (also snazzily dressed with sparkles, no fringe) played songs including “Little Sister,” “Streets of Bakersfield” and a cover of Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Since Yoakam didn’t allow press to photograph his set, the best you can get from us is a stick–figure drawing I made — unfortunately art is not my strong suit and I really couldn’t do the fringe justice.

Other than a couple of feedback screeches on the microphone, Yoakam and his band played a tight set. The crowd began filtering out to hike over to the Mane Stage to catch Jelly Roll, which was a shame because Yoakam just kept getting better with “Honky Tonk Man” and “Guitars, Cadillacs” in the back half of the performance. — Vanessa Franko

Best multitasker: Jelly Roll

Nobody made more of their time at Stagecoach than Jelly Roll, who, before his set on the Mane Stage, turned up for a cooking demo with Guy Fieri and afterwards schlepped over to the Palomino to join Nickelback for “Rockstar.”

His primary performance was a condensed version of the road show he’s been touring hard over the past couple of years, with bruised yet muscular country hits like “Son of a Sinner” and “Save Me” alongside a medley of the hip-hop classics (including Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend”) that inspired him to become a rapper before he turned to singing.

He brought out Maddie & Tae to do a new song, “Liar,” that he said he’d put on his next album if the crowd liked it (and wouldn’t if the crowd didn’t); he also brought out T-Pain, who did “All I Do Is Win” and helped Jelly Roll pay tribute to the late Toby Keith with a take on Keith’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”

After “Need a Favor,” Jelly Roll ushered his wife and daughter to the stage — he’d taken his daughter out of school for the day and flown her to California, he happily pointed out — and thanked the audience for changing their trajectory of their lives. Then he did a spiel about proving naysayers wrong that climaxed with his enumerating how many People’s Choice Awards he’s won. Iconic, obviously. — M.W.

Worst surprise guest: the wind

Jelly Roll brought out T-Pain. Mother Nature brought out winds that were so bad that if you drove in to the festival along the 10 Freeway it was difficult to see the mountains because of the dust.

While the worst of the wind was west of the festival site (some gusts reached upwards of 60 and 70 m.p.h. in the Coachella Valley, according to the National Weather Service), the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued a windblown dust advisory through late Friday. And if you were on the grounds, you could feel all of that windblown dust sticking to you.

It did lead to some interesting people-watching, though, as many a cowboy hat was chased across the field. — V.F.

A return visit from a Coachella headliner

A week after she headlined Coachella — and with an album on the way called “Lasso” to hype — Lana Del Rey turned up at Stagecoach to trill the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” with Paul Cauthen, a hammy up-and-comer with a booming baritone and a televangelist’s fashion sense. No idea what kind of relationship these two might share in real life, but together onstage they brought a touch of slightly creepy glamour to the desert. — M.W.

Inside the secret spots that make you feel like you’re not at a country festival

Heading into the weekend, George Michael, INXS and the Human League were among the artists I would’ve least expected to hear at Stagecoach.

But if you make your way to the password-protected Sonny’s — the ’80s-tastic speakeasy from Attaboy with a light-up dance floor and tropical print wallpaper that could have been ripped from the bedroom of one of the Golden Girls — it’s less honkytonk and more new wave.

Surrounding Sonny’s is the outdoor tiki-inspired speakeasy Tropicale from PDT, but you still get the same ‘80s tunes pumping from inside Sonny’s. You can find the secret bars near the Golden Road patio heading to Diplo’s Honkytonk.

The third speakeasy, the Basement, is also back for Stagecoach. It still has black-light posters of Cheech & Chong and neon artwork of an alien with dorm-room vibes, but it’s where you’ll hear alt-rock and mainstream hip-hop from the ’90s. When I stopped by I was greeted with a Sublime sing-along from fellow patrons followed by some Cypress Hill and Eminem. You can access it via chef Aaron May’s Porky’s barbecue pop-up near the rainbow Spectra tower. — V.F.

One to watch

Is it too early to anoint the next Zach Bryan? Wyatt Flores, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter from Bryan’s home state of Oklahoma, seemed to be gunning for the job in an impressive set on the Palomino Stage that got the place shouting along at top volume, as folks do with Bryan at his famously rowdy gigs. With a scraped-up voice and a pained-looking expression on his face, Flores sang ragged yet cathartic emo-country songs about bottoming out emotionally; he also added the Fray to the list of 1990s/2000s rock acts shaping the sound of modern Nashville with a punked-up rendition of that band’s “How to Save a Life.” — M.W.

A difference of opinion

Her dad, comedian Rob Schneider, has lately reoriented his career around railing against what he calls “woke bull—.” But Elle King introduced her cover of Tyler Childers’ “Jersey Giant” with as woke a set of instructions as I heard all day: “Grab someone you know. If not, ask permission.” — M.W.

Best country singer dressed for her performance as a European milkmaid: Hailey Whitters

Real Swiss Miss energy. — M.W.

Most stylish cowboy hat worn by an artist who also played Coachella: Carin León

The rootsy yet polished Mexican singer and songwriter was the first Spanish-language act to play a full set at Stagecoach, a sign of both his popularity and that of the regional Mexican music that also took him (and Mexico’s Peso Pluma) to Coachella this month. — M.W.

Right where they belong

“Very strange to be playing a country festival,” Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger said not long into the band’s late-night set, but it wasn’t really: Nashville has been absorbing Nickelback’s caveman-rock lessons for years, as Kroeger reminded us when he brought out Hardy (who shares Nickelback’s longtime producer, Joey Moi) to yowl his happily knuckle-dragging “Sold Out.” — M.W.