-Endeavor is the parent company of WME (reps Oprah, Tyler Perry, other big names)

-Endeavor acquired Harry Walker Agency (where M&H were signed on as speakers) in Nov. 2019

-Bozoma St John left her role as CMO of Endeavor & began as the CMO of Netflix in Aug. 2020

Ted Sarandos (Netflix) & Nicole Avant (former US Ambassador to the Bahamas under Obama admin) live in Hancock Park, LA. Bozoma bought a place in Hancock Park in Oct 2019. Oprah moved her network, OWN, to The Lot Studios in 2015.

Tyler Perry/Tyler Perry Films has an exclusive film contract with Viacom/Paramount (since 2017)

He **just** ended the exclusive TV contract he had with Oprah’s OWN and his new TV work will be licensed by Viacom w/ additional distribution rights.

https://deadline.com/2017/07/tyler-perry-viacom-film-tv-deal-with-viacom-1202128622/

Currently, the show Greenleaf - produced by Oprah/Harpo & Lionsgate - and the show Queen Sugar - produced by Harpo/Warner Bros - are both showing on Netflix.

Both were the first scripted series acquired by OWN that were not produced by Tyler Perry.

A spin-off of Greenleaf called ‘Delilah’ was just ordered by OWN. One big difference: the series will be produced with Warner Bros rather than with Lionsgate this time.

Perhaps the deal is a signal of a larger alignment??

Lionsgate penned a pact with Hulu (owned by Disney!) and FX as their exclusive distributors for *movies* (not TV series, just feature films) for 2020-2021

Is Oprah going with Warner Bros something we’ll see more of?

Is Tyler Perry’s previous deal an indication of the type of exclusive rights Oprah might have to Harry & Meghan’s series/films?

Will we see Harpo x Warner Bros x the Sussexes soon-to-be production studios?

And seriously, what’s Endeavor’s role? (Fun fact: a top dog there was who Entourage’s Ari is based on!)

Did Endeavor/WME rep Meg & Harry and broker a deal with Netflix?

Or is Endeavor a sinking ship and Netflix is removing the middleman?

Who knows!

Don’t forget:

A) The NYT article mentions all of this in their breaking news about the Sussex’ Netflix deal. Queen Sugar, an OWN show, is created/written by Ava DuVernay

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/business/media/harry-meghan-netflix.html

As well as:

B) we don’t know the details of the Netflix deal. It’s just vague verbiage about Netflix paying them (aka Suspect Royal Studios ) to make shows at this point

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/business/media/harry-meghan-netflix.html

Another wedding guest who is repped by WME... has a production studio... and has a deal with Apple TV+

Why did they go to Netflix when Oprah and Idris went to Apple?

(Article from July 2020) https://deadline.com/2020/07/idris-elba-first-look-deal-apple-1202983785/