Here’s everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, February 17th, 2026:DAVID ELLISON JUST WON’T TAKE THE LOSSEarly Tuesday morning, the Warner Bros. Discovery board announced it plans to reopen merger negotiations with Paramount Skydance following that company’s revised offer.Which is a bit ironic, given that CBS made all sorts of headlines on Monday, as it continues its move to tamp down on-air dissent about its perceived move to the political right (more on that below).But first, more details on the reopened negotiations.Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it will hold the Special Meeting of Shareholders to vote on the merger with Netflix on March 20, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. WBD also announced today that Netflix has provided WBD a limited waiver under the terms of WBD’s merger agreement with Netflix, permitting WBD to engage in discussions with Paramount Skydance for a seven-day period ending on February 23rd, 2026 to seek clarity for WBD stockholders and provide PSKY the ability to make its best and final offer. During this period, WBD will engage with PSKY to discuss the deficiencies that remain unresolved and clarify certain terms of PSKY’s proposed merger agreement. Netflix retains its matching rights as defined by the merger agreement. The WBD Board of Directors continues to unanimously recommend in favor of the Netflix merger. The WBD Board also unanimously recommends that shareholders reject the PSKY offer.Following receipt of PSKY’s latest amended offer last week, a senior representative for PSKY informed a WBD Board member that, if the WBD Board authorized discussions, PSKY would agree to pay $31 per share and that the offer was not PSKY’s “best and final” proposal. This price, along with several other matters that PSKY stated it would address in its February 10th letter, are not reflected in the latest merger agreement that PSKY proposed. To provide specific clarity in this regard, WBD has today sent PSKY a letter setting out the key issues yet to be addressed by PSKY.Here is a copy of the letter the WBD board Paramount SkydanceDear Members of the PSKY Board: The Board of Directors of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is fully committed to delivering a superior transaction to our shareholders. Since our decision last year to separate our Streaming & Studios businesses from our Global Linear Networks business, we have actively explored a wide range of alternatives, including through a publicly-announced strategic review process in which Paramount Skydance (PSKY) participated, having initially approached WBD in September 2025. Our agreed transaction with Netflix offers superior value for our shareholders, allows us to achieve our strategic goal to separate WBD’s businesses, offers a high degree of certainty with minimal risk to the businesses in the interim and has essentially no financing risk. The WBD Board continues to unanimously recommend that our shareholders approve the Netflix transaction, as reflected in the definitive proxy statement we have filed with the SEC today.On February 10, PSKY amended its tender offer for WBD common stock. While this amendment addresses some of the concerns that WBD had identified several months ago, it still contains many of the unfavorable terms and conditions that were in the draft agreements submitted by PSKY on December 4, 2025 and December 22, 2025 and twice unanimously rejected by our Board. PSKY indicated in its February 10 letter to the WBD Board a willingness to address some of those concerns, but does not do so in its proposed merger agreement, leaving WBD with vague assurances of intention. Other important issues raised several times with PSKY are unchanged from your prior submissions. On February 11th, a senior representative of your financial advisor communicated orally to a member of our Board that PSKY would agree to pay $31 per WBD share if we engage with you, and that $31 is not PSKY’s best and final proposal. We are writing to inform you that Netflix has agreed to provide WBD a waiver of certain terms of the Netflix merger agreement to permit us, through February 23, to engage with PSKY to clarify your proposal, which we understand will include a WBD per share price higher than $31. We seek your best and final proposal. To be clear, our Board has not determined that your proposal is reasonably likely to result in a transaction that is superior to the Netflix merger. We continue to recommend and remain fully committed to our transaction with Netflix and have scheduled a special meeting of our shareholders on March 20, 2026 to vote on the Netflix merger agreement. As you know, it is typical and expected for a would-be overbidder to accept the substantive terms of the merger agreement that the target company has already agreed with its existing merger party. To provide you with specific clarity in this regard, we have prepared, and our legal counsel will deliver to you today, copies of transaction agreements that conform to this approach, address key issues for the WBD Board in prior PSKY offers and incorporate the terms and assurances reflected in your February 10 letter, as well as certain other changes to reflect matters unique to your proposal. Attached at the end of this letter is a business summary of these changes. As part of your binding proposal, the WBD Board needs confirmation that you are prepared to sign our proposed agreements. We encourage you to be direct and transparent with your best and final value and other terms in that binding proposal. During this seven-day period – as we consistently did during the strategic review process last year – we welcome the opportunity to engage with you and expeditiously determine whether PSKY can deliver an actionable, binding proposal that provides superior value, transaction certainty and interim protection for WBD’s businesses to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders.So we will see what happens. My best guess is that Netflix will still win this battle, given that it has the rights to match any Paramount Skydance offer. At this point, I can’t decide if all of this grandstanding is driven by David Ellison’s ego or a desire to drive up the cost of the deal for Netflix.

MONDAY WAS A BIG DAY AT CBS. AND I DON’T MEAN THAT IN A GOOD WAYMonday afternoon, CNN anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper released a statement confirming that he plans to leave the show at the end of the season (more on that below). And then Monday night, Late Show host Stephen Colbert announced on-air that CBS lawyers had forbid him from interviewing Texas State Rep. James Talarico. CBS lawyers also prohibited Colbert from discussing the decision on his show. So he proceeded to not only discuss the decision, but did an extended segment on FCC head Brendan Carr that ended with an image of a naked Carr holding a potted plant in order to cover his man-parts:

Colbert also announced he was interviewing Talarico for a segment that would air only on YouTube. But he told the audience CBS lawyers wouldn’t allow him to share the URL or a QR code for the interview.The resulting interview ran over 14 minutes and was a gift to the Talarico campaign. Not only was he able to talk at length about his faith (he’s a Presbyterian seminarian), he also took aim at Christian Nationalism, the merging of church and state as well as his belief that Texas was ready for a Democratic Senator. And most importantly for Talarico, Colbert didn’t bring up his primary opponent, Jasmine Crockett.Texas Republicans believe the more progressive Crockett would be easier to defeat in the November election, although that might be a bit of wishful thinking on their part. Regardless, giving Talarico the combination of national press coverage of the banning combined with a now-high profile interview is likely not what they wanted:

I am sure there are people at CBS who would like to pull Colbert from the air now, but that would trigger financial penalties as well as a massive wave of bad publicity. And that is certainly not what CBS owner Paramount Skydance wants just at the time when it is attempting to convince the Warner Bros. Discovery board that it is not too crazy to merge with.ANDERSON COOPER TO EXIT ‘60 MINUTES’Monday afternoon Anderson Cooper released a statement saying that he was leaving his role at 60 Minutes at the end of the season, in part because he wanted to spend more time with his family.While that is certainly part of the equation, it’s also true that Anderson has become increasingly troubled by new CBS News head Bari Weiss, who continues to try and put her editorial imprint on the long-running newsmagazine.One primary source of Anderson’s frustrations about Weiss centers around battles over a story he has been working on about the Trump administration’s decision to accept refugees from South Africa. Both Weiss and executive producer Tanya Simon have provided a long series of notes about the piece, most of which I have been told center around the reasoning behind the decision to only admit white South African refugees. According to a producer I spoke with, Weiss has been insistent about not implying the decision was racially motivated, arguing that no one in the Administration has stated that was the case. There has also been a long of back-and-forth about how to frame any possible role by Elon Musk (who migrated here from South Africa) in the decision.Another sticking point has centered around how to accurately frame the decision by the Trump Administration to limit legal immigration from black and brown countries at the same time it is opening immigration for white South Africans. Weiss has been pushing for noting the change without attributing any causal connection. While Anderson’s teams insist that ignores the obvious commonalities that need to be mentioned.Next up for the exit door at 60 Minutes is likely to be 84-year-old Lesley Stahl, whom I am told has been discussing retirement for awhile. And given everything that is happening on the show, this might be a good time to walk away.WHAT'S COMING TONIGHT AND TOMORROWTUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH:Love & Hip Hop Atlanta Season Premiere (MTV)Sommore: Chandelier Fly (Netflix)WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH:Being Gordon Ramsay (Netflix)56 Days Series Premiere (Prime Video)10 Pound Poms Season Two Premiere (BritBox)Wild Boys: Strangers In Town (Paramount+)SEE YOU EARLY WEDNESDAY!