Global entertainment roundup: Skydance, Swift No. 1, Emmys

This global entertainment roundup for Tuesday 6 October 2026 leads with the biggest Hollywood deal in years, as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery become Skydance. We also cover Transformers, Tom Cruise’s Digger, the Emmys, Taylor Swift, AI deepfakes, K-pop and a viral moment at Chanel. Each item is checked against the outlet that reported it, linked in the text.

The short answer

• Skydance: the Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger has closed, with David Ellison in charge.
• Digger: Tom Cruise’s film opened to $8 million in North America and could lose $150 million or more, Variety estimates.
• Emmys: Prime Video takes over the Primetime Emmys from September 2027 in a six-year global deal.
• Charts: Swift’s “Patient Zero” goes straight to the top of the Hot 100, and &TEAM reach the Billboard 200 top 20 for the first time.
• AI: Sony Music has now asked platforms to remove more than 260,000 deepfake tracks.

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery become Skydance

The merger closed on Tuesday, and the combined business is now Skydance Corp., run by David Ellison as chairman and chief executive. Variety values the deal at $111 billion once Warner Bros. Discovery’s debt is included, while Deadline puts it at about $110 billion. It brings together two major film studios, networks including CBS, CNN, TBS, MTV and Comedy Central, and the Paramount+ and HBO Max streamers, which will eventually become one service.

The company expects annual revenue of nearly $70 billion but starts with about $80 billion in net debt. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange as SKYD, and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders receive just over $31.01 in cash per share. Ellison described it as “a historic day” for Skydance and for the wider industry. Variety expects thousands of job cuts in the coming months.

Spielberg takes charge of Transformers 8

Steven Spielberg will oversee every creative aspect of Paramount’s next live-action Transformers film, as well as serving as an executive producer with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, insiders told Variety. Jason Fuchs is writing the script, and the story is set in the present day, with other plot details under wraps. No director has been named, and Shia LaBeouf, who starred in the early films, will not return. The franchise has earned more than $5.4 billion at the global box office.

Tom Cruise’s Digger stumbles

Digger, a darkly satirical comedy from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu with Cruise as an oil tycoon, opened to $8 million in North America and $20 million worldwide. According to Variety, it cost between $160 million and $180 million to make, plus around $100 million in marketing, and the outlet now expects a theatrical loss of $150 million to $200 million or more. It ranks among the weakest openings of Cruise’s career.

Cruise had already addressed opening weekends in a podcast interview, released the day the film opened, that has since gone viral. On On Film With Kevin McCarthy, he said he aims to make “a lasting piece of cinema” rather than chase first-weekend numbers.

The Emmys move to Prime Video

The Television Academy has confirmed that Amazon’s Prime Video will show the Primetime Emmys under a six-year deal beginning in September 2027. Terms were not announced, but Variety, citing sources, reports a fee of around $15 million a year for global rights. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox paid about $8 million to $10 million a year, and that covered only US rights. The deal ends the 31-year “wheel” in which those networks took turns to air the ceremony, and means the ceremony will not air on broadcast television for the first time since its 1949 debut. It will be free to watch, outside the paywall, in more than 240 countries and territories.

Taylor Swift ends Ella Langley’s record run

Swift’s “Patient Zero” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1 on the chart published on Monday 5 October, Parade and Variety report. The song displaces Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas”, which spent a record 24 weeks at No. 1 and now slips to No. 2. Three more new songs from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore follow at Nos. 3 to 5: “Cleveland!”, “Babylon” and “Pink Clouding”. This is Swift’s 16th Hot 100 No. 1, and only the Beatles (20) and Mariah Carey (19) have more.

Sony Music’s growing deepfake problem

Sony Music has asked digital platforms to take down more than 260,000 AI deepfake tracks, Billboard has confirmed, after the Financial Times first reported the figure. That is almost twice the 135,000 takedown requests Sony had disclosed in March. A Sony spokesperson told Billboard that the fakes copy its artists’ voices and likenesses without permission, and described enforcement as “an uphill struggle”. The US has no federal law to stop an artist’s voice or likeness being used in a deepfake, only an uneven mix of state laws, Billboard notes. The industry-backed NO FAKES Act was blocked in the Senate last week by Senator Ted Cruz.

&TEAM reach a Billboard 200 high

&TEAM’s Korean mini album Mark on Me has entered the Billboard 200 at No. 20, the group’s best position and only its second entry on the chart after We on Fire, Soompi reports. It also topped Billboard’s World Albums chart, a first for the group, and at No. 3 on Top Album Sales. &TEAM returned to the Artist 100 at No. 18, a career high.

IVE, ILLIT and RIIZE all release on 26 October

K-pop has more than a dozen notable releases this month, and three big names have picked the same day, The Korea Times reports. On 26 October, IVE release Looks Can Kill, their first album in about eight months. ILLIT’s fifth mini album, BREAK EVEN, arrives at 6 p.m. Korean time (10 a.m. in Lagos), and RIIZE release a prologue single ahead of a second full-length album due next spring. Earlier in the month, NMIXX return on 19 October and BLACKPINK’s Lisa releases her EP PRESS PLAY on 23 October.

Kidman lip-syncs “Nicole Kidman” in Paris

In Paris on Monday 5 October, before Chanel showed its Spring/Summer 2027 collection, Nicole Kidman, Pedro Pascal, Dua Lipa and Kristen Wiig filmed a lip-sync video to “Nicole Kidman”, the viral song by Slovak singer ADÉLA, Parade reports. Wiig mimed the first line, Pascal and Lipa followed, and Kidman came in last, mouthing the lyric that names her. The track is from ADÉLA’s debut album, PRIMA, and climbed to second place on Spotify’s global chart in September, according to Parade.

What to watch

• Skydance: job cuts and plans for combining HBO Max and Paramount+.
• The Hot 100: whether “Choosin’ Texas” returns to No. 1 next week.
• Film: Digger’s second weekend, and any director announcement for Transformers 8.
• K-pop: the three-way release day on 26 October.

Related: Skydance leadership team: who runs the company now; Patient Zero Hot 100 debut ends Ella Langley’s record run. More in our International Entertainment section.

Sources

• Variety: Paramount-Warner Bros. $111 billion merger officially closes (6 Oct 2026)
• Deadline: Merger of Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery officially closes (6 Oct 2026)
• Variety: Steven Spielberg to oversee Transformers franchise (6 Oct 2026)
• Variety: Tom Cruise on Digger and opening weekends (6 Oct 2026)
• Variety: Emmys move to Prime Video in six-year global deal (6 Oct 2026)
• Parade: Choosin’ Texas loses No. 1 after 24 weeks to Taylor Swift (Oct 2026)
• Variety: Patient Zero bumps Choosin’ Texas out of No. 1 (5 Oct 2026)
• Billboard: Sony Music has requested removal of over 260,000 AI deepfake songs (5 Oct 2026)
• Soompi: &TEAM top World Albums and enter Billboard 200 top 20 (6 Oct 2026)
• The Korea Times: IVE, ILLIT, RIIZE collide as October K-pop comeback race heats up (6 Oct 2026)
• Parade: Nicole Kidman lip-syncs the viral song named after her at Chanel (Oct 2026)