In this March 29, 2017, file photo, Shari Redstone attends the premiere of "Ghost in the Shell" at AMC Loews Lincoln Square in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) --
CBS is suing its controlling shareholder as part of its long-running attempt to avoid a combination with Viacom.
Both companies are controlled by National Amusements. That's the holding company run by Shari Redstone, the daughter of media mogul Sumner Redstone. Though National Amusements abandoned a proposal for CBS and Viacom to combine in 2016, CBS fears it may come up again.
Now, CBS is suing to block any interference by National Amusements ahead of a CBS board vote on a dividend that would dilute National Amusements' voting interest from 79 percent to 17 percent. CBS says that would make CBS independent and allow it to "more fully evaluate strategic alternatives."
National Amusements says it is "outraged" and has no intention of forcing a deal not supported by both companies.
Ashley Walters, left, and Rosalind Eleazar pose for photographers at a photo call for the television series "Missing You," Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
It's Netflix's resolution every new year to give viewers a headscratcher in January.
Since 2020, the streamer has released a U.K. miniseries based on thriller book by Harlan Coben over the holidays. It seems to have paid off: "Fool Me Once," starring Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, launched this past January and became what Netflix says was one of their most watched shows of the year, amassing 108 million views.
2025's seasonal suspense series is "Missing You," based on Coben's 2014 New York Times bestseller. It stars Rosalind Eleazar ("Slow Horses") as Detective Inspector Kat Donovan, a police officer who specializes in finding missing people — apart from the fiance that vanished 11 years earlier.
"They know Jan. 1 is the sweet spot for them," says actor Richard Armitage, who has appeared in each winter Coben adaptation, which relocates the stories from the books' America to the north of England. "People have ownership over the show now, so like, 'I want my Harlan Coben show on New Year's Day. Give me my Harlan Coben fix.'"
"It's perfect timing for the release, to be honest," says co-star Ashley Walters. "Most people are going to be hung over or, you know, just not have anything to do with the day."
The show opens with the shock of Donovan's ex-fiance (Walters) popping up on a dating app, over a decade after she came home one day to find him gone.
"I've ghosted people before," laughs Armitage. "Just people you don't want to talk to anymore. Not digitally though."
Another star, Jessica Plummer, isn't a fan of those who disappear without saying goodbye, though.
"I'd just feel too guilty," she admits, calling it "cowardly and lazy — sorry Richard!"
