The Mastermind of the Yellowstone Universe Isn’t Done Yet

Chris McCarthy is shaking his head. The co-chief executive officer of Paramount Global would rather not talk about Donald Trump, who’s suing a subsidiary, CBS, over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. (He claims it was deceptively edited; the network says it wasn’t.) At the same time, the company’s $8 billion merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media LLC is awaiting sign-off from federal regulators. Officially there’s no connection between the two. But consensus in Hollywood and Washington is the Federal Communications Commission won’t let the merger proceed until the suit is settled.

So it would be easier for McCarthy if everyone at Paramount laid off the president. But that’s not going to happen, and McCarthy knows it. He’s the one who lured Jon Stewart back to The Daily Show, after all. And Stewart, like all late-night TV hosts, can’t stop talking about Trump.