2018

## Events

Before it was officially announced that CBS and Viacom would merge into a new entity known as ViacomCBS, Viacom Digital Studios continues to drive social video engagement, as the company more than doubled views year-over-year in fiscal 2018 year-run.

On January 12, 2018, CNBC reported that Viacom had re-entered talks to merge back into CBS Corporation after the AT&T-Time Warner merger was planned, as well as Disney's proposed acquisition of most 21st Century Fox assets and heavy competition from companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Shortly afterward, it was reported that the combined company could be a suitor for acquiring the film studio Lionsgate. Viacom and Lionsgate were both interested in acquiring The Weinstein Company (TWC) in the wake of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Viacom was listed as one of 22 potential buyers that were interested in acquiring TWC. They lost the bid, and on March 1, 2018, it was announced that Maria Contreras-Sweet would acquire all of TWC's assets for $500 million.

On March 30, 2018, CBS made an all-stock offer slightly below Viacom's market value and insisted that its existing leadership, including long-time chairman and CEO Les Moonves, oversee the re-combined company. Viacom rejected the offer as being too low, requesting an increase of $2.8 billion, and requesting that Bob Bakish be maintained as president and COO under Moonves. It was reported that these conflicts had resulted from Shari Redstone seeking more control over CBS and its leadership.

Eventually, on May 14, 2018, CBS Corporation sued its and Viacom's parent company National Amusements and accused Redstone of abusing her voting power in the company and forcing a merger that was not supported by CBS or Viacom. CBS also accused Redstone of discouraging Verizon Communications from acquiring it, which could have been beneficial to its shareholders.

On May 23, 2018, Les Moonves stated that he considered the Viacom channels to be an "albatross," and while he favored more content for CBS All Access, he believed that there were better deals for CBS than the Viacom deal, such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate or Sony Pictures. Moonves also considered Bakish a threat because he did not want an ally of Redstone as a board member of the combined company.

On September 9, 2018, Moonves left CBS after being accused by twelve women of sexual assault. National Amusements agreed to not propose a CBS-Viacom merger for at least two years after the date of the settlement.

## Film releases

* January 25 - *Padmaavat*
* February 4 - *The Cloverfield Paradox*
* February 23 - *Annihilation*
* March 23 - *Sherlock Gnomes*
* April 6 - *A Quiet Place*
* May 18 - *Book Club*
* June 1 - *Action Point*
* July 27 - *Mission: Impossible - Fallout*
* August 31 - *The Footbolistics*
* November 2 - *Nobody's Fool*
* November 9 - *Overlord*
* November 16 - *Instant Family*
* December 21 - *Bumblebee*

## Shows

* Life Sentence
* One Dollar
* Instinct
* Strange Angel
* Insatiable
* Whistleblower
* FBI
* Magnum P.I. (2018)
* The Neighborhood
* All American
* Charmed (2018)
* Legacies
* Our Cartoon President
* Happy Together
* God Friended Me
* The Contender
* The Haunting of Hill House
* Maniac
* The Alienist
* Condor
* Jack Ryan
* The Adventures of Kid Danger
* Zoofari
* Knight Squad
* Keep It Spotless
* Star Falls
* Double Dare (revival)
* Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
* Nick Cannon Presents: Fresh Artist
* Butterbean's Café
* Cousins for Life
* My Dead Ex
* Light as a Feather
* All Night
* Overthinking with Kat & June

## People

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