This article contains spoilers for The Rehearsal season two, episode two.
It’s not a good day to be Paramount. The company is attempting to see its merger with Skydance through to the finish, but it’s fielding attacks from all sides: from the government, from its own news programs, from rival studios and former employees. The latter comes in the form of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, which on Sunday took overt aim at streaming service Paramount+.
Fielder targeted Paramount+ for removing the “Summit Ice” episode of his Comedy Central series Nathan For You from its library. On The Rehearsal, he says he was told that the episode (in which he makes an apparel line that benefits Holocaust education) was removed because of “sensitivities” around antisemitism. In typical Rehearsal fashion, Fielder recreates the whole situation and, most controversially, uses Nazi imagery to depict the streamer. Sources for Variety claim that the streamer was not given a heads-up about this storyline by the show or by HBO. Paramount+ did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club‘s request for comment.
In the episode, Fielder claims that his Summit Ice merch has raised millions of dollars for Holocaust awareness, which he calls his “proudest achievement.” He says the “decision was made by Paramount+ Germany to remove the episode in their region after they became uncomfortable with what they called anything that touches on antisemitism in the aftermath of the Israel/Hamas attacks,” a decision that was then replicated by other territories. Fielder, who is Jewish himself, accused the streamer of erasing Jewish content from its library. But he also offered another perspective courtesy of the German actor hired to stand in as a Paramount+ exec: “Look at you pretending to be serious. This is not sincere. Just a man with a grudge using his television show to smear us instead of trying to understand us.”
The Rehearsal aired the same evening that 60 Minutes called out its parent company in regards to the resignation of executive producer Bill Owens. “Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” Owens previously said in explanation for his departure. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires,” correspondent Scott Pelley elaborated on Sunday’s program. “No one here is happy about it, but in resigning, Bill proved one thing: he was the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along.”
