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Soon-Shiong’s Studio Shenanigans

Rob Schneider’s pitch for a MAGA talk show at the Los Angeles Times never materialized—but what’s unfolding behind the scenes at the Patrick Soon-Shiong-owned newspaper's in-house studio may be even more surreal.

Author

Oliver Darcy
April 08, 2025

Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Last year, anti-vaccine actor Rob Schneider paid a visit to the Los Angeles Times headquarters, accompanied by "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Cheryl Hines, for a tour of the newspaper’s studio facilities alongside its MAGA-curious owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong. As we first reported, Schneider was in active talks with Soon-Shiong about launching a conservative alternative to "The View." He envisioned it as a talk show with a rotating panel of hosts that would appeal to the MAGA crowd and which would be filmed live in front of a studio audience.

But the partnership never got off the ground, largely because of one key issue: money. According to internal financial figures I have now obtained, Schneider proposed an eye-popping annual budget north of $14 million to produce the show—an amount that raised eyebrows inside the building. Soon-Shiong, who made his fortune in biotech and has since tried to apply Silicon Valley logic to the media business, was taken aback by the ask, I'm told. He believed the show could be created for a fraction of the cost using his in-house LA Times Studios division. Soon-shiong balked at the proposal from Schneider and walked away from the talks before writing the first check.

Still, the failed deal says less about Schneider, whose representative did not respond to a request for comment, than it does about Soon-Shiong’s larger ambitions. In recent months, he has quietly…

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