Apple TV+ is in the early stages of developing a series about Gawker, the infamous news website brought down by Peter Thiel and Hulk Hogan. Per Vanity Fair, the show was conceived of and pitched by two former Gawker editors Cord Jefferson and Max Read, who are working on it with a group of writers, including some former staffers. Read resigned as Gawker’s editor-in-chief in 2015 following a controversial post about a Condé Nast executive and was a senior editor at New York Magazine until recently.
Jefferson began work in television after Gawker, on shows that include Watchmen and Succession. Though both writers declined to comment to Vanity Fair, the show will reportedly be a dramedy inspired by Gawker’s rise and influence in media. The website was bought by Bustle Digital Group in a 2018 bankruptcy auction. They attempted to resurrect the site, the myth, the legend last year to disastrous results. Its only two reporters quit in response to former editorial director Carson Griffith’s alleged offensive remarks. BDG laid off the rest of the staff a few months later, with Griffith leaving one month after that. At the time, BDG said it would postpone its Gawker reboot, but it looks especially unlikely as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the industry.