‘Deputy,’ Fox’s new cop drama, netted a decent debut Thursday night, bringing in a 0.8 rating in the key adult 18-49 demographic and 4.8 million total viewers, per final figures. For context, the network’s “Prodigal Son” notched a 0.96 and 4 million viewers when it debuted in the fall, and CBS’ ‘Carol’s Second Act” and
Month: January 2020
January 3, 2020 8:14AM PT ‘Killing Eve,’ starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, has been picked up for Season 4 by BBC America ahead of its Season 3 premiere. “How could we not have massive confidence in Killing Eve? It has won big in every major award show and is the highest growing show on
January 3, 2020 7:50AM PT Sony Pictures and Screen Gems’ “The Grudge” took in a solid $1.8 million from previews on Thursday, as the low-budget horror film looks to elbow into a box office scene that’s been dominated throughout the holidays by “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” and “Jumanji: The Next Level.” The film
With long-rumored headliners Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and Rage Against the Machine, the Coachella 2020 lineup is a contemporary yet familiar combination of several of the festival’s traditional, interchangeable elements. The elusive Ocean is the big get, while Scott reps hip-hop (mandatory in 2020) and Rage checks both the Influential Throwback and Big Rock boxes;
In this week’s International TV Newswire, Variety looks at what Netflix overseas rankings say about its business model, a BBC iPlayer smash hit, Viacom’s latest production as it swells Spanish-language scripted titles at Miami-based Viacom Intl. Studios, a Netflix Egyptian puppet show, and HBO Latin America’ first fantasy suspense series in Brazil: Netflix: Rankings Suggest
iQIYI, a video streaming company that is often referred to as China’s Netflix, needs to raise new finance. Equally, there is an imperative for it to grow internationally. The two issues go hand in hand. That’s because its powerful growth surge in China has slowed dramatically, and so far has not yet yielded the profitability
Chinese streaming giant iQIYI has appointed Kelvin Yau as the new vice president of international business department and general manager of iQIYI Thailand. Yau will oversee the company’s strategic growth, operations and overall development in Thailand, and begin in early 2020. Yau comes to iQIYI from BBC Studios, where he was since 2015 the senior
U.S. news outlets scrambled to cover the nation’s attack on a top Iran military official by shaking up normal programming schedules, even as they had to work around the holiday vacation schedules of some of their best known correspondents. MSNBC brought Rachel Maddow back to its schedule at midnight eastern on Friday, assigning her an
The Variety staff picks the funny, tragic, weird and wonderful (some all at once) moments from 2019 films. Spoilers to follow! “1917”Beneath the visceral tension of the immersive action in “1917” lies a contemplative character study about the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of two young soldiers on an impossible mission. Palpable
Acid attacks on women by spurned men are endemic in South Asia. Top Indian actor Deepika Padukone is debuting as a producer and headlining the cast of Disney-owned Fox Star Studios’ “Splash” (“Chhapaak”), a film that deals with the issue. India’s Hindi-language film industry, known popularly — or pejoratively, depending on your point of view
Chinese authorities have approved a new set of comprehensive regulations that expand the scope of online censorship, emphasize the war against “negative” content and make platforms more liable for content violations. While China previously had numerous, separate regulations floating about for everything from live-streaming to news media to chat groups, the new “Provisions on the
When Tom Hanks jogged onto screen in his feature film debut in the 1980 slasher pic “He Knows You’re Alone,” one probably couldn’t have predicted he would go on to become one of the most successful and beloved actors of all time. Playing a psychology student who postulates about the appeal of fear, Hanks makes
Hollywood films had a historically unsuccessful year at the China box office in 2019, data from Chinese authorities and online ticketing platform Maoyan show, although the country’s theatrical revenues rose to a new all-time high. American titles accounted for just two of the country’s top ten grossers last year, with “Avengers: Endgame” placing third and
Celebrities really are just like us. Turns out that — like the rest of the Internet — Jennifer Lopez is a huge fan of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The “Hustlers” star opened up about her appreciation for the judge and how she invited the 86-year-old to the Washington stop of her It’s My
The Directors Guild of America is scrambling to correct an accidental omission of “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway from the org’s awards ballot. In an email sent this week to DGA members (and in a note that also appears on its website), the org said Soloway was “inadvertently omitted from the comedy series ballot” for “Transparent
After about 90 minutes of one-at-a-time reveals via Twitter, the Coachella festival finally announced its 2020 lineup, with headliners Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean. Judging by the poster’s font size (the key indication of status), other prominent acts include Lana Del Rey, Calvin Harris, Run the Jewels, Lil Uzi Vert, Rex
With streamers such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and newcomer Apple TV Plus bringing top talent into the Globes race, this year’s red carpet is looking starrier than ever — and more vibrant. Two years after the Globes fashion “blackout,” contenders are wearing clothes as bold and groundbreaking as the characters they portray. “If
According to a newly unsealed report from a PBS-hired external investigator, former talk-show host Tavis Smiley’s alleged misconduct dates back decades and spans inappropriate sexual comments and touching, verbal abuse, as well as sexual relationships with subordinates and guests on his show. The findings from March 2018 were filed by Smiley’s legal team as part
January 2, 2020 6:32PM PT Just days after Mariah Carey’s Twitter account was hacked by the hacker group known as Chuckling Squad, it appears “Uncut Gems” star Adam Sandler’s has been improperly accessed as well. The hacker this time retweeted tweets from several accounts, but focused primarily on the handle @iNuBLoM, which was also referenced
Tavis Smiley has lost a bid to throw out PBS’ lawsuit that accuses him of violating his contract by having sex with his subordinates. Smiley’s attorneys had argued that PBS was trying to punish him for behavior that long predated his current contract. But in a ruling on Thursday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams
January 2, 2020 6:00PM PT A reboot of a remake of a film that wasn’t all that scary to begin with, the new version of ‘The Grudge’ conjures nothing but the dregs of J-horror. Twenty years ago, a new wave of Japanese supernatural gothic thrillers brought fresh tropes of dread to a genre that was
Despite recent reports, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige did not intend to confirm that a transgender character will appear in an upcoming film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, two sources tell Variety. While participating in a guest lecture series for the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles in December, Feige was asked if the
Women filmmakers in key roles behind the camera, or “below the line,” saw an increase in employment in 2019, a new study from San Diego State University says. Twenty percent of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers across the top 100 films of the year were women, said research out of SDSU’s Center for the
While former ESPN commentator Jemele Hill hasn’t seen “Bombshell,” she still commented on its unimpressive box office showing on Twitter Thursday. “I wouldn’t see this movie if the fate of humanity depended on it. Pains me to say that because I love the three lead actresses,” Hill tweeted on Thursday. “Fox News is a destructive,
Call it the J.J. Effect. Animatronics — along with similar techniques like puppetry, makeup effects and miniatures — is making a comeback. The work was long responsible for some of the most iconic characters and scenes in cinema history, then shunted aside in the 1990s as CGI became cheaper and delivered ever more realistic results.
Jason Segel’s new AMC anthology “Dispatches From Elsewhere” is having its first audience screening at NeueHouse Hollywood, the newest of the exclusive-ish members-only workspace clubs with which Los Angeles is being overrun. The mid-December crowd is intimate, mostly friends of Segel. Since the end of “How I Met Your Mother,” on which he starred for nine years, the
January 2, 2020 2:06PM PT Variety and PBS SoCal’s 11th edition of the Emmy award-winning series “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors” premieres Thursday on PBS SoCal at 8 p.m. PT. “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors” features one-on-one conversations between this season’s top awards contenders. All four episodes will air on PBS stations across the nation as
January 2, 2020 2:02PM PT RuPaul’s eponymous daytime talk show is not moving forward after last summer’s three-week trial run, a source familiar with the matter tells Variety. “RuPaul,” which mixed celebrity and newsmaker interviews and focused on empowering and aspirational messaging, was produced by World of Wonder and Telepictures, and distributed by Warner Bros.
She already has more than 30 Emmy Awards, a star on the Walk of Fame, a Peabody, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Now Ellen DeGeneres is adding another trophy to her list of accomplishments: the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s Carol Burnett Award. The honor, which was created
According to the traditional Chinese calendar, January 25 marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year and the start of the Year of the Rat. To celebrate, Gucci has unveiled a very literal collection featuring the most famous rodent of the world: Mickey Mouse. Titled the ‘Year of the Mouse,’ the vast collection from creative