MENLO PARK, Calif. — Wanda Sykes wears a lot of hats as a comedian, writer, producer and entrepreneur, and that gives her a keen sense of the ever-growing content marketplace. She also has a very clear understanding of what she’s worth in dollars and cents, as she shared Tuesday in her Q&A at Variety’s Silicon

April 23, 2019 1:21PM PT Just after NBC News recalibrated the fourth our of its daytime “Today” program, it has named a new executive producer to oversee the show. Joanne LaMarca, a longtime “Today” staffer who left NBC News in 2017 after a long run, will return as the new head of the 10 a.m.

HBO is bringing the Showtime Lakers to the scripted arena with “Showtime,” Variety has confirmed. The series, which has received a pilot order at the cabler, hails from Adam McKay, who will direct. “Showtime” will be based on Jeff Pearlman’s non-fiction book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.” “Jeff Pearlman’s

When “The 100” returns for its sixth season on April 30, the CW drama will thrust its characters into a brand new world. After escaping a no-longer habitable Earth at the end of the fifth season, the characters went into cryostasis until the planet was ready for life again. One hundred and twenty-five years later,

April 23, 2019 12:24PM PT David Milch, the creator of “Deadwood,” revealed his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in an interview published Tuesday. “As best I understand it, which is minimally, I have a deterioration in the organization of my brain,” Milch told Vulture. “And it’s progressive. And in some ways discouraging. In more than some ways —

MENLO PARK, Calif. — CBS All Access can’t serve up addressable advertising inventory fast enough for marketers hungry to reach consumers watching premium video online. That was the upbeat outlook shared by CBS Interactive CEO Jim Lanzone during his keynote address on Tuesday at Variety’s Silicon Valleywood presented by PwC. “There’s not a form of advertising

“The Good Fight” has been renewed for a fourth season at CBS All Access, Variety has learned. The legal drama, executive produced and run by Michelle King and Robert King, is currently streaming its third season on the Eye’s digital network. The show “continues to be a flagship original series for the service,” said Julie

April 23, 2019 11:10AM PT Netflix is set to add another adult animated show to its burgeoning slate, Variety as confirmed. The streamer has put out a series order of “Inside Job” from “Gravity Falls” and “Disenchantment” writer Shion Takeuchi. The show will be the first series Takeuchi produces under her recently-signed overall deal with Netflix.

The Peabody Board of Jurors have selected “$2 Tests: Bad Arrests,” “Anatomy of a Killing,” “Back of the Class,” “Cambridge Analytica,” “The Plastic Problem,” “Separated: Children at the Border” and “Spartan Silence: Crisis at Michigan State” as the 2019 Peabody Award winners in the news category, Variety has learned. Additionally, “Believed,” “Buried Truths,” “Caliphate,” “Kept

At the Time 100 Summit on Tuesday, Ryan Murphy revealed that he has 10 greenlit projects in the pipeline at Netflix, including three documentaries, four TV shows, and three movies. Murphy has previously announced five titles slated for a Netflix release. Three are shows, including “Ratched,” the drama series starring Sarah Paulson as the infamous

Last year, CBS hired two white-shoe law firms to conduct an independent investigation into alleged misconduct by then-CEO Leslie Moonves, as well as broader cultural issues at CBS. Writing for Variety, Whitney Davis — a veteran of the company’s news and entertainment divisions — describes how the investigation prompted her to reconsider her nearly decade-and-a-half career

When Christopher Abbott walked into the audition room to read for the lead role in “Catch-22,” George Clooney greeted him wearing a leather helmet. “I took a breath a little bit,” Abbott says. “I wasn’t as nervous. I was like, ‘All right, we can play.’” The icebreaker worked. Abbott landed the role of Capt. John

Virgin Media is adding the Amazon Prime Video app to its TV service. The Liberty Global-owned cabler will integrate the app into its ultra HD settop from this summer, meaning customers with the high-end box can access Prime Video directly. Virgin Media will be the first Liberty Global pay TV business to integrate Amazon’s streaming

France Télévisions has signed a deal with Discovery to sub-license exclusive free-to-air French broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games for Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024 from Eurosport, Discovery’s leading sports brand. Under the deal, France Télévisions will broadcast the 2022 and 2024 Olympic Games, as well as extended coverage, including dedicated streams covering every sport,

Ian McShane will still pause and watch an episode of “Deadwood” when it pops up while flipping through channels. “And then I’d finish up, smiling to myself, ‘it’s a really good show!’ It was a great show, a terrific show,” McShane said of the HBO drama, which ran for three seasons from 2004 to 2006.

A blistering 15% annual growth of online video will give the Asian video industry (TV, pay-TV, home entertainment and streaming) a growth rate nearly double that of North America for the next five years. According to a new report from Media Partners Asia, published on the eve of the APOS conference in Indonesia, Asia’s online

With sumptuous costumes and a cast including a couple of familiar and beloved costume-drama players, Starz’s “The Spanish Princess,” about the travails of Catherine of Aragon, seems designed to appeal to lovers of broadly drawn historical romance. (It hits the air May 5 with a built-in fandom: Like past Starz miniseries including “The White Queen,”

In today’s TV news roundup, Amazon Prime Video releases a trailer for Season 3 of “Sneaky Pete,” and “Red Table Talk” with Jada Pinkett Smith sets a return date on Facebook Watch. FIRST LOOKS The official trailer for the third season of “Sneaky Pete” on Amazon Prime Video has been released, showing off the new

April 22, 2019 2:15PM PT The season 3 finale of “This Is Us” rode the wave of an 89% increase in delayed viewing to come out on top in the Live+7 ratings for the week of April 1. The NBC drama, which is now theoretically at its half-way point after co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker said the

E! is expanding its entertainment-news programming, with plans to add three more hours of coverage to its linear schedule in 2020, Variety has learned. To help spearhead the effort, the cable channel is bringing aboard Tammy Filler, a veteran producer on NBC’s “Today,” to lead creative and production for E! News. The expansion of news

April 22, 2019 12:30PM PT HBO has given a series order to the comedy “Avenue 5” from creator Armando Iannucci. The series is described as a space tourism comedy set forty years in the future when the solar system is everyone’s oyster. Hugh Laurie stars as Ryan Clark, the captain of the space cruise ship

CBS has renewed “NCIS: Los Angeles” for an 11th season, and “NCIS: New Orleans” for a sixth season. Both action drama are spinoffs of “NCIS,” which was renewed in early April. “NCIS: Los Angeles” follows a Naval Criminal Investigative Service division based in the City of Angels that is tasked with catching dangerous and elusive

Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week, “Gentleman Jack” debuts on HBO, and “Kobra Kai” season two drops on YouTube

As the final season of “Game of Thrones” draws to a close, we’ve found six best-selling books that keep the stories of Westeros and beyond alive. From the original novels that inspired the hit HBO show, to collectible tomes that highlight behind-the-scenes secrets, these books make a great addition to your bookcase, whether you’re a

CBS Sports and the WNBA struck a new deal to televise some of the league’s games, widening exposure for professional women’s basketball in the U.S. Under terms of the deal, CBS Sports Network will broadcast 40 live WNBA games in primetime and on weekends, starting Saturday May 25 as the league’s 2019 season gets underway.

Robin Roberts is moving this week from mornings on ABC to primetime. And while the shift is temporary, the business machinations behind it are likely to continue. Roberts, best known for her regular appearances on “Good Morning America,” will serve this Thursday as an important presence on one night of ABC’s multi-evening coverage of the

If nothing else, CBS’ “Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration” special alerted America to the continued vitality of Smokey Robinson as a contemporary performer. Ten months from turning 80, the singer’s performances were focused and controlled as he weaved his sultry vocals through classics he wrote — the ballads “The Tracks of My Tears” and “Ooh Baby Baby,” chief among them. Producers

Call it Telemundo’s “Game of Thrones.” The Spanish-language network is hoping for a blockbuster premiere tonight for the long-awaited sophomore season of “La Reina del Sur,” the crime drama starring Kate del Castillo that ranks as Telemundo’s most-watched original series ever. “La Reina” was a massive hit for Telemundo when it aired in early 2011.

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven’t seen “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the second episode of “Game of Thrones” season 8. What would you do if it were your last night on Earth? That existentially stressful parlor game question — which Tyrion Lannister has had a cheeky answer for since we first

[pmc=related] After eight seasons, “Game of Thrones” fans will finally see if their long-held theories will pay off. Dozens of important characters and a complex plot have made diehard viewers try to foresee plot twists for years. With the original R+L=J theory confirmed, meaning that Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark were the real parents of