Television

London and New York-headquartered superindie production group Argonon has expanded its U.S. operations with the launch of Argonon USA, gearing up Los Angeles-based West Coast facilities, and making several key appointments. Lindsay Schwartz joins as chief creative officer for Argonon Group-backed Leopard USA. She was previously with Story Street, part of The Content Group at

“America’s Got Talent” creator and music industry mogul Simon Cowell has thanked the medical staff at the Los Angeles facility he is being treated at after breaking his back falling off a new bicycle on Saturday. “Some good advice… If you buy an electric trail bike, read the manual before you ride it for the

“Wonder Woman 1984” star Connie Nielsen and “Doctor Who’s” Christopher Eccleston are set to star in psychological drama “Close to Me,” the first English-language drama to originate from Nordic Entertainment Group’s (NENT) fledgling U.K. operation. NENT Studios U.K. is adapting British author Amanda Reynolds’ novel “Close to Me” in an eponymous six-part series that will

Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor, is returning to the “Doctor Who” franchise in a brand new audio series next year. The actor originally played the iconic sci-fi character in 2005 during the first season of the BBC series’ revival, and now is set to return 15 years later, albeit in a new format. A 12-episode

WarnerMedia is expected to let go of at least 800 staffers at its Warner Bros. and HBO operations as part of a broad restructuring put in place by the unit’s CEO, Jason Kilar. Warner Bros. is expected to commence layoffs of around 650 people starting Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, while HBO

Tony Hall, the director general of British public broadcaster the BBC, has apologized for the use of a racial slur in a news report last month. He said it had made a mistake and had created “distress amongst many people.” The report, which aired on July 29 on the regional show “Points West” and on

One day after Hulu canceled her series “High Fidelity” after one season, star Zoë Kravitz called out the streaming service for not having shows with much diversity. Kravitz took to her Instagram on Thursday to post some behind-the-scenes photos with her “High Fidelity” cast members after news broke that the show was canceled. “I wanna

“Dora and the Lost City of Gold” and “I Carry You With Me” are among this year’s Imagen Awards nominees, which span a range of new categories including best director in television, best music composition for film and television and best music supervision for film and television. The Imagen Foundation president Helen Hernandez announced 114

“Succession” could be back in production before the end of the year (with a big emphasis on could). Season 3 of the hit HBO series, which recently garnered a whopping 18 Emmy nominations, was originally scheduled to start shooting in April, but for obvious COVID-19 related reasons, production has been delayed indefinitely. The plan, at

AMC Networks has filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission accusing AT&T of abusing its market power in order to unfairly advantage its own networks, HBO and TNT. Though much of the complaint is redacted, AMC appears to be complaining that AT&T is seeking to limit AMC’s ability to make its content available on

There was a time in the entertainment industry when senior executives who were on the way out had the luxury of a long runway to make it look like they were the ones who decided that the time had come to move on. Those days are long gone, judging by the shakeup unveiled Friday by

WarnerMedia sprung the news Friday of a major internal reshuffling, which translated to the departures of WarnerMedia Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt and HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly, and the elevations of Warner Bros. chief Ann Sarnoff and HBO programming guru Casey Bloys. The company also created a new HBO Max operating business unit,

In today’s TV news roundup, Hulu revealed the trailer for season 2 of “Pen15,” and AMC announced the renewal of “Soulmates.” RENEWALS AMC renewed anthology series “Soulmates” for a second season ahead of its first season premiere, which the network also announced will be Oct. 5. Written by Will Bridges and Brett Goldstein, “Soulmates” takes

Lorenzo Soria, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Golden Globe Awards, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles, a member of his family told the HFPA. He was 68. “Lorenzo was a beloved member of the entertainment industry and the Hollywood community and will be sorely missed,” the HFPA

ESPN Plus is about to get pricier for sports fans who sign up for the streamer’s monthly plan. Now that sports have started back up after the months-long COVID hiatus, the Disney-owned programmer has decided to raise the price of ESPN Plus by 20%: Starting Aug. 12, the monthly price of an ESPN Plus subscription

In a massive executive shakeup at WarnerMedia, both Bob Greenblatt and Kevin Reilly are exiting the company. Keith Cocozza, executive vice president of corporate marketing and communications, is also stepping down. WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar made the announcement in a memo to staff on Friday. In addition, Ann Sarnoff has been promoted to oversee a

Selena Gomez has signed on star and executive produce alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short in the upcoming Hulu comedy series “Only Murders in the Building.” The series, which was first announced in January at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, follows three strangers (Martin, Short, and Gomez) who share an obsession with true

Elle Fanning is attached to star in the Universal Content Productions (UCP) series based on the real-life case of Michelle Carter, which has landed at Hulu, Variety has learned. Titled “The Girl From Plainville,” Fanning will star as Carter, who was infamously convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017 after texting her boyfriend encouragement to commit

“Love, Victor” and “Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi” will be coming back for seconds. Hulu announced at its summer TCA press tour day that both series have been picked up for season 2. The news comes less than two months after both shows debuted within a day of each other. It also comes two

“Wizards,” premiering Aug. 7 on Netflix, marks the culmination of Guillermo del Toro’s animated “Tales of Arcadia” triptych of TV series that includes “Trollhunters” and “3Below.” The DreamWorks Animation production follows wizard trainee Douxie, voiced by Colin O’ Donaghue, on an epic adventure that sees him and friends Jim (Emile Hirsch), Claire (Lexi Medrano) and

Ava DuVernay is exploring what makes that one shot in your favorite film or TV show so perfect. The prolific filmmaker and her ARRAY Filmworks banner are teaming with Warner Horizon Unscripted Television to create a docuseries called “One Perfect Shot” for HBO Max. Each episode of “One Perfect Shot,” inspired by the Twitter account

Production on scripted television has only recently started again internationally, having been shut down since March when the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe. Now that it’s beginning again, crew members are clad in PPE, and common wisdom has dictated that actors are safest if they are socially distant even as they film — posing

NBCUniversal’s chairman of television and streaming Mark Lazarus told staff Friday that the company is opening an investigation concerning allegations of racist, sexist and homophobic behavior against former NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy, who exited the company amid NBCU’s greater reorganization, announced yesterday. The sprawling corporate overhaul of NBCU’s TV business, meant to streamline and

In today’s Global Bulletin, ITV’s “I’m a Celebrity…” relocates, San Sebastián announced WIPs, Mikkelsen is honored, MY Entertainment hires, Banijay finishes German setup and Formula 1 gets an anniversary docuseries. RELOCATION ITV tentpole reality program “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” will trade the jungles of down under for a rundown castle in the

“Lovecraft Country,” a new drama on HBO, begins with a scene of degradation; soldier Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) emerges from a foxhole to see a winged, tentacled creature flying overhead. Another fantastical monster is destroyed by Jackie Robinson, then reconstitutes itself to devour the pathbreaking baseball player when Atticus wakes up from this dream in

The coronavirus outbreak eased the pace of cord-cutting at Dish Network in the second quarter of 2020, but the company continued to bleed subscribers on both its satellite TV and Sling TV internet services. Dish exceeded Wall Street financial forecasts, but warned that the COVID-19 crisis could cause further erosion in its pay-TV subscriber base.

“Cheer” superstar Jerry Harris is the ultimate “Bring it On” fan. The expert mat talker and Navarro College cheer team alum has always loved the 2000 cheer-centric drama, specifically Gabrielle Union. “She’s the perfect blend of intelligence, class and strength,” Harris told Variety during the “Power of Young Hollywood” presentation streamed on Facebook. Variety wanted to

If you were to design a show that would seem prohibitively difficult to produce in the COVID era, you might begin by bringing together a group of people from across the country and inviting them to breathe the same air in a house for the summer. Which is not to say that “Big Brother,” which

The reorganization of NBCUniversal’s television business was prefaced by a windup that company insiders characterized as tortuous and demoralizing. When the moment finally came, it provided only some clarity as to whom the internal winners and losers would be in a restructuring that is expected to be broad in scope. But it did demonstrate that

In today’s TV news roundup, HBO released a teaser and premiere date for “The Undoing,” and Netflix debuted the trailer for “Hoops.” CASTING Keke Palmer has been cast in Disney Plus’ animated series “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.” She will voice Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins, a 14-year-old activist and an adopted daughter of mixed race parents.