The most lauded of titles on this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, UniFrance’s online showcase featured by over 50 OTT services around the world, may not be a film but a drama series. With four seasons aired, and a milestone in world sales on a French TV show, slow-boiling espionage series ‘Le Bureau des légendes’ (“The Bureau”) is

February 15, 2019 7:53PM PT Prolific Emmy-nominated television writer Christopher Edwin Knopf, former president of the Writers Guild of America West, died in his sleep of congestive heart failure on Feb. 13. He was 91. Knopf was born in New York and attended UCLA, leaving during his senior year to join the Air Force during

February 15, 2019 7:35PM PT After two days of questioning, the Chicago Police Department announced Friday evening that it has released two suspects in the Jussie Smollett case without filing charges. On Friday evening, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that detectives had developed new information. Police no longer consider the men to be suspects. “Due

In today’s TV news roundup, Fox released a new trailer for an upcoming episode of “Gotham” and Disney has announced the cast for its upcoming “High School Musical” series.  FIRST LOOKS Showtime released a new trailer and the official poster for the upcoming fourth season of “Billions,” premiering March 17 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In

February 15, 2019 3:00PM PT Chris Rock has come onboard to direct the NBC single-cam comedy pilot “Saving Kenan,” Variety has learned. Rock will also executive produce the pilot, which stars “SNL” mainstay Kenan Thompson. Thompson will play a newly widowed dad determined to be everything for his kids while begrudgingly letting his persistent father-in-law become

February 15, 2019 2:09PM PT Private equity giant Apollo Global Management has cut a deal with Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises to buy a majority stake in Cox’s 13 TV stations as well as three newspapers and a handful of radio stations in Ohio. Apollo has been in the hunt for broadcast TV stations for some time.

Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety’s television podcast. In this week’s episode, Variety’s executive editor of TV, Daniel Holloway, talks with Ken Jeong about his Netflix comedy special, “Ken Jeong: You Complete Me, Ho,” and being a judge on Fox’s “The Masked Singer.“ Jeong started working on his new standup act after ABC canceled his show “Dr.

Not everyone wants or needs to be Netflix to succeed in the streaming space. And not everyone sees Apple’s enigmatic new service as a threat. Even as rival streaming services offer gobs of content, CBS Interactive’s president and COO Marc DeBevoise sees the company’s targeted original programming strategy continuing to attract viewers to its All

February 15, 2019 1:15PM PT A “Crazy Rich Asians” reunion is happening at CBS. Ken Jeong has been cast in a lead role in the multi-camera comedy pilot “The Emperor of Malibu,” which is being co-written and executive produced by “Crazy Rich Asians” author Kevin Kwan. In the series, Auggie, the son of a Chinese

February 15, 2019 10:46AM PT The second season of “Cosmos” will not air in March as planned. The nonfiction series hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was set to air on March 3 on Fox and National Geographic. But according to listings sent out by Fox on Friday, reruns of “Family Guy” will now air

NBC’s scripted network executive team is getting a little bigger. The company has brought on former Warner Horizon Television exec Lisa Roos as its new senior vice president of drama development. NBC also promoted programming exec Deepak Jesrani to senior VP of drama development and elevated Mike Nunes to senior VP of current programming. “This

The upcoming Showtime drama “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” has cast both Jessica Garza and Johnathan Nieves in series regular roles, Variety has learned. They join previously announced cast member Daniel Zovatto. Described as a spiritual descendant of the original “Penny Dreadful,” the new series opens in 1938 Los Angeles, a time and place deeply infused with

February 15, 2019 8:04AM PT AMC is looking at moving its European channel licenses from the U.K. to Spain if Brexit hits hard. Currently, licenses registered with U.K. regulator Ofcom are valid throughout the 28-nation European Union. But if Britain leaves the E.U. next month without a framework for a trade deal – as is increasingly

February 15, 2019 8:04AM PT “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star Alfonso Ribeiro has been denied a copyright for the “Carlton” dance, which is the focus of lawsuits the actor recently filed against “Fortnite” developer Epic Games and “NBA 2K16” publisher Take-Two Interactive, The Associated Press reported on Thursday. The denial from the U.S. Copyright

América Móvil general director Daniel Hajj has announced that Carlos Slim’s Mexican conglomerate plans to invest $8.5 billion in Latin American in 2019, focusing primarily on fiber-optic infrastructure and updated mobile technologies such as 4.5G and 5gG. In a conference call with analysts, following the company’s recap of fourth quarter results, Hajj laid out the

Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group), the operator of Scandinavia’s leading streaming service Viaplay, has ordered “Cryptid,” the Swedish-language horror series produced by Dramacorp, and Per-Olav Sørensen’s series “Commando” which is based on actual events and set in Norway, Libya and the UK. “Commando” is an eight-episode series based on the special operation carried on in

February 14, 2019 8:42PM PT A former executive producer of the NBC show “The Blacklist” has filed suit against Sony, alleging he was fired after being wrongfully blamed for a workplace scuffle. Michael Watkins is a veteran TV director and cinematographer. He was an executive producer for several seasons of “The Blacklist,” the NBC crime

CBS is prepared to “do what is necessary” to hang on to its NFL rights. That was the message sent by CBS acting CEO Joe Ianniello and CBS Sports chief Sean McManus Thursday during CBS’ fourth-quarter earnings call. Ianniello and McManus both talked up the virtues of having the NFL on broadcast TV, which remains

February 14, 2019 3:32PM PT In today’s TV News Roundup, watch the first trailer for season two of “Killing Eve.”  FIRST LOOKS [embedded content] The first trailer for season two of “Killing Eve” has dropped, teasing new looks at Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer continuing down the path of their mutual obsession. Premiering April 7

The beloved animated series “Kim Possible,” which aired for five years on the Disney Channel in the early aughts, connected with its audience because it portrayed a strong but fashion-forward young woman who fought crime and got good grades. So it only makes sense that when the network decided to reboot the story and titular

Sometimes inspiration can strike in unexpected places. For writer and producer Danny Strong, watching a documentary about Amanda Knox proved to be the impetus that led to him co-creating (with David Elliot) the new Fox drama “Proven Innocent.” “Watching the documentary on her case made me want to do something on wrongful conviction, because I

February 14, 2019 3:00PM PT Caitlin McGee has been cast in one of the lead roles of the NBC drama pilot “Bluff City Law,” Variety has learned. The project is described as a character-driven legal drama that follows the lawyers of an elite Memphis law firm that specializes in the most controversial landmark civil rights cases.

Impacted by its ongoing dispute with Dish Network, increased expenses and impairment losses, U.S. Hispanic media giant Univision reported an 8.9% decline in fourth-quarter total revenue to $688.5 million from $755.5 million in the year prior. In comparing the full year of 2018 with the previous year, total revenue fell 7.6% to $2,713.8 million from $2,937.3

February 14, 2019 1:43PM PT WASHINGTON — NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo will air the first Democratic primary debate in June, and CNN will show the second event in July, the Democratic National Committee announced on Thursday. The DNC is planning 12 presidential primary debates over the 2020 cycle, but news networks had been vying for

CBS missed Wall Street’s projections as revenues derived from content licensing and distribution fell 11%, even as its results were buoyed by advertising associated with the 2018 midterm elections. The New York owner of the CBS television network and Showtime said net income from continuing operations came to $561 million, or $1.49 per share in the fourth

There’s hardly a better example of just how overwhelming the TV offerings have gotten than “Weird City.” The new slick and bizarre comedy was co-created by Jordan Peele and “Key and Peele” writer Charlie Sanders, features a stacked cast, and is nonetheless stranded on YouTube Premium (though the first two episodes are available to stream

“Transparent” creator Jill Soloway has big plans for the show’s upcoming evolution into a musical. Soloway revealed on Wednesday that the show’s musical movie finale would also be released with an original soundtrack album — and they’ve got an eye toward ultimately taking “Transparent” to Broadway. The “Transparent” movie will premiere later this year —

February 14, 2019 12:00PM PT NBC has renewed “American Ninja Warrior” for an eighth season. Production on the popular obstacle course competition series will begin this spring with the new season airing in the summer. Hosted by Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila, the season series will shoot in six cities this season: Los Angeles, Atlanta, Oklahoma

February 14, 2019 11:56AM PT Michael Tammero, who has long run marketing for Fox News Channel is taking on an unorthodox new role at the cable-news outlets. As part of a multi-year deal, he will be named senior vice president of event marketing while taking on new duties covering entertainment and pop culture for the

CBS is making buyout offers to employees, Variety has learned, a process that began last week. The offers are being made to those whose age and years of experience total 80 or more years, which would translate to senior-level staff, many of whom have been with the company through the Leslie Moonves era. It is