“American Idol” scored a win for ABC with this season’s penultimate episode, which aired May 15. The episode hit season highs in total viewers (7.9 million) and with a 1.2 rating among the Adults 18-49 demographic. The episode’s performance pushed the series to its strongest showing in a year according to Nielsen ratings, according to
Television
Jeremy Strong’s method acting style has been well–documented, and one story about his time working on “Succession” is an amusing glimpse into just how far he takes the process. On the May 24 episode of the podcast “Las Culturistas,” co-host Bowen Yang, who is also part of the cast of “Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens,”
Chinese folklore gets a Disney spin in “American Born Chinese,” an eight-episode series created by Kelvin Yu, which landed on Disney+ on Wednesday. An adaptation of the 2006 graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, the series centers on Bay Area teenager Jin Wang (Ben Wang), who becomes entangled in a fantastical quest after a new
NBCUniversal Launch, the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion home, has developed new unscripted inclusion initiatives to increase representation in key behind-the-camera roles and create lasting change. The Unscripted Producers Program initiatives for Formats/Competition and Unscripted Initiatives for Lifestyle/Documentary are aimed at boosting diversity by establishing a pipeline of diverse talent for unscripted series and providing
Get ready to order some sloppy steaks because the trailer for Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson” Season 3 is finally here. All six episodes of Season 3 will release on Netflix on May 30. Wednesday’s trailer showed a variety of bizarre and hilarious short sketches starring comedian and co-creator Tim Robinson
Amazon Prime Video has ordered the spy thriller “Butterfly” to series with Daniel Dae Kim set to star and executive produce. Variety exclusively reported that the series was in the works back in February. Amazon has given the show a six-episode order, but production will not commence until all guild negotiations have been resolved. The
AMC Networks Intl. Latin America has acquired RTVE hit, Spanish-Portuguese thriller “Sequía,” which will be broadcast throughout the region on its Europa Europa channel. The story centers on the mystery behind two mummified corpses – apparent murder victims — that are discovered when a long submerged village emerges from the drying Campomediano reservoir along the
It was an earthquake that broke the pop-cultural Richter scale: the revelation that “Vanderpump Rules” stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss were having a secret seven-month affair behind the backs of their closest friends. But there was one of their co-stars who didn’t find the news of the affair quite so shocking: Lala Kent. Kent
Netflix has released a series of first-look images for Season 2 of its romantic drama “Heartstopper,” which stars Kit Connor and Joe Locke and is set to premiere on Aug. 3. The second season will spotlight Nick (Connor) and Charlie (Locke) as they navigate the waters of their new relationship. Ahead of their prom, the
Blake Shelton and Lee Metzger have joined forces to launch Lucky horseshoe Productions. The news comes after the success of their new show “Barmageddon.” “I’m excited to partner with my longtime friend and creative rainmaker Lee Metzger,” said Shelton. “He was one of the first people I met at ‘The Voice’ and working together currently
The 12th edition of Chile’s Sanfic Industria is set to kick off Aug. 20 alongside the Santiago Film Festival with new lab sections and a series focus on Chilean TV productions. Among Sanfic Industria’s 11 sections will be the new Series Lab, which will select up to six Latin American scripted series projects. Creators
Veteran stage and screen actor Gerald Castillo, who appeared in major TV series including “Saved By the Bell,” “General Hospital,” “Hill Street Blues,” “M*A*S*H” and “Dallas,” died May 4 at his home in Houston. He was 90. Known for his work as Major Slater on “Saved by the Bell” and Judge Davis Wagner on “General
One of the bosses behind long-running game show “Deal or No Deal” defended the format after Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex accused the show of “objectifying women.” Markle spent a year working on the NBC version of the show, hosted by Howie Mandel, as a briefcase model between 2006 and 2007. The role involved
With the writers’ strike dragging on, unscripted content is expected to dominate programming grids. A panel organized by C21 Media at the L.A. Screenings Independents on the format’s outlook in Latin America could not have been more timely. Rising costs, shifting consumer tastes, the advent of streaming platforms and the sway of social media have
“All the Flowers” is the second telenovela to be produced for Globo’s platform, Globoplay, continuing one of the biggest bets on streaming of a Latin America cosplay, seen it its bullish campaign for “Hidden Truths II.” As the streaming era slowly enters a market maturity, Latin America’s biggest media company has set its aims on
Cory Shields, VP global media and entertainment at Amazon, has stepped down, according to reports. Shields joined in 2020 and was in charge of publicity for Amazon’s original films and series, working closely with Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. Variety understands that Amazon has not yet revealed a replacement for Shields. Prior
Álvaro Morte, immortalized by his performance as the Professor in “Money Heist,” has inked a multi-year producing deal with Sony Pictures Television through his Madrid-based production company 300 Pistolas, which he founded alongside Blanca Clemente. The accord sees 300 Pistolas, a theater company, making the transition into producing scripted TV, with Morte developing English-language scripted
“Deal or No Deal” is returning to Spain after a 12-year hiatus with original host Jesús Vázquez, Variety can confirm. The long-running gameshow, known locally as “¡Allá tú!,” is set to air on local network Telecinco, produced by Banijay Iberia label Gestmusic. Vázquez originally presented the show from 2004-2008. The re-commission follows the news that
NBC’s mystery-drama series “La Brea” will return to Australia for filming of its third season. Within the country, production will relocate from Victoria state to Queensland. The series is produced by Universal Television and Keshet Studios, with Australian production managed by Matchbox Pictures. Renewal was announced in January. “[La Brea] follows an epic family adventure
A-lister Manoj Bajpayee, one of the few Indian actors who scores critical acclaim and commercial success in equal measure, has notched up another triumph with ZEE5 Global film “Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai.” Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki (Prime Video series “Flames”) and written by Deepak Kingrani (Disney+ Hotstar series “Special OPS”), the film is
About an hour after Bravo released the ratings for the Season 10 finale of “Vanderpump Rules” on Tuesday, producers Lisa Vanderpump and Alex Baskin were in Hollywood campaigning for Emmy consideration at an FYC event. The finale scored big, ending on a series-high with a combined audience of 4.1 million viewers on Bravo, on-demand and
Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated his first-ever television show, Netflix’s action-spy comedy “Fubar,” on Monday in Los Angeles. “I just think that every stage in my career was an exciting stage,” Schwarzenegger told Variety. “I know normally you wouldn’t think that when you’re 75-years-old that there’s an exciting stage because most people are retired, but here I
“Vanderpump Rules” viewers did not dip out of the Season 10 finale: The ratings for the May 17 episode hit series highs for the Bravo show. The episode, which showed the fallout of the #Scandoval, drew a combined audience of 4.1 million viewers on Bravo, on-demand and the Peacock platform within three days. Of that
Is there going be a musical episode of “Only Murders in the Building” in Season 3?! While it hasn’t been officially confirmed that Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez will be singing and dancing at some point, I recently got a tease from musical impresarios Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. “We’ve worked on the
Mrs. Kasha Davis’ run on “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” Season 8 was short-lived — the returning Season 7 alum was eliminated after just three episodes — but you haven’t seen the last of the queen. She can be found hosting Drag Story Hour. Drag Story Hour, a storytelling event for kids and teens, has
Fox is serving up a new season of Joel McHale’s mystery baking competition “Crime Scene Kitchen” next week and bringing several new celebrity guest judges along for the ride. Variety can exclusively reveal that the lineup of Season 2’s famous faces includes “Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum NeNe Leakes, country music star Martina McBride, “Next
Michelle Randolph and Jacob Lofland have joined Billy Bob Thornton in the upcoming Taylor Sheridan series “Land Man” at Paramount+, Variety has learned. In addition, Variety has learned exclusively that Ali Larter will star in the series as well. Per the official logline, the series “is set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and
“The Mother” continues to lead all of Netflix titles for the second consecutive week with 92 million hours viewed during the May 15-21 viewing window. Thus, pushing the show to hit more than 90 million views. Netflix calculates total views by dividing the total hours watched, (178.1 million hours) by total runtime (1.96 hours). Spinoffs
If you’re sharing your Netflix password with someone who doesn’t live with you, get ready to pay up — it will cost $7.99 per month extra to add another user to your account. On Tuesday, Netflix said it is launching its crackdown on illicit password sharing to its biggest market, the U.S., angling to squeeze
Josh McIvor has been promoted to global general manager of MGM+, the Amazon-owned streamer that relaunched in January after previously being known as Epix. As global general manager, he will report to Chris Brearton, who serves as vice president of Prime Video Studios corporate strategy, and work alongside Michael Wright, head of MGM+, as well