Television

Nancy Lenehan has signed on to join Ellie Kemper’s forthcoming comedy pilot “Drop-Off” at ABC as a series regular. She’ll play Marianne, the warm, caring and responsible mother of Julia (Kemper) who’s been taking care of her kids for the last six years. “Having been a working single mom herself, Marianne is not without compassion

For the second consecutive week, Joe Goldberg continues to lead the competition on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 list following the release of “You” Season 4, Part 1. During the Feb. 13-19 viewing window, the thriller picked up 1.47 billion minutes viewed following its Feb. 9 release. That’s a slight fall from the previous week’s opening

A virtual panel organized by Channel 4 has shed light on the findings of the recent Access into Action Industry Access Survey. The Wednesday panel was moderated by Channel 4 journalist Jordan Jarrett-Bryan, and included well-known industry figures like screenwriter Jack Thorne and producer Bryony Arnold. The Access into Action survey was conducted in late

Lukas Gage’s life has taken a complete 180 ever since he became a viral hit after releasing the now-infamous video of director Tristram Shapeero disparaging his apartment following a Zoom audition. Since then, he’s appeared in “The White Lotus,” “Euphoria” and “You.” He’ll next star in “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” and was recently

“Phineas and Ferb” co-creator and executive producer Jeff “Swampy” Marsh is officially joining the revival of the series in the works at Disney Branded Television. It was announced in January that the beloved animated show was returning for 40 episodes, with co-creator Dan Povenmire spearheading the revival. Marsh will now serve as executive producer and

David Letterman visited “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and had a burning question for the host, who recently earned great reviews for his stint hosting the 2023 Oscars. “Here’s something that’s a little sensitive: Tom Cruise,” Letterman said. “Where was Tom Cruise?” Despite “Top Gun: Maverick” earning six Academy Award nominations and Cruise being a nominee for

Netflix’s new series “Agent Elvis” arrives March 17 and sees the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll pulling double duty as a singer by day and a secret government battling dark forces by night. And this time, it’s Matthew McConaughey voicing the King. Accompanying the animated series is a musical soundtrack composed by Tyler Bates and

The solo TV auteur may soon be a thing of the past. The Writers Guild of America will sit down with the studios on Monday, and high on the agenda is setting a minimum staffing level for writers rooms. That means the days when Mike White or Craig Mazin could write an entire season of

Hams Fekri, a 29-year-old Saudi wedding singer from Jeddah, has been crowned the winner of the first season of “Saudi Idol” during a moving live finale from The Boulevard Riyadh City recreational complex. The golden-throated Fekri was exultant after battling it out in front of a live studio audience and panel of judges for 13

Karamo Brown’s syndicated talk show “Karamo” has been renewed for Season 2. The news was announced Thursday morning by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios & E! News executive vice president Tracie Wilson.     To date, “Karamo,” which replaced Maury Povich’s talker, is sold in 85% of the country and appears on leading station groups across the country

ABC’s “The Bachelor” has earned a victory with its latest season. With a 2.39 rating, the January Season 27 premiere measures as the series’ highest-rated multiplatform telecast in 1 year among the adults 18-49 key demo. That’s its highest rating since Jan. 24, 2022 according to data from Nielsen. Additionally, “The Bachelor” premiere outperformed the

“The Penguin” series at HBO Max has added Michael Zegen, James Madio, and Scott Cohen to its cast in recurring roles, Variety has learned exclusively. The three join a cast that includes series lead Colin Farrell, who will reprise the role of Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot from “The Batman, as well as Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy

Viaplay’s newly launched U.S. streaming service has unveiled the trailer for its anticipated original crime series “Cell 8” which will premiere exclusively in North America on the platform on April 13. The 6-episode series shot in both Swedish and English, and revolves around the justice system and death penalty. “Cell 8” tells the story of

Jonah Hauer-King (“The Little Mermaid”) and Anna Próchniak (“Baptiste”) are starring in the limited event series adapted from Heather Morris’s “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” for Sky and Peacock. Now in production, the Peacock Original series is being produced by Synchronicity Films and will be entirely directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer, whose past credits include “Princess.” Claire Mundell and Jacquelin Perske

ABS-CBN, once The Philippines largest broadcast group, said Thursday that it would sell its internet and broadband division Sky Cable to PLDT, the country’s biggest telecoms company. The transaction is valued at $123 million and means that ABS-CBN will focus even more on content production and distribution. “The proceeds from the sale of the shares

Not too long ago, Jen Psaki spent her days trying to explain the inner machinations of Washington to a crowd of skeptical journalists. On Sunday, she will become part of that horde. But if the former White House press secretary has her way, her new MSNBC program, “Inside With Jen Psaki,” won’t be as grizzled

You can’t tie these anchors down. MSNBC’s Symone Sanders and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins have both moved to WME for representation after previously being signed to UTA, according to three people familiar with the matter. Sanders launched a new Sunday program in May of last year, and her contract with MSNBC ends in early 2024, according

More than a fifth of Fox News Channel viewers are less trusting of the cable network in the wake of publicly disclosed text messages and emails from Fox executives and on-air personalities, according to a new survey.  But only 9% of Fox News viewers say they aren’t watching the network as much as they used

The Mediapro Studio is teaming with Spanish director Jorge Dorado and author Cuca Canals on detective thriller “The Young Poe” in a bid to build a second English-language international franchise on the heels and of the scale of “The Head,” sold to 90-plus territories and TMS’ biggest breakout hit to date. Enrolling one of the

Hollywood producer Scott M. Rosenfelt has joined Filipino TV crime-action series, “Sellblock,” as U.S.-based Blue Fox Entertainment joins as the show’s sales and distribution representative. Planned as a three-season series, “Sellblock” chronicles the activities of one of Asia’s biggest drug empires which is operating from inside a Philippines maximum-security prison. Production is scheduled to start

“Luther” star Idris Elba and media mogul Mo Abudu are joining forces to empower talent from Africa and the diaspora through their respective production companies, Green Door Pictures and EbonyLife Media. The new partnership aims to provide opportunities through capacity building as well as large-scale global productions. New education and mentoring initiatives will launch through

Revenues at Bertelsmann’s Luxembourg-based RTL Group, a media giant which owns Fremantle, climbed 9% to a record €7.2 billion ($7.6 billion) for the financial year 2022. However, the company’s EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortization) slid 6% to €1.08 billion, down from €1.15 billion in 2021. RTL attributes this to higher streaming start-up losses and lower

Sky Crime, pay TV operator Sky’s premium crime content channel, has acquired “The Torso Killer Confessions” from Cineflix Productions. The show delves into the decades-long journey to bring justice to the victims of the notorious ‘Torso Killer,’ also known as Richard Cottingham – one of America’s most prolific serial killers. Working in tandem with the

The match fixing scandal that shook the world of cricket in the late 1990s is the subject of Supriya Sobti Gupta’s Netflix documentary “Caught Out: Crime. Corruption. Cricket.” The film is produced by Passion Pictures, which has credits including Oscar winners “One Day in September,” “Searching for Sugar Man” and “The Lost Thing,” and Gupta’s

Series “Rocket Boys” was a hit for SonyLIV when it began streaming in 2022 and the streamer is expecting to replicate its success with season 2, which streams from March 16. The series is created by Nikkhil Advani and directed by Abhay Pannu, and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani for

The world premiere of “Tetris” gave the crowd at South by Southwest a whole new look at Taron Egerton. From Egerton’s first appearance on screen, the Austin audience couldn’t keep quiet, cheering and applauding for his impassioned speeches, dad jokes and 1970s porn-stache. The film, which reveals a political thriller hidden within the history of

Hilarie Burton is detailing her traumatizing experience on “One Tree Hill.” During the latest episode of the “Drama Queens” podcast, Burton, Bethany Joy Lenz and Sophia Bush recap “It Gets Worse at Night,” the Season 4 episode in which the Tree Hill gang goes to Honey Grove to rescue Mouth (Lee Norris) from jail. Burton,

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the Season 9, episode 5 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired March 15 on Fox. Two more celebrities were unmasked on Wednesday’s edition of “The Masked Singer”: Actor/comedian Malin Akerman and social media star Lele Pons were revealed to be Squirrel and Jackalope, respectively.

“Bupkis,” Peacock’s new 8-episode series starring Pete Davidson, Joe Pesci and Edie Falco, will premiere May 4, the streamer announced Wednesday. As part of the reveal, Peacock also shared first-look photos from the series. Davidson serves as writer and executive producer and stars in the fictionalized version of his life. Falco portrays his mom and

A series adaptation of “Gattaca” is in development at Showtime, Variety has learned from sources. Exact plot details on the series are still under wraps, but sources say that Alex Gansa is attached to serve as showrunner and executive producer, with Gansa’s partner Howard Gordon also executive producing. They co-created the show with Craig Borten,