Television

The upcoming Apple TV+ competition series “My Kind of Country,” executive-produced by Kacey Musgraves and Reese Witherspoon, is not just going to be a genre-specific knockoff of “American Idol” or “The Voice,” it’s clear from a first trailer released Friday. (Watch the new preview, below.) Fostering inclusiveness of every sort looks to be as high

To a movie actor, the Oscar statue is worth its weight in gold. To Madison Avenue? Well, maybe a little less. Disney has declared sell-out of the approximately 60 to 70 commercial slots it sells in each year’s Oscars broadcast on ABC, a little more than 48 hours before the Sunday broadcast. The company sought

Priyanka Chopra Jonas has been acting for two decades, yet she says her new Amazon Prime Video series “Citadel” represents the first time she’s had pay parity with a male co-star. Chopra Jonas stars with Richard Madden in the new series, which launches next month. Chopra Jonas was at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival in

They say L.A. has no history, and yet, thankfully there are still enough vestiges of the Laurel Canyon folk-rock scene of the 1970s to fully stock a throwback series like “Daisy Jones & the Six.” Set among the flowy dresses and shaggy mustaches of the city’s rock ‘n’ roll heyday, the series gives aspiring rockers

ABC has placed a pilot order for Ellie Kemper’s “Drop Off” (working title). The series serves as the American adaptation of the British comedy “Motherland.” Variety exclusively reported the adaptation news earlier this week. The show was previously set up at Hulu by Lionsgate. “Julia (Ellie Kemper) is a working mom for whom nothing is

Fresh off his Industry Leadership Award at the ABFF Honors and brokering a $90+ million-dollar strategic funding plan with a group of blue-chip investors, it was time to decompress as Charles D. King and wife Macro chief brand officer Stacey Walker King hosted their fifth annual pre-Oscars party. The festivities, again presented by Chase Sapphire,

Nexstar Media has spent months assembling a massive roster of TV stations; acquiring TV’s CW network; and building the NewsNation cable-news oulet. Now comes the hard part: Getting Madison Avenue to buy ads across all of it. The nation’s largest owner of local TV outlets is ready to make its pitch to advertisers and has

British pubs and the famous Harrods food hall served as inspiration for Bravo’s new season of “Top Chef.” Award-winning production designer James Pearse Connelly, who has designed the show’s set for nearly a decade, wanted to capture the essence of British culture for his ninth kitchen. Says Connelly, “It was about how to bring London

One of the nation’s biggest telecommunications companies is betting that college sports will keep it connected to consumers. AT&T will remain a top-tier sponsor of NCAA athletic events through the 2024-2025 academic year, having signed a deal to extend its pact with the massive college-sports league. AT&T has been an NCAA “corporate champion” since 2001,

Among the movie stars slated to make an appearance during ABC’s telecast of the Oscars: a young Mickey Mouse and Princess Jasmine. Hyundai Motor America will run a 60-second commercial during the awards program that links its vehicles to Disney characters in no small fashion. Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Princess Jasmine and Aladdin and the

As a performer, Kerry Washington is particularly adept at conveying uptightness — her crispness of bearing and her rat-a-tat delivery suggest a certain passion for organization, for rigor. This was the ingredient that helped elevate “Scandal,” and the emotionally chaotic but professionally fastidious character of Olivia Pope. (And, incidentally, it’s the aspect that made Washington’s

Philippines media powerhouse ABS-CBN is launching “The Bagman” action drama series as a remake of its own “Bagman” digital production and will launch it at Hong Kong’s FilMart next week. The original “Bagman,” which ran to two seasons and sold to Netflix in The Philippines, follows a neighborhood barber who lands a job as the

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Yellowjackets” received top honors at the 38th annual Casting Society Artios Awards. The ceremony honors top casting spanning films, TV and theater. The celebrations were in-person for the first time in three years, taking place in Los Angeles, New York City and London, with hosts Yvette Nicole

Casey is back in Chicago, once again. Jesse Spencer, who left NBC’s “Chicago Fire” in 2021 after 200 episodes, will return for the 18th episode of Season 11, Variety confirms. Details about his storyline are still under wraps. Spencer portrayed Matt Casey on the Dick Wolf drama for the first nine seasons. He left during

Freeform dropped a teaser for Season 5 of “Good Trouble,” which premieres March 16 and will stream on Hulu the next day. The series is a spin-off of “The Fosters,” and has followed the characters Callie and Mariana to Los Angeles. In the fifth season of the drama series, the roommates find relationship challenges as

“You” returns to Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 list, leading this week’s ranking of titles after Netflix released the first five episodes of the show’s latest season last month. During the Feb. 6-12 viewing window, the series managed 1.73 billion minutes viewed in its first four days of availability. The second half of Season 4 was

Hernan Lopez, former head of Fox International Channels and founder of podcast startup Wondery, was convicted on charges that he participated in a scheme to bribe South American soccer officials in order to secure exclusive broadcasting rights for 21st Century Fox. In April 2020, federal prosecutors indicted Lopez along with another former 21st Century Fox executive, Carlos

Country music is about to get its fourth major annual awards show. NBCUniversal announced Thursday that a program honoring country’s most popular artists will be spun off from its “People’s Choice Awards,” with a two-hour telecast dubbed “People’s Choice Country Awards” set to debut in September on the NBC broadcast network and the Peacock streaming

“Shrinking” has been renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV+. Co-created by Jason Segel, Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, the series stars Segel and Harrison Ford in one of his first television roles. “Shrinking” follows grieving therapist Jimmy (Segel) who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his

WME has acquired BDA Sports Management in a deal that will elevate BDA leader Bill Duffy to head of basketball representation for WME Sports. WME invested in BDA Sports Management in 2020. The buyout unveiled Thursday brings Duffy and his operations into the WME fold. BDA at present represents such hoops stars as Dallas Mavericks’

“Act Your Age” earns another win for Alyson Fouse and Bounce TV. The sitcom starring Kym Whitley, Tisha Campbell, and Yvette Nicole Brown opened to an audience of 2.14 million total viewers with its two-episode back-to-back premiere on March 4 on Bounce TV, according to figures from Nielsen. Thus, making it the most-watched half-hour series

U2’s Bono and the Edge and David Letterman joined forces again at the Wednesday night premiere of the Disney+ special “A Sort of Homecoming,” with the band members explaining that they needed the former late-night host to add some irreverence to the Morgan Neville-directed documentary, set to begin streaming March 17. Said Bono to the

J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves’ animated series “Batman: Caped Crusader” has been picked up at Amazon after being scrapped at HBO Max, Variety has confirmed. The streamer has placed a two-season order for the cartoon, which is described as “a reimagining of the Batman mythology through the visionary lens” of executive producers Abrams, Reeves and

On the heels of the success of MGM’s “Creed III,” Michael B. Jordan and Amazon are in talks for a film and TV universe expanding the “Creed” boxing world, Variety has confirmed. Details are scarce regarding what projects are being discussed, but sources say the conversations are underway to explore the possibilities for capitalizing on

Paramount’s MTV Entertainment Studios and film and TV producer Lashan Browning have announced a new joint venture, Antoinette Media. The company is described as a full-service production company working on unscripted titles, scripted features, and documentaries. Browning currently produces seven series for MTV Entertainment Studios, including “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta,” “Love & Hip Hop

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries is bringing back “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries” with a new Aurora. On Thursday, the network announced the return of the franchise with a new prequel series, “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New,” set to premiere later this year. Skyler Samuels will star as young Aurora, while Evan Roderick will play young Arthur. Marilu

Craig Gillespie has entered a first look deal with Tomorrow Studios, a subsidiary of ITV Studios. The deal represents an expansion of Gillespie’s partnership with Tomorrow, as the studio is already behind the Apple TV+ comedy series “Physical. Gillespie serves as a director on “Physical” and executive produces alongside Tomorrow Studios CEO Marty Adelstein and

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the “Poker Face” Season 1 finale, “The Hook,” now streaming on Peacock. “Poker Face” revealed more about the personal life of protagonist Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) than viewers learned throughout the first nine episode of Rian Johnson’s Peacock howdunit series, with the introduction of her sister Emily Cale (Clea DuVall) when

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the “Poker Face” Season 1 finale, “The Hook,” now streaming on Peacock. Benjamin Bratt sucked it in like Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn to shoot one standout scene in the Season 1 finale of “Poker Face.” The bit in question featured a poetic recitation of the entire third verse (and

Showtime has released the trailer for Season 2 of the Emmy-nominated series “Yellowjackets,” which is accompanied by Florence + the Machine’s new cover of No Doubt’s 1995 hit “Just a Girl.” The psychological horror series follows a high school soccer team that survives a plane crash in 1996, only to be left deep in the