The first look at “I’m a Virgo,” an upcoming series from Amazon’s Prime Video, were unveiled Monday along with a teaser trailer in anticipation of the show’s world premiere at the SXSW Film & TV Festival. The coming-of-age comedy stars Jharrel Jerome, who won an Emmy in 2019 for his lead performance in the mini
Television
Media moguls Tyler Perry and Byron Allen are vying to purchase a majority stake of BET Media Group amid reports that owner Paramount Global is exploring a sale of the asset. Variety has confirmed that Perry is in talks to acquire the network, while a spokesperson for Allen stated that the Allen Media Group founder
“Vanderpump Rules” fans were stunned by a TMZ report on Mar. 3 that stars and real-life couple Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix split after Sandoval allegedly cheated on her with another costar, Raquel Leviss. Bravo mastermind Andy Cohen started the Mar. 6 episode of his Sirius XM show “Andy Cohen Live” by weighing in on
Bowing Feb. 15 on Netflix, “Eva Lasting” hit its Top 10 in 14 countries across much of Latin America, scoring a global Top 10 berth, and now prompting the platform to order a second season just days after its release. A high-end Caracol TV production that puts on full display the benefits of streamer backing,
Marc Guggenheim has been a staple of DC Entertainment on television for over a decade as the co-creator of The CW’s Arrowverse, which launched in 2012 with “Arrow” (Guggenheim developed the series with Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg) and continued through “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and more. In a February 2023 blog post that’s now circulating
Warner Bros. Discovery, which is struggling with billions of dollars in debt, is willing to pay more money to executives who might be able to help reduce it. The owner of HBO, Discovery Channel and Food Network said Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would pay out new
January Jones took aim at virtual auditions on Saturday, writing on her Instagram story, “Note to Hollywood: It’s time for casting directors to come back into the office like everyone else. To audition actors in person.” The “Mad Men” star continued, “And if anyone asks for a FEE to audition please know that this is
After nearly two years of production, Amazon Prime Video has finally pulled back the curtain on “Citadel,” the wildly ambitious new spy series starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, with the first trailer released Monday. The show is meant to serve as the mothership for several planned spin-offs based in local countries and performed
Warning: This story contains spoilers from Season 2 of “Sex/Life,” now streaming on Netflix. Picking up right where Season 1 left off, the second season of “Sex/Life” follows Sarah Shahi’s Billie as she asks herself a big question: Can I have it all? She’s torn between wanting both the sexual relationship she once had with
“Boom! Boom: The World vs. Boris Becker,” the upcoming Apple TV+ documentary that premiered in Berlin last month, has confirmed a release date. The full two-part doc, about disgraced tennis champ Boris Becker, will drop on the streamer on April. 7. The documentary, which was directed by Alex Gibney (“Enron”) and produced by John Battsek
Seven of the biggest media-buying agencies on Madison Avenue and Roku have joined a media-industry effort that aims to count TV audiences in new ways. Dentsu, WPP’s GroupM, Horizon Media, Interpublic Group’s IPG Mediabrands, Omnicom Group’s Omnicom Media Group, Publicis Media and RPA have all lent counsel to the U.S. Joint Industry Committee, a consortium
NBC’s “Today” is getting back into its morning routine. Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie both returned to their duties on the NBC News program after dealing with personal challenges that kept both anchors off air for several days. Kotb, who had been off the program for abouttwo weeks, told viewers Monday that her youngest daughter
U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV has hired Alex Pumfrey as director of strategic partnerships, reporting into Martin Goswami, group strategic partnerships and distribution director. Alex Pumfrey, currently CEO of the Film and TV Charity, revealed last week that she was stepping down after almost six years in the role. She will remain in the role through May
As if King Charles III didn’t already have enough drama in his life, between his logorrheic son Prince Harry and disgraced brother Prince Andrew, comedian Harry Enfield is set to unleash a little more chaos ahead of the coronation in May. Enfield’s Channel 4 comedy “The Windsors” is returning for a coronation special, with the
A documentary series about the disgraced former 1970s British pop star Gary Glitter (real name Paul Francis Gadd) is in the works at Netflix, the streamer has confirmed. The three-part series, with the working title “Hunting Gary Glitter,” will feature previously unseen photographs and archive footage and will cover Glitter’s life story and his later
TAKING TOEI Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) has increased its stake in Japanese film and TV studio Toei Company, from 5% to 6.03%, according to a report by the Reuters financial news agency. The move comes shortly after Toei published a ten-year plan for international expansion. Toei includes film and TV
Global streaming operation Netflix is forecast to spend $1.9 billion on local content in the Asia-Pacific region this year as group revenue from the region accelerates to 12%, according to a new report. The content investment spending figure represents a 15% hike. Netflix will grow revenues this year by 12% year-on-year to exceed $4 billion
Production on “Hacks” Season 3 will resume the week after next, series producers Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky revealed to Variety on Sunday. Downs, Aniello and Statsky were at the WGA Awards in Century City, where the trio picked up the win for episodic comedy (for the Season 2 finale “The One,
SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from Episode 8 of “The Last of Us,” now streaming on HBO Max. Troy Baker has been at the center of the “Last of Us” universe for a decade. The esteemed voice actor originated the role of grizzly survivalist Joel Miller in the 2013 game and its sequel in 2020.
Meredith Stiehm, president of the WGA West, got right to the point in her remarks Sunday at the guild’s 2023 award ceremony. With contract negotiations less than two weeks aways, Stiehm rallied the troops about the need for solidarity, and she emphasized the guild’s role as serving as the “good sheriff” helping to tame the
Howard Bragman — an architect of modern public relations and queer rights advocate who died last month — was celebrated by friends, family, and former clients in an emotional memorial on Sunday in Los Angeles. A packed private park in North Hollywood adorned with string lights and a humble stage welcomed guests including Stevie Wonder,
“Severance” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” took home top prizes at the Writers Guild of America Awards, Hollywood’s final awards ceremony before next week’s 95th Oscars. The WGAs were not televised but rather held at concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City. “Abbott Elementary” star Janelle James hosted the West Coast edition,
There may only be one more season of “Andor” to go, but it sounds like it’s exactly what audiences are hoping for. Diego Luna, who’s currently filming the final season of the Disney+ series in London, opened up about the experience on Friday at the Miami Film Festival, where he accepted the inaugural Variety Virtuoso
It took 42 years, but Mel Brooks is finally making good on a parody of a promise he never seemed likely to keep: Bringing “History of the World, Part II” to audiences far and wide. The filmmaker addresses that elephant in the room within the opening minutes of the new, eight-part Hulu series, admitting that
“Top Gun: Maverick” topped the winners at the 58th Cinema Audio Society Awards for outstanding achievement in sound mixing. Other winners included “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “Moonage Daydream,” “Better Call Saul,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Five-time Oscar-nominated production sound mixer Peter J. Devlin, whose credits include “Black Panther,” “Bullet Train” and “Gone
The centerpiece of “Saturday Night Live’s” March 4 “Weekend Update” segment was a skewering of “Dilbert” comic creator Scott Adams, who went on a racist rant last month that spurred dozens of newspapers to drop his long-running syndicated cartoon strip. Michael Che, co-anchor of “Update” with Colin Jost, interviewed the cubicle-dweller himself, the cartoon character
On the heels of a close victory at Super Bowl LVII, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is once again taking over global television screens as this week’s host of “Saturday Night Live.” The episode opened with a mock “Fox & Friends” segment, featuring Mikey Day as Steve Doocy, Heidi Gardner as Ainsley Earhardt
Almost a year after the infamous Oscars slap, comedian Chris Rock finally addressed what happened in his live Netflix special, “Selective Outrage.” After an hour of new material, the comedian dove into what thousands of audience members had been waiting to hear, breaking down the aftermath of the on-stage smack from Oscar-winner Will Smith. “You
When your day job is spent plotting a rebellion in a galaxy far, far away, it helps to have something that can bring you back down to Earth — or whatever planet you call home. When he’s not the Empire’s most wanted on Disney+’s “Andor,” Diego Luna grounds himself by returning to the theater. He
Smriti Mundhra, director of hit Netflix documentary series “The Romantics,” has said that the success of her show and of Shah Rukh Khan’s “Pathaan” proves that audiences continue loving Bollywood. The star-studded, four-part series features 35 leading voices of the Hindi-language film industry and dives into the history of Bollywood through the lens of the