Television

Maybe in part because the present looks so bleak, it’s lately been a boom time for shows about looking back on childhood. “The Wonder Years,” on ABC, is an update of the 1980s classic, now narrated by Don Cheadle as he reflects on the Montgomery of the 1960s. “Young Rock,” on NBC, burnishes Dwayne Johnson’s

At the 61st Monte-Carlo Television Festival, Jason Priestley looked back at the success of ’90s teen soap “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and explained why the 2019 reboot “BH90210” got canceled by Fox after one season. “BH90210” was described by Variety as a “soapy parody” that gave “the actors behind our favorite characters the space to play

Diego Boneta was 15 years old when he was close to starring in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” “They did the audition in Mexico City,” the “Father of the Bride” actor tells me on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “They flew me to L.A. to test. It was my first

Jennifer Dorn has been promoted to visual content director at Variety. The four-year Variety veteran oversees all photography and photo imagery for the brand. She reports to incoming co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh and Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton Based in Los Angeles, Dorn has significantly expanded Variety‘s investment in original photography. She has been instrumental in enhancing

Billy Porter has signed a first look deal with FX Productions to develop new content through his production company Incognegro with his producing partner D.J. Gugenheim. The deal is a continuation of Porter’s with FX, as he starred as Prayerful “Pray” Tell in all three seasons of the network’s hit drama “Pose.” in 2019, the

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you haven’t watched the first two episodes of Season 3 of “Umbrella Academy,” now streaming on Netflix. When “The Umbrella Academy” last aired new episodes, in July 2020, its star occupied a different place in the culture, under a different name. Elliot Page, the Academy Award-nominated performer, is by far

STREAMING Apple TV+ and Disney+ were the major gainers in the U.K. subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) market, a survey from BARB, the country’s television audience measurement currency, has found. BARB’s establishment survey for the first quarter of the year reports that the number of U.K. households with access to a streaming service reached 19.57 million U.K.

Madrid-based producer César Martínez of Dexiderius Producciones is teaming with writers Rodrigo Martín Antoranz and Pedro García Ríos on the miniseries “Verdugos” (“The Executioners”). The coming-of-age suspense thriller is being presented at this year’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in Toledo, Spain, which runs June 21-24. Mixing past and a present, “The Executioners” is initially set

Ask Jose Velasco, 60, what he thinks about the Conecta Fiction Honorary award he’s receiving on Thursday June 23 and his first response is, “Why?” The self-effacing founder and president of powerhouse content producer iZen Group says he is grateful to those who decided to give it to him, “rightly or not.” “I guess it’s

BTF Media, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s fastest-growing production houses, has unveiled a BTF Acceleration prize initiative worth up to a collective $500,000 for five projects at this week’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, the Europe-America TV co-production forum.  BTF Acceleration seeks to promote emerging talent, opening up opportunities within the audiovisual industry, incubating creators and

U.K. media regulator Ofcom has warned the BBC over its complaints process and impartiality concerns and also launched a public consultation on a modernized version of the broadcaster’s operating licence. Ofcom tracked audiences’ experiences and interactions with the BBC and found that while one in nine people have had a reason to complain about, most

“Halo” is a hit built for the future of TV. The Paramount+ drama-fantasy series based on the enduring video game franchise has done its job domestically for the streamer: It ranks No. 2 to “Yellowstone” prequel “1883” as the streamer’s most-watched original series on Paramount+, and it fueled sign-up activity for weeks around its March

A jury has ordered Bill Cosby to pay $500,000 to Judy Huth, who alleged that he molested her at the Playboy Mansion in 1975 when she was a 16-year-girl, but did not find punitive damages. The verdict ruled in Huth’s favor, which her attorney, Gloria Allred, hailed as a win “real change.” “She fought Bill

Paul Reiser was introduced as The Legend, the nickname of Vought’s former head of hero management, on last week’s episode of “The Boys” Season 3. But Reiser himself was introduced to the character and the show, in all its bloody, raunchy superhero glory, not long before the world saw him in the part, as the

A lot goes into signing onto a role for Josh Brolin. But it didn’t take much for him to agree to star in Amazon Prime Video’s “Outer Range.” “I never want to do anything straightforward,” he tells Variety. “I find it boring. This felt like a major swing and it had all the room to

Rose McIver is no stranger to the supernatural, with a filmography including cult favorites such as “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “iZombie.” Her most recent project, the CBS sitcom “Ghosts” in which she stars as Samantha Arondekar, is more grounded than those … but only minimally. Based on a British series of the same name, “Ghosts”

A survivor of the Baja California accident that claimed the lives of actors Raymundo Garduño Cruz and Juan Francisco González from the Netflix series “The Chosen One” says he doesn’t blame the van driver or the production company. But actor Yeray Albelda says it’s the norm that “people are exhausted” in many productions. The Mexican

Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” will harken back to Peter Jackson’s original trilogy by relying predominantly on practical effects and prosthetics in bringing the Orcs of Middle Earth to life. Jackson’s three “Lord of the Rings” films earned acclaim for showcasing practical creature makeup and prosthetics work, but

HBO Max will premiere its six-part original documentary from CNN Films, “The Last Movie Stars,” on July 21. The docuseries centers on Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, and explores their personas, talent and love story. Four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (“Seymour: An Introduction”) directs, with Academy Award-winning director, writer and producer Martin Scorsese as executive

“” won’t mark the first time that members of Latin America’s iconic supergroup have tried to reveal the truth of what it took to be a part of it. As the new docuseries from directors Angel Manuel Soto (“Charm City Kings”) and Kristofer Rios (“Havana Skate Days”) details again and again, each time more revealing

Former HBO chief marketing officer Pamela Levine has been tapped as the new head of marketing for Disney Branded Television and National Geographic Content. Levine, who is replacing the recently exited Jayanta Jenkins, will lead an integrated internal agency across brand and creative marketing, strategy, publicity, media planning, digital/social, events, talent relations and awards, supporting

Sherri Shepherd is heading back to daytime. The former cohost of “The View,” actress, comedian and Emmy winner is launching her own talk show, which has officially been cleared for national syndication and will premiere on Sept. 12, Variety has learned. The new show, titled “Sherri,” has been cleared in more than 97% of the

When the clock struck midnight six months ago, not much changed — the world was still in middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many still unable to celebrate New Year’s Eve as they usually would, if at all. So how do you throw a party that an audience of millions can to relate to? Team

Would you like your social-justice messages delivered with a huge dose of glamour from three world-class drag queens? Then “We’re Here” is for you! The premise is slyly subversive: Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka and Shangela roll into a small town in a more conservative part of the country, seek out the LGBTQ+ community and

Dawn Porter and Nicole Newnham’s four-part docuseries “37 Words,” debuting June 21 on ESPN, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Title IX while also exploring the current struggle to maintain and evolve the 1972 law that forbids discrimination based on gender. Prior to 1972, gender discrimination was commonplace in education and athletics. Physical activity for girls

Global streamers immensely helped the growth of documentaries and allowed the genre to take risks, panelists at a discussion at the ongoing Sunny Side of the Doc market said on Tuesday. “We should really be thankful to the platforms for bringing so much attention to our genre – it was completely under represented,” said Patrick

Seven international broadcast majors have teamed to launch a call for documentary proposals at the ongoing Sunny Side of the Doc market. The international documentary coproduction unit of France Televisions is uniting with partners ZDF (Germany), Channel 4 (U.K.), CBC (Canada), SVT (Sweden), ORF (Austria) and ABC Australia, seeking proposals for high-end documentaries dealing with

Warner Bros Discovery Sports (WBDS) is set to air the Wimbledon tennis championships live across 11 European countries. “The Championships from Wimbledon” will air from Monday, June 27 on discovery+, Eurosport, Eurosport App and Eurosport.com in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. Fans in those countries will

TelevisaUnivision is getting more entrenched in TV’s measurement wars. The Spanish-language media giant is teaming up with data company VideoAmp, one of a growing number of audience-measurement companies whose services are being tapped as TV networks mull alternatives to Nielsen, the industry’s de factor arbiter of audience size. Under terms of the pact,  TelevisaUnivision will

Paramount+ has unveiled its U.K.-commissioned factual slate ahead of the streaming platform’s U.K. and Ireland launch on June 22. “Our mission is to make Paramount+ the leading destination for unmissable television in collaboration with the U.K.’s storytelling talent,” said Ben Frow, Paramount’s chief content officer for the U.K. “These new commissions will join an abundance