Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down CNN+ and is expected to provide details Thursday, according to two people familiar with the matter, marking one of the company’s first significant maneuvers since completing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery less than two weeks ago. Spokespersons for CNN and Warner Bros. Discovery could not be reached for
Television
After months of criticism and anticipation, “The Masked Singer” episode featuring the unmasking of Rudy Giuliani finally aired Wednesday on Fox. The show’s installment with the former mayor of New York City and former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, got a 0.6 demo rating and 3.6 million total viewers, according to fast-affiliate Nielsen data.
Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.” Anya Taylor-Joy is hoping to shave her head for her starring role in “Furiosa,” George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel. “She wants to, but George doesn’t want her to,” the movie’s costume designer, Jenny Beavan, tells me. “So I don’t know whether she will or not.” Charlize
Zendaya opened up about some of her toughest work playing a drug addict in “Euphoria,” particularly in Season 2 when her character Rue seemed to hit rock bottom. “One of the greatest honors about being able to play her is every story that I have now gained when people come to me and they share
The Producers Guild of America has invited 11 documentary producing teams to take part in the inaugural cohort of the PGA Create lab for emerging and mid-career documentary producers from diverse backgrounds. The program, which will take place from April 25-28, is designed for producers in active development, financing and packaging of nonfiction features or
The Tribeca Festival has announced the television premieres for its upcoming 2022 edition. The festival, which takes place each year in New York City, features screenings and premieres of notable films, television series and audio storytelling. For its television slate, the festival will premiere nine new series and screen the returns of two series. The
Jorge Ramos, the star anchor and Emmy-winning journalist of U.S. Hispanic giant Univision for decades, will host a new celebrity interview program on ViX, the fledgling AVOD streaming service launched by TelevisaUnivision, the media juggernaut formed by the merger of Mexico’s Televisa and Univision early this year. “Algo Personal con Jorge Ramos” (“Something Personal with
“Luther” star Idris Elba is set to star in and executive produce thriller series “Hijack” for Apple TV+. The seven-part drama will be the debut project to emerge from Elba’s first-look deal with Apple. His production company, Green Door Pictures, signed a deal with the streamer in 2020. In “Hijack,” Elba will play accomplished business
Seth Meyers dragged Ted Cruz for discussing Mickey Mouse and Pluto having sex in reaction to the escalating fight between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor is battling Disney over the company’s opposition to his state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which forbids classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through
Lyn Lear, Gloria Calderón Kellett and Bill Nye were among the over 300 guests who attended the launch event for Good Energy’s playbook for screenwriters at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The nonprofit organization’s new playbook titled “Good Energy: A Playbook for Screenwriting in the Age of Climate
Tom Cruise, Helen Mirren, Damian Lewis and Omid Djalili will lead an A-list cast of talent celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s platinum jubilee on U.K. broadcaster ITV. The event will be broadcast live on ITV from the private grounds of Windsor Castle on May 15 and will be the first televised event to mark the occasion.
Perhaps the only gratifying thing about Rudy Giuliani’s appearance on “The Masked Singer” is that the element of surprise the show’s producers craved was ruined in advance. Wednesday night’s episode of “The Masked Singer” saw former New York City mayor and lawyer for former President Donald Trump revealed as the Jack in the Box. Fitting
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 7, Episode 7, of “The Masked Singer,” “Don’t Mask, Don’t Tell — The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly Round 3,” which aired April 20 on Fox. Well, that happened. In what was largely an anticlimactic end to what we were all bracing
Nikki Rodriguez has been cast as the lead in the upcoming drama series “My Life With the Walter Boys,” Netflix has announced. Based on the popular Wattpad book by Ali Novak, “My Life With the Walter Boys,” the series stars Rodriguez as Jackie Howard, a 15-year old girl who loses her family in a tragic
Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Boxing Day”), Alistair Petrie (“Sex Education”), Romola Garai (“The Hour”) have joined BBC drama series “The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies.” Rounding out the cast are Rebekah Staton (“Raised by Wolves”), Derek Jacobi (“Last Tango in Halifax”), Julian Barratt (“The Mighty Boosh”), Karl Johnson (“Hot Fuzz”) and Ellie Haddington
Donald Trump appears to have walked out of an interview with Piers Morgan after the controversial broadcaster pressed him about the results of the 2020 presidential election. In a clip from the interview, which will air on Talk TV’s “Piers Morgan Uncensored” and Fox Nation on April 25, the former president asks Morgan to “turn
Erika Christensen has been cast in the “Will Trent” pilot at ABC, Variety has learned. Christensen joins previously announced series lead Ramón Rodríguez in the drama pilot, which is based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling “Will Trent” novel series. The show follows Special Agent Will Trent (Rodríguez) of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). Trent was abandoned
George Lopez and Mayan Lopez’s NBC comedy pilot “Lopez vs. Lopez” has cast Laci Mosley and Kiran Deol in recurring roles and set Kelly Park to direct, Variety has learned exclusively. The multi-cam pilot starring the Lopezes is described as a working-class family comedy about dysfunction, reconnection and all the pain and joy in between.
Showtime has formally greenlit the limited series “Fellow Travelers” starring Matt Bomer. Showtime has given the series an eight episode order. Variety exclusively reported the show was in the works at the premium cabler in September 2021. Based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon, the series is described as an epic love
Jada Pinkett Smith’s talk show, “Red Table Talk,” returned on Wednesday, and though there was a brief message for viewers alluding to the topic on everyone’s mind, the series sidestepped the elephant in the room: Will Smith’s Oscars slap. The episode began with a silent black screen and an introductory message, signed from Pinkett Smith,
Ilana Glazer is in talks to star in and executive produce a comedy series currently in the works at Amazon, Variety has learned exclusively. The series is titled “The Suck” and hails from writer and executive producer Ally Israelson. The show asks the question “What if the last year on earth was the best year of
There are few alumni of MTV’s “The Real World” who have had as lasting a legacy as Danny Roberts. When the Georgia native stepped into the house for 2000’s “The Real World: New Orleans,” he was a strikingly handsome 22-year-old college graduate who was, at that point, still one of the few openly gay people
Media companies both old and new had pinned their hopes on riding a wave of interest in streaming well into the future. Now they are finding that there may be only so far the new technology can go. Netflix’ disclosure on Tuesday that it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter and expects to lose
Evangeline Young has been cast as Charlotte Walton in “The Son in Law,” a comedy pilot from ABC. “The Son in Law” stars Chris Sullivan as Jake, a single father who never thought he would love again, until Asha came along. The problem is that Jake, a hard-working plumbing contractor, is solidly middle class, while
Benjamin Bratt has been cast in the Natasha Lyonne-led Peacock series “Poker Face,” which hails from creator Rian Johnson. Variety has learned exclusively that Bratt is the latest addition to the rapidly expanding cast. Another recently announced cast members include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie Hsu, and David Castañeda. Plot and character details for the series are
CBS Studios has set in motion two initiatives focused on providing a diverse range of emerging creators with opportunities in filmmaking and casting. First, CBS Studios has announced a new casting fellowship targeted toward BIPOC representation. Developed to address the diversity gap in the casting industry, the 10-week program allows fellows to have a fully
Executive producer Elgin James and the stars of “Mayans M.C.” attended the FX biker drama’s fourth season premiere at Goya Studios in Los Angeles on Monday night. Set in the same universe as FX’s “Sons of Anarchy,” the series follows the lives of brothers Ezekiel “EZ” (JD Pardo) and Angel Reyes (Clayton Cardenas), who are
Banijay Rights, the production juggernaut behind shows including “Starstruck,” has posted revenues of £102.1 million ($130 million) in its latest U.K. accounts – double the previous year’s revenues of $66.5 million. The company also posted post-tax profits of $9.7 million, more than triple that of the previous year’s, which amounted to $2.6 million. The figures
To some subset of the audience of the 2000 reality show “The Real World: New Orleans,” Danny Roberts was the biggest celebrity on TV. Roberts was the gay cast member on a TV franchise that placed a premium on frankness, openness, and unpracticed charm. The first episode of Roberts’ season saw him gradually and haltingly
Some TV viewers who watched a special kids’ broadcast of an NFL game on Nickelodeon might have witnessed an interesting special effect: a slime monster rising from the football field. Executives at ad giant Interpublic Group saw something else: an opportunity. Interpublic, the ad giant that owns agencies such as Deutsch and McCann WorldGroup, is