Television

Scott Bakula has been cast in one of the lead roles in the NBC drama pilot “Unbroken,” Variety has learned. The pilot follows three dynastic ranch families on the central coast of California as they make love and war in a passionate struggle to survive, ultimately setting the stage for a group of fiercely determined young

Former Propagate president Greg Lipstone is making the move over to oversee American Song Contest Inc. as its president and COO, just days before the ambitious NBC competition series launches on March 21. An offshoot of the long-running global phenomenon Eurovision, “American Song Contest” will attempt to try something similar in the United States, via

Chris Cuomo wants CNN parent WarnerMedia to keep paying him even though he no longer works there. The former CNN primetime anchor alleged in an arbitration filing Wednesday that his career has suffered damages in excess of $125 million, and suggested CNN had allowed several of his one-time colleagues to violate standards and practices in

ABC Signature has signed a two-year overall deal with Tony McNamara, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated writer who created Hulu’s “The Great” and penned films “The Favourite” and Disney’s “Cruella.” Under the pact, McNamara will develop and supervise projects for the Disney Television Studios-owned division. “Tony’s work on ‘The Great’ and ‘Cruella’ is sly, subversive and delicious,

CBS and the producers behind the network’s new reality series “Beyond the Edge” were bracing for their celebrity cast to mutiny. They even had contingency plans in place, just in case their stars decided to give up in the face of grueling conditions. “I remember in the middle of production, saying on multiple occasions, ‘I

Anchors like Don Lemon, Joy Reid and Sean Hannity have long looked at Nielsen ratings as one of the primary measures of their performance on air. Soon, they may have another. Magna, the large media-buying firm owned by Interpublic Group, has enlisted NewsGuard, a company that examines the veracity of news content and the ways

Alexandra Daddario has been cast in the lead role of the “Mayfair Witches” series at AMC, Variety has learned exclusively. Based on Anne Rice’s “The Lives of the Mayfair Witches” novels, the show was picked up to series at AMC in December 2021. Daddario will star as Rowan, a brilliant doctor who grapples with her fate

ESPN spent last year building up Peyton and Eli Manning as the curators of a loose, bar-talk like show meant as an alternative to its traditional “.” Now the Disney-backed sports giant is focusing on the main event. ESPN has signed the two main figures behind Fox Sports’ football presentations, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck,

It’s not hard to see why a story about a U.S. at war with itself might have seemed especially piquant to producers over the past several years. And, indeed, “DMZ,” HBO Max’s new limited series based on a comic serial, feels capital-R Relevant, as if trying to fit in a civics textbook’s worth of ideas

Hong Kong’s broadcasters and streamers were active buyers of content ahead of this week’s FilMart. Pay-TV platform, Now TV picked up a nine-title package of factual content from All3Media International. The deal includes: “Nutopia’s A World of Calm,” which combines mesmeric imagery with narration by A-list stars Mahershala Ali, Nicole Kidman and Zoë Kravitz; 72 Films’ feature-length “Diana,” a

Top Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset, which is being rebranded as MediaForEurope (MFE), is launching a bid to gain full ownership of its Spanish unit Mediaset Espana in move touted as a first step in its stated plan to gain scale in Europe. The company, which is controlled by the family of former Italian Prime Minister

Rising Australian star Lincoln Younes has been cast as the lead of “Last King of the Cross,” a biographical series about a notorious night club owner and gangster being produced for Paramount Plus. Told in ten episodes, the series is an operatic story of two brothers, Sam and John Ibrahim who organize the street but lose

Transatlantic production powerhouse Sister has taken a minority stake in independent outfit Dorothy Street Pictures. Dorothy Street Pictures, which is behind Sundance and Cannes title, Bruce Lee documentary “Be Water” and has a Pamela Anderson documentary in the works for Netflix, will remain fully independent. The company’s Julia Nottingham (“Skate Kitchen”) and her team of

Channel 4 has renewed the Lesley Sharp-fronted crime thriller “Before We Die” — an English adaptation of a Swedish series, produced by the team behind Walter Presents. Sharp will return as detective Hannah Laing, who joins forces with maverick detective Billy Murdoch (Vincent Regan) in a desperate bid to protect her son Christian (Gibson). Season

Bollywood royalty Kareena Kapoor Khan leads the cast of Netflix’s Indian adaptation of Japanese author Higashino Keigo’s bestselling 2005 novel “The Devotion of Suspect X.” “Kahaani” filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh will direct. The cast also includes Jaideep Ahlawat (“Paatal Lok”) and Vijay Varma (“Gully Boy”). Ghosh had initially set up the project at Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji

BAFTA-winning writer and disability rights advocate Jack Thorne’s (“Help,” “His Dark Materials”) BBC drama “Best Interests” stars Michael Sheen (“Good Omens”) and Sharon Horgan (“Catastrophe”). Sheen and Horgan play married couple Nicci and Andrew, who have two daughters, Katie played by Alison Oliver (“Conversation with Friends”) and Marnie played by Niamh Moriarty (Thorne’s play “A

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead, if you have not watched Clayton Echard’s finale of “The Bachelor,” which aired March 14 and 15 on ABC. After replacing Chris Harrison as host of “The Bachelor,” Jesse Palmer has inked a deal to return as host of the franchise’s female-led series, “The Bachelorette,” which will return with its 19th

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the March 15 finale of ABC’s “The Bachelor.” Clayton Echard’s run as “The Bachelor” has been less than smooth. His season’s conclusion was no different. During Monday’s penultimate episode, Clayton attempted to salvage his relationships with finalists Gabby Widney and Rachel Recchia. He confessed that

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead, if you have not watched Clayton Echard’s finale of “The Bachelor,” which aired March 14 and 15 on ABC. ABC has picked not one, but two stars for its next season of “The Bachelorette.” Making history in a franchise first, both Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia will co-star in

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “The Guitar Man,” the March 15 episode of “This Is Us.” “This Is Us” kicked off its last-ever “Big 3 Trilogy” of episodes Tuesday, a fan-favorite seasonal event for the NBC drama that devotes three consecutive weeks of episodes to the personal stories of

Philippines star Jericho Rosales (“Basurero,” “Siargao,” “Pacquiao: The Movie”) has been announced as headlining the cast of “Sellblock” an upcoming scripted TV prison series. The show is hatched by Manila-based ABS-CBN and its production partner BlackOps Studios Asia. It was first announced last month as part of BlackOps’ genre slate of projects with its creative

It’s not easy putting on the green. The Muppets have been added to this season of ABC’s reality competition “Holey Moley,” the network announced Tuesday. It’s part of the Alphabet network’s Spring unscripted series lineup, with three shows set to premiere May 3. Season 4 of “Holey Moley,” the mini-golf competition show executive produced by

“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” has cast Paul Wesley in the iconic role of James T. Kirk for the Paramount Plus show’s upcoming second season. “Strange New Worlds” is due to premiere on Paramount Plus on May 5. It was renewed for a second season back in January, with that season already in production. The

When “9-1-1” Season 5 returns from hiatus Monday and reunites with its spinoff “9-1-1: Lone Star” in back-to-back time slots, leading lady Angela Bassett will be pulling double duty as her character Sergeant Athena Grant appears on the Fox first-responder drama and has a brief crossover appearance on “Lone Star.” “There’s a thing called SWAT-ing,

Selena Gomez, Tanya Saracho and Gabriela Revilla Lugo are teaming up to develop a TV comedy spin on John Hughes’ beloved 1984 coming-of-age film “Sixteen Candles.” Titled “15 Candles,” the half-hour series will follow four young Latinas in high school, navigating feelings of invisibility while exploring what it means to leave childhood behind as quinceañera

The first trailer for Disney Plus’ upcoming “Star Wars” limited series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” was nearly stolen by a young Luke Skywalker, who briefly appears in the footage being watched by Ewan McGregor’s eponymous Jedi. The series, set 10 years after the events of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith,” follows Obi-Wan as he’s thrown into

Chris Sullivan is set to star in the ABC comedy pilot “The Son in Law,” Variety has confirmed. Sullivan will star in the single-cam comedy as Jake, a divorced dad with a 21 year old daughter. Jake never thought he would love again, until Asha came along. The problem is that Jake, a hard-working plumbing

“The Adam Project” and “Pieces of Her” topped Netflix’s Top 10 lists of English-language films and TV series for the week of March 7, when the fifth and final season of “The Last Kingdom” was viewed for 63.5 million hours in its first five days after launch. Debuting March 11, the Ryan Reynolds-led pic was

Hulu has ordered the comedy pilot “Bammas” written by and starring Opeyemi Olagbaju and Biniam Bizuneh, Variety has learned. The show follows a pair of young Ethiopian- and Nigerian-American best friends as they struggle to overcome their loser reputations in a magical realist version of Washington DC. Olagbaju and Bizuneh serve as executive producers in addition

Warner Bros. Discovery’s plans to merge streaming services HBO Max and Discovery Plus in the U.S. is likely to be adopted overseas, and a clearer picture is emerging of what the platform will look like in key markets. Sources tell Variety that Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia — which are expected to merge in the next