Television

“You have no brain. No judgement calls are necessary. What you think means nothing. What you feel means nothing. You are here for me. You are here to protect my interests and to serve my needs.” That’s the iconic line spewed by a toxic movie producer to his rattled assistant in “Swimming With Sharks,” the

Sequoia Entertainment is taking advantage of Taiwan’s gay-friendly culture to launch urban comedy series “The Nipple Talk.” The show is in pre-production and is expected to be delivered by early 2023. Taiwan, which is self-ruled and democratic, has a more liberal culture than other parts of Greater China. In 2019, Taiwan legalized same sex marriage

Transatlantic production powerhouse Sister has hired Amazon Studios scripted executive Lydia Hampson as executive producer. The company has also struck a first-look deal with Hampson  and Amazon Studios U.K. Hampson most recently served as the head of U.K. scripted for Amazon Studios. She’s best known for having produced the hit BBC Three comedy “Fleabag” —

Asian sports streaming platform SPOTV has launched in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and The Philippines. The move was announced on the first day of the virtual FilMart rights market. The service is available as a subscription-based app that includes linear channels and on demand event coverage. The sports it covers include MotoGP World Championships and

In support of the Disney Plus streaming service, Disney has expanded its involvement in local production in Asia-Pacific. The company’s APAC head of content and development, Jessica Kam-Engle, gives the keynote presentation on the first day of Hong Kong FilMart. Ahead of her speech she gave a few pointers to Variety readers. Variety: What are

The breakout Peacock hit “Girls5Eva” is dialing up the funny for Season 2, adding veteran comedy actors Amy Sedaris and Neil Flynn. Sitting down at Variety‘s SXSW Studio in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, series creator Meredith Scardino revealed that the beloved Sedaris and Flynn will star as the parents of Busy Philipps’ character Summer Dutkowsky

The third season of “The Umbrella Academy” will premiere on June 22, showrunner Steve Blackman announced at SXSW on Sunday. Netflix also dropped first-look images of the cast and a Season 3 teaser, which shows the Umbrella Academy face-to-face with their new counterparts, the Sparrow Academy. After going back in time to 1963 and saving

Amazon Prime Video’s darkly comic superhero hit “The Boys” only just unveiled its season 3 trailer at SXSW on Saturday, but Variety already has some clarity on when the fourth installment is coming. Karl Urban, who plays Billy Butcher on the series, hinted that production will rev up in the fourth quarter of 2022. “I’m

“Saturday Night Live” once again zeroed in on the war in Ukraine in its cold open with a sketch that featured President Joe Biden and White House press secretary Jen Psaki consulting with TikTok stars on how to respond to the growing threat from Russia. James Austin Johnson was back in an Oval Office setting

“Life imitates art” has become uncomfortably true in the two short years between the first and second seasons of Greg Daniels’ sci-fi comedy “Upload.” The series follows recently deceased computer programmer Nathan Brown (Robbie Amell) as he attempts to navigate Lakeview, the digital afterlife space created by a company called Horizen. The first season debuted

In a move that befits the streaming era, Japan’s Tokyo Broadcasting System Television is looking to make itself more of an international force. It will invest in more international shows and strike new coproduction partnerships. The company unveiled its new strategy on Friday at the South By South West (SXSW) festival in the U.S. It

Premiering his new Apple TV Plus docuseries “They Call Me Magic” at the South by Southwest Film Festival, Magic Johnson shared that Michael Jordan’s Netflix docuseries “The Last Dance” helped him decide it was finally time to tell his own life story. “The reason we did it is because when Michael did ‘The Last Dance,’

As TV expands beyond its traditional borders and attracts talent that would otherwise typically stick to films, the troubling trend of people describing their shows as “a [x]-hour movie” refuses to die. It’s never quite clear what they mean, but for whatever reason, this inherent snobbery about the medium of television persists from some of

Discovery’s cable powerhouses Food Network and HGTV are undergoing a management shuffle as the company prepares to merge with WarnerMedia in a deal that is expected to close in April. HGTV veteran Jane Latman is taking over management of Food Network in addition to the home-focused lifestyle cabler. Courtney White is exiting her post as

Hulu’s new limited series “The Girl From Plainville,” which premiered at the SXSW festival on March 12, faces, and surmounts, an interesting challenge: Its two lead characters have a relationship based almost entirely on text messages. The sight of someone with their face buried in a phone is hardly novel, nor is it compelling —

Season 2 of “Girls5Eva” is coming to Peacock in just under two months. The streamer has announced that the second season of the acclaimed musical comedy series from Meredith Scardino will premiere May 5. “Girls5eva” stars Sara Bareilles, Busy Phillips, Paula Pell and Renée Elise Goldsberry as the members of “Girls5eva,” a girl group that

“The Boys” Season 3 teaser trailer dropped Saturday, revealing an almost-two minute look at the upcoming season of the Amazon Prime Video series filled with lasers, blood, guts, glory and, apparently, dancing. In the video, which you can view below, Butcher (Karl Urban) is struggling with a mysterious case of glowing, light-beam-shooting eyeballs, while Homelander

Morally compromised women seem to be everywhere on the small screen, as performers dig into juicy roles full of questionable behavior on the part of real-life characters. Says Jenny Klein, showrunner of NBC’s “The Thing About Pam”: “One of the core questions of the show is, how could something like this happen?” The same might

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead, if you are not up-to-date with Clayton Echard’s season of “The Bachelor.” With only a few days left until the season finale, “The Bachelor” has a lot of explaining to do. Last week’s “fantasy suite” episode — when the couples get to spend an overnight date together for the first

ABC released key art for the 94th Academy Awards on Friday — and it features the first official shot of this year’s three Oscar hosts. The 94th Oscars will be held March 27, with an in-person ceremony at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre that will air live on ABC. Last month, the Academy announced that Regina

“The Baby-Sitters Club” has been canceled at Netflix after two seasons, Variety has learned. Based on the best-selling book series by Ann M. Martin, “The Baby-Sitters Club” is a contemporary dramedy that follows the friendship and adventures of seven friends as they start their own babysitting business in Stoneybrook, Conn. As demand for their club

Symone D. Sanders will take over the 4 p.m. weekend slot on MSNBC as the NBCUniversal-owned network continues to bolster opinion programming over hours devoted to straight news reportage. The former media strategist, who has helped two prominent Democrats in presidential campaigns, will kick off her first show on Saturday, May 7, at 4 p.m.

“The Simpsons” will make history on Sunday, and coincidentally it’s happening during Women’s History Month. For the first time ever, after 33 seasons and 719 episodes (this Sunday is episode 720), the top four key creative roles that guide animation in a “Simpsons” episode are all women. That includes director Jennifer Moeller, as well as

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major details about the new horror thriller “Fresh.” “Fresh” is not for the squeamish. The new Hulu film stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Noa, a woman who falls for Steve, a handsome surgeon (Sebastian Stan) she meets in a grocery store. Little does she know he’s a black market dealer of

When “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” ended, rumors swirled that Kourtney Kardashian was the reason the show was over. The oldest sister of the Kardashian-Jenner clan says that’s not true. But, she was ready for a new start. On reality TV and social media, Kourtney is known for “just living,” as she likes to say

“Reacher” is the first Amazon Prime Video TV series to top Nielsen’s streaming rankings. Previously, the Amazon comedy “Coming 2 America” landed in first place, but this marks the first for a TV show from the streaming service. For the week of Feb. 7-13, the action-thriller show came in at No. 1 on the Top

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Though “Schitt’s Creek” officially ended its sixth and final episode in 2020, the show will live on forever in our hearts — and Netflix. After sweeping the Emmys for the second time, it’s even

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read this story if you haven’t watched Episode 4 of “Our House.” As London’s Machiavellian property market continues to feel like a real-life thriller, U.K. broadcaster ITV’s drama “Our House” capitalizes on every buyer’s worst fear of losing their hard-earned home. Starring Tuppence Middleton (“Downton Abbey”) and Martin Compston (“Line of

Paul Wilson never ran a 10,000 meter race at the Olympics, but he sure must feel like it. Wilson has supervised much of the work that NBCUniversal’s ad-sales team has had to do over the past two decade to make the company’s investment in the Olympics pay off. He is stepping down from his role

Dwayne Johnson’s autobiographical NBC comedy “Young Rock” has cast “Ballers” actor Arlyn Broche as a very personal character in The Rock’s life: Dany Garcia, his college sweetheart-turned-ex-wife-and-business-partner, Variety has learned exclusively. Per the official description for the character, who will be a recurring guest star on the upcoming second season of “Young Rock,” Dany is