On Wednesday, Amy Schneider won her 21st consecutive game of “Jeopardy!,” making her the first woman in the show’s history to do so. She then broke her own record, winning her 22nd game the next night. The record for most consecutive wins by a woman was previously held by Julia Collins, who had her 20th
Television
The Rose Parade is back to ring in the new year, after the 2021 event was cancelled due to the pandemic. With LeVar Burton serving as grand marshal, the 2022 parade will take place on Jan. 1 on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, Calif. The celebration begins at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET and
New Year’s is often the odd one out when it comes to holiday season programming. While many households keep the TV on in the background of Thanksgiving dinner, and Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa give us lots of time at home to watch classic and contemporary faves with our families, New Year’s is usually spent out
Denis O’Dell, a producer on two Beatles’ movies as well as “How I Won the War,” “Robin and Marion” and “Heaven’s Gate,” died Dec. 30 from natural causes in Almería, Spain at his home in San José, Cabo de Gata. He was 98. Father of “Exodus: Gods and Kings” producer Denise O’Dell and grandfather of
Entertainment industry heavyweights from France are sharing thoughts on their successes, the challenges they faced in a year overshadowed by COVID, as well as predicting what’s in store for the movie business in 2022. Some of the country’s milestones in 2021 include the implementation of the E.U.’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) to get global
Marking a new phase of expansion, Barcelona-based Scenic Rights, the biggest literary rights broker for Spanish-language film and TV series, is set to enter Central and Eastern Europe opening offices in Prague in January 2022. Further new international offices will be announced shortly, Scenic Rights has announced. Scenic Rights CEE marks a collaboration with the
After laying dormant for over a year due to the pandemic, Marvel Studios came roaring back in 2021 with nine titles premiering in theaters and on Disney Plus. Among them were the first billion-dollar grossing movie of the pandemic, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”; Marvel Studios’ first ever animated series, “What If…?”; and Marvel Studios’ first
A tally of the year’s most-watched TV networks seems wildly incomplete in the 2020s without Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus or HBO Max in the mix. But with no real apples-to-apples way of comparing viewership on the streaming platforms to linear consumption, we’ll continue to measure them in different ways, at least for
The BBC has apologized for broadcasting an interview with Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz without disclosing that Dershowitz has also been accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein’s victims. Dershowitz appeared on BBC News live from New York on Wednesday evening, shortly after a jury handed down the guilty verdict in Ghislaine Maxwell’s
“The Amazing Race” returns for its 33rd edition on Wednesday, January 5, at 8 p.m. ET, kicking off with a disclaimer from host Phil Keoghan about this most unusual season. Variety has an exclusive first look at the opening five minutes of the two-hour premiere episode, (watch above, or scroll down to see more) set
A franchise under threat of extreme overexposure could do worse than to return to basics. “The Book of Boba Fett,” the latest extension of the “Star Wars” franchise, comes at a precarious time; the big-screen strategy for the Lucasfilm universe ran into creative exhaustion by the time 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker” disappointed hardcore and
It should become clear within a minute of pressing play on HBO Max’s “Harry Potter” 20th Anniversary special (“Return to Hogwarts”) whether you’re in or out for the nearly 2-hour special to come. The dreamy opening evokes the canny, warm charm of a Christmas commercial, to the familiar tune of John Williams’ iconic score (with
John Madden, the legendary football coach, broadcaster and namesake of the popular video game franchise, died on Tuesday morning. He was 85. The National Football League announced his death on Tuesday afternoon in a press release, writing that Madden died unexpectedly. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed. “On behalf of the entire NFL
The second season of Joe Berlinger’s “Crime Scene” docuseries for Netflix, premiering Dec. 29, centers on the so-called Times Square Torso Ripper. “Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer” will focus on how the danger and depravity of New York’s Times Square in the late 1970s and early 1980s allowed serial killer Richard Cottingham to commit
Israel’s leading multi-channel platform Yes TV and its production-distribution arm Yes Studios will be launching a record 43 series and documentaries in 2022. The lineup includes several new shows in post production, notably “Fire Dance” and “Bloody Murray,” and some series in development such as “Alef.” Yes Studios — which is behind two of Israel’s
If a big story erupted at a random hour not too long ago, executives at big TV-news outlets would typically try to break into regularly scheduled network programming with one of the oldest tools in the box, a “special report.” Now, thanks to a widening fight among TV companies to capture streaming audiences, they have
Variety can exclusively reveal that on Jan. 12, Netflix will drop a second season of “Cheer,” its Emmy-winning docuseries about the cheerleading team from Navarro College. Season 1, which premiered in January 2020, turned Navarro coach Monica Aldama and members of her team — especially Lexi Brumback, La’Darius Marshall, Morgan Simianer, Jerry Harris and (the
The Quebecois director Jean-Marc Vallée is being remembered by the entertainment industry, with heartfelt tributes emerging from the late filmmaker’s peers and collaborators. Vallée, who directed films such as “Dallas Buyers Club” and “Wild” and helmed TV projects including “Big Little Lies” and “Sharp Objects,” died suddenly at his cabin outside Quebec City, Canada on
Inspired by U.S. teen dramas such as “Gossip Girl,” “Made in Chelsea” was originally conceived in 2011 as a reality TV series chronicling the lives of wealthy 20-somethings in one of London’s most upmarket districts. Ten years and 22 seasons later, the show — which airs on Channel 4’s digital channel E4 in the U.K.
Discovery Inc will not have to sell its Polish business after all. On Monday, President Andrzej Duda vetoed a controversial media bill that was passed in the Polish parliament earlier this month that would have forced the U.S. giant to sell its business in the country. Known as Lex TVN, the bill was designed to
SPOILER ALERT: This story includes spoilers from “Everything Gonna Be, Okay?”, the series finale of HBO’s “Insecure.” With one final time-traveling episode, Issa Rae’s journey with “Insecure,” the hit HBO comedy that vaulted Rae onto Hollywood’s A-list, has come to a close after five seasons. “Hopefully this finale is a late Christmas gift, an early
SPOILER ALERT: This column includes spoilers from “Everything Gonna Be, Okay?”, the series finale of HBO’s “Insecure.” The cliffhanger going into the series finale of “Insecure” was only a cliffhanger if you hadn’t been paying attention. As ever, Issa (Issa Rae) had to choose between two men: her longtime love Lawrence (Jay Ellis) and, well,
Netflix and Shondaland have announced the return of “Bridgerton,” with Season 2 set to premiere on March 25. Keeping up with the tradition of Julia Quinn’s novels, Season 2 of “Bridgerton” tells the story of Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s (Jonathan Bailey) quest for love as he sets out to find a suitable wife. When Kate Sharma
Hawkeye isn’t as buff as Captain America, as obnoxiously sexy as Iron Man, as beautiful and mysterious as Natasha Romanoff, as boyishly charming as Spider-Man, as brawny and brainy as Hulk or a himbo god like Thor — he’s just a regular dude with Jeremy Renner’s rugged looks and above-average archer skills with zero superpowers.
In Aardman’s half-hour stop-motion comedy film “Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas,” Timmy the lamb finds himself whisked off on an adventure to the local town, hidden in a large parcel, and thence onward to the house of Ben the farmer, his wife Jin and their daughter Ella. Shaun and the flock must mount
Jesse Armstrong’s Various Artists Ltd has posted post-tax profits of £2.6 million ($3.5 million) following the success of “I May Destroy You.” The profits for the year ending March 2021 are more than double those of the previous year, which amounted to £1.2 million ($1.6 million) according to Various Artist Ltd’s latest financial report, which
Anna Drezen is exiting her role as one of four head writers for “Saturday Night Live” in order to focus on her Freefrom animated comedy series “Praise Petey.” Drezen disclosed her decision Thursday in an Instagram post that featured a collection of photos from her time working on the NBC mainstay. “Bye SNL! I am
Most TV shows tackle the holiday season in one way or another. Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are great excuses to see your favorite characters trapped in zany and highly specific situations often involving hectic airport experiences, awkward gift exchanges and the occasional Santa suit. Our favorite holiday episodes all do one (or both) of two
Another woman has come forward with allegations against Chris Noth, becoming the fifth person this month to accuse the “Sex and the City” and “Law & Order” star of sexual assault. In a press conference with her attorney Gloria Allred, singer-songwriter Lisa Gentile alleged she was “sexually victimized” and “sexually abused” by Noth in 2002.
One of the most anticipated of series from Latin America in 2022, Lucía Puenzo’s “Señorita 89” will premiere in the U.S. on Feb. 27, bowing on Spanish-language streaming service Pantaya which has also dropped official teaser key art and a first-look teaser trailer. Produced by Academy Award winners Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín and