Television

COVID continues to be a royal pain for the U.K. screen sector, with “The Crown” tackling positive cases on set amid a surge of the Omicron variant. Variety has confirmed that Netflix wrapped Season 5 production for the holidays ahead of schedule following a number of positive COVID cases. It’s unclear exactly how many cases

A new film and TV studio business, Versa Studios, has launched in the U.K. with the opening of a new production facility — and the first clients have already walked through the doors. Versa London boasts a 10,000 square-foot studio with an additional 20,000 square feet of space for production galleries, dressing rooms, green rooms

A Delaware Superior Court judge denied a Fox News motion to dismiss a massive $1.6 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems that alleges the news outlet made false claims about the company’s actions and influence on the 2020 presidential election. In a decision released Thursday afternoon, the court found Fox News’ defenses did not warrant

Want a break from the doom and gloom of the pandemic? Try watching Season 2 of “Emily in Paris.” Producers of the Netflix series decided that COVID doesn’t exist in Emily’s fabulous — and very fashionable — life in the City of Light. “Season 1 allowed us an escapism when it came out that it

Any show juggling multiple relationship dynamics gives itself the gift of possibility and the challenge of balancing it all at once. While it gets to tell several stories instead of relying on just one, some characters can easily fall through the cracks, or else become far less compelling when weighed against the others. Such is

Love Productions, the Comcast-back production company behind “The Great British Bake Off” (or “The Great British Baking Show,” as it’s known in the U.S.), have posted a pandemic turnover of £85 million ($114 million) for the period between July 2019 and December 2020. The turnover dwarfs that of the previous year, which amounted to £61.5

Dun dun: Sam Waterston, longtime “Law & Order” veteran, will be returning for his 17th season as District Attorney Jack McCoy on the famed Dick Wolf show for its revival. Waterston joins previously announced “Law & Order” alum Anthony Anderson, who will return to the cast as Detective Kevin Bernard. “Law & Order” premieres its

Tyler Perry Studios has named veteran producer Angi Bones as president of original programming. The newly created role expands Bones’ relationship with Tyler Perry Studios, where she will work on the fourth seasons of BET’s “The Oval” and “Sistas,” plus its newly announced spin-off “Zatima,” and the third seasons of BET Plus’ “Bruh” and Nickelodeon’s

Actor Chris Noth has been accused of sexual assault by two women. The “Law & Order” and “Sex and the City” star has denied the allegations, asserting that the encounters were consensual. “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,” Noth said in a prepared statement. “These

ReachTV has sealed a partnership with Group Black to create “Group Black Originals,” which will support Black creators and content via airing on screens across the country in airports and hotels. Through the deal, both sides will collaborate on multiple original series to be distributed across ReachTV’s linear network of more than 2,500 owned screens

Showtime has renewed its chilling thriller “Yellowjackets” for a second season. According to the network, 4 million viewers across Showtime’s platforms have watched the premiere of “Yellowjackets,” which made its debut on Nov. 14. The horror drama flashes back and forth between two periods: One, the aftermath of a plane crash, when the members of

It was an “Offer” that writer/producer Nikki Toscano couldn’t refuse. Toscano has sealed a three-year overall deal with Paramount Television Studios, where she’ll develop premium TV series for the studio across all platforms. Toscano is currently showrunner and executive producer on Paramount Plus’ “The Offer,” a limited series about the making of “The Godfather.” The

Netflix’s live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series has discovered its Azula, Suki, Avatar Kyoshi, Gran Gran and Suki’s mother Yukari. Elizabeth Yu (“All My Love”), plays Azula, the daughter of Fire Lord Ozai and sister to Zuko. She’s a fire-bending prodigy and relentless perfectionist who will stop at nothing to secure her position as the

Betty White will invite her fans to celebrate her 100th birthday with “Betty White: 100 Years Young — A Birthday Celebration,” a one-day only theatrical event distributed by Fathom Events. The event was announced by Fathom Events on Thursday. The movie event will screen in 900 movie theaters nationwide on Jan. 17, 2022, the day

“Mad Men” star Jon Hamm is returning to Amazon Prime Video for season 2 of “Good Omens.” Hamm will reprise the role of Archangel Gabriel in the series, which is currently in production in Scotland. Also returning are Doon Mackichan (“Toast”), who plays Angel Michael, and Gloria Obianyo (“Dune”) as Uriel. They will be joined

ViacomCBS is among the big media companies rushing to find new ways to measure video audiences. Starting next year, the entertainment conglomerate expects to start doing deals based on a new yardstick. Dentsu, the Japanese ad conglomerate that owns Carat and Merkle, among other U.S. firms, expects to base some of its media deals with

2021 may have been a stellar year on the small screen, as we welcomed back much-hyped series such as “Succession” and delved into new, bingeable fare such as “Squid Game,” but all signs suggest the next 12 months are shaping up to be even better. Like last year, many of these shows are coming out

Hope Dickson Leach, BAFTA-winning director of acclaimed Toronto, Rotterdam and London festival selection “The Levelling,” has embarked upon a hybrid adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s iconic novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Leach and co-writer Vlad Butucea have transposed the story from London to Victorian Edinburgh. The story follows Gabriel Utterson

UTA has acquired management consulting firm MediaLink for $125 million in a deal designed to solidify the talent agency’s strength in business marketing and advisory operations. The pact with U.K. analytics firm Ascential calls for MediaLink to become a wholly owned entity of the agency. MediaLink will retain its name and management team, led by

Actor Jeff Garlin will not return to ABC’s comedy series “The Goldbergs” following a string of misconduct allegations against the actor and an HR investigation into his on-set behavior. Two sources close to the production confirmed to Variety that it was a mutual decision that Garlin would not return to “The Goldbergs.” Garlin has been

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has added another TV station to its broadcasting holdings with the purchase of Fox affiliate WCOV-TV in Montgomery, Ala. Allen Media Group paid $28.5 million in cash to Woods Communications for the station, which offers some 16 other channel feeds in addition to Fox through its multicast channels. The acquisition

You can learn a lot about a company by watching what assets it buys and what assets it sells. Sony Pictures Entertainment has been busy over the past four and a half years with a steady stream of deal activity. Most of the transactions haven’t made big headlines because they haven’t involved big dollars compared

CBS is bringing back the crew from freshman drama “CSI: Vegas” for a second season — but without William Petersen in the cast. CBS’s renewal of the crime investigation procedural, a sequel to the network’s longrunning hit “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” comes a week after the Season 1 finale aired on Dec. 8. Season 2

“The Goonies’ never say die” is a memorable catchphrase from that fan favorite 1980s film. But it could also describe Warner Bros. TV’s recent strategic efforts to keep some of its series alive through crafty dealmaking. And that, coincidentally, includes “The Goonies”-inspired “Untitled Film Re-Enactment Project” that had been adapted by writer Sarah Watson into

ViacomCBS announced the five participants for its 2021-2022 Directors Initiative: Julie Herlocker, Bao Tran, Joy T. Lane, Pat Santana and Steven J. Kung. The initiative provides a platform for experienced directors to gain access to showrunners, executives, managers and agents as well as the opportunity to shadow CBS Television Network and CBS Studio shows throughout

“Why Women Kill,” Paramount Plus’ popular original anthology series starring Allison Tolman, Lana Parrilla, Veronica Falcón and Nick Frost, has been renewed for a third season. The dark comedy, created by Marc Cherry, the man that brought us “Desperate Housewives” and “Devious Maids,” also features Jordane Christie and B.K. Cannon in its cast. “’Why Women

To understand the success of Netflix Original “Squid Game” and other talked-about dramas such as “My Name” and “Hellbound” is to recognize their “secret sauce” — a combination of edgy, relatable and realistic themes in today’s Korean society that can easily translate to a global audience. Seo Jang-ho, CJ ENM’s senior vice president of content

Much like the character at its center, “MacGruber” has a surprising ability to withstand bombs. In the late-aughts series of sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” Will Forte’s character, a riff on MacGyver, would inevitably get caught up in his own neuroses while attempting to dismantle an explosive, resulting in detonation before he came back, unscathed,

U.S. broadcaster Fox may still be making up its mind about a second season of “The Masked Dancer,” but over in the U.K., ITV is hitting the dance floor for another round. The British commercial broadcaster has commissioned Scottish production company Bandicoot for Season 2 of the entertainment series, which first premiered in May. The

British reality star Katie Price has been handed a 16-week suspended prison sentence for drunk driving while she was disqualified and without auto insurance. The 43-year-old media personality, who has become a fixture in recent years on channels like Discovery-owned Quest Red, will need to meet certain conditions as part of the sentence — which