SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas,” streaming now on The Roku Channel. “Nash Bridges,” “Ray Donovan” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” are all fan-favorite television series that are continuing their stories with two-hour original TV movies, but only “Zoey’s” is set at the holidays and managed to turn its
Television
AMC has officially ordered a series based on the Anne Rice “Lives of the Mayfair Witches” novels, Variety has learned. The cabler has ordered eight episodes of the show, which is titled “Mayfair Witches.” It was originally announced that AMC had opened a writers room for the series in August under their script to series model.
Apple has ordered a thriller series that hails from Alfonso Cuarón with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline set to star, Variety has learned. The show is titled “Disclaimer” and is based on the novel of the same name by Renee Knight. Blanchett stars as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has
Bill Gates’ book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” has led to a 10-episode series for educational streamer Wondrium, the campany is set to announce on Wednesday. Besides the series, a companion documentary also inspired by the book will be produced for the service. Both the series and doc will premiere in 2022. Gates will
Sony Pictures Television has confirmed the long-rumored acquisition of U.K. independent production outfit Bad Wolf. Bad Wolf’s credits include “His Dark Materials,” “Industry,” “The Night Of,” “A Discovery of Witches” and “I Hate Suzie.” Sony has taken a majority stake in the company, which includes buying out the minority stakes held in Bad Wolf by
PRE-SINGAPORE SALES ITV Studios, the commercial arm of the U.K.’s commercial TV network ITV, has struck a raft of sales and pre-sales deals ahead of the Asia Television Forum & Market that launched Wednesday in Singapore.“The Ipcress File,” a spy thriller from Altitude Film Entertainment, was licensed to Now TV in Hong Kong and the
Sport 24 has signed a three-year extension deal with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to broadcast the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The agreement also includes the UEFA Super Cup, which sees the respective Champions League and Europa League winners battle it out for the top prize, and the new UEFA
Jimmy Kimmel offered an impassioned defense of Dr. Anthony Fauci during his opening monologue on Tuesday evening’s episode of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” “If you’ve been watching Fox News, you know that the real enemy isn’t the virus or the do-my-own-research geniuses who refuse to get the vaccine. The real enemy is Dr. Fauci,” Kimmel
A property that has been featured in HBO’s third season of “Succession” has just sold for $45 million. The mansion is located in the town in the hamlet of Wainscot in New York State. The sellers are David Susser, an aerospace and defense entrepreneur, and his wife, Marla Susser. Viewers of “Succession” saw the house
Australian contemporary political thriller series “Total Control” has been licensed by broadcasters and streamers across Asia and Latin America, following the recent launch of a second season. Starring Deborah Mailman and Rachel Griffiths, the show confronts a range of issues around race, diversity and First Nations rights. Produced by Blackfella Films, the narrative depicts a
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the Nov. 30 episode of “The Bachelorette.” In a franchise first, all of “The Bachelorette” lead Michelle Young’s final four were men of color, and she visited versions of their hometowns that production set up within their isolation bubble in Minneapolis, Minn. on the Nov.
It’s official: ABC has announced Clayton Echard as the next star of “The Bachelor.” Echard, a suitor on the current season of “The Bachelorette” with Michelle Young, will lead Season 26 of the long-running dating show. Echard was first reported by Variety back in September to be the new “Bachelor” when photos of him filming
“Red Notice” may not have been favored highly by film critics, but Netflix subscribers seemingly can’t get enough of the comedy-action movie or its A-lister cast including Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. The Rawson Marshall Thurber feature was, for the third week in a row, at the top of Netflix’s weekly global streaming
After Steve Burton caused his own ouster at “General Hospital” for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Variety has learned that there are no plans at this time to recast his character, Jason Morgan. Burton has played the character on the ABC daytime soap opera off and on since 1991, but on the Nov. 19 episode,
“Squid Game” star Park Hae-soo is set to star in the Korean adaptation of the popular Spanish series “Money Heist (La Casa de Papel),” Netflix announced on Tuesday. Park is set to play Andrés “Berlin” de Fonollosa, one of the drama’s main characters. The news of his casting hits as the original series approaches the
Chinese content aggregator Legend Media has swooped for a 100-hour package of content from multinational Fremantle, which said that it was Legend’s first and biggest factual package so far. The company has licensed digital rights for China and will be placing the factual programs across top Chinese VOD platforms. The deal was announced on the
Leah Newman, a former Harpo Entertainment executive and daughter of WME partner Robert Newman, died Nov. 24 in Los Angeles at the age of 33, two days after giving birth to a daughter. In an unbelievably tragic turn of events, Leah Newman died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, just two days after the birth of her
CNN said it suspended Chris Cuomo “indefinitely, pending further evaluation,” following new disclosures about how he helped his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in the midst of a scandal over sexual harassment allegations, a move that leaves the WarnerMedia network without the services of its most-watched anchor. “The New York Attorney General’s office
Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Films and Lulu Wang’s Local Time are partnering to develop the comedy series “The Son of Good Fortune” at Amazon, Variety has learned exclusively. Based on the novel of the same name by Lysley Tenorio, the series is about an undocumented Filipino teenager in the Bay area navigating a tumultuous relationship
“Kevin Can F*** Himself” will end with its upcoming Season 2 at AMC, Variety has confirmed. The news comes after the show was renewed for a second season in August. The dark comedy series stars “Schitt’s Creek” alum Annie Murphy as Allison McRoberts, a woman we all grew up believing we knew: the prototypical Sitcom Wife.
HBO Max’s new trailer for “And Just Like That,” its revival of “Sex and the City,” expands on the teaser, revealing where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the gang are more than 11 years after we saw them in the movie “Sex and the City 2.” Along with Parker, Kristin Davis has returned as
Just as Disney Plus, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video are revving up their fantasy, horror and sci-fi series slates for winter 2021-2022 debuts, Netflix is touting the abundance of genre series headed to the streamer. Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada, announced premiere details for a slew of
“Stalk,” Simon Bouisson’s timely French show tackling cyber spying and bullying, has lured a flurry of top TV channels across the world. Produced by Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora at Silex Films, the half-hour psychological thriller series was a big hit on France Televisions’s platform Slash and later aired on the broadcaster’s linear channel France
The “Game of Thrones” prequel series “Tales of Dunk and Egg” at HBO has found its writer, Variety has learned from sources. Steve Conrad has been tapped to serve as writer and executive producer on the potential series under his Elephant Pictures banner. As Variety exclusively reported in January 2021, the one-hour show would be based
Comcast and Disney renewed a critical carriage pact that will keep ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC and more flowing to the subscribers of the Philadelphia cable giant. The two companies said they had struck a “multi-year agreement” that includes carriage of the ESPN networks, Disney’s kid-focused cable networks, Freeform, the FX and National Geographic networks and
Allblk, AMC Networks’ streamer for Black content, has greenlit “Send Help,” a coming-of-age dark comedy created by “Insecure” recurring star Jean Elie and writer and story editor Mike Gauyo. “Send Help” will follow Fritz (Elie), a young first generation Haitian American struggling to overcome the challenges of “making it” in Hollywood, while coming to terms
GREENLIGHT Starzplay has greenlit a six-episode second season of hit travel documentary series “Men in Kilts: A Roadtrip with Sam and Graham,” featuring “Outlander” stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish. They will hit the road again, this time in New Zealand. Developed by Heughan and McTavish, the original series is produced by Boardwalk Pictures, in
ViacomCBS announced a deal to sell L.A.’s CBS Studio Center to two investment firms for $1.85 billion, the latest in a series of real-estate divestitures for the company. The media conglomerate had confirmed that it was looking to sell CBS Studio Center, which sits on a 55-acre site in Studio City, this summer. The CBS
Amazon Prime Video announced that Season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” will premiere on Feb. 18 with two new episodes dropping every Friday for four weeks, and also released the first teaser. The series follows Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a Jewish housewife in New York City who becomes a stand-up comedian after her
British television dominated the European Broadcasting Union’s prestigious Rose d’Or TV awards on Monday evening. Among the shows that picked up gongs at the ceremony, which honors international television and audio production outside the U.S., were “Strictly Come Dancing,” the Davina McCall-fronted series “Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace” and “Help,” a drama about the