Television

This is the fourth installment of a five-part series examining the transformation of television as the industry prepares to celebrate the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 19. Each fall, as part of a long-held ritual, TV networks release dozens of new programs — and dozens of gimmicks, promotions, and marketing schemes to call attention to

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced that five trainees in the television division have been promoted to agent: Allie Cohen and David Romero in scripted television, Alixandra Haley in alternative television and Rachel Mathias and Lubna Salad in International Television.     The new agents were participants in CAA Elevate, a training and practical development curriculum with an

Netflix has ordered the heist drama “Jigsaw” to series. Spanning 24 years, the series centers around the largest heist ever attempted, and the vengeance, scheming, loyalties, and betrayals that surround it. It’s loosely inspired by the real story where $70 billion dollars in bonds went missing in downtown Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy. Giancarlo Esposito, Paz

This time last year, Variety’s annual TV Producers Impact Report had a heavy bent on those who successfully and innovatively pivoted their productions post-shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic still raging on, those creating content for traditional broadcast networks, cablers and streaming platforms alike have had to double down on originality of story

Controversial British media personality Piers Morgan has signed a global deal with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and News Corp. Under the terms of the deal, Morgan will host a daily TV show that will air on weeknights in the U.K., U.S. and Australia, write a weekly column for Murdoch’s U.K. tabloid The Sun and the

Julio Vaqueiro will be the next anchor of Telemundo’s signature evening newscast “Noticias Telemundo,” filling a role that had previously been held by Jose Diaz-Balart. Vaqueiro had been anchoring the NBCUniversal-backed network’s late-night newscast, which airs at 11:35 p.m. eastern. His new assignment will have him leading a 6:30 p.m. news show. “Julio embodies the

BBC Three, the digital platform behind such global-facing hits as “Fleabag” and “Normal People,” is on track to return to TV screens early next year. U.K. media regulator Ofcom provisionally approved the return of BBC Three as a channel on Thursday — six months after the transition was first announced by the BBC after months

BBC director general Tim Davie has said that the government’s shock cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, which saw the ousting of yet another Culture Secretary, points to a dire need for a “really serious, grown-up” dialogue with government to discuss the future of the creative industries. Davie, whose Thursday morning keynote opened the second and final

Sky’s outgoing director of drama Cameron Roach has launched Rope Ladder Fiction, a Manchester-based independent production company. The company’s focus will be on providing training and development opportunities to new talent and to create scripted content. It is already working with some of the industry’s most prolific broadcasters and commissioners on a range of projects,

Kevin Mayer, chair of live sports streaming service DAZN, has confirmed his ambitions of acquiring rights to the globally popular English Premier League (EPL) soccer championship. In May, rights to the EPL, worth £5 billion ($7 billion) remained with the existing trio of Sky, Amazon, and BT Sport and DAZN was not permitted to participate

Japanese stars Ito Hideaki (“Tokkai”), Kasamatsu Sho (“Flowers and Rain”) and Yamashita Tomohisa (“The Man from Toronto”) have joined the cast as series regulars on “Tokyo Vice.” The series is backed by streaming service HBO Max, Japanese pay-TV leader Wowow and Endeavor Content. The Japanese and English-language crime drama series boasts a previously announced headline

Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton have outlined the strategy behind their nascent film and TV company HiddenLight Productions, revealing that they have optioned a number of books, including Jacqueline Winspear’s “Maisie Dobbs” series. Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Wednesday, the Clintons appeared via a virtual live-link, in conversation with British

“Forget My Name,” “Life” and “Stolen Kids” proved some of the big winners at the 2021 Conecta Fiction awards ceremony in Pamplona, northern Spain on Wednesday night as the Europe-Latin America co-production forum reached its climax. A female spy drama-thriller charged emotionally by an effective mother-daughter relationship, “Forget My Name” won one of the most

The next star of “The Bachelor” will be an unfamiliar face — but not for long. Sources tell Variety that ABC’s new leading man for Season 26 of the hit dating show is Clayton Echard, though ABC and Warner Bros. TV declined to comment for this story. If Echard’s name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because

Richard Schiff, Jessica Hecht, and John Michael Higgins have all been cast in guest roles in the Showtime anthology series “Super Pumped,” Variety has learned exclusively. The first season of the series is based on the Mike Isaac book “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.” It centers on the rise of the ride sharing app

Actor and singer-songwriter Inigo Pascual has joined the cast of Fox’s upcoming musical drama “Monarch.” Previously announced cast members include Beth Ditto, Trace Adkins, Susan Sarandon, Anna Friel and Joshua Sasse. The series follows America’s “first family” of country music, including mother Dottie Cantrell Roman (Sarandon), father Albie Roman (Adkins) and daughters Gigi Taylor-Roman (Ditto)

Wendy Williams has tested positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19, as the talk show host is fully vaccinated. In light of Williams’ diagnosis, her daytime show is pushing back its fall return. Season 13 was originally set to premiere next week, but is now slated for Oct. 4 with repeat episodes airing until then.

This is the third installment of a five-part series examining the transformation of television as the industry prepares to celebrate the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 19. The pandemic has transformed the casting process – for now, at least – with Zoom actor tryouts largely replacing in-person sessions and self-taped auditions supplementing those as many

On a tumultuous day at the Royal Television Society convention at Cambridge, Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon and the U.K. government clashed over the proposed privatization of the channel. Moments before Mahon took the stage, Oliver Dowden who was due to speak immediately after, was replaced as Culture Secretary by Nadine Dorries, in what was

The TV networks aren’t the only ones who think their audiences need to be counted differently. Big media-buying agencies and even a few advertisers are likely to help as the TV industry battles with Nielsen and continues to push for alternate systems of counting video viewers, whether they watch via traditional linear TV or a

The first iteration of ABC’s “The Wonder Years,” which kicked off in 1988, featured a young Fred Savage as a kid growing up about twenty years in the past. If the revival of the format, now executive-produced by Savage along with Lee Daniels, Saladin Patterson, and Marc Velez, kept that gap, we’d be following a

Krysten Ritter has signed on to the cast of the upcoming HBO Max series “Love and Death.” The series is based on the true story of Texas housewife Candy Montgomery, who murdered her friend from church, Betty Gore, with an axe in 1980. The show is inspired by the book “Evidence of Love: A True

Disney Plus released a new list of voice actors added to the cast of “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder,” premiering in 2022. Among the new stars added to the cast of the revival of “The Proud Family” are Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Chance the Rapper, Normani, Leslie Odom Jr., Tiffany Haddish, Lena Waithe, Anthony

Spain’s Mediacrest, one of its fastest-rising independent TV production-distribution houses, has attached Spanish novelist Elvira Lindo to adapt Spanish novel “Nada,” one of the greatest modern classics written after Spain’s Civil War. Lindo is joining Daniel Domenjó, Mediacrest managing director, and Alberto Macías, the company’s head of fiction, to present the drama series makeover at

Sky’s new American CEO Dana Strong has touted the U.K. as an “imperative market” for parent company Comcast as it looks to grow its investment in local infrastructure, and strengthen its European partnerships. Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Wednesday, where she was interviewed by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby,

Filming on Netflix teen series “Tú no eres especial” (“You’re Nothing Special”) kicked-off July 8, becoming the streaming giant’s first TV series entirely filmed in Spain’s northern region of Navarre. The series marks a further step in Netflix’s bet on diversifying its shooting destinations in the country. “Tú no eres especial” is produced by Oria

“The Kissing Booth” producer Andrew Cole-Bulgin has departed Komixx — the production company behind all three instalments of the hit Netflix movies — to join forces with “The Millionaire Matchmaker” star Patti Stanger on a new scripted project. The crossover drama series, in which a young dating expert from a Jewish family of matchmakers navigates

The horse has not left the stable. This summer, Spain’s government unveiled a crucial draft Audiovisual Communication Services Law aimed at implementing an E.U. directive which in Spain’s case will oblige streaming services to invest in Spanish content. The bill established a quota obligation at 3.5% of global platforms’ annual revenues – which pales in

Speaking at the 5th Conecta Fiction, Ana Bond, Sony Pictures VP and executive director for Latin American and Hispanic markets confirmed that Sony’s Entertainment division had no plans to launch its own streamer. During her online keynote on the first day of this year’s hybrid event, Bond added that the focus remained on partnerships and

Conecta Fiction and Virtual Screenings 2021 brought together European public broadcasters for an online presentation on Tuesday that attempted to capture the alliances and challenges of the European public broadcasters, among Europe’s biggest and most active TV companies. “We are aware that the past and the future is based on partnership,” said Maria Pia Ammirati,