Television

SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you’ve not seen the first five episodes of “Masters of the Universe: Revelation,” streaming now on Netflix. Kevin Smith nearly turned down “He-Man.” In early 2019, the iconoclastic filmmaker, podcast host and foul-mouthed bon vivant got a call from his agent. Mattel, the toy company, wanted to meet, but

Tom Barrack, the founder and former CEO of Colony Capital and longtime advisor to Donald Trump, was released on Friday on a whopping $250 million bond, three days after being arrested on charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent and lied about it to investigators. Barrack, 74, was freed from a county jail

Sportscaster Maria Taylor has moved into a new role at NBC Sports, where she made her first appearance Friday during the network’s Olympics coverage. The move comes days after Taylor exited ESPN following controversy that erupted over remarks made about her by a fellow employee. The popular sportscaster, who parted ways with ESPN earlier this

With his reputation and his future Austin restaurant on the line — along with, presumably, important elements of his personal life — Gabe Erales, the winner of the recently concluded Season 18 of “Top Chef,” has delivered a lengthy apology on Instagram. Erales’ win, after a triumphant season of the Bravo show, has been mired

Customers of streaming service BritBox, which specializes in British content, couldn’t keep calm and carry on after receiving an eye-watering monthly bill nearing $800. Paul Sonnenberg subscribes to BritBox for his teenage daughter, who is “really into British television.” The monthly fee for the BBC and ITV-backed streamer, which launched in the U.S. in 2017,

Damon Lindelof (“The Leftovers”), Matt Reeves (“The Batman”) and Oscar Sharp — who co-created the first film with a script entirely written by AI (“Sunspring”) — are teaming up to develop a fantastical medical drama for HBO Max. The magical-realist original series, titled “The Human Conditions,” follows a young British doctor that must treat impossible

All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. If you’ve watched any of the many iterations of “Masters of the Universe,” then you’ve probably stopped to

There are billions of dollars at stake. NBCUniversal, which controls U.S. TV rights to the Olympics through 2032, is hoping that the athleticism on the field will eventually take over the narrative and bring solid ratings for the global event. The controversy around staging the Olympics, even with no spectators, has thrown Japan into a

Discovery is bracing for a bitter fight to keep its business in Poland amid an aggressive drive by the country’s ruling right-wing party to block foreign ownership of media. On July 7, Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) sought amendments to the local Broadcasting Act specifying that TV and radio license holders can’t be directly

Amazon Prime Video announced that upcoming fantasy series “The Wheel of Time” will debut in November. The series is adapted from Robert Jordan’s book series of the same name and stars Rosamund Pike as Moiraine, a member of a magical all-female organization who leads five young people on a journey around the world while trying

Many advertisers plan to interrupt the Olympics with their commercials. Comcast will interrupt its commercials with the Olympics. The cable-and-entertainment giant has a group of ads ready to run in the Tokyo Olympics that, if all goes well, will include footage from this year’s Games that viewers may have seen just a few hours beforehand.

Charting a brand new frontier for the “Star Trek” franchise, the cast and creators of Paramount Plus’ “Star Trek: Prodigy” debuted the teaser trailer for the animated kids series on Friday during the virtual Comic-Con@Home panel for the “Trek” TV universe. The trailer establishes that executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman and director/co-executive producer Ben

It didn’t take long for “FBoy Island” to make me feel like my brain was leaking out my ears, drip by stupefied drip. Brought to HBO Max by Elan Gale of “The Bachelor,” the new dating reality series is some unholy combination of “Bachelor in Paradise,” “Love Island” and “Too Hot to Handle.” The rules

Showtime has released a trailer for “American Rust,” premiering Sept. 12. Starring Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney, the limited series based on Philipp Meyer’s novel of the same name follows Del Harris (Daniels), the chief of police of a Pennsylvania Rust Belt town, as he decides how far he’ll go to protect the son of

Despite all odds, an ongoing pandemic and almost definitely common sense, the Olympic Games kicked off in Tokyo on Friday to much fanfare, a practically empty stadium and a sizable anti-Olympics protest outside that NBC pointedly never mentioned during its many hours of coverage. Mired in controversy, and unfolding in a country struggling to keep

In his first interview with a news outlet since his racial-slur scandal broke six months ago, country superstar Morgan Wallen told “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan that his use of the N-word was the result of being in a drunken climate with friends where they “say dumb stuff together,” and was not meant “in

PUPPETS BritBox U.K.’s “Spitting Image” will return to the airwaves on Sept. 11, with a lineup featuring several new puppets of prominent national figures. Last year, the program was a massive hit for BritBox, the streaming platform co-developed by the BBC and ITV, reaching an audience of more than 4.4 million viewers for the series’

Gun violence is an issue that has plagued the United States for years. ABC News hopes its efforts to track the problem across a recent week will shed new light on it. The Disney-backed news outlet is on Sunday launching “One Nation Under Fire,” a new project in conjunction with news staffers at ABC’s local

The Tokyo Olympic Games got underway on Friday a year late and after much rethinking — not to mention behind the scene drama and protests. Its opening ceremony, without spectators in the stadium, began in both spectacular and ethereal fashion. With a mixture of pre-recorded and live performances in the stadium, the ceremony opened with

Production on season 2 of Sky and AMC’s crime drama series “Gangs of London” has been paused after a crew member tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. The crew member tested positive during regular production testing, Variety understands. Production will pause for the appropriate isolation period — 10 days — in line with the latest

Keshet International has completed further pre-sales on “Surviving 9/11,” Top Hat Productions’ feature-length documentary for the BBC. The BBC had commissioned the film to mark 20 years of the tragedy, which falls this year. Keshet has finalized license deals with The Seven Network in Australia; Globo in Brazil; CBC in Canada for both the CBC

CBS has ousted the leaders of its O&O stations in Los Angeles and Chicago after concluding a six-month investigation into misconduct claims at the CBS Television Stations group. Jay Howell is out as general manager of KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV Los Angeles, as is Derek Dalton at WBBM-TV Chicago. The terminations were disclosed in memos Thursday

Sean Penn has set an ultimatum on the set of the upcoming Starz Watergate series “Gaslit”: either the entire cast and crew receive COVID-19 vaccines, or he’s not returning to work. Although NBCUniversal, “Gaslit’s” studio, imposed mandatory vaccines for “Zone A” cast and crew members (those in close proximity during production), and provided an on-site

Michael Chernus has signed on to star alongside Rachel Weisz in the “Dead Ringers” series currently in the works at Amazon. The series was announced at the streaming service in August 2020 with a straight-to-series order. It is a modern update of the 1988 David Cronenberg film of the same name. The series version will

The first season of Apple TV Plus’ “Ted Lasso” started with a major change for the titular American coach, played by Jason Sudeikis, who moved across the pond to lead a British Premier League team. But that season ended with another tremendous shift, this time for the once-star player of that team, Roy Kent (Brett

There’s a lot to like with the 73rd Emmy nominations. For starters, Emmy voters have done what their Oscar voting counterparts have struggled to achieve in recent years: recognize a body of entertainment that is critically acclaimed and rife with examples of the art form at its highest, as well as a broad swath of

Comedy Central released a trailer for Season 2 of “Awkwafina is Nora From Queens,” premiering on Aug. 18. Starring Awkwafina, Bowen Yang, BD Wong and Lori Tan Chinn, the new season follows Nora (Awkwafina) as she navigates young adulthood in outer-borough New York City. Joining them this season are guest stars Margaret Cho, Alan Kim,

“That Damn Michael Che” has been renewed for Season 2 at HBO Max. The first season of the comedy series premiered on the streaming service back in May. The series, in which Che also stars, features a mix of comedy sketches and vignettes to tackle issues such as racial profiling, unemployment, falling in love and

PROGRAMMING Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am, “Britain’s Got Talent” judge Ashley Banjo, presenter Charlene White and actor Jimmy Akingbola (“In the Long Run”) will lead U.K. broadcaster ITV’s programming for Black History Month this October. The programming includes “Will.i.am: The Blackprint,” a one-hour documentary that follows Will.i.am’s personal exploration of what it means to be

“The Last of Us” series at HBO has cast Anna Torv in a recurring guest star role. Torv joins previously announced series leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as well as cast members Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandrige, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlet, Con O’Neill, and Jeffery Pierce. “The Last of Us” series was first announced as