Television

Punkie Johnson, the “Saturday Night Live” featured player, has been cast in Season 2 of HBO Max’s rom-com anthology series “Love Life,” starring opposite previously announced “The Good Place” alum William Jackson Harper. Additionally, the premium cabler’s streaming platform announced that Leslie Bibb, John Earl Jelks and Arian Moayed will recur in the show. Kimberly

Color Farm Media has partnered with WarnerMedia OneFifty to develop a slate of scripted television projects, Variety has learned exclusively. The media company and WarnerMedia content innovation hub will focus on developing projects featuring underrepresented creative talent. “We are thrilled to partner with WarnerMedia OneFifty,” said Color Farm co-founder Erika Alexander. “The brand is unlike any

Fox News has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for the mixed messages it has sent viewers about getting vaccinated against coronavirus. Steve Doocy might promote getting vaccinated on “Fox & Friends,” but primetime host Laura Ingraham has suggested U.S. government efforts to get Americans to take their shots should make people wary. “Someone comes

Verve has signed author Emily St. John Mandel for book-to-screen rights and screenwriting, Variety has learned exclusively. Mandel is an author and novelist. She published the novel “Station Eleven” in 2014. The book was shortlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. It is currently being adapted

“The Good Fight” has been renewed for Season 6 at Paramount Plus. News of the renewal comes about midway through the show’s fifth season. The first four episodes of Season 5 are currently streaming on Paramount Plus, with the fifth episode set to air on July 22. “’The Good Fight’s’ provocative, whip smart, and no-holds-barred

The legal drama “Reasonable Doubt” is moving to Onyx Collective on Hulu for development after previously being set up at ABC in 2019, Variety has learned. Andrew Eccles for Variety The series will be executive produced by Kerry Washington and Pilar Savone for Simpson Street and Larry Wilmore via Wilmore Films. The show has opened

Mere minutes after touching the edge of space, Jeff Bezos and his fellow Blue Origin crewmates stood back on Earth, shaking champagne at the throng of cameras pointed their way with grins wide enough to see from … well, space. No matter which channel you turned to — CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC — the

The African American Film Critics Association has set its 2021 Special Achievement TV Honorees, a list that includes Steve McQueen, Wanda Sykes, Naomi Ackie, Michaela Coel and  “Queen Sugar.” “Our 2021 Class of Honorees is a special group who are using their considerable gifts to extend television’s legacy of a shaper of culture and a

U.S. and U.K. streaming aggregator ScreenHits TV is partnering with Germany’s Joyn to offer the streaming platform’s full range of films and original content from ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery. The agreement will also include content from other providers, including Comedy Central and RedBull TV. The partnership, which goes into effect at the end of July, was

BBC Three is set to air a comedy special celebrating mockumentary series “People Just Do Nothing.” “Kurupting the Industry: The People Just Do Nothing Story” will follow the group of DJs and MCs behind pirate radio station Kurupt FM. Starring Allan Mustafa, Asim Chaudhry, Hugo Chegwin and Steve Stamp, the first episode of the popular

David Leckie, one of the most senior executives in Australian television, is dead. He died at home at Mulberry Farm on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. Leckie was CEO of Nine Network from 1990 to 2001. In 2003, he joined Seven Network and led it to ratings success. Leckie held several senior roles with the

APPOINTMENT Former Disney, DreamWorks and Twentieth Century Fox executive Tim Erickson has been named executive VP of brand Peanuts Worldwide, reporting into Eric Ellenbogen, CEO of WildBrain, the majority owner of Peanuts. Working together with the family of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, WildBrain’s content and management teams and brand co-owners Sony Music Entertainment (Japan),

Amazon Studios Head Jennifer Salke Celebrates Landmark Emmy Noms for ‘The Boys’ and ‘The Underground Railroad’ I spoke to Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke on the morning of the Emmy nominations to get her take on the streamer’s tally and overall trends. Amazon scored 19 nods (20, if you include an Alexa commercial, which Amazon is counting)

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the July 19 episode of “The Bachelorette.” Katie Thurston was tasked with narrowing down her “Bachelorette” suitors from seven to four in anticipation of next week’s hometown dates. Andrew Spencer, Blake Moynes, Brendan Scanzano, Greg Grippo, Justin Glaze, Michael Allio, and Mike Planeta remained

Fox News and Britt McHenry, a former on-air personality who joined the cable-news outlet after a stint at ESPN, have parted ways after reaching a settlement in a long-running harassment lawsuit, according to the network “While Fox News is confident it would have prevailed in the lawsuit, we are pleased that we have been able

Univision has unveiled a massive overhaul of its corporate ranks as well as the leadership of its entertainment, news and sports divisions. The moves come more than a year after the Spanish-language media giant was acquired by investment firms SearchLight Capital Partners and ForgeLight LLC, and three months after Univision and Televisa set an agreement

Dana Honor is exiting her role as an executive producer at Kapital Entertainment, Variety has learned. “I’ve had an incredible 5 years at Kapital and am so grateful to Aaron for his partnership,” Honor said. “I will greatly miss my Kapital family, but I’ve decided to take a much needed break to spend time with my

Director Alan Taylor has boarded the “Interview With the Vampire” series at AMC, Variety has learned exclusively. Taylor will direct the first two episodes of the upcoming series and will also serve as an executive producer on Season 1. The show, which was officially greenlit in June, is based on the Anne Rice novel of

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. The most on-brand collaboration has emerged. Sperry’s has teamed up with Netflix’s “Outer Banks” crew for a capsule

ESPN has landed a talent touchdown. After years of trying to secure top sports celebrities to boost its flagship “” coverage, the Disney-backed sports outlet said it has enlisted both Peyton and Eli Manning to co-anchor a second broadcast of its signature show, starting this fall. The famous football brothers will lead the new broadcast

HBO has added five actors to star alongside Alicia Vikander in the upcoming series “Irma Vep,” Variety has learned. Adria Arjona (“6 Underground,” “True Detective”), Carrie Brownstein (“Portlandia,” “Transparent”), Jerrod Carmichael (“The Carmichael Show,” “Ramy”), Fala Chen (“The Undoing,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), and Devon Ross will all star alongside Vikander in

A newly energized Latin American & Caribbean Film Commission Network (LAFCN) aims to grab a big piece of the multibillion-dollar production business this year. Led by president Ana Aizenberg of Argentina and vice president Jose Castro, Costa Rican film commissioner, the nonprofit org now comprises 13 film commissions from across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Audible is diving deeper into the bizarre, real-life events of the hit podcast “Dirty John” with “The First Wife: John Meehan’s Reign of Terror,” a new podcast launching on July 22. “Dirty John” was created by Wondery and the Los Angeles Times in 2017, and the podcast followed the web of lies and manipulation by

The groundbreaking Oscar-nominated and Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentary “Eyes on the Prize,” from documentarian and historian Henry Hampton, is coming to a new audience. HBO Max, HBO and Anonymous Content’s AC Studios are joining forces to bring the 14-part PBS docuseries to HBO, where, starting Monday, viewers will be able to stream part one

The subject of “The Program: Prison Detox,” a docuseries premiering next month on Discovery Plus, is a thoughtful, effective drug rehabilitation program in Sevier County, Arkansas that’s been created by law enforcement officials in response to the methamphetamine and opioid epidemic that has destroyed so many lives in their community. The first three episodes in

Before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos takes off Tuesday morning on a revolutionary mission to space conducted by his aerospace company, Blue Origin, the media has launched a frenzy of coverage. Bezos and members of his team made the rounds of the nation’s morning shows Monday, visiting Michael Strahan at ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Hoda Kotb

Madeleine Mantock is leaving “Charmed” after three seasons, Variety has confirmed. The actress has played one of the three main characters of the CW reboot since it began. Season 3 of the series is set to wrap up on July 23, which will mark Mantock’s last appearance as a series regular. Melonie Diaz and Sarah Jeffery

Katie Thurston is just as ready for “The Bachelorette” finale as Bachelor Nation. “Since the show ended, I kind of stayed home, under a rock a little bit,” Thurston tells Variety. “I do look forward to the finale airing so that I can move forward with my life and not have to hold back on

To enjoy long-term success, a reality show needs to surprise, to delight, to reinvent and subvert its own formula as it goes. But to break out in the first place, it needs a compelling hook. “Sexy Beasts,” Netflix’s new dating series, has the latter part down, sort of. Each of its episodes tells the story

ViacomCBS International Studios and Italy’s Leone Film Group have forged a strategic partnership by signing a long-term agreement to co-produce a wide range of Italian content for the global market.  This potentially milestone pact between VIS and Leone — the prominent indie production and distribution shingle owned and operated by late master director Sergio Leone’s children