Television

Drake Bell has been sentenced to two years’ probation and 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to charges of attempted child endangerment and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. After initially pleading not guilty, the “Drake & Josh” star later pleaded guilty to a felony and misdemeanor charge relating to a 2017 incident with

Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions, Skydance and Concord have teamed to develop TV projects based on the many musicals in Concord’s vault, including the Rodgers & Hammerstein catalog. The focus of the pact is on developing TV projects although some may wind up as films. “Musicals were a part of the tapestry of my childhood. We’re

This year’s American Music Awards show is looking at some big changes behind the scenes, as ABC and Dick Clark Productions are announcing that Jesse Collins — recently of the Grammys and Oscars — is taking over as showrunner and executive producer, starting with the telecast set for Nov. 21 of this year. Collins has

Ronan Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein — first his coverage in The New Yorker in 2017, then his metacoverage of what it took to get that story in his 2019 book “Catch and Kill” — helped to crystallize and define a moment in American cultural life. With the new documentary series “Catch and Kill: The

Netflix announced that the upcoming thriller series “Hit & Run” will premiere on Aug. 6. The nine-episode series follows tour guide Segev Azulai (Lior Raz) living a content life in Tel Aviv with his young daughter (Neta Orbach) and his new American wife Danielle (Kaelen Ohm). When Danielle is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run on

Apple has signed a first-look deal with AR Content, the production company led by Academy Award-nominated producer and director Alexander Rodnyansky (“Beanpole,” “Leviathan,” “Loveless”), Variety can reveal. The deal is for a slate of both Russian-language and multilingual shows for Apple TV Plus, set both inside and outside Russia, and creatively led by both Russian

RATINGS Sunday night’s Euro 2020 final, in which Italy beat England on penalties, was the U.K.’s most-watched TV event in over 20 years with a peak viewing audience of 30.95 million viewers and an average audience of 29.85 million. The game was broadcast on both the BBC One and ITV, and the combined numbers are

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read until you have watched “Rick and Morty” Season 5, Episode 4, “Rickdependence Spray.” Whether intentional or not, it’s an interesting bit of timing that — considering the inspiration for the title — “Rickdependence Spray” is the “Rick and Morty” Season 5 episode that airs the week after Independence Day. That’s

FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows” is a master class in extending a slight premise boundlessly outward. That series, based on Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s film, imagines a comic universe in which ancient vampires make their way through humdrum lives stripped of Transylvanian glamour in modern New York City. There’s real comic potential,

Indian filmmaker Rahul Jain, whose new film “Invisible Demons” has its world premiere at Cannes in the cinema for the climate special section, is prepping “Falling Star,” a limited fiction series. Jain is developing the series, which is likely to consist of six or seven one-hour episodes, via his Jann Pictures. It will see him

Off the Fence (OTF), the co-producer of Oscar-winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher,” has revealed a strategy overhaul and expansion of its senior management team. The move sees the U.K. and Netherlands-based factual specialist spin out its divisions into three separate business models with the aim of bringing distribution and production closer together, providing more streamer-friendly

Richard Branson aims to notch a milestone for private space travel with Sunday’s launch of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity Spaceship Two from New Mexico. Branson, the Virgin Group business mogul who founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, will be part of a crew of six who are hoping to demonstrate the viability of the company’s plans

Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, whose “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro” are both Cannes prizewinners, will direct her first TV series that, similarly to her fable-like films, will explore the world of Italian folk tales. The series, which is scheduled to start shooting next year, is titled “Ci Sarà Una Volta,” which translates as “There

Known Associates Entertainment, the production company behind the South African adaptation of the Colombian telenovela that inspired “Ugly Betty,” is partnering with Ivory Coast public broadcaster RTI on a sci-fi drama series that marks the first co-production between the two countries, Variety has learned. “Ambre” will be shot in South Africa and in Ivory Coast

“Kim’s Convenience” star Simu Liu asks himself “every day” whether he should’ve spoken out last month on social media about his experience on the set of the hit CBC series, when he noted in a Facebook post the “overwhelmingly white” producers and lack of Korean voices in the writers’ room after creator Ins Choi departed.

WWE is getting back on the road with a bang. The sports entertainment giant is set to begin hosting regular live events across the country with fans in attendance for the first time in over a year starting on July 16 with a 25 city tour schedule set to run through Labor Day. This comes

“Cursed,” the fantasy series that reimagined King Arthur through the eyes of Nimue, the young woman who winds up becoming the tragic Lady of the Lake, has been canceled at Netflix after one season on the streaming service. Starring Katherine Langford as Nimue, Devon Terrell as Arthur and Gustaf Skarsgård as Merlin, the series was

“FBoy Island” will premiere on HBO Max on July 29 as part of the streamer’s summer slate of unscripted television, which also will include the debut of “The Hype” on Aug. 12 and “Sweet Life: Los Angeles” on Aug. 19. “We are ready to celebrate the summer with a new slate of fun, engaging unscripted

Henry Cavill will return as Geralt of Rivia on Dec. 17 for “The Witcher” Season 2 premiere on Netflix. The announcement comes as fans gathered virtually at the first-ever WitcherCon. The global digital convention presented deep dives into the making of “The Witcher” games, live action series and anime film, in addition to a host

“Lovecraft Country” creator Misha Green has signed a multi-year overall deal with Apple in a competitive situation. Under the deal, Green will create and develop television projects for Apple’s streaming platform. News of the deal comes just days after it was announced that “Lovecraft Country” will not return for a second season at HBO. Green

The producers behind CNN’s new eight-part docuseries “History of the Sitcom” knew that trying to tell the complete 70-year history of the TV genre would be an impossible task. So they divided some of the biggest comedies of all time into specific categories — and set out to illustrate how the evolution of the sitcom

While the original “Gossip Girl” series didn’t expose Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) as the secret Gossip Girl until the series finale, HBO Max’s new incarnation reveals in the first episode that a group of teachers are behind a Gossip Girl Instagram account that spies on students to spill their secrets. In an interview with Variety‘s senior

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the final season of “Atypical,” streaming now on Netflix. The U.S. was reeling from its worst COVID-19 surge when the “Atypical” cast and crew began filming its fourth and final season. The Netflix series has always leaned into warm undertones, but emitting a sense of

“It feels very good to be the original MILF,” Jennifer Coolidge told Variety at the premiere of HBO’s “The White Lotus.” “I know there’s other people that are supposed to be MILFs, but I hope I’m the first choice.” On the red carpet at the Bel-Air Bay Club in Pacific Palisades, Coolidge opened up about her

HBO Max has released the first official image from “And Just Like That,” the revival of “Sex and the City.” The photo features series stars Sarah Jessica Parker reprising the role of Carrie Bradshaw, Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes, and Kristin Davis as Charlotte York. The new series follows Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte as they

Andrea Arnold has refused to speak about her experience on season 2 of “Big Little Lies” — her last major credit before her Cannes-premiering documentary “Cow” — despite subtly hinting that all was not kosher in post production. Asked how long she was editing on “Cow,” Arnold said there was “a lot of stopping and

The BBC has appointed Jon Petrie as its new head of comedy. In the role, he will report to chief content officer Charlotte Moore and be responsible for commissioning all scripted comedy on the BBC, iPlayer and the BBC Comedy Association. Petrie moves over from Broke and Bones, the Netflix-invested indie owned by “Black Mirror”

BBC Studios Productions and Directors U.K. have launched a mentorship scheme to encourage and support under-represented voices in the British entertainment industry. Mentees on the scheme will have the opportunity to work across BBC Studios productions including “EastEnders,” “Holby City,” “Casualty” and “Doctors.” Applicants to the scheme, which launches later this year, will be expected

“The Offer,” the Paramount Plus drama series that will go behind-the-scenes of the making of “The Godfather,” is adding over a dozen actors to its cast. Burn Gorman has been cast in the series regular role of Charles Bluhdorn, the volatile head of Gulf & Western, while 14 recurring guest stars have also joined the

Chick Vennera, a voice actor in numerous Warner Bros. animated projects like “Animaniacs” and “Batman: the Animated Series,” and actor in “Thank God It’s Friday” and “The Golden Girls,” died Wednesday in Burbank, Calif. He was 74. His daughter Nicky Vennera told several media outlets he died of lung cancer. Former castmate John Mariano posted