Television

HBO announced that “Tig Notaro: Drawn” will premiere on July 24 at 10 p.m. on HBO and HBO Max. The hourlong animated comedy special blends Notaro’s signature voice and storytelling with an array of captivating artistic styles as she recounts a hospital bed proposal, a high school talent show gone awry, the repercussions of a

William Fichtner will play Rick Kirkham in the upcoming Peacock series “Joe Exotic,” replacing previously announced cast member Dennis Quaid in the role. Per the NBCUniversal streamer’s announcement, Quaid had to step away from the project due to a scheduling conflict. Fichtner joins previously announced series leads Kate McKinnon, who will play Carole Baskin, and

The Emmy initial voting phase is over, pencils are down and now we wait for nominations to be announced on July 13. A few final predictions for major categories, most of which you’ll agree with, and a few I decided to have a little fun with. First, the major series categories: Comedy Series “Ted Lasso”

Meghan McCain’s announcement that she is, this month, ending her four-year tenure as a panelist on “The View” represents a potentially radical change in the dynamic of the venerable talk show. And — like everything else that’s happened on the show since spring 2020 — it was met with somewhat muted reaction on the show’s

Kathy Hilton literally helped birth reality television. Her daughter Paris Hilton, star of the landmark unscripted series “The Simple Life” from 2003 to  2008, came to define an era of tabloid celebrity culture and über-wealthy voyeurism. But did we ever really know Kathy Hilton? Thanks to genius casting on the 11th season of Bravo’s “The

STREAMING Lionsgate‘s on-demand film content will be available on streaming aggregator platform ScreenHits TV thanks to a new partnership that was revealed on Thursday. The content will be available via Lionsgate’s AVOD and linear channel, Moviesphere. Territories covered by the deal currently include the U.K., Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Isle of Man and Malta. The ScreenHits

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” released nationwide in theaters July 2 and simultaneously on Hulu’s streaming service, is the latest in a series of high-profile documentaries from L.A.-based Concordia Studio since it formally launched early last year. Concordia snagged a quarter of the 16 slots in

Meghan McCain is departing “The View,” after nearly four years on the ABC daytime show, Variety has confirmed. As the panel’s resident conservative talking head, McCain regularly sparred with her co-hosts, resulting in many viral — and highly-rated — on-air moments.  Her last day will be at the end of the show’s season later this

In May, Richard Ray “Rick” Perez became the first person of color to serve as executive director of the Intl. Documentary Assn., taking over for outgoing leader Simon Kilmurry following a six-year run. A documentary filmmaker turned exec, Perez most recently was the director of acquisitions and distribution strategies at GBH’s World Channel, in charge

Six years ago, “The Jinx,” HBO’s six-part series about murder suspect and real estate heir Robert Durst, reinvigorated the long-form docuseries format. A mad rush by premium cablers and streamers to come up with the next “Jinx” followed, with Netflix’s 10-part “Making a Murderer” later that year and ESPN’s format busting “O.J.: Made in America”

ViacomCBS said it would unite the company’s domestic and international businesses under top executives, and assigned new duties to three of its senior operating executives that expands their influence across the media conglomerate. Chris McCarthy, president of the company’s linear entertainment-focused cable networks, becomes president and CEO of MTV Entertainment Group. Brian Robbins, who oversees

Penske Media Corp. will launch a three-day culture festival, LA3C, in Los Angeles in December that aims to celebrate entertainment, food, comedy art, fashion, sports and music as well as the great diversity that defines the City of Angels. The event, staged by the parent company of Variety, is set to take place in venues

HBO Max, which launches in Spain later this year, has commissioned Unicorn Content to produce a new six-part, true crime docu-series ahead of the occasion, “Dolores: The Truth About the Wanninkhof Case.” Originally convicted of murdering her former partner’s daughter, Dolores Vázquez, or Loli to her friends, turned out to be the victim of one

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the series finale of “The Bold Type,” which aired June 30 on Freeform. Endings are hard. The penultimate season of “The Bold Type” — cut short by the pandemic — left Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy) and Richard Hunter (Sam Page) in a difficult spot, disagreeing

As an increasingly vaccinated New York lifts virtually all of its COVID-19 restrictions, there’s a turf war brewing between New York City productions andrestaurants, with the Mayor’s Of­fice of Media and Entertainment caught in the crossfire. Just ask Awkwafina. “The most challenging — but thrilling — part of filming in New York, both pre- and

SPOILER WARNING: Do not read if you haven’t seen Season 1, Episode 4 of “Loki,” streaming now on Disney Plus. Since Marvel Studios embarked on its new adventure in streaming television, the episode of each of its series that falls on or just past the halfway mark has proven to be decisive — the fulcrum point

Spoiler alert: This article discusses “Too Hot to Handle” Season 2 in its entirety. The second season of “Too Hot to Handle” was filled with just as many twists and NSFW situations as the first, as our robot hero Lana worked to prevent as many islanders as possible from frivolous sex in order to find

Bill Cosby has taken to social media to make his first statement after being released from prison. In a stunning reversal on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cosby’s sexual assault conviction, and he was allowed to walk free just hours later. “I have never changed my stance nor my story. I have always maintained

Apple has ordered a series adaptation of the Garth Risk Hallberg “City on Fire” from Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. The eight-episode series falls under the first-look deal Fake Empire, Schwartz and Savage’s production banner, set up at Apple in 2019. It is the first series order to come from the deal. In “City on

Janine Nabers has signed an overall deal with Amazon, Variety has learned. Under the deal, Nabers will develop, produce, and write television projects for the streamer. Nabers’ first project in development under the deal is titled “Syd.” It follows a powerful Black tech CEO who wakes up one morning to discover a mysterious entity has

Nick Offerman, star of “Parks and Recreation” and “The Great North,” has joined Amazon’s series adaptation of “A League of Their Own.” Like the original 1992 Penny Marshall film from Sony’s Columbia Pictures, the hour-long series will tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. The show will

The federal judge presiding over the prosecution of the NXIVM sex cult case has released a blistering memo on his decision to sentence actor Allison Mack to three years in prison for her role in the aiding Keith Raniere, the self-help guru who is now a convicted sex trafficker serving a 120-year sentence. U.S. District

“The Last of Us” series at HBO has added Nico Parker in a guest starring role, Variety has confirmed. Parker will appear as Sarah, the daughter of Joel (Pedro Pascal). Along with Pascal, Parker joins previously announced cast members Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, and Merle Dandridge. Parker most recently appeared in a lead role in the

James Franco has signed off on paying $2,235,000 to settle an Oct. 2019 lawsuit alleging he and his associates coerced students into performing explicit sex scenes on camera. The proposed figure was revealed in court filings that were made public on Wednesday, and a Los Angeles judge will need to approve it. In 2019, Sarah

Phylicia Rashad is celebrating Bill Cosby’s shocking release from prison. Moments after word broke that Cosby’s sex assault conviction is being overturned by the court, his former TV wife took to Twitter to share her delight in the news. “FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” Rashad tweeted, along

Emmy-winning father-daughter duo Ron and Jasmine Cephas Jones will team up to announce the Emmy nominations on July 13. The virtual event will live stream on Emmys.com at 8:30 a.m. PT. “It has been an extraordinary year in which television brought multigenerational families together in a shared love of their favorite programs,” said Television Academy

The company behind cable’s ubiquitous Weather Channel outlined plans to launch a new subscription-video service in the fourth quarter that will also serve up news and entertainment content from other sources. Allen Media Group, the company backed by entrepreneur Byron Allen that operates The Weather Channel, said the new service, known as The Weather Channel

By the time Joshua Safran was pitching the “Gossip Girl” revival to HBO Max in May 2019, he knew exactly what he wanted the new incarnation to be. Based on Cecily von Ziegesar’s young adult books, and created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the original show ran on The CW from 2007 to 2012

Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in federal prison, a stunning downfall for the fresh-faced actor who spent a decade as a fan favorite on “Smallville” but then became a key figure in the NXIVM cult led by convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere. Mack, 38, learned her fate Wednesday morning in federal court

In a stunning judicial reversal, Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction has been overturned by the Pennsylvania supreme court. Pennsylania’s highest court ruled Wednesday that Cosby’s agreement with former prosecutor Bruce Castor in 2005 should have prevented him from being charged again. “The collective weight of these considerations led D.A. Castor to conclude that, unless Cosby