Television

The Television Academy is making a small, but meaningful change in how it recognizes gender-nonbinary performers in the Emmy competition. Effective immediately, nominees and/or winners in any performer category can request that their nomination certificate and Emmy statuette carry the term “performer” in place of “actor” or actress.” The org isn’t abolishing its actor, actress,

BBC Two has released several images from its upcoming star-studded, long-gestating drama series “The North Water.” The new photos feature Jack O’Connell as Patrick Sumner, Colin Farrell as Henry Drax, and Stephen Graham as Captain Brownlee, alongside Tom Courtenay as Baxter, seen in character for the first time. “The North Water” also stars Peter Mullan,

Joanne Linville, who was best known for playing a Romulan commander in “Star Trek,” died Sunday in Los Angeles, her agent confirmed to Variety. She was 93. Born in Bakersfield, Calif. as Beverly Joanne Linville, she was the first female actor to play a Romulan in the “Star Trek” franchise. Linville was a fixture on

Reimagining a classic TV format is difficult under any circumstances. But the creative team behind NBC’s new primetime take on “College Bowl” had to do it in the middle of a pandemic. Premiering June 22 at 10 p.m. ET, the new “College Bowl” is hosted by Peyton Manning, along with brother Cooper serving as sidekick.

The pandemic brought TV and film production to a screeching halt last spring, and even when it restarted, it put the kibosh on live audiences for a while. For stand-up comedians from Kevin Hart to Chelsea Handler, figuring out how to make people laugh — safely — in the middle of one of the toughest

The HBO Max pirate comedy series “Our Flag Means Death” is rounding out its cast with six new additions. Kristian Nairn, Nathan Foad, Samson Kayo, Rory Kinnear, Con O’Neill and Vico Ortiz will all join the show alongside previously announced series lead Rhys Darby. Taika Waititi will also appear in the series as the infamous

Cherie Grzech, who has managed the operations of Fox News’ Washington bureau in recent years, will leave that operation and join NewsNation, the Nexstar Media start-up that has since its launch found the task of getting its footing in national news circles a challenging one. Grzech will join the network as its managing editor and

The journey to get “The Chi” showrunner Justin Hillian a proper at-home office has been as long as the COVID-19 pandemic itself. When lockdown first started in March 2020, his wife was pregnant and working from home as well. She would do her Zooms in the living room, he recalls, while he would do his

Left Bank Pictures, the Sony-backed U.K. producers of Netflix smash hit “The Crown,” has been accused of mishandling a sexual harassment complaint, according to an expose published in The Guardian on Monday. Freelancers Holly Bourdillon and Laura Johnston were working on the post-production of “White Lines,” another Netflix show produced by Left Bank, in December

Every year, the Peabody Awards recognize a stacked group of TV projects across all different genres, taking care to highlight shows that are worthy of further consideration. Looking over the 2021 nominees, it’s interesting to note the Peabodys’ assertion that this year’s honorees “represent the most compelling and empowering stories” released during an unusually fraught

“Ted Lasso” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” are among the first batch of this year’s Peabody Award winners. Peabody is slowly announcing all 30 of its winners throughout the week; on Monday, the org announced its first eight recipients. A total of 60 nominees were announced as nominees in May, representing “the most

As everyone figured out the pandemic pivot of last year’s television season, talk shows had to contend with the loss of two mainstays: live audiences and President Trump. “You still talk about [Trump] because there is going to be a long tail of the effect on the country, as we look at January 6 and

Amber Ruffin and Robin Thede go way back. The writers, producers and performers entered late-night TV around the same time (Ruffin in 2014 on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and Thede the following year on “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore”). Before that, they’d each other for years, previously appearing together at improv shows where

Jordan Cahan and David Caspe, creators of Showtime’s dark period comedy “Black Monday,” were watching the 1987 Charlie Sheen headliner “Wall Street” when they realized that there was no limit they could reach in a fictional playground of deep pockets. “Michael Douglas won a best actor [Oscar] for this movie that was billed as a

Madison Avenue has a lot to say about the current state of the TV industry — and more of it will need to be spoken in Spanish. Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster that is operating under new ownership, has secured double-digit percentage increases in advance advertising commitments for its next programming cycle, the latest traditional broadcaster

ITV’s top dating reality series, “Love Island,” has revealed its contestants — or “Islanders” as they’re known on the show — for its seventh season. They include self-described “social butterfly” Liberty Poole, a waitress and marketing student; luxury events host Aaron Francis, who has worked at not one but two royal weddings; and “outrageous” civil

Sky Studios, the production and development arm for Comcast-backed pay-TV operator Sky, has promoted Barnaby Shingleton to director of factual. In the new position, the long-time Sky executive will take on overall responsibility for the studio’s commercial investment, deficit funding and international distribution of Sky Original documentaries, alongside third party-funded projects for other broadcasters, produced

Canneseries, the Cannes international series festival, will return to its spring dates in 2022 to run alongside MipTV. The 5th edition will take place April 1-6. The pandemic caused the editions for 2020 and 2021 to be pushed to the fall. The fourth edition will run Oct. 8-13, alongside Mipcom. “After two special seasons linked

Paris-headquartered content creator Asacha Media Group (AMG) has acquired a majority stake in the U.K.’s Red Planet Pictures, producers of hit shows “Sanditon” and “Death in Paradise.” Red Planet, led by joint MDs, Belinda Campbell and Alex Jones, was founded in 2006 by showrunner Tony Jordan, who now serves as executive chair. The deal will

Buccaneer Media, the production company behind hit Anna Friel series “Marcella” and Irvine Walsh adaptation “Crime,” has super-charged its management team with two new senior hires: Moreyba Bidessie (pictured, left) joins as executive producer and Jo Evans (right) as head of production. Both Bidessie and Evans will report to Buccaneer’s joint chief executives Richard Tulk-Hart

Following on its acquisition in May of “The Island of Thirty Coffins,” Munich-based Beta Film is doubling down on French production, acquiring international rights to the six-hour France 3 crime thriller “Presumed Guilty.” Written by Franck Ollivier (“Zodiaque”), the limited series follows Lola, played by Garance Thenault (“La Mante”), who travels to a town on

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read until you have watched “Rick and Morty” Season 5, Episode 1, “Mort Dinner Rick Andre.” Clumsily taking the inspiration for its title from “My Dinner With Andre,” “Rick and Morty’s” fifth season opening “Mort Dinner Rick Andre” introduces the audience (and the family) to Rick’s “nemesis,” Mr. Nimbus (voiced by

Mark Peel, the influential longtime Los Angeles chef and restaurateur who founded Campanile with his ex-wife Nancy Silverton, died Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 66. His daughter told the Los Angeles Times that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer just nine days ago. Peel appeared twice on “Top Chef Masters”

Darren Star, who received the honorary Golden Nymph during the opening ceremony of the 60th Monte-Carlo Television Festival, talked about his career debut and discussed what’s next with “Emily in Paris” and his next show with Netflix, “Uncoupled.” “Uncoupled,” which Star is doing in partnership with Jeffrey Richman (“Modern Family”), is about a newly single

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Season 2 premiere of “Evil,” streaming now on Paramount Plus. The Season 1 finale of “Evil” — when it aired all the way back in Jan. 2020 — ended on quite the cliffhanger: It appeared that Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) had murdered serial

A group of more than 300 MSNBC employees are mounting a unionization drive with the Writers Guild of America East to represent writers, talent bookers, fact-checkers and others in editorial at NBCUniversal’s all-news cable network. On Thursday, a group dubbed @MSNBCUnion posted a letter on social media signed by more than 200 employees that called

On Friday afternoon at France’s Annecy Animation Festival, Nickelodeon gave the most detailed preview yet for the network’s second “Spongebob” spinoff, “The Patrick Star Show,” and looked back at 20 years of the global hit franchise. Announced earlier this week, “The Patrick Star Show” will debut Friday, July 9 at 7 PM ET/PT, followed by

Since its debut in 2013, Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s animated dark comedy “Rick and Morty” has consistently taken science-fiction misadventures to new heights (and juvenile lows). The pop-culture references, the attention to detail, the world-building, the music cues, the nihilism — “Rick and Morty” has a neverending story (or “Never Ricking Morty”) supply on

John Paragon, best known for his role as Jambi the Genie on the television series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” has died. He was 66. Paragon died in his residence in Palm Springs, Calif. on April 3, according to a press release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. A representative for the Sheriff’s Department confirmed to Variety that Paragon’s

Netflix has given a straight-to-series order to a comedy set in the front office of the Los Angeles Lakers from writer Elaine Ko and executive producer Mindy Kaling, Variety has learned. The untitled, half-hour series is inspired by the personal and professional dynamic between the family owners and front office team that together run one of