Television

Oscar-nominated Danish director Lone Scherfig (“An Education”) will be making her return to television with “The Shift,” an emotional series set in a contemporary maternity ward headlined by Danish star Sofie Gråbøl (“The Killing,” “The Undoing”). The prestige eight-part series starts shooting this week, commissioned by Danish commercial channel TV2 and TV2 Play, and is

Australian indie producer Aquarius Films is to develop and produce a comedy drama series adapted from the acclaimed feminist manifesto book “Fight Like A Girl.” The book, a memoir and expose of how unequal the world continues to be for women, was published in 2016 by feminist writer and online sensation Clementine Ford. It earned

For Mariska Hargitay, the departure of Christopher Meloni and his “Law & Order: SVU” character, Elliot Stabler in 2011 after 12 seasons, was “so painful for me and so hard because the way he left, there was no closure. There was just a big hole.” But Meloni is back, in the spinoff series “Law &

Gary Cole is in talks for a major role in “NCIS” Season 19, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. Details on the character Cole would play are being kept under wraps. The long-running CBS procedural was renewed back in April, with series lead Mark Harmon’s return to the series also being confirmed at that time. It

Fox saw increases in advance ad commitments for its primetime schedule and expanding digital venues as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” sales process, the latest of the nation’s big media companies to see robust activity as advertisers try to move forward as the coronavirus pandemic diminishes. The Fox Corporation unit saw advertising commitments rise

NBC is working up a new play for the Super Bowl. Eager to generate millions of dollars in revenue from the Big Game, the Comcast-owned media conglomerate is talking to potential advertisers about a price tag of $6 million for a 30-second spot in the event, according to executives familiar with current negotiations, marking a

J.J. Abrams is ready to get to the bottom of unidentified flying objects, and Showtime is giving him the platform to do just that. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Glen Zipper are behind “UFO,” a four-part docu-series that will look at the phenomenon of mysterious objects in the sky and “what clandestine influence the American government,

BAFTA Award-winning director and Emmy nominee Sam Miller (“I May Destroy You,” “Luther”) has been tapped to direct Apple TV Plus’ upcoming psychological thriller “Surface” starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (“Loki”) and created by Veronica West (“High Fidelity”). In addition, Apple unveiled that Ari Graynor, Stephan James, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, François Arnaud, Marianne Jean Baptiste and Millie Brady

WSL Studios, the studio division of the World Surf League, has updated its development slate. The upcoming slate of programming will consist of competition series, docu-series and travel series that embody the ethos of surfing. Hosted and executive produced by Michael Phelps, “Racing on Water: The Ultimate Waterman Competition” is a global competition elimination series

The Fox mutli-cam comedy “Call Me Kat” has found its Season 2 showrunner in Alissa Neubauer, Variety has learned. Neubauer takes over running the comedy series from Darlene Hunt, who stepped down from running the show at the end of its first season. Hunt also developed the show for American television, as it is based on

Will Smith is set to host and star in a new one-hour comedy variety special at Netflix, Variety has learned. The special will include comedy sketches, musical performances, surprise celebrity guests, and noteworthy conversations among other things. It is set to launch on Netflix globally later this year. Westbrook Studios will produce the special for Netflix.

Bowen Yang’s greatest breakthrough moment on the last season of “Saturday Night Live” surprised even him. In an interview for Variety‘s Actors on Actors TV issue, the sketch comedian described the process of getting his role as the iceberg who sank the Titanic — a glacial mass who wants to be known for all his

Apple TV Plus announced that the second season of “Truth Be Told” will premiere on Aug. 20. New episodes of drama series will be released weekly every Friday. The second season will see an investigative reporter turned true-crime podcaster Poppy Parnell (Octavia Spencer) dive into a new case that deeply involves her childhood friend, media

Television producers have long used their medium as a tool to push progressive thinking on such nuanced topics as interracial dating, queer acceptance and abortion into everyday American households. But what about storytelling that makes these creators and their supporters point the finger inward at their own shortcomings and failures to act? This year, as

Spain’s Movistar Plus and Buendía Estudios are teaming to create groundbreaking series “El Apagón,” Movistar Plus’ first original to explore global dystopia and Buendía Estudios’ first full production for the Telefonica Spanish pay TV operator. Scheduled to shoot in fall 2021, and inspired by the Spanish podcast “El gran apagón,” the series will bring together

As Forest Whitaker prepares to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Newport Beach Film Festival on June 16, the prolific Academy Award- and Emmy-winning actor with a career spanning four decades says he finds himself increasingly reconnecting with the way he approached the work when he was just starting out. There’s a “joy when

“Pose” star Mj Rodriguez is weighing in on Caitlyn Jenner after the Republican gubernatorial hopeful in California declared that she thinks allowing trans athletes to compete according to their gender identity in high school sports “just isn’t fair.” “It’s unfortunate that she’s one of our sisters saying these things,” Rodriguez tells me on the “Just

Now that Quibi ended up lasting, well, a Quibi, the Emmy Awards’ short form categories seem further destined to become more of a curiosity than a major part of the competition. Roku picked up Quibi’s scraps, but doesn’t appear interested in launching new originals in the short-form space. And elsewhere, outlets including YouTube are bulking

Actor, writer, producer and stand-up comedian Jimmy O. Yang has signed with CAA. Best known for the Emmy-nominated HBO series “Silicon Valley,” Yang currently writes for and stars in the Netflix series “Space Force,” opposite Steve Carell and John Malkovich. The show was renewed for a second season in November 2020. Yang will next be

Amazon Studios has put it in writing. The company has formally established a policy that outlines its commitments to diversity, inclusion and equity throughout its operations. It has also created a detailed “playbook” with hiring and purchasing guidelines for the studio’s creative collaborators. The policies have been in development for more than two years, shepherded

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched Season 1, Episode 2 of “Loki,” streaming now on Disney Plus. One of the many delights of the God of Mischief having his own standalone series is that we not only get to admire Tom Hiddleston’s acting chops, but also get to see him dance gleefully

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Season 4 finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” streaming now on Hulu. Writer, producer and director Liz Garbus is adamantly opposed to the death penalty, something she has explored in such documentaries as “The Execution of Wanda Jean” dating back to 2002. Yet, for her

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Season 4 finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” streaming now on Hulu. Two episodes before the end of the fourth season of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” June (Elisabeth Moss) stood in front of her Gilead abusers and testified about their crimes. But when it came time

When one door closes, another opens: And with Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” the door is closing on Kelly Dodd and opening for returning cast member Heather Dubrow. Braunwyn Windham-Burke, who was on the show for two seasons, and Elizabeth Lyn Vargas, who was on the most recent season, also will not return.

“I May Destroy You,” “The Flight Attendant” and “Killing Eve” were among the top winners as the Banff World Media Festival revealed the winners to this year’s Rockie Awards International Program Competition. Announced Tuesday via a live, streamed virtual event, this year’s Rockie Awards saw the United Kingdom take home the most kudos, with 11,

“Hacks” is as pure a two-hander as I’ve seen on television in recent years — a comedy buoyed by the prickly, slow-to-develop relationship between two characters with utterly different approaches to comedy, but similar stumbling blocks. Both Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) are carefully-written, elegantly played characters; each one fuels the

The “American Gigolo” series adaptation starring Jon Bernthal has been ordered to series at Showtime, Variety has learned. The project was ordered to pilot at Showtime in March 2020 after having been in development at the premium cabler since 2016. Bernthal will play Julian Kaye, the character played by Richard Gere in the film. Julian is

As the next generation of athletes prepare to take home the gold in Tokyo this summer, Peacock is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1996 Olympics with “The ’96 Effect” and “The Sisters of ’96: The 1996 USA Women’s Soccer Olympic Team,” two new shows honoring female Olympians’ legacy on the Atlanta games. Streaming on

A new documentary series from AXS TV, “If These Walls Could Rock,” will explore some of the most beloved music venues in the country, ranging from the storied intimacy of the Troubadour in West Hollywood to the scenic splendor of Colorado’s Red Rocks amphitheater, the network announced Tuesday. The series premieres July 7 at 8:30

Emmy-winning creator and director of “The Book of Life” and “El Tigre” Jorge Gutierrez and his longtime partner, in life and in work, Sandra Equihua hosted one of this year’s most highly anticipated Work in Progress sessions at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival on Wednesday. In the hour-long panel and subsequent Q&A, the pair served