Television

Writer Neil Gaiman, actor Hugh Grant and historian and presenter David Olusoga are among 120 well-known British figures who have signed an open letter decrying the threat to public service broadcasters from streamers and government. The letter, from campaign group the British Broadcasting Challenge, chaired by former BBC creative officer Pat Younge, states that PSBs

“Possessor” director Brandon Cronenberg will adapt “Crash” author J.G. Ballard’s 2000 thriller novel “Super-Cannes” as a limited TV series. “Super-Cannes” is set in an ultra-modern high tech business park in the hills above the French Riviera city, famed for its film festival, where a global elite has gathered to form a closed, uber-capitalist and high-tech

BBC has unveiled the first image from new police drama “The Responder,” starring Martin Freeman. Written by ex-police officer Tony Schumacher and made by Dancing Ledge Productions (“The Salisbury Poisonings”), Freeman stars as Chris, a crisis-stricken, morally compromised urgent response officer who is forced to take on a new rookie partner (Adelayo Adedayo). Together, they

Martin Bashir obtained his bombshell interview of Princess Diana on the 1995 BBC “Panorama” program by “deceitful” means, according to U.K. newspaper the Telegraph. The findings of an independent investigation are expected to be published on Thursday. It was conducted by Lord Dyson and the report is understood to be critical of the role of

HBO Max’s upcoming “Green Lantern” series is eyeing actor Jeremy Irvine for the role of Alan Scott. Irvine would join Finn Wittrock in the series, who has been cast in the lead role of Guy Gardner. HBO Max declined to comment. Scott was Earth’s first Green Lantern, who, true to the comics, is a gay

Continuing the week of networks’ upfront presentations, ViacomCBS released sneak peeks of four new shows to their advertisers and public consumers Wednesday. Although it’s too soon to really assess the shows themselves, that isn’t stopping this critic from weighing in on their potential, based upon these first looks. Here are those thoughts, in rough descending

ViacomCBS has spoken. The conglom leaned into what it deemed its “beautiful ecosystem” of “premium content” in a upfronts presentation that opened with “Survivor” host Jeff Probst leading ViacomCBS stars on a faux “Celebrity Survivor Casting Special.” Leaning in on the idea of synergy inside the ViacomCBS, this year’s presentation made no real distinction between

Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles, and Jamie Hector are set for three of the lead roles in the HBO limited series “We Own This City” from the team behind “The Wire.” In addition to the castings, Reinaldo Marcus Green has joined the series as director and executive producer. Variety reported that the series was set up at

Arnold Schwarzenegger is making his grand entrance into television with an untitled global espionage adventure project ordered to series by Netflix. The streamer announced today that the spy series, hailing from Skydance Television and Nick Santora (“Scorpion”) will star the Austrian-American and “The Good Cop’s” Monica Barbaro. Per the logline, the show centers on a

A series adaptation of the “Vampire Academy” novels by Richelle Mead has been ordered to series at Peacock, with Julie Plec and Marguerite MacIntyre attached to write, Variety has learned. The book series is a personal favorite of Plec’s, who is best known for co-developing the CW series adaptation of “The Vampire Diaries.” “Julie Plec created

In today’s Global Bulletin, CNN International ups its global content on CNN Marketplace; “Love in Bloom” begins shooting in Australia; British gold medalist Greg Rutherford and Peppa Pig team on a video series to get kids active ahead of the Tokyo Olympics; Film UA Group’s “The Sniffer” heads to Sky Krimi in Germany; and the

For six seasons, since making her debut on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in 2015, Erika Girardi (stage name: Erika Jayne) has skated along the surface of the Bravo show. She has promoted her singing career, and shown off her seemingly fabulous life in Pasadena, Calif., with her famous lawyer husband, Tom Girardi, who

WarnerMedia wants to lure more streamers into the HBO Max tent with a cheaper version of the service — priced at $9.99 per month — that includes ads. The ad-supported HBO Max, set to debut in the U.S. the first week of June, will be 33% less than the premium no-ads package at $14.99. The

Bankers are already starting to salivate over what other megadeals could be in the offing following this week’s surprise pair-up of WarnerMedia and Discovery. AT&T’s desperation to drop a company that it spent $85.4 billion and a year and half in legal fights to acquire raises the immediate question of what else might be possible

“And Just Like That…,” Sara Ramírez will be a series regular on Michael Patrick King’s “Sex and the City” revival for HBO Max. Ramírez, who is non-binary, will join Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis on the show, and will play comedian Che Diaz. According to the logline, the character is “a non-binary,

Argentine film-TV publication Prensario International and Conecta Fiction joined forces to host a European drama focused panel at this year’s L.A. Virtual Screenings, recruiting leading production company executives from five countries to examine the challenges and opportunities their local industries are facing in a post-pandemic world, and reasons to be excited looking forward. Geraldine Gonard,

Netflix announced that the second season of “Too Hot To Handle” will premiere on June 23 with the first four episodes. The final six episodes of the season will then launch on June 30. The show revolves on a group of 10 sexy new singles who hope to find love at the exotic Too Hot

WarnerMedia tried to put its best foot forward on Wednesday by focusing on the future of its own media assets, rather than questions about its looming spinoff from AT&T and merger with Discovery. Executives at the AT&T-owned media conglomerate put a spotlight on the company’s broad array of media outlets and talent during an upfront

It’s only been three years since its debut, but Actor Trade, an app that connects actors with each other to read lines for feedback and performance practice, has grown to 20,000 international users. The app, the creation of actors Dylan Mooney and Shondrella Avery, celebrated its third anniversary in April, and is riding a wave

The Wednesday Addams live-action series at Netflix has cast Jenna Ortega in the lead role, Variety has learned. “Wednesday” was originally ordered to series at the streamer back in February. It is described as a supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability,

In one of its biggest plays to date, Rainmaker Content, the London-based distributor founded last June by former Kew Media Distribution execs, has acquired international rights to “The Bone Season,” an eight-hour epic thriller series based on Samantha Shannon’s international bestsellers. Designed as a series franchise – Shannon’s book series now runs to four novels

TBS has enlisted Tiffany Haddish to host “Friday Night Vibes,” a weekly movie showcase that will feature wrap-around segments with the comedian and guests. Haddish’s new venture with producer Reginald Hudlin was among a number of programming announcements unveiled Wednesday by WarnerMedia at the company’s annual upfront, including a plan to give HBO and HBO

Four years after the last episode of “Master of None,” a new season will premiere and feel nothing like the show that preceded it. When Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s series first debuted in 2015, it was one of Netflix’s early critical successes and an early indication of how storytelling on the streaming platform could

In a pioneering alliance, Starzplay is partnering with Studiocanal, Europe’s leading film-TV production-distribution-sales company, on Starzplay’s first French co-production, the series “All Those Things We Never Said.” Adapting the bestselling novel of the same title by Marc Levy, France’s most-read living author, the comedy-drama series is commissioned by Starzplay and Studiocanal parent, Vivendi’s Canal Plus

“Give us your money. You might as well, we’re Disney. We’re going to get it one way or the other, right? How about this? Give us your money or we’ll kill Baby Yoda,” quipped ABC’s late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at the end of Disney’s extensive upfront day, which spanned nearly four hours in total, between

Fox News filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss a massive $1.6 billion lawsuit from by voting-technology firm Dominion Voting Systems, citing concerns about freedom of speech and introducing a new development to the closely-watched case. In the motion, Fox News said Dominion failed to identify “any actionable defamation” by Fox News and did not stipulate

“Queenie” author Candice Carty-Williams, “Everything I Know About Love” writer Dolly Alderton, “The Virtues” creator Shane Meadows and Michaela Coel are among the creatives delivering the next slate of dramas for the BBC. Piers Wenger, drama controller for the BBC, teased a new project with Coel on Tuesday during a showcase of the Beeb’s upcoming

Both “Evil” and “SEAL Team” are officially moving off of CBS and heading to streamer Paramount Plus. With the move, “SEAL Team” has officially been renewed for a fifth season. “Evil” was renewed for Season 2 in September 2019 but has yet to air. Variety reported on “SEAL Team” making the move to Paramount Plus

Jimmy Kimmel once again roasted broadcast TV’s decline in his annual monologue as part of the Disney upfront presentation. “Somehow when everyone’s stuck in their houses with nothing to do but watch TV for the past 14 month and we still managed to lose ratings,” Kimmel joked. The ABC late-night host spread the love around

Sator has announced the development of a decentralized app that allows users to earn NFTs, tokens and other rewards for simply watching their favorite TV shows. It is set to launch late this summer. The blockchain-based platform will allow TV viewers and distributors to build a community together. Users can tune into Sator-activated shows and