Television

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Renée Elise Goldsberry is in talks to star in the “She-Hulk” series at Disney Plus, Variety has confirmed with sources. She joins previously announced series lead Tatiana Maslany and Ginger Gonzaga. The series centers on lawyer Jennifer Walters (Maslany), cousin of Bruce Banner, who inherits his Hulk powers after she receives a blood transfusion from

Challenges facing the TV business include technology and creativity. Sometimes, however, everything comes down to math. The nation’s TV networks claim the primary arbiter of who watches their programs allowed its business to deteriorate during the coronavirus pandemic and has only devised “a four-ounce solution to a ten-pound problem” of trying to count TV viewers

Annie Gonzalez (“Gentefied”) and newcomer Sofia Capanna have been cast in the ABC multi-cam sitcom pilot “Bucktown,” joining previously announced cast members Jane Lynch (“Glee”), Shannon Woodward (“Westworld”) and Nicole Richie (“The Simple Life”). Per the show’s logline, the comedy follows Amy (Woodward) who, after being dumped by her boyfriend and kicked out of her

From the newly built Avengers Campus at California Adventure Park, Disney Parks head Josh D’Amaro revealed at a press conference that the new land will be open to the public on Friday, June 4 — two days after Marvel chief Kevin Feige’s birthday, he noted, and not long after Disneyland’s April 30 reopening date. The

Chi McBride has joined the untitled CBS multi-cam comedy pilot based on the life of pro bowler Tom Smallwood, Variety has learned. In the series, after being laid off from the assembly line at the GM factory, seemingly ordinary man Tom (Pete Holmes) makes the extraordinary decision to provide for his family by following his dream

About half of the U.S. population uses a connected TV, according to Nielsen. As of the third quarter of 2020, that was about 123 million connected viewers — up 24 million from a year earlier. Variety hosted a panel of media executives to explore this era of connected TV, in a discussion moderated by digital

After news broke on Thursday that Anne Beatts died, celebrities took to social media to offer condolences and share memories of the groundbreaking writer. Beatts, who was 74, was a pioneering figure in comedy, serving as one of the few women writers on “Saturday Night Live” at the time of its debut in 1975. With her

Adepero Oduye has been cast in the upcoming Apple series “Five Days at Memorial.” Oduye joins previously announced cast member Vera Farmiga. The series is based on the Sheri Fink novel of the same name. It chronicles the first five days in a New Orleans, LA, hospital after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. When the floodwaters

Ebonee Noel, Karen LeBlanc, Yaani King Mondschein and Rance Nix will star in “The Kings of Napa,” the upcoming drama from “Claws” showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois for the Oprah Winfrey Network. Barrois will executive produce alongside Michelle Listenbee Brown and Oprah Winfrey. Matthew A. Cherry, the Oscar-winning director of the animated short film “Hair Love,”

Anne Beatts, a pioneering comedy writer who helped launch “Saturday Night Live” and created the 1980s cult-favorite sitcom “Square Pegs,” died Wednesday at her home in West Hollywood. She was 74. Beatts’ death was confirmed by her longtime friend Rona Edwards. Beatts was a revered figure in comedy circles given her long resume. She and

Writer-producer Little Marvin grew up a fan of classic horror, from Alfred Hitchcock to “The Exorcist,” but it wasn’t until he was on set at his own creation, the anthological “Them” for Amazon Prime Video, that he says he had an experience that “codified for me what moves me deeply” about genre fare. Watching from

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and in many ways, that would be British producer Suzanne Mackie. As an executive producer on “The Crown,” she has spent the better part of the past 10 years working on the hit Netflix series, taking on her share of controversy along the way. But you’d be

Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett were named the best new male and female artists of the year by the Academy of Country Music in pre-telecast reveals posted Thursday morning. Both artists were pictured opening up video cards from ACM Awards co-host Keith Urban and being shocked by the news. Allen was handed his as “something

Fox News Media named former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to a contributor role, adding to the number of former Trump officials offering commentary across its media holdings. Pompeo, who has been identified as a potential Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, will make his first appearance Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox

Discovery Plus, the cable programmer’s recently launched nonfiction subscription streaming service, is now available on Comcast’s Xfinity Flex set-top for broadband-only customers. Over the next few weeks, Discovery Plus will roll out to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform for pay-TV customers as well, providing access to the streaming service’s programming alongside live and on-demand content they

The fissures racism has carved into American life, and American lives, are so surreally deep that to convey them, artists must use the tools of exaggeration that genre provides. This strategy has been deployed several times over in recent years: Notable entries on television include “Watchmen” and “Lovecraft Country,” a superhero serial and a horror

Disney Plus has hired Channel 4 commissioner Lee Mason to lead its scripted efforts for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Variety has confirmed. Set to join the streamer this summer, Mason will serve as director of scripted content for EMEA, reporting into Liam Keelan, VP of original content for Europe and Africa at Disney.

ZDF Enterprises has sold the two-part drama “Ottilie von Faber-Castell” to broadcasters across Europe and to Globi, an up-and-coming AVOD streamer covering North America. The miniseries, a story about a brilliant young woman navigating the pitfalls of 19th century business, family and forbidden love, has been picked up by Italy’s RAI 1, where it earned

Their relationship may have been, um, cut short, but Jodie Turner-Smith’s Anne Boleyn and Mark Stanley’s Henry VIII look pretty cosy in the first image of the pair from the upcoming Channel 5 drama. In Variety’s exclusive first look, Turner-Smith’s Tudor queen is nestled against the formidable Henry VIII, played by “White House Farm” actor

Australia’s Goalpost Pictures and South Africa’s Quizzical Pictures are teaming up on the crime series “Detective Cooper” for South African broadcaster M-Net, marking the first TV co-production between the two countries. The series will be adapted from the book “A Beautiful Place to Die,” part of the multi-award-winning Detective Emmanuel Cooper book series by Australian-South

BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, has appointed Phil Hardman as senior VP and GM of its operations in India, South East Asia, Japan and Korea. The move is a streamlining of operations under Jon Penn, executive VP for the APAC region. Previously announced positions are Ding Ke as senior VP

Jodie Turner-Smith has exited Netflix’s “Witcher” prequel series, “The Witcher: Blood Origin,” due to a scheduling conflict. Turner-Smith was set to play a warrior named Éile, one of the leads in the six-episode limited series. Laurence O’Fuarain was also recently cast in a lead role. “Due to a change in the production schedule for ‘The

Walter Olkewicz, who played the bartender Jacques Renault on “Twin Peaks,” died Tuesday in Reseda. He was 72. His son, screenwriter Zak Olkewicz, confirmed his death. He had been struggling with health issues for the past 20 years. The character actor also played oil refinery worker Dougie Boudreau on the first four seasons of “Grace

“MacGyver” v2.0 is coming to a close. The CBS reboot starring Lucas Till, which premiered in 2016, will end after five seasons with its series finale on April 30. “All of us at CBS are extremely grateful for the incredible work and dedication from Lucas and the rest of the cast, as well as Monica,

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 5, Episode 5 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired April 7 on Fox. Nick Cannon is back. “The Masked Singer” host, who had been absent so far in Season 5 due to testing positive for COVID-19, returned on Wednesday in the most appropriate

Laura Kennedy took the reins of management-production firm Avalon as CEO about five months before the global pandemic upended all of the company’s businesses: talent representation, content production and live comedy tours. The bumpiness of the past year has reinforced her faith in the company’s business model, which benefits from having a diverse mix of

Israeli-American actress-producer-author Noa Tishby was compiling research for what would eventually become her newly released non-fiction book “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” (Simon & Schuster) when she discovered that — save for Golda Meir’s 1973 autobiography and English translations of Israeli historian Anita Shapira’s work — there were no

Ronen Rubinstein was anxious for his family and friends back in his native Staten Island to watch the second episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.” He told them he was playing Rob Lowe’s gay son on the Fox procedural, but he wasn’t sure what they’d think of the very steamy encounter between his character, T.K. Strand,

Regé-Jean Page appears to have posted his first reaction to a report alleging he was not cast as Superman’s grandfather on the Syfy series “Krypton” because he is Black. “Hearing about these conversations hurts no less now than it did back then,” Page posted to Twitter on Wednesday. “The clarifications almost hurt more tbh. Still