Fox Broadcasting Company and Sinclair Broadcast Group have struck a multi-year deal to renew Fox network affiliations for stations across 25 U.S. markets, Variety has learned exclusively. Those markets account for more than a tenth of all American television households. “We are pleased that we have reached agreements with FOX to continue our long-standing relationship,”
Television
“B Positive” has been picked up for a full season at CBS. The show will now run through the entire 2020-2021 broadcast season. The news comes after just five episodes of the show have aired on CBS, with the series debuting on Nov. 5. “B Positive” has the unique distinction of being the only pilot
At the end of an awful and exhausting year, let us give thanks for it at least having the good grace to end with “Bridgerton.” Based on Julia Quinn’s romance novel series, this confectionary treat of a show knows exactly what you might want from it and delivers those fantasies on a silver platter with
Prominent Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir (“Wajib”) is developing a TV series based on bestelling novel “Mornings in Jenin” by Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa. Abulhawa’s debut novel “Jenin” is the multigenerational story of a Palestinian family forced out of their village into the Jenin refugee camp. Published in 2010, it’s been translated into 30 languages. The
In today’s Global Bulletin, Netflix, HBO and DAZN all announce new Spanish originals, Disney Plus orders a nature series from Warner Bros. International Television’s Wall to Wall in the U.K., Beta Film sells “Lois van Beethoven” around the world, the BBC opens applications for its Assistant Producer Accelerator Program and Channel 4 reveals record growth
FanDuel spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on commercials that surround big sports broadcasts. Now it wants to make sports-wagering — the activity at the core of its business — a bigger part of the studio discussions that are also such an essential part of the sports-TV experience. Charles Barkley, one of the standouts on
Starring “Money Heist” and “Elite” star Jaime Llorente, Amazon’s “El Cid” hit the streaming platform worldwide on Dec. 18, weighing in as Spain’s first scripted Amazon Original and one of its biggest swings to date in continental Europe. While Charlton Heston’s El Cid in the eponymous 1961 film was a product of the Cold War,
Doug Crane, an animator who worked on the animated television series “Spider-Man” and the film “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America,” died of cancer on Dec. 17. He was 85. Crane’s daughter, Rose-Ellen, announced his death in a Facebook post. “Doug was a wonderful, kind, considerate person, a warm and comfortable friend and an amazing father
Comedian Eddie Izzard has announced that her pronouns are she/her. While sitting as a model for Sky Arts’ “Portrait Artist of the Year” — a yearly special that often brings in celebrities for competitors to draw — Izzard revealed that she wants to “be based in girl mode from now on.” “I try to do
The final episode of “Saturday Night Live” for the tumultuous year that was 2020 started with both the hot topic of the day and the hot topic of the month: who would take over the role of President-Elect Joe Biden on the late-night sketch comedy series and the COVID-19 vaccine, respectively. The episode aired just
Amazon has renewed “The Wilds” for a second season. The show’s official Twitter account broke the news on Saturday with a video of the cast celebrating, captioned “did someone say season 2??” did someone say season 2?? #TheWilds pic.twitter.com/ZVDe1sFfx0 — The Wilds (@thewildsonprime) December 19, 2020 “The Wilds” follows a group of young girls who
The nation has a president-elect. But who will play him on “Saturday Night Live” as he prepares to be sworn into office? The question is open anew after actor Jim Carrey took to Twitter Saturday to tell fans he was leaving behind the impression of Joe Biden he has offered over the course of the
The day Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, the company wasted no time making clear what it was buying for $4.05 billion, announcing three new Star Wars movies were already in the works. In a shareholder call the day the deal was announced, then-CEO Robert Iger laid out the company’s ambitions: “Our long-term plan is to
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix renewed “Virgin River” for season 3, and Fox announced the premiere date for “The Great North.” RENEWALS Netflix has renewed “Virgin River” for a 10-episode third season. The show follows a midwife and nurse (Alexandra Breckenridge) who relocates to a California town and becomes entrenched in the lives of
Positive cases of COVID-19 have been recorded on the set of “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” prompting production to shut down. The results impacted those filming in Zone A, which includes cast and those on the crew who come into contact with the cast. The series is set to star Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, Beanie
Now that the New York Times has revealed that it can no longer confirm the tales shared by Shehroze Chaudhry, the central figure in the 2018 podcast “Caliphate,” the newspaper has agreed to return the Peabody Award it had previously won for the series. The decision came following the newspaper’s internal investigation into the veracity
Brat TV is coming to Snapchat Discover. The network’s hit show “Past Your Bedtime,” a Gen Z news and culture show that premiered earlier this year, has been renewed for a second season on Snapchat’s Discover platform. Since its initial broadcast on Snapchat, the show, hosted by TikTok star Sam Partida, has moved up to
Now that she’s been revealed as “The Masked Singer” Season 4 champion, LeAnn Rimes is hoping that people will see her in a new way. “I’m excited to for people to continue connecting with me in this way,” said Rimes, who had been disguised as the Sun. “I think it’s giving people a new view
ViacomCBS’ MTV Entertainment Group has tapped “PBS NewsHour” producer and executive James F. Blue III to become its senior vice president and head of Smithsonian Channel. Blue has been tasked with leading, expanding and diversifying the Smithsonian Channel’s content to further the Smithsonian’s mission to engage, inspire and educate, according to the company. He will
UTA has signed Estevan Oriol for representation in all areas, Variety has learned exclusively. He will continue to be managed by Marco Valadez at The ID Agency and represented by attorney Eric Sherman at Ziffren Brittenham LLP. Most recently, Oriol executive produced the Universal Pictures feature “Lowriders” and produced and directed the Netflix documentary “L.A. Originals.”
A federal judge on Friday urged WME and the Writers Guild of America to set aside their “egos” and come to an agreement that would end the 20-month writers’ boycott. WME has asked U.S. District Court Judge Andre Birotte to order an end to the boycott, which the agency argues is an illegal abuse of
“Locke and Key” has been renewed for Season 3 at Netflix. In addition, series executive producer and co-showrunner Meredith Averill has signed an overall deal with Netflix for TV and other projects. News of the renewal comes ahead of the debut of the show’s second season, which is set to launch in 2021. Production is
The day after “The Flight Attendant” season finale premiered on HBO Max, the streaming service announced Friday it was renewing the Kaley Cuoco-starring series, which appears to be one of the nascent streaming service’s first-word-of-mouth hits. The stylish, eight-episode dramedy thriller premiered to strong reviews on Nov. 26, and ended its first season by tying
“Grey’s Anatomy” has been tackling coronavirus for the entirety of Season 17, and although the pandemic has inspired intense storytelling that mirrors the real state of the world, the medical drama also had a major boost of brightness recently with the return of Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd. The beloved character, who was killed off in
In today’s Global Bulletin, Amazon Prime Video snags Champions League rights in Italy, Dhanush joins the Russo brothers’ “The Gray Man,” Leigh Tavaziva joins the BBC as COO and “Big Brother Célébrités” finds its broadcaster in French-speaking Canada. SPORTS RIGHTS Amazon Prime Video has confirmed Italian reports that it has snapped up rights to exclusively
President Barack Obama, like the rest of us, appears to have spent a good portion of his year binging TV shows and watching movies to pass time during the coronavirus pandemic. In keeping with his annual tradition, on Friday he shared his favorite films and television series of 2020. Obama’s movie list includes “Ma Rainey’s
(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you have not watched the finale of season 2 of Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian.”) After a thrilling main episode with a massive reveal of its own, “The Mandalorian” finale pulled off one last trick. In a post-credits sequence, we see Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) return to the palace
Screen Media has bought North American rights to HBO’s “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street” and will premiere the title at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in January. The documentary, inspired by Michael Davis’ New York Times best-selling book, is directed by Marilyn Agrelo and produced by Trevor Crafts and Ellen Scherer Crafts. The
The 58th edition of Cannes TV market MipTV, set to run from April 12, will be a virtual affair for the second consecutive year. The 2020 edition was also forced to go digital due to the pandemic. Organizer Reed Midem confirmed their plans on Friday, noting that sister events MipDoc and MipFormats will also become
Legendary Global, the TV production-financing house launched by Chris Albrecht and Anne Thomopoulos, has teamed with Madrid-based ESPotlight to acquire rights for a small screen adaptation of “Los Forasteros del Tiempo,” a family-targeting, illustrated time travel book series from Spain’s Roberto Santiago. The first season makes over the first title in the saga, “La Aventura