Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar, best known as two of the executive producer behind iconic animated sitcom “The Proud Family,” have signed a multi-year overall deal with Disney. Under the wide-ranging pact, the pair will produce animated and live-action series and films for Disney’s Branded Television division, working closely with Disney Channels senior vice
Television
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the episode of “The Bachelorette” that aired on Dec. 14 on ABC. This season of “The Bachelorette” has been billed as the most dramatic season ever. It’s also perhaps the most real season the reality show franchise has seen in its nearly 20-year history. On
Parents with preschool-aged kids and younger probably won’t be shocked by the most-watched show on Netflix in 2020. Everyone else, get ready to scratch your heads. The team at streaming tracker Reelgood kept tabs on all the shows that made it on Netflix’s top 10 rankers this year (since the streamer started publicizing it in
China’s top TV regulator on Monday issued a list of 102 state-backed TV documentaries set to hit the airwaves by 2025, indicating the kind of content Beijing wishes to promote amongst local viewers in the years to come. The titles are the first batch selected by China’s National Radio and TV Administration as part of
“The Talk” host Sharon Osbourne has revealed that she tested positive for COVID-19, and was briefly hospitalized. In a tweet posted on Monday night, Osbourne shared her diagnosis and said that her husband, Ozzy Osbourne, has tested negative. “I wanted to share I’ve tested positive for Covid 19,” Osbourne wrote. “After a brief hospitalization, I’m
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the Dec. 14 episode of “The Bachelorette.” Last week’s episode brought Bennett Jordan back into the pool of Tayshia Adams’ contestants. This week, another man returned: host Chris Harrison. After leaving the property to help move his son to college, Chris returned to offer Tayshia
In today’s TV news roundup, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” introduces a Season 13 twist, and Karamo Brown, Tony Hawk and Leslie Jones are set to compete on “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune.” CASTING Contestants announced for “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” will include Karamo Brown, Yvette Nicole Brown, Nicole Byer, Drew Carey, Rachael Leigh Cook, Jennie Garth, Chris
For the last few years, Netflix has been looking to rewrite the employment rules in Hollywood. The streaming goliath has unabashedly raided its rivals, offering recruits higher compensation if they will leave their current employer even if they are under contract. This has sparked howls of protest from company who claim that Netflix is poaching
Nine cases of COVID-19 have been recorded among crew members during pre-production on Ava DuVernay’s “Colin in Black & White,” Variety has learned. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health logged the cluster of coronavirus cases as occurring on a Netflix production at 18421 S Main St in Gardena, Calif. Production crew is currently
The potential “Empire” spinoff centered on Cookie Lyon starring Taraji P. Henson is not moving ahead at Fox, Variety has learned. The spinoff was first announced as being in development back in July, part of a first-look deal Henson had signed with studio 20th Television. Details on the series were sparse at the time it
SAG-AFTRA’s national leadership has waded into the bitter dispute over the looming deep cuts in the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan as the union’s national board vowed to combat “misinformation” and condemned opponents of the cuts. Gabrielle Carteris, president of the performers union, accused the opponents of conduct similar to those running “scams” that target the elderly. Opponents of the
SAG-AFTRA’s national board is requiring its 160,000 members to fully comply with COVID-19 safety protocols on set, saying that they will face disciplinary action if they fail to do so. The board voted Monday to approve an amendment to its member rules, three months after SAG-AFTRA and the other major Hollywood unions announced on Sept. 21 that
Rachel Polan has joined Jessica Rhoades’ Pacesetter Productions as senior vice president. In her new role, Polan will help identify and foster development for the company and add support to the current productions. In addition, Dana Echt has been named manager at Pacesetter. Echt started as Rhoades’ assistant, and was previously at WME. “I’ve been
Cleveland’s baseball team, known since the mid 1910s as the Indians, is expected to change its name, according to multiple press reports, the latest sign of storied sports franchises moving to keep pace with cultural shifts in the United States. The New York Times previously reported that the Cleveland Indians have decided to find a
Showtime has ordered the six-episode “Shameless” retrospective series “Shamless Hall of Shame” to series. Beginning on Dec. 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the series will feature original scenes featuring characters from the beloved show juxtaposed with a look back at scenes from previous seasons to highlight characters’ journeys. Episodes will be interspersed throughout the show’s
Amazon has given a series order to “I’m a Virgo” from Boots Riley with Jharrel Jerome attached to star. The half-hour series is described as an absurdist, coming of age story about a 13-foot-tall Black man (Jerome) who lives in Oakland, CA. Riley wrote the series and will also direct. He serves as executive producer
Rick Santelli, the veteran CNBC correspondent, recently got into an on-air spat with one of his longtime colleagues. Whether he will be given leeway to spar in similar fashion with new co-workers elsewhere in the company is something executives at NBCUniversal ought to work quickly to decide. During an early-December panel on the business-news network’s
Showtime has ordered the six-episode “Shameless” retrospective series “Shameless Hall of Shame” to series. Beginning on Dec. 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the series will feature original scenes featuring characters from the beloved show juxtaposed with a look back at scenes from previous seasons to highlight characters’ journeys. Episodes will be interspersed throughout the show’s
Variety has hired Mónica Marie Zorrilla as a TV reporter. Zorrilla most recently served as a breaking-news reporter at Adweek. At Variety, she will cover the television-programming business, including streaming services, studios, networks and development for all Variety platforms. She will be based in Los Angeles and report to Daniel Holloway, Variety‘s executive editor, TV.
Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. As many across the country continue to practice self-isolation due to coronavirus, why not while away
Alicia Vikander is teaming with French indie director Olivier Assayas for an HBO show. The cabler has ordered “Irma Vep,” a limited series loosely based on on Assayas’ 1996 film of the same name, with Vikander in the lead role. Assayas will write and direct the project which revolves around Mira (Vikander), an American movie
Peter Langenberg, the newly appointed COO of Banijay following the Endemol Shine takeover, will be ramping up the company’s content strategy in key territories, notably in Benelux, Germany and India. In Benelux, where Banijay just bowed the new label SimpleZodiak, a merger of Simple Media and Zodiac Nederland, the company is developing a packed slate
Marvel series “Helstrom” has been canceled at Hulu after one season, Variety has learned. The move to cancel the series was not a surprising one, as “Helstrom” was the last live-action show produced by the now defunct Marvel Television unit under Jeph Loeb. The writing may have also been on the wall due to the fact
CTiTV, a pro-Beijing news channel, went off air this weekend in Taiwan after its operator lost an appeal against a decision by the National Communications Commission. But the skirmishing is far from over. The seven NCC members members ruled unanimously last month to not renew the license of CTiTV, which is controlled by the Beijing-friendly
For the first time in its 63-year history, BBC Studios’ renowned Natural History Unit is setting up shop outside the U.K. In 2021, the NHU will launch a permanent satellite office in Los Angeles. The NHU is behind some of the world’s most iconic natural history programs, including “Blue Planet II” and “Planet Earth II,”
Amazon Prime Video is finally landing on Sky. The streamer has struck a multi-year deal with Comcast-backed pay-TV provider Sky that will see the Prime Video app launch on set-top box service Sky Q and SVOD service Now TV across Europe. Sky’s markets cover the U.K., Ireland, Austria, Germany and Italy. Now TV and Sky
John le Carré was lauded Sunday as a writer’s writer whose productivity and singular storytelling style was praised by fans ranging from late night star Seth Meyers to fellow novelists Stephen King and Paulo Coelho. Le Carré, who died Dec. 12 at the age of 89, was known as a master of espionage fiction who
John le Carré, whose bestselling novels about the chilly world of Cold War espionage were the basis for a long series of popular film and TV adaptations, has died of pneumonia. He was 89. Le Carré’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, announced his death on Dec. 13 via Twitter. The beloved storyteller, whose real name was
Netflix has added seven new series to its original content slate out of the U.K., working with the likes of Rowan Atkinson, Sam Mendes and Andy Serkis, along with new writing talent including Sarah Dollard and Sophie Petzal. The shows, commissioned by the Original Series team as part of the streaming giant’s continued investment in
In terms of post-apocalyptic shows about a viral communicable disease causing the end of the world, CBS All-Access’ “The Stand” falls somewhere between Amazon’s “Utopia” and AMC’s still-kicking “The Walking Dead” franchise. Classier than the former, which gleefully used violence as a narrative shortcut, but somehow more glacially paced than the latter, “The Stand” arrives