“Big Sky” is getting a little bigger. ABC has issued an order for six additional episodes of the freshman drama, bringing the season 1 total to 16 episodes. News of the additional order comes only three episodes into the season, which premiered back in mid-November. It comes as no great surprise given that the show
Television
The CW has picked up two of its unscripted series for new seasons. Both “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” and “World’s Funniest Animals” have been renewed, the former for an eighth cycle and the latter for a second cycle. News of the “World’s Funniest Animals” pick up comes less than three months after its debut
California is set to receive 327,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 15 and distribute 2.16 million doses by the end of the month. “Hope is on the horizon,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday during a morning news conference in Sacramento. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is meeting on Dec. 10 to
LuckyChap Entertainment has signed a first-look TV deal with Amazon, Variety has learned exclusively. Under the deal, LuckyChap’s Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara will work with Amazon Studios to create television projects that will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. Brett Hedblom, LuckyChap’s vice president of television, will also be involved in the
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
Public service broadcaster ITV has been found in breach of fairness rules around competitions involving members of the public, U.K. media regulator Ofcom has found. An Ofcom investigation found that some 41,000 viewers who had entered competitions between 2016-2019 with postal votes were excluded from prize draws. The ITV competitions involved include “Good Morning Britain,”
Former “The Voice” contestant Ryan Gallagher, who abruptly left the singing competition show, is disputing the nature of his exit and says he did not break the rules implemented during the pandemic. According to a joint statement from NBC and MGM, which called Gallagher a talented artist, the contestant had to be ejected after violating
In today’s Global Bulletin, ViacomCBS licenses “The Stand” globally, Jonty Claypole steps down as BBC director of arts, Compact Pictures divides its production business, Saloon Media joins BriteSpark East on “World’s Most Scenic River Journeys” and Leonine Studios hires Patrick Phelan as the company’s new director of world sales. LICENSING ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group has
Colonel Harland Sanders has for decades captured the fancy of the American public, usually over the course of dozens of 30-second commercials for KFC that break into TV programs. On Sunday, he won’t have to interrupt any longer. He’s getting his own show. Mario Lopez will star as the nation’s best-known fried-chicken spokesman in a
Argonon, the superindie production group with a presence in London, New York and Los Angeles, is expanding in the branded content realm with the acquisition of U.K.-based video agency Nemorin Film & Video. Nemorin’s client base includes global brands NBCUniversal, Nat Geo, Hugo Boss, McDonalds, Amazon and American Express. The acquisition brings Nemorin founder and
Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming animated superhero show “Invincible” has added more big names to its already star-studded voice cast. During a panel at Brazil’s CCXP event, the show announced that Mahershala Ali, Nicole Byer, Jon Hamm, Clancy Brown, Djimon Hounsou, Ezra Miller, Jeffrey Donovan and Jonathan Groff have joined the voice cast. Ali will play
Netflix will not be adding a disclaimer to “The Crown” that states the show is fictionalized, Variety has confirmed. Last week, U.K. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden asked that such a label be added to the show in an interview with Daily Mail, citing that he fears “a generation of viewers who did not live through
Although the swearing-in of President-elect Joe Biden is just about six weeks away, President Donald Trump has still been dominating the news, most recently with a hearing regarding allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Naturally, for “Saturday Night Live’s” first show back after a few week hiatus, the late-night sketch comedy series led
David Lander, the 73-year old actor and comedian best known as ‘Squiggy’ on the ABC sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” died from complications related to multiple sclerosis on Friday night. Hours before his passing, Variety spoke to Lander’s longtime friend and one-time collaborator Harry Shearer. The “Le Show” radio host, Spinal Tap co-creator, “The Simpsons” cast
The Writers Guild of America has urged a federal judge not to intervene in the writers’ 20-month boycott of CAA and WME, saying the court lacks authority to do so. The two largest agencies asked Judge Andre Birotte last month for an injunction that would force an end to the boycott. The agencies have effectively
Actor David Lander, best known as Squiggy on the ABC sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” died Friday evening at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family confirmed to Variety. He was 73. Lander died of complications related to multiple sclerosis, which he battled for 37 years. Since he went public with his diagnosis in 1999,
“Bad Girls Club” star Whitney Collings died Thursday morning at a hospital near her hometown of Boston, according to TMZ, which was the first to share the news. She was 33. Collings’ death was announced by her mother Linda Houghton Collings, who wrote on Facebook, “I am completely broken and will never get over this.
Former “Glee” cast members are rallying together to raise money in honor of the late Naya Rivera. On Friday, Dianna Agron, Heather Morris, Chord Overstreet, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Matthew Morrison and other former stars of the show took part in launching a GoFundMe for Alexandria House, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that Rivera supported. “The
The long-anticipated axe has fallen on another star of Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules.” Jax Taylor — one of the show’s original cast members and its controversial breakout star — has been fired. His wife, Brittany Cartwright, also will not return. In a post on Instagram on Friday, Taylor announced the news, thanking Bravo and the show’s
Industry practitioners from Southeast Asia deliberated the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the entertainment industry in the region, but also found some silver linings, at the concluding session of the Asian Television Forum, part of the Singapore Media Festival, on Friday. Speaking at a panel discussion moderated by producer Jeremy Chua of Singapore outfit Potocol
U.K.-based distributor Cineflix Rights has signed a raft of deals with broadcasters in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, it was announced at the Asia Television Forum, part of the Singapore Media Festival. CREO Contents has acquired six-parter “Timeline of the Century,” produced by CIC Media for A+E, Latin America, for Korea’s NATV channel. The
In today’s TV news roundup, MTV announced plans to honor Chadwick Boseman with a hero for the ages award, and Bravo announced the launch date for “The Real Housewives of Potomac” Season 5 reunion. DATES Bravo will premiere “The Real Housewives of Potomac” Season 5 reunion on Dec. 13 at 9:15 p.m., with host Andy
DC Comics character Naomi could soon be coming to The CW thanks to Ava DuVernay and former “Arrow” writer and executive producer Jill Blankenship. DuVernay and Blankenship are attached to write and executive produce “Naomi.” The potential series follows a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a
National correspondents Jericka Duncan and Adriana Diaz will take over as anchors of “CBS Weekend News,” the ViacomCBS unit said Friday, setting in place a more formalized structure for the weekend evening-news broadcast after its logistics were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Diaz will anchor the Saturday broadcast from Chicago and Duncan will anchor Sundays
The upcoming Amazon series “Outer Range” has rounded out its main cast. Lewis Pullman, Noah Reid, Shaun Sipos, and Isabel Arraiza have all been cast in the series, Variety has learned. They join previously announced cast members Josh Brolin, Lili Taylor, Tamara Podemski, Tom Pelphrey, and Imogen Poots. “Outer Range” centers on Royal Abbott (Brolin), a
Netflix is the target of yet another employee-poaching lawsuit. In a suit on Friday, Activision Blizzard accused the streamer of showing “contempt” for state employment law when it poached the company’s chief financial officer two years ago. Netflix has been sued twice before — by Fox and Viacom — for allegedly luring away employees who
Judge Michael Desiato (Bryan Cranston) is a good and righteous man. Showtime’s new limited series “Your Honor” wants its audience to know that upfront so that when he starts doing some very bad things, all in the name of protecting himself and his son, he will be viewed as “a damaged man [who] loses himself
Disney Plus’ vice president of nonfiction originals Dan Silver has exited the streamer for a new role at Netflix, Variety has confirmed. Silver will take on the role of director of documentary feature films at Netflix. He will report to Lisa Nishimura, vice president of independent film and documentary features. Silver has a long history
The family of late actor Kirby Morrow, known for his voice roles on “Dragon Ball Z,” Lego’s “Ninjago” and many more series, is raising money to start a scholarship in his honor. Morrow died in late November at 47 years old, and his brother Casey Morrow and the Calgary Foundation in Alberta, Canada, started a
The Assn. of Independent Commercial Producers has agreed with Hollywood unions to adopt COVID-19 testing for workers on sets. A rep for one of the International Alliance of Theaterical Stage Employees locals confirmed to Variety that the deal has gone into effect. The Directors Guild of America and the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters have also been