The season 17 premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy,” which featured the surprise return of Patrick Dempsey, delivered strong growth in delayed viewing. “Grey’s” grew to a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49 after three days of delayed viewing. That represents a 64% jump and also the top score for any non-football program during the week of Nov.
Television
In today’s TV news roundup, NBC set premiere dates for “Mr. Mayor” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” and the Food Network announced the third season premiere date of “Supermarket Stakeout.” CASTING David Iacono has joined the cast of Showtime’s “City on a Hill” in a recurring role. He will portray Faust Aquino, Benny’s classmate and potential
Herbert F. Solow, a longtime television executive who pitched the original “Star Trek” series to NBC while he was at Desilu Studios, along with “Mission Impossible” and “Mannix,” died on Thursday, his wife, Dr. Harrison Solow, confirmed. He was 89. In later years, he and his wife wrote several books on the “Star Trek” series,
A contestant on the game show ‘Wipeout’ died on Wednesday after going into cardiac arrest following the completion of an obstacle course, spokespeople from TBS and production company Endemol Shine North America have confirmed. Sources close to production say the contestant had completed the course, but required medical attention after leaving the course. He was
Charlie Hauck, Emmy-nominated writer-producer of “Maude” and “Frasier,” died of complications from pancreatic cancer on Saturday at the age of 79. Warner Bros. TV confirmed his death at his home in Los Angeles to Variety. The longtime writer worked on the CBS series “Maude” for three seasons, both as a producer and writer of nearly
CAA’s managing partner conceded on Friday that the Writers Guild of America’s boycott “worked,” and urged a judge to help bring the 19-month standoff to an end. In a declaration filed in court, Bryan Lourd urged the court not to postpone an upcoming hearing on the agency’s motion for an injunction, saying that would only
The sight of President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, throwing off conspiracy theories and hair dye yesterday in TV’s once-humdrum daytime hours, would not too long ago have proven to be catnip that no TV-news outlet could resist. Yesterday, many of them did. Few if any of the nation’s TV-news outlets aired live Thursday’s press
Art Wolff, known for his directorial work on projects like “Seinfeld,” died of congestive heart failure on Monday at the age of 82. His daughter Juliet Wolff confirmed his death at Mount Sinai West in New York City to Variety. The theater and television director got his start on “Search for Tomorrow,” the soap opera
Apple’s “Shantaram” series starring Charlie Hunnam has found its showrunner. has signed on to run the forthcoming show, Variety has confirmed. The “Hannibal” and “Punisher” alum has at the same time inked a multi-year overall deal with Apple. “Shantaram” is based on Gregory David Roberts’ 2003 novel of the same name and tells the story of
Prince Carmen Jones Jr., an African American man who was racially profiled and killed by police officer in Virginia in 2000, features heavily in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 book “Between the World and Me,” about being Black in America. The two were friends in college, and Jones’ story is one on which the media doesn’t often
“The Last of Us” series adaptation has officially been greenlit at HBO. The project was first announced as being in development at the premium cabler back in March. Based on the video game of the same name, the series takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired
A lot has changed in the almost 30 years since Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and the gang from the original “Saved by the Bell” graduated from Bayside High School. Not only is he now the governor of California within the world of that show, but the school itself has gotten a major upgrade for the
The first few minutes of “The Flight Attendant” are as vivid and glamorous as the life Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco) projects to the world as she travels it. She hops from one blurry night out to the next, trading cities and men with practiced abandon. But when she wakes up in Bangkok after a blurry
Alfre Woodard will star as civil rights and voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in a forthcoming limited series for ABC Studios, Variety has learned exclusively. Woodard is executive producing along with Carl Beverly, Sarah Timbermann, Roderick Spencer and Harry Belafonte, while Gina Belafonte serves as a producer. Hamer rose from sharecropping in the Mississippi
Celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian will host a Thanksgiving-themed telethon on Fox-owned stations in major markets on Nov. 25 to raise money for food rescue organizations City Harvest and No Kid Hungry. “The Great American Foodathon Presented by Citi” will feature performances by John Legend, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, JoJo and Dennis Quaid, as well as
First Look Media’s niche streaming service Topic has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to the second season of the Nordic thriller “Arctic Circle,” which just started shooting in the icy wilderness of Lapland. Lagardère Studios Distribution, which was recently acquired by Mediawan Group, is handling international sales on the series and participated in its financing.
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Carry On,” the series finale of “Supernatural.” For 15 seasons the Winchester brothers of the CW’s “Supernatural” put the rest of humanity’s needs ahead of their own, so it is only fitting that in their final episode they were still doing that same thing
SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity have settled a bitter jurisdictional dispute over which should cover the streaming of live events. The performers unions announced the settlement late Thursday. Actors’ Equity, which represents 51,000 theater actors and stage managers, had accused SAG-AFTRA of raiding its turf and undercutting its contracts by negotiating lower-paying deals with theaters for
Disney Plus is barely a year-old streaming service, but it already has cornered a particular sub-genre of unscripted programming that should surprise no one. Shows like “Inside Disney, “One Day at Disney” and “Marvel’s Hero Project” offer in-depth looks at the creative minds behind the Walt Disney Company and its extraordinary impact on the world,
In today’s TV news roundup, ABC unveiled the premiere dates for its early 2021 scripted series, and NBC announced details for its annual “Christmas in the Rockefeller Center” special. CASTING Starz cast Luis Guzmán as a guest star in the second season of crime drama “Hightown.” Guzmán will portray Jorge Cuevas, Frankie’s (Amaury Nolasco) charmingly
No More Heroes: The Stranglers superfan and PR guru Paul McGuire is departing Warner Bros. after a lengthy run at the company, including the past ten years as senior VP, worldwide corporate communications. McGuire plans to open his own communications shingle, Last Resort PR, when not blasting The Cramps (R.I.P. Lux Interior) on “The Funhouse,”
ABC has given a put pilot order to a musical comedy series that boasts Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Mary J. Blige among its executive producers. Titled “Family Affair,” the single-camera series follows A-ron, a faded R&B star and committed bachelor whose life is thrown into a tailspin when he’s saddled with raising his sister’s
ViacomCBS is looking ahead to a post-coronavirus world, one in which approximately 70% of its more-than-20,000 employees will work at least partly from home, according to an internal memo from CEO Bob Bakish that Variety has obtained exclusively. The move toward a hybrid work model allows staffers more flexibility, but it also has financial advantages.
It’s Cris Abrego’s time to shine. The Endemol Shine North America CEO has been tapped to lead Banijay’s North America and Latin America operations. Abrego will now hold the title of Banijay’s chairman of the Americas, as well as president/CEO of Endemol Shine Holdings. He reports to Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti, who is putting his
ViacomCBS’ MTV Entertainment Group is launching Culture Code, a diversity, equity and inclusion orientation for its staff, talent and production partners, in a bid to “construct a communal set of values, understanding and baseline cultural norms to create a more inclusive and welcoming creative community.” A slew of social justice groups have partnered with the
“Adam Ruins Everything” star Adam Conover and the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions are teaming up for a Netflix comedy series that explores the world of government. “The G Word with Adam Conover” is described as a blend of sketch comedy and documentary that takes viewers inside the complex machinery of the U.S. government. Conover will
“The Walking Dead’s” extended Season 10 will continue in February, AMC announced Thursday. The six extra episodes of the zombie apocalypse series will begin airing on Feb. 28 at 9 p.m. ET. All six episodes will debut early on the AMC streaming service, AMC Plus, every Thursday prior to the linear premiere on Sunday. Guest
Bunim-Murray Prods. chairman/CEO Gil Goldschein is leaving after a 20-year run at the pioneering unscripted production company. Goldschein, who was elevated to the supremo role in April 2015, said he plans to pursue other opportunities “at the intersection of technology and entertainment.” Goldschein will remain with Bunim-Murray (also abbreviated as BMP) until Feb. 15, 2021
Drew Barrymore has been exploring her own talk show for years. But never in a million years did the star of “The Wedding Singer,” “50 First Dates” and “Never Been Kissed” imagine that when the day finally arrived, “The Drew Barrymore Show” would air during a pandemic. “I have worked really hard on a lot
WWE announced Thursday that it is exiting its ThunderDome residency at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, and moving to Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay. The new residency will begin with the episode of “SmackDown” airing Dec. 11 on Fox. Episodes of “Raw,” “SmackDown,” and WWE pay-per-views will now be filmed at Tropicana Field for