Television

NBC has announced its premiere dates for the fall, which will see September and October be packed with mostly unscripted fare, while most scripted originals have been pushed. The majority of the network’s big scripted shows, including “This Is Us,” its three “Chicago” dramas and “Law & Order: SVU” have been shunted back to November

Animation writer and executive Joe Ruby, who created cartoon series including “Scooby-Doo” along with his partner Ken Spears, died of natural causes Wednesday in Westlake Village, Calif. He was 87. At Hanna-Barbera, Ruby and Spears created series including “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?,” “Dynomutt” and “Jabberjaw.” “He never stopped writing and creating, even as he aged,”

Disney’s FX Networks is hiring an ombudsman with the title senior vice president of diversity and culture, who will report to CEO John Landgraf. Revealing this during his closing address at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday, where he was in conversation with BBC director of creative diversity June Sarpong, Landgraf said, “We are right

The media and sports worlds remained on tenterhooks Thursday after the NBA, WNBA and MLB suspended a handful of important games last night in the wake of players protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The remarkable decisions halted a critical NBA playoffs game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Orlando Magic as

Madison Avenue has for decades trotted out a dizzying array of marketing avatars to talk to consumers. Mr. Whipple wanted to speak about squeezing Charmin. Ronald McDonald had a yen for discussing milkshakes or french fries. Now, advertisers are getting ready, instead, to listen. NBCUniversal’s new Peacock streaming service has since mid-August been running a

After pivoting from their traditional gala format, Women in Film and 53 celebrity supporters made it work to air the organization’s first-ever virtual special Wednesday night on the CW. Eva Longoria, Alfre Woodard, Jane Fonda and Rita Moreno were among the stars who participated in the one-hour televised event, which championed women in all industries,

ABC has begun to announce the celebrities who will be joining the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars,” as the new season paves its way safely to the ballroom. AJ McLean of The Backstreet Boys will compete on the dance competition show this fall. “I’ve been dancing since I was about 6 years old,

Longtime Warner Bros. TV executive Susan Rovner has emerged as a top candidate for the job at NBCUniversal overseeing programming for NBC, USA Network, fledgling streamer Peacock and the rest of the company’s entertainment cable networks. Sources close to the situation say that as of Wednesday Rovner had not engaged in formal negotiations with NBCU

London-headquartered entities, the development-focused content creator Grand River Productions, and Anglophone markets and Asia producer The Bridge have teamed to co-produce a television feature adaptation of original stage play “Wireless Operator.” Written by Bob Baldwin (“Grim Tales”) and Max Kinnings (“Alleycats”), the story is a personal look at the experiences of the World War II

108 Media, a Singapore-based content distribution and development company with offices in Toronto, Japan and Europe, has picked up international sales rights to docuseries “Fearless: Rise of the Johor Southern Tigers.” The series spotlights Johor Darul Ta’zim FC (JDT), a soccer team, whose victories have helped build a community, a society, a state and a

Fox News host Tucker Carlson received immediate backlash on Twitter after saying Kyle Rittenhouse, who was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the shootings of two protesters in Kenosha, Wis., “decided to maintain order when no one else would.” “Are we really surprised this looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are

The premiere date for season 4 of “The Masked Singer” is a mystery no longer. Fox has announced that its wildly popular guessing game show will debut its fourth season on Sept. 23 in its usual 8 p.m. time slot. Not only that, but the network has decided to fast-track singing competition series “I Can

Margaret Qualley has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming Netflix dramedy series “Maid,” Variety has confirmed. The series will be based on Stephanie Land’s “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive.” It will chronicle a single mother who turns to housekeeping to—barely—make ends meet as she battles against poverty,

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson doesn’t think he can be canceled. The rapper and television producer, whose newest project, “Power Book II: Ghost” premieres on Starz Sept. 6, said during Variety‘s Entertainment Marketing Summit presented by Deloitte that he doesn’t care whether people love him or hate him – as long as they care. “I’m an entertainer,

Face coverings aren’t just worn during a pandemic; they’ve also been a staple of “The Masked Singer” since early 2019. With a new season in development, the show’s Emmy-nominated costume designer Marina Toybina talked creating multiple designs at once, collaborating with artists and executing the burlesque cat in Variety Artisans presented by HBO. Most times,

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix unveiled the trailer for “Julie and the Phantoms,” and Syfy announced six cast members set to star in the upcoming drama series, “The Surrealtor.” CASTING Syfy‘s upcoming drama “The Surrealtor” is set to include Tim Rozon, Sarah Levy, Adam Korson, Maurice Dean Wint, Savannah Basley and Tennille Read as

Disney Television Studios president Craig Hunegs began his tenure at Disney last year with a diplomatic mission to carve a new template for talent deals that reflect the realpolitik of the current marketplace. As Hunegs details in the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” the traditional construct of profit participation agreements is increasingly becoming

The Milwaukee Bucks basketball team has decided to boycott its Wednesday NBA playoff game with the Orlando Magic over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, Variety has confirmed. Tip off between the two teams was scheduled for 1 p.m. PT, but as of present the Bucks team is refusing to take the court. The

Thandie Newton refuses to be silent. The “Westworld” actor made headlines last month with a no-holds-barred interview with Vulture. Among her targets were Amy Pascal, Tom Cruise and Hollywood’s overall systematic racism and misogyny. “I was surprised by the appreciation I had got,” Newton says on Wednesday’s episode of the Variety and iHeart podcast “The

HBO has added nine more actors and actresses to the cast of the adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me.” Additional cast will include: Jharrel Jerome, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Janet Mock, Jason Moran, Wendell Pierce, Mj Rodriguez, Kendrick Sampson, Yara Shahidi and Michelle Wilson. They join previously announced cast members Angela Bassett, Alicia Garza,

CBS has become the latest network to concede that its fall 2020 schedule will not look anything like normal. The network has unveiled premiere dates for September and October, none of which include the originals it touted in its previous schedule announcement just over three months ago. Instead, CBS has thrown the first season of

“Altered Carbon” has been canceled at Netflix, Variety has confirmed. The second season of the sci-fi series aired on the streaming service back in February, while the first season aired in 2018. An anime special titled “Resleeved,” which was set before the events of Season 1, was released in 2019. The series was based on the

Introducing the cast of “Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living,” Tyler Perry’s latest comedy for BET. The series stars Na’im Lynn, J. Anthony Brown, Courtney Nichole, Tayler Buck and Alex Henderson, while longtime Tyler Perry collaborators David and Tamela Mann reprise their roles as Mr. Brown and Cora. In an exclusive behind the scenes clip, David Mann shares

The second night of the Republican National Convention performed better than the first, as far as total viewership is concerned. After opening night drew just under 16 million total viewers across the broadcast and cable news networks which covered it, night 2 delivered 18 million viewers, which represents a 13% jump. That does still represents

Diversity and inclusion have become a mandate for businesses trying to build representative workplaces and improve the experience for marginalized individuals. But when COVID-19 hit the U.K. in March, schemes focused on this area were often the first casualties of cost-cutting. “I know a [major] global tech firm, and that’s one of the first things

The creators and actors behind hit BBC and Hulu show “Normal People,” based on Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel and produced by Element Pictures, have revealed the process that went into the much lauded intimate scenes between leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal. “The intimacy between the characters and the attraction and physical dimensions of the

U.K. free-to-air channel BBC Two has ordered “Idris Elba’s Fight School,” a four-part series that will see the “Luther” star set up an experimental fight school in London. Elba will enlist seven recruits whose circumstances around their upbringing have not given them the opportunities to make the right choices from across the U.K. and teach

Atlanta-based Gray Television has expanded its investment in indie Swirl Films with a deal designed to provide Swirl with more resources to produce series and made-for-TV movies. Swirl Films, headed by producer Eric Tomosunas, is a prolific supplier of movies to outlets such as BET, Netflix, TV One, Lifetime, Hallmark Channel and Up. The company

AMC Networks’ streaming service Acorn TV has acquired exclusive U.S. and Canadian rights to BBC One crime thriller series “Bloodlands” from Hat Trick International and executive producer Jed Mercurio (“Line of Duty,” “Bodyguard”). The four-part series, written by Chris Brandon (“Red Rock”), stars James Nesbitt (“Cold Feet,” “The Hobbit” trilogy) as a veteran detective in

MTV International has launched “MTV Generation Change: Black Lives Matter,” a 10-part short-form series designed to support the global Black Lives Matter movement. The series features international artists, reality stars and change makers including Leigh-Anne Pinnock from British girl group Little Mix, model and activist Munroe Bergdorf, singer/songwriter Ray BLK, reality TV star Nathan Henry,