In a competitive situation, Bad Robot has secured the rights to develop Glennon Doyle’s best-selling memoir “Untamed” for television. In association with Warner Bros. Television, J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot’s head of television, Ben Stephenson, will executive produce alongside Jessie Nelson and Doyle, who will also co-write the first episode. Rachel Rusch Rich, Bad Robot’s
Television
Amazon’s series adaptation of “A League of Their Own” has been ordered to series, Variety has learned. Like the 1992 Penny Marshall film, the hour-long series will tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. The show will also explore race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole
A significant chunk of Fox Corp.’s employee base is likely to work from home for the rest of 2020 to keep the coronavirus from spreading among staffers, the company’s chief executive revealed in a memo. “In the near-term, we want to maintain a low density in our offices for those employees whose jobs do require
Lindsey Vonn is trading her Olympic medals for dog leashes. The famous athlete, and her dog Lucy, are teaming up with Amazon for a canine competition series. Titled “The Pack,” the Vonn-hosted unscripted series will celebrate the bond between dogs and their human companions, and is set to premiere later this year. The series consists
Stephen Colbert and James Corden finally have a good reason to get out of the house. Both late-night hosts are slated to return to their home studios next week, according to ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish, in a bid to restore CBS’ two mainstay late-night programs to some sense of normalcy amid the effects the coronavirus
Brianna Keilar isn’t looking for a fight in the early afternoon on CNN. Sometimes, she gets one anyway. In recent weeks, Keilar has tilted at Fox News Channel anchor Tucker Carlson in a fact-checking segment about his criticism of U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, and appeared to be on the verge of tangling with U.S. House
ViacomCBS has raised the curtains on its long-anticipated global streamer, with plans set for an early 2021 launch. Having teased the prospect of a “broad pay streaming product” back in May, ViacomCBS Networks International has unveiled plans for a premium SVOD service for all audiences, underpinned by major output deals with Showtime and CBS All
Lucille Desiree Ball Born: Aug. 6, 1911 in Celeron, N.Y. Died: April 26, 1989 in Los Angeles Best known for: CBS comedy series “I Love Lucy” (1951-1957), “The Lucy Show” (1962-68), “Here’s Lucy” (1968-74). As Variety‘s Tom Gilbert observed after her death, “Ball’s elastic facial expressions and precise comic timing catapulted her into an American
ViacomCBS said its second quarter net income tumbled amid declines in advertising revenue at its cable and broadcast outlets, the latest sign of the toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on the operations of U.S. media companies. The New York owner of the CBS broadcast network, the Showtime pay-cable operation and the Nickeodeon kids-media empire
ITV is ramping up its production might post-lockdown, with CEO Carolyn McCall trumpeting the company’s progress in resuming scripted drama production. “It is all good news on the drama front,” said McCall, during a Thursday morning earnings call. Although ITV declared revenue declines across the board in its half-year results, the chief executive was upbeat
“Star Trek: Lower Decks,” the latest series in the franchise kicked off by Gene Roddenberry in 1966, doesn’t take place on the Enterprise, or the Voyager, or any of the similarly inspiringly-named ships in the fleet. This animated show depicts the comings and goings of the support staff on the U.S.S. Cerritos, a ship sharing
If you want to meet a Republican politician who’s the ultimate poster boy for shameless apple-polishing — the kind of eager conservative loyalist who would crawl across broken glass to shine Donald Trump’s shoes — you should watch “The Swamp,” the new HBO documentary, and get a load of Matt Gaetz, a congressman from Florida
“Big Brother” unveiled its “All-Stars” cast during Wednesday night’s two-hour live premiere. For the first time in its 20-year history, the show aired the live move-in of 16 returning houseguests from previous seasons. Host Julie Chen Moonves greeted the cast in groups of four and explained the safety precautions they took to resume production. The
As New York prepares for TV and film production to gradually resume next month, the city’s entertainment chief is keeping her focus on efforts to help the Broadway and live events sector, which still face an uncertain road to recovery. In the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Anne del Castillo, commissioner of the
In today’s TV news roundup, HBO Max released the trailer and premiere date for Selena Gomez’s “Selena + Chef,” and CBS announced the Season 2 premiere date for “Love Island.” RENEWALS TruTV has renewed comedy series “Tacoma FD” for a 13-episode third season. The series follows members of a fire department in a city where
One task that “Taskmaster” couldn’t quite, erm, master is making it beyond a single episode on the CW. The U.K. panel game show has been dumped from the network’s Sunday schedule after it premiered to terrible numbers last weekend. Sources with knowledge of the situation say the network is in discussions with the show’s producers
“Siren” has been canceled at Freeform after three seasons, Variety has confirmed. The news comes about two months after the Season 3 finale, which aired at the end of May. The series starred Eline Powell as Ryn Fisher, a mysterious young woman (who happens to be a mermaid) who came ashore looking for her sister, who
International powerhouse BBC Studios is leaning heavily into new and expanding SVOD partnerships with the likes of Discovery and its global-facing BritBox service as it looks to weather the COVID-19 era. In an exclusive interview, Paul Dempsey, president of global distribution, tells Variety that BBC Studios’ landmark Discovery deal, through which the “Blue Planet II”
Three E! entertainment news shows — “E! News,” “Pop of the Morning,” and “In the Room” — have been canceled, Variety has learned. The trio of programs are based in New York, after E!’s move just a year ago to expand its slate of entertainment news programming and introduce new programs. “E! News” had transitioned its
FilmLA is reporting that 18 film permit applications are being submitted per day since resuming remote operations on June 15 — about 34% of the pre-pandemic level. The number of daily applications for location shooting in Los Angeles has risen from the average of 14 it reported on July 1. FilmLA, which closed down in
How many perfect strangers are there left at this point? Regina Hall is the latest star to add her name to Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers” series, joining previously announced cast members Melissa McCarthy, Nicole Kidman, Manny Jacinto, Luke Evans, and Tiffany Boone, among others. News of Hall’s casting comes less than a week after Michael
Apple has given a straight-to-series order to a drama that hails from Adam Perlman as well as Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey production company. The Downeys and Amanda Burrell will executive produce on behalf of Team Downey, with Robert also potentially playing a supporting role. Perlman will serve as writer and executive
The rising tide of programming for the small screen, along with a greater push for diversity in Hollywood, has increased the number of roles for actors of color overall in recent years. And while it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how many of those gains have been made by younger performers — organizations such as SAG-AFTRA
If the finale of “Greenleaf” were wrapped up in a perfectly packaged bow, with complications or heartstrings pulled, it wouldn’t really be a “Greenleaf” ending at all. Throughout its five seasons, the OWN drama tackled faith on TV in a way that few others of its kind have, slowly rolling out the flaws of the
Rowan Blanchard was about six months into her Vancouver-based shoot for Season 2 of TNT’s dystopian thriller “Snowpiercer” when COVID-19 struck North America. “We were so close to finishing. They had two episodes left on Season 2 and they immediately sent everyone home,” says Rowan’s mother, Elizabeth Blanchard. The sudden pivot from working nonstop to
UPDATED: ICM Partners has signed franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America, Variety has learned. “We are looking forward to getting back to work for our writer clients,” said the company’s co-president, Kevin Crotty. “The pandemic has caused tremendous hardship and every facet of our industry is greatly challenged because of it. It was
“The Ren & Stimpy Show” is the most recent Viacom throwback getting a new life. Comedy Central announced Wednesday that it has ordered a revival of the ’90s animated series. The move comes amid a significant push into adult animation at ViacomCBS’ entertainment and youth group, which comprises most of the company’s cable brands and
Nick Khan, a behind-the-scenes power in the world of sports representation, is moving to professional-wrestling powerhouse WWE, where he will take on the role of president and chief revenue officer. Khan replaces George Barrios and Michelle Wilson, two longtime senior WWE executives who left Vince McMahon’s entrepreneurial professional-wrestling operation abruptly in a shake-up of management
For the 2020 Power of Young Hollywood Issue, Variety profiled three young stars making an impact in the entertainment industry. For more, click here. Long before Shira Haas drew universal acclaim and an Emmy nomination this year for her portrayal of the daring Esty Shapiro in Netflix’s “Unorthodox,” she co-starred in the Israeli drama “Shtisel,” about
HBO Europe drama series “30 Coins” (“30 Monedas”), directed by Spanish genre director Alex De La Iglesia, will world premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, HBO has announced. The show, slotted as an out-of-competition screening, is the only TV series in the Lido lineup so far. Venice, which is on track to be the first