Hollywood studios and unions have asked Congress to revive the battered entertainment industry with a legislative package including hiring incentives, federal insurance and enhanced expensing of production costs. “These policies would help jumpstart domestic film and television production, encourage hiring and ameliorate the higher costs that must be undertaken to protect our industry’s workforce,” the letter
Television
In today’s TV news roundup, Apple TV Plus released the trailer for its sport docuseries “Greatness Code,” and Disney Channel announced a crossover special featuring “Raven’s Home” and “Bunk’d.” CASTING Freeform has announced Leslie Odom Jr, Nicolette Robinson, Tommy Dorfman, Rainey Qualley, Gil Bellows, Rya Kihlstedt, Ava Bellows and L. Scott Caldwell will be joining
WarnerMedia plans to sell off its venerable CNN Center, the longtime hub of its flagship cable-news network, as more media companies look to divest long-held real estate assets at a moment when they are navigating through a challenging operating environment. In a note sent to Atlanta staffers Monday, WarnerMedia Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches said
“David Makes Man” is heading to HBO Max. The WarnerMedia streamer has acquired the exclusive streaming rights to season 1 of the OWN series, which hails from “Moonlight” originator and producer Tarell Alvin McCraney. The show’s freshman season will be available to stream on HBO Max from July 16. News of the acquisition comes around seven
NBC is picking up the pieces from its coronavirus-impacted pilot season. The network has ordered alien spacecraft drama “Debris,” the only pilot which managed to complete shooting before the production shutdown, to series. News of the order comes exactly a week after NBC announced plans to stagger the remainder of its 12 pilots across this
An MTV rep confirmed to Variety last month that the network was working with city officials to hold the VMAs at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on August 30, and said further details would be forthcoming. On Monday morning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the show will take place with “limited or no audience,” which
ABC has made a range of decisions on its remaining pilots this season, which were all shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, the network is scrapping its pilots for the dramas “The Brides” and “Thirtysomething(else)” and the comedy “Valley Trash.” The news is surprising for “The Brides” — a female-led vampire soap opera with
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
Nicole Richie is bringing more “Nikki Fre$h” to Quibi. The platform has renewed her comedy show for a second season, Variety has learned exclusively, adding to an expanding number of Quibi shows coming back for a second outing. The series sees Richie in character as her trap alter-ego Nikki Fre$h, interacting with real life experts from the
For a certain subset of ’90s girls, “Are you a Kristy or a Claudia?” was the original (and completely G-rated) version of “Are you a Carrie or a Samantha?” As each book of Ann M. Martin’s “Baby-Sitters Club” series focused on a different member of the club — from determined president Kristy to artsy VP
Earlier this year, Hasan Minhaj had the sixth season of his Netflix show “Patriot Act” prepped and ready: research books had been set, graphics rendered and animations made to fill the screens the comedian and political commentator usually stands in front of for his weekly show. But just as Minhaj and crew were about to
Colin Kaepernick and Ava DuVernay are teaming for a scripted series about the NFL quarterback’s high school years at Netflix, Variety has learned. The six-episode series is currently titled “Colin in Black & White.” It will provide a look at Kaepernick’s early life as a Black child growing up with a white adopted family and his
A bad swing for golf has led Fox Sports to drop its potentially lucrative rights deal with the U.S. Golf Association, which is transferring to NBCUniversal. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic forced a shift in dates for the sport’s U.S. Open to September from June, leaving Fox hard-pressed to come up with the necessary
In response to the global COVID-19 crisis and the health and safety challenges facing live, in-person events, Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) has announced revised dates for its 4th edition, now set to run Oct. 23-31, a month after it was originally planned. GFF director Intishal Al Timimi said in a statement: “Several film
When Hugh Jackman was charged with hosting the 2009 Oscars — which took place during the Great Recession — his opening number made a number of jokes about the economy (Jackman introduced “the Craigslist dancers”) as he highlighted all the year’s best picture nominees. For “Frost/Nixon,” he pulled Anne Hathaway onstage to act out the
Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman first met when he hosted the Academy Awards in 2009, and became friends when they co-starred in 2012’s “Les Misérables” — which brought him an Oscar nomination for best actor and her a win for supporting actress. This year, Jackman drew raves for his role in HBO’s “Bad Education” as a
Screen Ireland, the government development agency for the country’s screen sector, has launched a €1 million ($1.12 million) COVID-19 Production Fund, designed to partially offset additional production costs associated with implementing the newly published film and TV production guidelines (see link). Productions funded by Screen Ireland can apply for up to €75,000 ($84,600) per project.
Advertisers are spending less to get their messages in front of the U.S. consumer base, thanks to fewer big media spectacles to which they can attach. U.S. advertising revenue fell 31% in May as the nation had only a handful of major sports events take place due to the coronavirus pandemic and most major ad
“Our Culture Can’t Be Canceled” was the theme of the night at the 2020 BET Awards, which saw a powerful opening performance by Public Enemy followed by host Amanda Seales’ monologue addressing the current state of the country and several over-the-top performances. From Lil Wayne’s Kobe Bryant tribute to Beyoncé’s humanitarian award speech, this year’s
Disney is to cut a significant number of jobs in Hong Kong over the coming months, staff have been told. It is understood that the plans, which have been hatching for some months, were explained formally to staff on Friday. Unconfirmed estimates of the number of job losses run from 100-150. Disney has not issued a
“Catchphrase” will become British broadcaster ITV’s first entertainment show to resume filming, post coronavirus lockdown. STV Productions will record 10 episodes of the Stephen Mulhern hosted gameshow from July 6, ITV announced Monday. The episodes will be broadcast on ITV and STV during the fall. The show will follow safety protocols that include online health
The 2020 BET Awards were held virtually earlier tonight on CBS, BET and BET HER and featured standout performances from Megan Thee Stallion, Anderson Paak, Lil Wayne, John Legend, Alicia Keys and Roddy Ricch, among others. A celebration of the show’s 20th anniversary, and the network’s 40th, Black music’s past, present and future took center
Pre-production has started on “Aftertaste,” an Australian comedy drama series starring Erik Thompson as a celebrity chef who has fallen from grace. The show is the first to have made use of a production risk assessment tool for the post-coronavirus era. A Closer Productions show, “Aftertaste” will shoot in Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills, with
The organizers of the 20th annual BET Awards know all too well that 2020 is both different from past years and, sadly, not different enough — and the show kicked off on Sunday night in fiery fashion with a song that sums up both 31 years ago and now: an incendiary new version of Public
The hot priest from “Fleabag” had two unexpected visitors in his confessional booth — Connell and Marianne from “Normal People.” The Emmy-winning Amazon Prime series and Hulu’s latest hit show crossed over in a sketch raising money for RTE Does Comic Relief, a charity in Ireland raising money during the coronavirus pandemic. Andrew Scott, who
When it premiered on Apple TV Plus in January, “Little America” brought a variety of stories to the streamer, with each episode dramatizing a different experience of immigrants in the United States. In a conversation moderated by Variety senior TV reporter Elaine Low at Variety’s virtual TV summit, executive producers Kumail Nanjiani, Alan Yang, Lee Eisenberg, Emily V.
In the midst of nationwide protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, TV networks have begun to reconsider the purpose of police-centric shows in their programming. “Cops” and “Live PD” have been canceled as a result of the ongoing conversation concerning police brutality and racial injustice, but what
Broadcast on television and radio in 180-plus countries, and streamed globally across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, Global Citizen’s “Global Goal: Unite for Our Future” — presented in two parts Saturday, as “The Summit” and “The Concert” — presented a plethora of musical performances while trumpeting $6.9 billion in funds raised leading up to the specials.
Sacha Baron Cohen has pulled off his latest prank. Variety can confirm the comedian and star of the political satire show “Who Is America?” infiltrated a conservative rally in Washington on Saturday, making his way on stage and getting some people in the crowd to sing racist lyrics about President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Dr. Anthony
With an unprecedented global pandemic and the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks as its backdrop, the 2020 BET Awards takes on increased importance this year. Fittingly, not only does the Black entertainment celebration make its first national broadcast premiere on CBS, it’s also celebrating its 20th anniversary. “It’s the perfect