Television

The “Council of Dads” will not be re-convening for a second season. A source has confirmed to Variety that NBC has canceled the one-hour drama. News of the cancelation comes as the series is about to air its ninth episode. “Council of Dads” tells the story of an extended family which forms when Scott, a loving father

The cast and crew of “Patsy & Loretta” discuss during the Variety Virtual TV Festival the lives of country music legends Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, and their use of the duo’s discography in the Lifetime film. Executive producer Neil Meron says choosing actors with musical theater backgrounds is always important to him, but was

The team responsible for the music of Lifetime’s “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel” explains at the Variety Virtual TV Festival how it recreated the iconic religious music of the family’s catalog. Executive producer Dr. Holly Carter admits that the 15-year journey to bring the sisters’ story to TV was at times “discouraging,” but

Like virtually all aspects of the entertainment industry, the volume of broadcast series orders took a massive hit this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic shut down the traditional pilot season, with almost no pilots completing production. But now with the broadcast networks making their series orders for the 2020-2021 season,

In today’s TV News Roundup, Peacock released the trailer for “Psych 2: Lassie Come Home,” and HBO announced the premiere date for its upcoming documentary “Showbiz Kids.” DATES HBO has announced its upcoming documentary “Showbiz Kids” will premiere on July 14 at 9 p.m. Directed by former child actor Alex Winter, the film chronicles the

Five powerhouse forces in reality television assembled recently for Variety’s Virtual TV Festival. Nick Cannon (“Wild ’N Out,” “The Masked Singer”), Randy Barbato (“RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the “Million Dollar Listing” franchise), Mona Scott-Young (the “Love & Hip-Hop” franchise), Howard Lee (president and general manager of TLC) and Padma Lakshmi (“Top Chef,” “Taste the Nation”) talked

As Hollywood gets into gear with decreased pilots and staggered production, Canadian broadcasters that typically rely on U.S. programming acquisitions to anchor their fall schedules have also faced a shortage of new product. But a dearth of American shows is also leading to new opportunities. The three private broadcasters — Bell Media, Rogers and Corus

Zoë Kravtiz wasn’t exactly jumping at the chance to star in Hulu’s “High Fidelity” reboot. “’Oh no, please don’t,’” she recalls about her first reaction to the pitch. “Genuinely, that was the first thing that went through my mind. It’s funny because I had this whole thought about like, ‘Should I be lying about that?’

In the latest episode of Variety’s Artisans, presented by HBO, “Watchmen” costume designers Sharen Davis and Meghan Kasperlik, along with actress Regina King, breakdown how they brought each character’s costume to life. “Every aspect of this show required a whole different mind thought, said Davis. “Even the individual characters that were heroes, it was all

The newly released novel “Death in Her Hands,” by Ottessa Moshfegh, concerns a woman living just at the point where solitude becomes seclusion. Her imagination captured by a scrap of paper suggesting a recent murder, Moshfegh’s heroine grows to be consumed by this case, allowing it to rewire her brain, restructure her life, and shuffle

Kerry Washington and Pilar Savone, the exec VP of production and development at Washington’s Simpson Street banner, first met on the set of Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.” Savone had been working for some time with Tarantino, and Washington had been learning from “amazing numbers ones” on the call sheet like Jamie Foxx, but together, they

Another of “Normal People” author Sally Rooney’s books is set to get the series treatment at Hulu. The streamer has given a straight-to-series order to “Conversations with Friends,” which will be based on Rooney’s debut novel of the same name. The series will consist of 12 half-hour episodes. It follows two female Dublin college students

“Live in Front of a Studio Audience” executive producers Norman Lear and Brent Miller, and director Pam Fryman had enough on their plate when the special aired on Dec. 18, 2019. Little did they know they would be working through some major breaking news — the impeachment of President Donald Trump. “They were kind enough

Marvel alum Paul Rudd and Chris Evans joined “Variety Studio’s Actors on Actors” where they discussed all things related to the billion dollar superhero franchise and their moves since leaving the big screen for TV. Evans talked about portraying a dad in Apple TV Plus’s “Defending Jacob.” Rudd talked about his Netflix series “Living With

At the beginning of each episode of Quibi’s wild “Dishmantled” food competition series, host Tituss Burgess punches a big red button to activate a cannon that splatters a pair of chefs from head-to-toe with a mysterious dish. The chefs then have to re-create the meal that was blasted at them based on taste and touch,

Paul Mescal remembers exactly where he was and what he was doing when he found out he secured the lead role of Connell in Hulu’s “Normal People.” He was participating in a play workshop in London when he missed a call from his agent. “I was like, ‘Oh God, Christ Almighty,’ he recalled during the

This year’s TV comedies have shown that period pieces aren’t just about petticoats and pretentiousness. Some shows, including Apple TV Plus’ “Dickinson” and Hulu’s “The Great,” use language and tone to put modern twists on what can be a stilted genre, while others from Showtime’s “Black Monday” to Amazon Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

“Game On!,” CBS’ new game show hosted by Keegan-Michael Key and featuring tennis champion Venus Williams and Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski as team captains, dropped to its lowest rating and total viewership so far in its freshman season campaign. On Wednesday night, the game show scored a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 and drew

Oscar-winning creator/executive producer Tarell Alvin McCraney, showrunner/executive producer Dee Harris-Lawrence and Emmy-nominated actor Phylicia Rashad will participate in an exclusive Q&A and screening of the Peabody Award-winning “David Makes Man” on July 8 at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET in the Variety Streaming Room presented by OWN. The conversation will be moderated by Variety senior

Malcolm Jenkins, the two-time Super Bowl champion and current New Orleans Saints star, is set to produce a documentary series about the history of Black wealth in America. Titled “Little Africa,” the series aims to draw a correlation between the dispossession of land and the existing wealth and political gaps in the United States. It

The question of when to return to production is looming large over Hollywood. Despite the industry being given the greenlight to return to set (admittedly with plenty of limitations), a group of top drama showrunners at Variety‘s virtual “A Night in the Writers’ Room” Wednesday agreed that “we’re still in wait-and-see mode” — as “Truth

Padma Lakshmi has played host to more than a few good meals as she fronts Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and executive produces and hosts Hulu’s “Taste the Nation.” But right now, she is mourning the loss of director Joel Schumacher. The prolific filmmaker passed away on Monday, and Lakshmi says she’ll remember him for his sense

Paul Kerger entered 2020 planning to spend much of it celebrating PBS’ 50th anniversary. But plans change. “It certainly is not the way we thought we would be celebrating our 50th anniversary,” the PBS CEO said during a Q&A Wednesday for Variety’s Virtual TV Fest. “When we started looking at this year, we were going

With the coronavirus pandemic putting a hold on in-person rooms, a group of comedy showrunners including Issa Rae “Insecure,” Dave Burd “DAVE,” Greg Daniels “UPLOAD,” Alena Smith “Dickinson,” Liz Feldman “Dead to Me,” Courtney Lilly “Black-ish” and Tanya Saracho “Vida” to discuss running virtual rooms, among other topics, at Variety‘s virtual “A Night in the

Ava DuVernay, Sarah Bremner, and Paul Garnes of ARRAY Filmworks joined the Variety Virtual TV Fest on Wednesday, detailing how they have used ARRAY as a means to develop and nurture new talent. “‘Queen sugar’ is a very special show to us because it was kind of the TV moment that launched this conversation on, ‘Hey,

In today’s TV news roundup, Apple TV Plus released the trailer for its new drama series “Little Voice” and Hulu dropped a teaser for “The Handmaid’s Tale” upcoming fourth season.  RENEWALS Quibi has announced that its LGBTQ+ comedy competition “Gayme Show” has been renewed for a second season. Hosted by Matt Rogers and Dave Mizzoni,

Kristen Bell will no longer voice the mixed-race central character of Molly Tillerman in the forthcoming Apple animated series “Central Park.” The decision to re-cast the role was announced via a lengthy statement from the show’s creative team, which said that “casting of the character of Molly is an opportunity to get representation right –

Hulu has removed three episodes of “Scrubs” which featured characters in blackface, following a request by the show’s creator Bill Lawrence and ABC Studios, sources have confirmed to Variety. The episodes in question are “My Fifteen Seconds” (season 3, episode 7), “My Jiggly Ball” (season 5, episode 4) and “My Chopped Liver” (season 5, episode 17).

Jenny Slate is exiting her role as Missy (pictured above, center) on the Netflix show “Big Mouth” due to the character being biracial while Slate is white. “At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissible for me to play ‘Missy’ because her mom is Jewish and white — as

This year’s San Diego Comic-Con fest may not be taking place in-person this year, but the event still has plenty of TV show panels and screenings that fans can watch from the safety of their homes. For your convenience, Variety has compiled a master list of all the details pertaining the pop culture convention set