Television

During Andy Lack’s first tour of duty leading NBC News, he helped “Dateline” bounce back from a dark era in which producers admitted to manipulating elements of an investigative report on General Motors, and expanded the hours of the “Today” morning franchise, and ratings success followed. None of that prepared him for what lay in

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Crisis Theory,” the Season 3 finale of “Westworld.” So much happened in the Season 3 finale of “Westworld” — for one, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) managed to eradicate the all-knowing artificial intelligence Rehoboam, but in doing so seemingly erased herself from existence, all as the

J Balvin, Nicky Jam, Sebastian Yatra, El Fantasma, Christian Nodal, and Calibre 50 are among the first artists to perform in “Uforia Hangout Sessions,” a new program presented by Verizon available on Univision’s audio network. Uforia will kick off a weekly digital live stream series of “unfiltered, unforgettably intimate and unplugged at-home experiences” with Latin

NBCUniversal unveiled a sweeping new re-organization that gives new duties to Mark Lazarus and puts Cesar Conde in charge of all the company’s news operations, including CNBC. Andy Lack, the chairman of NBC News and MSNBC, will step down as a result. The moves are among the first structural changes mandated by Jeff Shell, who

Pamela Adlon’s three daughters surprised her during a recent appearance on Variety’s After-Show presented by National Geographic — knocking on their mom’s office door during the live interview on Instagram. “Congratulations!” they shouted while popping a bottle of champagne to celebrate the Season 4 finale of Adlon’s FX series “Better Things.” A teary-eyed Adlon admitted

J.J. Abrams has tapped a trio of showrunners to head “Demimonde,” his mysterious sci-fi drama at HBO, Variety has confirmed. “The Handmaid’s Tale” executive producer Kira Snyder, and “Life” duo Rand Ravich and Far Shariat have been chosen to co-showrun the project. Plot details for “Demimonde,” which was the subject of a bidding war between HBO and Apple,

The season finales of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” and “Good Girls” scored decent ratings boosts on Sunday night. Jane Levy’s musical dramedy scored a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 and drew just under 2 million viewers. Although that’s an uptick from the penultimate episode, it still represents only the season show’s season average in both metrics.

“All Rise” is about to pull off a feat that virtually no other scripted series has attempted: producing a full episode remotely among ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The freshman CBS legal drama managed to film an entire episode by having its cast use video conferencing platforms including Zoom, FaceTime and WebEx. “We started asking ourselves, ‘What

JPMorgan Chase will sponsor a new programming segment on Fox Business Network devoted to examining how cities will re-open for business amid the coronavirus pandemic. The three-part series, “Investing in our Cities,” will debut Tuesday, May 5 at 7:30 a.m. eastern on “Mornings with Maria,” which is anchored by Maria Bartiromo. The host will interview

A single performer’s double act is among the showier maneuvers that can be attempted on film. There’s the technical aspect: Getting one actor, twice, into the same frame — or cutting to fool the mind into thinking that’s so — is inevitably showy. (When David Fincher cast one Armie Hammer to play two Winklevoss twins

Veteran exec Andrew Schneider has joined Fox Bet as chief marketing officer. Schneider joins Fox Bet, an online sports-betting product that is a joint venture between the Stars Group and Fox Corp., after most recently having served as senior VP, marketing, for Disney Streaming Services. In his new role, Schneider will oversee all marketing functions

U.K. television news producer ITN has called for more stringent regulation of social media giants to stem the rise of fake news and misinformation. The producer of news for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 has published a submission to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee’s inquiry into the future of journalism. In

ITV has pulled the plug on this year’s edition of “Love Island” over coronavirus concerns, leaving a major void in the broadcaster’s summer schedule. Kevin Lygo, director of television at ITV, confirmed Monday that the U.K. broadcaster has “tried every which way to make ‘Love Island’ this summer, but logistically it’s just not possible to

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the season 3 finale of “Westworld.” A bumper “Westworld” finale was headlined by multiple (possible) character deaths and the dismantling of Serac (Vincent Cassel) and Rehoboam’s power over humanity. The episode kicked off with Caleb (Aaron Paul) being led taken to a facility where Dolores

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not seen “The New Decas,” the season 5 premiere of Showtime’s “Billions.” Can the group of hardcore characters who fuel the “Billions” universe overcome their baser instincts to find success and happiness? These are the broad themes of the fifth season of “Billions,” Showtime’s twisty-turny drama series set

CBS News veteran Lesley Stahl revealed a weeks-long battle with coronavirus in the waning minutes of Sunday’s broadcast of “60 Minutes,” adding to the list of prominent journalists who have grappled with the disease. CBS News and Stahl, who is 78 years old and the “60 Minutes” correspondent most associated to the show’s earlier days

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Journeycake,” the 11th episode of “Outlander” Season 5. In the 10th episode of “Outlander,” the show jumped the Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers) storyline ahead in time, skipping quite a bit of cat-and-mouse chasing from Diana Gabaldon’s book series. Instead, it neatly wrapped up Bonnet’s

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer watched last weekend’s “Saturday Night Live at Home” and noticed one thing wrong about Cecily Strong’s impression of her. She was drinking a Canadian Labatt beer — not a Michigan brew — so the governor mailed her a homemade care package. Strong, one of the long-running “SNL” cast members, posted a

Carole Baskin, one of the zookeepers who skyrocketed to fame from Netflix’s “Tiger King,” hasn’t done many interviews because she was unhappy with how the docuseries presented her. However, she was recently tricked into giving an interview over Zoom by YouTubers posing as “Tonight Show” producers. Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, who have more than

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Never Have I Ever,” streaming now on Netflix. Since fans finished binge watching the first season of Netflix’s new comedy series “Never Have I Ever,” one debate has dominated Internet conversation — and star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s DMs — are you Team Ben or Team

Gil Schwartz, the colorful longtime CBS executive who was also an author and columnist under the pen name Stanley Bing, died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica. He was 68. Schwartz led communications at CBS for more than 20 years. He was well-liked and respected by journalists for his erudite and

At only 18 years old, “Never Have I Ever” star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is soon to become a household name, but the Canadian teen isn’t letting any of the early success of the go to her head. “I think I’ll always just be a girl from Mississauga,” Ramakrishnan said on the Variety After Show, presented by

Matt Keough, a former pitcher for the Oakland Athletics who appeared on “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” has died. He was 64. The Major League Baseball team announced the sad news on Saturday night with a statement from Billy Beane, the team’s executive vice president of baseball operations. “He left an unforgettable impression on

The Mountain has shattered a world record. Hafthor Bjornsson, who played Ser Gregor Clegane, better known as The Mountain, on “Game of Thrones,” has a deadlift world record. He lifted 1,104 pounds (501 kilograms) at Thor’s Power Gym in Iceland on Saturday while livestreaming the historic occasion. The previous deadlifting record was set by fellow

Leaders of the Writers Guild of America are seeking several improvements in the rapidly evolving world of television work in the WGA’s master contract with Hollywood studios, sources have told Variety. Representatives of the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were not immediately available for comment. The two sides had agreed

NFL star JJ Watt is no stranger to competition — and with hosting Fox’s new competition series “Ultimate Tag,” he’s taking that competitive spirit and the childhood game the show’s based on to the next level. Hosting the show alongside his brothers (and fellow NFL players) Derek and TJ, Watt watches from the sidelines and

David Rhodes, the former president of CBS News, has taken on a consulting role that might raise some eyebrows: He’s working again for one of the Murdoch family’s news operations. Rhodes is said to be working on an assignment related to video for News U.K., the British operating unit of News Corp., according to a

Netflix’s latest addictive series, “Too Hot to Handle,” has been the new talk of quarantine since its premiere on April 17, and as we continue to sit inside our homes, we can’t help but wonder what those horny young adults are up to now. Unlike the streaming platform’s other popular dating show “Love Is Blind,”

“Normal People,” Hulu’s 12-part adaptation of Sally Rooney’s 2018 bestselling novel about two teenagers navigating complicated relationships in modern-day Ireland, isn’t covered in wall-to-wall music and there’s a reason for that. Director Lenny Abrahamson (of “Room” fame) “is much more interested in score working as a reaction to what just happened rather than score telling

Sam Lloyd, an actor best known for portraying lawyer Ted Buckland on “Scrubs,” has died, his agent confirmed to Variety. He was 56. In January 2019, Lloyd was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and cancer, which eventually spread to his lungs, jaw, liver and spine. He received the diagnosis just weeks after his wife,