Amazon Prime Video is ready for some more football — and the NFL, for now, expects to be hitting the field this fall. Amazon is set to stream a dozen NFL games worldwide for the next three seasons on both Prime and the Twitch live-streaming platform, under a renewal of its pact with the league
Television
Mac Brandt was one of the lucky ones. For the past six years, he’s made a living purely from acting, appearing in television shows like “Kingdom” and “Arrested Development,” and scrounging up enough jobs to pay the bills without having to tend bar or wait tables. But life changed drastically for Brandt and much of
The big balls are back. TBS has given a 20-episode order to a reboot of “Wipeout,” the obstacle course reality competition that originally aired on ABC between 2008 and 2014. Given the current worldwide production shutdown, it’s unclear when the new “Wipeout” might eventually make it to air. But when it does, TBS is promising
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be on the “frontlines” when it comes time to encourage people to return to movie theaters, say president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson. “We’ll be leading that campaign. We’re already talking to filmmakers about that,” Hudson told Variety on Tuesday afternoon. “We’re already talking about
The “Disney Family Singalong” continued to waltz its way to the top of the ratings charts for the week of April 13. After seven days of delayed viewing, almost 13 million viewers have tuned in to the special which saw the likes of Ariana Grande, Josh Gad, John Stamos, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Christina Aguilera belt
In today’s TV News Roundup, Amazon released the trailer for Season 2 of “Homecoming,” and Netflix announced the premiere date for the final episodes of “Fuller House.” DATES Netflix has announced that the second half of the fifth and final season of “Fuller House” will debut on the streamer on June 2. The first nine
Leaders of the Writers Guild of America have told members that the guild will press on in its legal battle with WME, CAA and UTA over packaging fees in the wake of a federal judge’s decision to dismiss most of the guild’s lawsuit against the talent agencies. The WGA sent a message to members Tuesday,
Viewership for all three of the nation’s main cable-news outlets soared in April as viewers tuned in at all hours for information on the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. While Fox News captured the most viewers during the month, CNN notched the biggest audience gain across its total day, scoring an increase of 179% in
Making half an hour of scripted, original television in the middle of a pandemic isn’t easy, but “Parks and Recreation” co-creator Mike Schur told press Tuesday that the current climate presented a “compelling reason” to create one more story for Leslie Knope and other beloved characters from the NBC series for the fundraising special that
Chip and Joanna Gaines forthcoming Magnolia Network has a solid foundation to build on, if its sneak peak ratings are anything to go by. The former “Fixer Upper” stars aired a four-hour preview of their new venture on DYI, drawing over 2.3 million viewers across a marathon runtime. The episode block delivered a 0.38 rating
Netflix has picked up “Social Distance,” a new anthology series from “Orange is the New Black” production team. The show, produced remotely, will focus on the “new, bizarre, bewildering reality we are all experiencing” in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the producers said in a statement. “We feel passionate about finding connection as
Vice TV is launching a new weekly business show hosted by Scott Galloway, a New York Times best-selling author, tech entrepreneur and New York University business professor. Named after his popular newsletter, “No Mercy, No Malice with Professor Scott Galloway” will reveal what’s really happening on Wall Street in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and
Showtime has promoted Erin Calhoun to the role of executive vice president of communications. She will succeed Johanna Fuentes, who is leaving Showtime Networks to head up global communications at Warner Bros. Calhoun will assume her new role on May 4, relocating to Showtime’s west coast office. She is currently the senior vice president of
Kristen Andersen is returning to Walt Disney Television after stints at Shondaland and Netflix. The exec has been tapped as Freeform’s new vice president of communications, meaning she will spearhead the Disney-owned network’s corporate and consumer media relations, with oversight of program publicity, industry relations, awards outreach and talent relations. Andersen’s appointment was announced by
SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you have not watched “The Last Kingdom” Season 4, which dropped April 26 on Netflix. “The Last Kingdom” Season 4 came to Netflix, bringing fans back to the continuing adventures of the intrepid Uhtred Ragnarson. Series executive producer Nigel Marchant spoke with Variety ahead of the premiere, breaking
The freshman season finale of “Prodigal Son,” which ended on a suitably gruesome note, came in pretty much even on the last few episodes. Monday’s episode delivered a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.5 million total viewers, which represents the show’s largest audience since Oct. 2019 (albeit only just). Fox is yet to make
“One Day at a Time” has found another way to produce a new, original episode in this time of quarantine: animation. Pop TV has picked up its first-ever animation special, an original “One Day at a Time” episode that will premiere later this spring. The decision to produce an animated episode came after production of
Prince Harry has recorded a special introduction to a 75th anniversary episode of children’s series “Thomas the Tank Engine” that will launch on Netflix in the U.S. on May 1 and on ViacomCBS-owned Channel 5′s “Milkshake” strand in the U.K. the following day. Prince Harry introduces an episode called “Thomas and Friends: The Royal Engine,”
Broadcasters across the Arab world are clambering to serve up Ramadan soaps as the coronavirus pandemic forces the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims to observe the Islamic calendar’s holy month at home rather than in a mosque. Even under normal circumstances, Ramadan — which started on April 24 — is peak TV season for Arab audiences.
Jodie Comer, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Greig, Kristin Scott Thomas and Imelda Staunton are among the stars lined up for new BBC One adaptations of playwright Alan Bennett’s acclaimed “Talking Heads” monologues, which start filming Tuesday. Ten of the original pieces are being remade, having first aired on BBC Television in 1988 and 1998, winning two
Terry Pratchett’s comic fantasy series “Discworld” is coming to screen. Narrativia, the production company launched by Pratchett in 2012, has struck an exclusive development deal with Motive Pictures and Endeavor Content for a series of TV adaptations. It is not yet known which of the “Discworld” books will be adapted initially. The “Discworld” series of
Dr. Anthony Fauci gave a thumbs up to Brad Pitt’s portrayal of him on last weekend’s “Saturday Night Live At Home” edition. Pitt began Saturday’s remotely produced episode with a cold open, playing Fauci as he clarified some of the misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. He responded to President Trump’s comments about disinfectant and UV
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the third episode of “The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart.” After spending two weeks fostering relationships in the “Bachelor” mansion, the “Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart” contestants were given a rude awakening. At the beginning of Week 3, host Chris Harrison offered insight into
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix released the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” interactive comedy special trailer, and the cast of “Melrose Place” is set to reunite on “Stars In The House” April 28. DATES NBC has revealed that “America’s Got Talent” and “World of Dance” will have their season premieres back-to-back on May 26. “America’s Got Talent”
Steven Yeun has signed a first-look television deal with Amazon. Under the deal, Yeun will work with Amazon to create television series for the streaming platform. The news comes after it was previously announced that Yeun would voice the lead character in the upcoming Amazon animated series “Invincible.” “I feel very fortunate and privileged in
Nexstar Broadcasting, the nation’s largest television station group, is leveraging its heft in New York to host a virtual town hall with eight members of the state’s Congressional delegation to address viewer questions about the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. The one-hour event, “COVID-19: Congressional Town Hall,” will be held April 28 at 7
Diamond and Silk are no longer on the list of contributors at Fox News. The offbeat duo, Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway and Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, who gained a profile on Fox News Channel in 2016 and then worked on the company’s streaming-video outlet, Fox Nation, are no longer contributing to Fox News venues, according to a
HBO is in the market to raise Hell. The network is currently developing a series based on the “Hellraiser” film franchise, which in turn was based on Clive Barker’s novella “The Hellbound Heart,” Variety has confirmed. The prospective series will not be a reboot of “Hellraiser,” but rather “an elevated continuation and expansion” of its mythology,
CMT is having its two biggest annual franchises trade places. After it was previously announced that “The CMT Music Awards” would move from its usual June berth to October 14, the yearly “Artists of the Year” special that normally would have taken place around then is being bumped up to June 3 — retooled to
Comcast-owned pay TV operator Sky is recommending that dramas with significant international shoots delay filming until spring 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The U.K. commissioning team is instead looking to create more local scripted shows, like hit thriller “Save Me,” which are not so expensive or challenging to produce in the current environment. Last