Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network will simulcast a special “America Together” program aimed at highlighting inspirational stories of life during the coronavirus pandemic this Sunday, April 26 at 10 p.m., eastern, the latest example of new programming concepts being developed by TV-news outlets in a singular news cycle. The one-hour special will be
Television
Great Odin’s Raven! There’s an “Anchorman” reunion on the cards at Apple TV Plus. The streamer has handed a straight-to-series order for “The Shrink Next Door,” a comedy limited series which will see Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd reunite on screen for the first time since “Anchorman 2.” Apple won the rights to the series,
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted on-location filming in greater Los Angeles with an 18% decline so far this year, according to a report released Thursday by the FilmLA permitting agency. “After starting strong in January, on-location filming in L.A. slowed in March following a series of voluntary cutbacks and progressively tightening public gathering limits,” FilmLA
It takes more than a pandemic to keep “Saturday Night Live” off the air. The venerable NBC late-night program will air a new “remote” episode this weekend, according to the show’s Twitter feed, despite conditions under the coronavirus pandemic that make its normal production impossible to accomplish. “SNL” typically runs live in front of an
Scheduled contract negotiations between Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America have hit a bump over the issue of the guild’s health plan after WGA lead negotiator David Young called his studio counterparts “despicable.” It’s unclear whether the dispute could derail the start of scheduled talks, set for May 11. The Alliance of Motion
Talk show veteran Jason Kurtz has been named executive producer and showrunner of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” the syndicated daytime series coming from CBS Television Distribution in the fall. Kurtz will take the reins of the celebrity and lifestyle series fronted the actor and entrepreneur who grew up in the public eye from her breakthrough
Other than the actual fundraising, one of the enjoyable things about “at home” music events in this time of coronavirus is watching artists perform unvarnished. This was largely true of BET’s “Saving Ourselves” event (dubbed S.O.S.) on Wednesday (April 22). Although most of the videos were pre-recorded using backing tracks, the home-spun feel of the
Drag queens aren’t exactly what come to mind when thinking about small-town America. But “RuPaul Drag’s Race” stars Shangela, Eureka O’Hara and Bob the Drag Queen are hoping to change all that. In HBO’s new unscripted series “We’re Here,” which premieres April 23, the trio travels to the Bible Belt and other conservative pockets of
Lighting was a key part of the second season of Jemaine Clement’s mockumentary series “What We Do in the Shadows,” about a pack of vampires on Staten Island, which returned April 15 via FX, and airs on Hulu the following day. Cinematographer D.J. Stipsen shot most of the show’s first season as well as the
Banijay Group, which is in the process of acquiring Endemol Shine, has appointed Cathy Payne as CEO of Banijay Rights to lead the business’ growing global distribution strategy and spearhead the division through its next chapter. Payne was previously CEO of Endemol Shine International where she worked for a decade before stepping down last year.
London-based Pulse Films has built its business on a steady diet of slick rock docs by the likes of LCD Soundsystem and the Beastie Boys, music videos including Beyoncé’s transcendent “Lemonade” and Andrea Arnold’s feature film “American Honey.” As it readies for a transformative year, the Vice Media Group-backed outfit is rolling out its first
One lucky fan of “The Office” will be able to virtually hang out with the Dunder Mifflin crew. Several cast members have partnered with the fundraising organization Omaze for an online coffee date for charity. People can make donations online to enter the sweepstakes, and the proceeds will go to the Variety Boys & Girls
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 3, episode 13 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired April 22 on Fox. Talk about timing. Rocker Bret Michaels was the latest celebrity to be revealed on “The Masked Singer” — and it happened to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Poison
Hulu’s upcoming series adaptation of “The Mysterious Benedict Society” has found its main cast. Ryan Hurst, Kristen Schaal, MaameYaa Boafo, Gia Sandhu, Mystic Inscho, Emmy DeOliveira, Seth Carr, and Marta Timofeeva have all joined the show in series regular roles. They joined previously announced cast member Tony Hale, who will play Mr. Benedict and his
In today’s TV News Roundup, Netflix announced the premiere date for Season 3 of “Somebody Feed Phil” and more original programming, and SiriusXM announced a weekly live call-in show hosted by Gayle King. DATES Netflix has announced a slew of release dates for content premiering on the service next month. “Reckoning,“ an Australian thriller series
Longtime television producer Joel Rogosin died Sunday of complications from COVID-19 at the Motion Picture Television Fund’s retirement home in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. He was 87. He is the fifth MPTF resident to die of coronavirus complications in the past two weeks, beginning with John Breier on April 7 followed by
MSNBC plans to run a 90-minute special report Thursday at 10 p.m. eastern that examines the state of coronavirus testing and tracing in the United States, the latest example of TV-news outlets recalibrating their programming as the pandemic takes up the majority of the public conversation. “MSNBC Speicial Report: Testing & The Road to Reopening.”
No matter the destination, there are inevitabilities built into “boy meets girl” stories. They meet, they flirt, they kiss, they fight, they fall in love. But the best of them dig past the surface to find more specific truths; they find a vein and let the blood flow. “Normal People,” as originally written by Sally
How well can a parent ever really know a child? Although Apple TV Plus’ new limited series “Defending Jacob” has a murder mystery at the center of the story, it is the larger, more relatable themes about how love for a family member can be tested that writer and executive producer Mark Bomback was most
Evan Daugherty, who is best known for penning blockbuster fare like “Divergent” and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” is taking a crack at the short-form thriller format. Quibi is developing “Horror Accidental,” a “terrifyingly addictive” psychological thriller anthology written and directed by Daugherty. The series is based on the Japanese TV drama of the same
Lifetime has greenlit a new “Dance Moms” series, subtitled “Abby’s Virtual Dance Off,” Variety has learned exclusively. The cabler and Abby Lee Miller are inviting dancers from across the country to submit their best moves to see who has what it takes to be dubbed “The Abby Dancer” in this new 12-episode series premiering this
A new “Star Wars” series is in the works at Disney Plus, Variety has learned from sources. The series hails from Leslye Headland, the co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed Netflix series “Russian Doll.” Details of the exact plot of the series are being kept under wraps, but sources say it will be
Quibi, which launched two weeks ago as a mobile-only video streaming app for on-the-go viewing, said it plans to add the ability to “cast” content to compatible TVs next month. The company, led by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, also announced that its app has been downloaded more than 2.7 million times in
Tom Cruise expected to spend his summer in Italy, hanging onto the sides of planes, dodging bullets and engaging in elaborate car chases. The arrival of COVID-19 spoiled those plans, indefinitely postponing the shooting of “Mission: Impossible 7,” the latest installment of the globe-trotting espionage franchise. With signs that the virus is starting to plateau, Cruise is
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to paralyze New York City, the future of Broadway remains unknown. The Broadway League announced earlier this month that theaters would remain closed at least through June 7. If they stick with that date, it looks like the producers of the upcoming revival of “The Music Man” plan to start
The nature of evil — where it originates, why it takes hold of some so potently — is among the richest questions fiction can investigate. Which makes a show that aims at it and falls short of saying anything real a double disappointment. It’s not just that “Defending Jacob,” a new limited series on Apple
Paywalls have crumbled during the COVID-19 crisis. Call it the Great Pandemic Content Giveaway of 2020. But once consumers are suddenly asked to pay for programming that’s no longer complimentary, nobody’s really sure what the fire hose of free content will mean for the businesses that have scrambled to serve gratis access to their crown
Israeli commercial channel Keshet 12 has reordered Tedy Productions’ musical gameshow “Can’t Stop The Music,” 15 years after its original debut on the channel. Formerly known as “All Together Now,” and renamed with new international title “Can’t Stop the Music,” Keshet 12’s initial order of five hour-long episodes is set to premiere in a primetime
AT&T missed revenue and earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2020, with a 4.6% top-line decline driven by lower revenue at WarnerMedia and ongoing losses in its pay-TV biz, which shed 1 million subscribers in the period. The telco also blamed the current coronavirus crisis as cutting into profits. The company reported Q1 revenue
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos got a $6 million raise in 2019, according to the annual proxy statement Netflix released on Wednesday. Sarandos’ total compensation for 2019 was $34.7 million, including $18 million in salary and $16.6 million in stock option awards, according to Netflix’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Netflix