Television

COMMISSION The BBC has commissioned feature documentary “ABBA: Against The Odds” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the iconic Swedish group winning the Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place this year in Sweden. The documentary will be produced by multi-award winning documentary makers Rogan Productions (“Freddie Mercury: The Final Act”) and directed by James Rogan.

DR Sales has picked up “Piggy” (“Murk” in Norwegian), a quirky crime comedy from advertising, film and TV production banner The Oslo Company, credited for Netflix’s “Home for Christmas 1 & 2.” The six-part series set to premiere on the commercial channel TV2 Norway March 17, will be sneak-peeked Feb. 9 at the Scandinavian Drama

The long-anticipated “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live,” which premieres on AMC on Feb.25, marks the return of two of the series’ most beloved characters. This should be exciting news, but in a “Walking Dead” universe that still feels oversaturated with content, even a sequel series centered on the franchise’s most iconic couple has

Sterlin Harjo has landed a drama pilot order at FX with Ethan Hawke attached to star, Variety has learned. The pilot is titled “The Sensitive Kind.” Exact plot details are being kept under wraps aside from the fact it is described as a “Tulsa noir about a guy (Hawke) who knows too much.” Harjo created

Jimmy Fox has joined Fremantle as executive vice president of unscripted development and sales for the company’s U.S. operations, as Jayson Dinsmore shifts to a new role within Fremantle as consulting producer. Dinsmore, who had previously served as president, alternative programming and development for Fremantle in North America, will now oversee the “America’s Got Talent”

John Cleese took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to Eric Idle after the latter went viral for some heated comments related to Monty Python, the legendary British comedy troupe that Idle and Cleese co-founded in 1969 alongside Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Idle made headlines for saying he still has

Jon Stewart‘s return to “The Daily Show” on Monday brought in 1.9 million viewers, marking the show’s biggest audience in more than five years. Of those 1.9 million viewers, 930,000 tuned in via Comedy Central, while the rest were counted across simulcasts on CMT, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Paramount Network, Pop and TV Land. These figures

Approximately 20 CBS News staffers were given termination notices Tuesday as a result of broader layoffs taking place across Paramount Global. The cuts extended across CBS News operations in Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles, according to two people familiar with the matter, and included two of the news operation’s most prominent correspondents, Jeff

Porsha Williams Guobadia — who is now going by her married name — will return to “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” Bravo announced Tuesday, in the first cast announcement of what will be the show’s rebooted Season 16. Williams Guobadia, always a fan favorite, was on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” from Seasons 5-13, and,

Episode 5 of “True Detective: Night Country” has reached 5 million viewers since its early release on Max, shifted to Friday, as its usual Sunday night timeslot coincided with the Super Bowl. This figure accounts for first-party data regarding streams through the weekend combined with Nielsen’s measurement of HBO‘s Sunday night telecast. While this does

Roy Wood Jr. said on fellow comedian Mike Birbiglia’s “Working It Out” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that he was going to remain on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” as a correspondent for more time when the plan was for Hasan Minhaj to be named the permanent new host. Wood surprised fans by announcing his “Daily Show” exit

Comedy series “Tacoma FD” has been canceled at TruTV after four seasons, Variety has confirmed. The series originally debuted on the basic cabler back in 2019. The show was part of the network’s push into original scripted series, alongside other shows like “At Home With Amy Sedaris,” “I’m Sorry,” and “Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters.”

“The Baxters” will premiere March 28 on Amazon Prime Video. Based on the bestselling novels by Karen Kingsbury, the faith-infused family drama series stars Roma Downey and Ted McGinley. The series follows Elizabeth and John Baxter, played by Downey and McGinley, and their five adult children. The 10-episode first season revolves around their daughter Kari

Stephen Amell is suiting up. The actor will lead NBC’s upcoming “Suits” spinoff, “Suits: LA,” portraying Ted Black, “a charismatic force of nature who puts his own needs above others.” “Suits,” which was produced by UCP, aired on USA Network from 2011-2019, spanning nine seasons. The series, which starred Patrick J. Adams, Gabriel Macht, Rick

When “Vanderpump Rules” returned for Season 11 on Jan. 30, viewers and cast members alike were still reeling from what might be one of reality television’s most shocking scandals ever — the revelation that Tom Sandoval was cheating on longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with their co-star Raquel Leviss, which was quickly deemed the #Scandoval. Though

The series premiere of “Tracker” reached an average 18.4 million viewers on CBS on Sunday. Titled “Klamath Falls,” the episode hit this height thanks to massive lead-in from Super Bowl LVIII, which aired directly beforehand and became the most-watched telecast of all time, hitting an average viewership of 123.4 million people. “Tracker” retained at least

Before marketers can start putting their commercials into Netflix programs for the year to come, they’ll have to step into those programs themselves. Netflix plans to host an interactive “Netflix Experience” for advertising clients and buyers, all via an event to be held throughout Thursday, May 16, at New York’s Pier 59 Studios. Those who

Director and author Christian Schwochow has signed with CAA for representation, Variety has learned. Schwochow continues to be repped by Curtis Brown in the U.K. and Players Agentur Management in Germany. The journalist turned auteur recently served as lead director and executive producer on the sixth and final season of “The Crown,” which starred Imelda

Paramount Global, amid a swirl of M&A discussions, is laying off about 800 employees worldwide — an estimated 3% of its headcount — as it looks to trim costs. CEO Bob Bakish announced the layoffs in a memo Tuesday to staff that was obtained by Variety. According to the memo, U.S. employees being laid off

U.S. filmmaker John Wilson will be a special guest of the 55th edition of Visions du Réel documentary film festival, which runs April 12 – 21 in Nyon, Switzerland. Wilson is best known for his HBO documentary series “How to With John Wilson,” nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2022. Wilson will take part

Prime Video has set a premiere date for its original film “Ae Watan Mere Watan,” headlined by Sara Ali Khan (“Zara Hatke Zara Bachke”). The film revolves around an underground radio station led by a courageous young woman that changed the course of India’s freedom struggle in 1942. It draws inspiration from freedom fighter Usha

The parallels were impossible to ignore, so Jon Stewart decided not to ignore them. Both major American political parties have been unable to find new candidates to lead their presidential tickets, leading to a rematch in the 2024 election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And in a much lower-stakes effort to find a leader

The Feb. 11 Super Bowl game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers brought in an average of 123.4 million viewers — the highest number of people watching the same broadcast in the history of television. 112 million of those viewers were tuned into the CBS broadcast — the largest audience ever

Blackpink member Lisa has joined the cast of “The White Lotus” Season 3, Variety has learned exclusively. She will be credited under her given name, Lalisa Manobal, in the third season of the hit HBO series. As with all castings for the third season, her role is being kept under wraps. “The White Lotus” is

Hulu’s TV adaptation of Sarah J. Maas’s romantasy book series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” has not been scrapped — yet. A Monday report said it is not moving forward at the streamer, and indeed its longterm fate at the streamer appears to be extremely murky. TVLine reported the news that the “A Court

Tyler Perry is expanding his deal with Netflix, adding TV series to the mix. Netflix announced Monday that it had added a multi-year, first-look series pact with Perry to the previous feature film pact he sealed in October with the streamer. As part of the expanded relationship with Netflix, Perry is developing the 16-episode hour-long

Adam Sandler has set a new comedy special at Netflix — this time directed by Josh Safdie. The project continues Sandler’s string of collaborations with Safie, who co-directed him in 2019’s “Uncut Gems” alongside his brother Benny Safdie. Sandler also starred in the brothers’ 2020 short film “Goldman v. Silverman” and is set to lead

On the “Pod Meets World” podcast, co-hosts Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle have often given their guests — many of whom are actors who grew up on TV in the 90s — the opportunity to debunk any headlines about them. During the Feb. 12 episode, Andrew Keegan was ready to do just that.

As an alumna of “Saturday Night Live,” Kate McKinnon knows what it takes to come up with interesting characters. Now she will do so for a decidedly different format. The comic actor plans to launch a debut novel aimed at young-adult readers. “The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science” is

In “The Housewife and the Hustler 2: The Reckoning,” Erika “Jayne” Girardi of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” meets the victims whom her estranged husband Tom Girardi allegedly defrauded over many years. It’s an awkward, and at times frosty and defensive encounter — and is the centerpiece of this new documentary that dropped