“Game of Thrones” star Sophie Turner seemed to take a shot at Evangeline Lilly and other people not social distancing during the coronavirus quarantine. “Stay inside, don’t be f—ing stupid, even if you count your freedom over — I don’t know, what is it — your health,” she said during an Instagram Live video on
Television
The International Olympics Committee will take a month to decide whether the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics can proceed as planned, given the global spread of coronavirus, a move that would potentially wreak havoc on the fortunes of hundreds of athletes, the media industry and the plans of many big-spending advertisers. The IOC said Sunday that
March 22, 2020 8:25AM PT British commercial broadcaster ITV has halted production on the U.K.’s most popular scripted shows — soaps “Coronation Street” and “Emmerdale” — due to the coronavirus crisis. In a statement, the company said: “We’ve been doing our best to carry on filming, whilst adhering to the government’s latest health guidelines, to
Just as the March 18 edition of “CBS This Morning” ended at 9 a.m. ET, executive producer Diana Miller was informed that the show’s studio was about to be shut down for the second time in a week because of the threat of exposure to the coronavirus. As Miller’s team scrambled to find other studio
With hospitals and medical centers dealing with so many cases of COVID-19 around the country, supplies like N95 respirator masks may soon run low. However, several shows like “Pose,” “Station 19” and “The Resident” are donating their resources to aid healthcare workers. “Pose” creator Ryan Murphy announced that his FX show would donate their on-set
Disney has joined other streamers in cooperating with the European Union to temporarily curtail bandwidth usage of Disney Plus — and reduce video quality — for its scheduled launch next week in several countries during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In addition, the Mouse House said it is pushing back the launch of Disney Plus in
A second staffer at Fox Business Network has tested positive for coronavirus, according to a memo sent Saturday to employees by two top executives at Fox News Media. “On the advice of medical professionals, we have now made the determination that this employee’s direct co-workers/team self-quarantine for 14 days since last contact. In addition to
March 20, 2020 3:49PM PT An employee of Fox Business Network has tested positive for coronavirus, top executives at Fox News Media told staffers in a memo Friday evening. The staffer alerted the network today of the test results and employees have been notified while the Fox Corporation-owned outlet works to disinfect work areas. Fox
March 20, 2020 3:31PM PT Seth Meyers is jumping back in the pool with the other late-night hosts working to get content out to fans while the coronavirus epidemic makes traditional late-night shows difficult to produce. NBC said Meyers will be recording new “Closer Look” segments from his home, and will release them via his
Andy Cohen, the host of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” talk show, has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced on Instagram Friday. Earlier in the day, Cohen had talked to Variety about hosting the show from his apartment in New York City as of this Sunday, but for now, those plans are on hold, a Bravo spokesperson
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video prefer to keep a tight lid on ratings data, doling out information in ways they see fit. Even Nielsen, which has been measuring Netflix and Amazon viewership for some time, has limited the amount of streaming data it shares with the public. But Variety has obtained a recent Nielsen streaming
Colton Underwood, the former star of “The Bachelor,” has tested positive for COVID-19. The reality star and former NFL player shared the news on Friday that he tested positive for the coronavirus. In sharing his test results on social media, he encouraged his two million Instagram followers to self quarantine and practice social distancing. “I
For Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies, working from home has been the least of tough adjustments in the stunning fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Revenue streams at the companies have suddenly dried up as show business has shut down. From major players CAA, WME, UTA, ICM Partners and Paradigm, to boutique dealmakers like Management 360, economic
March 20, 2020 2:25PM PT The Walt Disney Company raised nearly $6 billion in a new debt offering, revealing the move in a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Disney said in the filing that it expects “to use the net proceeds from the sale of the notes for general corporate purposes,
For a documentarian, a larger than life big cat collector who goes by “Joe Exotic” has to both be a total dream and narrative nightmare. As evidenced by the fact that he chose a name for himself that belongs more on a pack of gas station “vitamins” than to a person, the Oklahoman zookeeper is
March 20, 2020 2:01PM PT The Producers Guild of America has postponed its 12th annual Produced By Conference due to the coronavirus pandemic. The trade group represents more than 8,000 producers of film, television and new media content. The event had been scheduled to take place on June 6 and June 7 at Fox Studios
It has been a rocky road to “One Day at a Time’s” fourth season premiere, but when it finally arrives on March 24 it comes at a time the world needs it most. Pop TV saved the Sony-produced multi-camera comedy from cancellation in June 2019, picking it up for a fourth season only months after
The global coronavirus pandemic has claimed its latest victim. The launch of Mouse House streamer Disney Plus in India has been indefinitely delayed. Disney Plus was due to launch March 29 as part of Disney’s India streaming service Hotstar, coinciding with the beginning of the service’s largest audience puller — the Indian Premier League (IPL)
(Editor’s note: The interview with Cedric the Entertainer took place at the production offices of his sitcom “The Neighborhood” several days before social distancing and self-quarantine became the norm. Less than a week later, CBS TV Studios and producers shut down production of season 2 of the show. There were only two days left of
In today’s TV news roundup, Showtime released a trailer for “Billions” Season 5, and Netflix announced a number of April premiere dates, including “Never Have I Ever” and “#BlackAF.” DATES Netflix has announced the premiere dates and returns of several shows and specials coming in April. “The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show” is premiering April 1.
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March 19, 2020 12:30PM PT Amazon is developing a limited series based on the New York Magazine story “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence,” Variety has learned exclusively. In addition, Reed Morano is attached to direct. The New York Magazine story, written by Ezra Marcus and James D. Walsh, told the true story of a group
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A staff member on “The Dr. Oz Show” has tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the show to shut down production, Variety has learned. New episodes will continue airing daily, and host Dr. Mehmet Oz will film remotely from his home. The daily syndicated show had its last day in-studio Wednesday, which is when the show
Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams is urging Kylie Jenner to use her clout to help emphasize the seriousness of coronavirus to young people. “We need to get our social media influencers out there in helping folks understand that this is serious. This is absolutely serious. People are dying,” Adams said Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
Thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, this year’s broadcast staffing season is all but over before it began. Most of the shows in contention for series pickups for the 2020-2021 season, and even those that had already been ordered to series, had shot virtually nothing before the major studios and networks began shutting productions down
Days after announcing that this year’s ACM Awards telecast would be postponed from April 5 until September, the Academy of Country Music and Dick Clark Productions announced Thursday that they would be filling two hours of that abandoned time slot with a special called “ACM Presents: Our Country,” featuring at-home acoustic performances from some of
The BBC has launched “Culture In Quarantine,” an arts and culture initiative that will run across the service’s U.K. radio, television and digital platforms. The initiative follows the U.K. government’s social distancing advice to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in the closure of most cultural spaces across the country. The initiative, which
Japanese company Toei is launching a designated YouTube channel to give fans access to classic Tokusatsu genre shows from the 1960s to the 1990s, it announced Wednesday. The channel, “Toei Tokusatsu World Official” will begin uploads on Monday, April 6, with daily updates available worldwide outside of Japan. The shows include titles such as “National
Fox has sealed a deal with actress and writer Bella Thorne (“The Duff”) to develop scripted and unscripted projects for the network. Deal comes following Thorne’s appearance on Season 3 of “The Masked Singer,” in which she performed in costume as the Swan. “If I was able to tell my 8-year-old self that you’re going