Television

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 3, episode 6 of “The Masked Singer,” which aired March 4 on Fox. Tom Bergeron just gave “The Masked Singer” viewers something to taco ’bout. The “Dancing with the Stars” host, who had performed in the Taco costume, was eliminated from “The Masked

Jon Seda could well be starring in yet another NBC series. The actor, who is best known for his recent role in NBC’s “Chicago” franchise, has been cast alongside Michael Raymond-James and Natalie Zea in “La Brea,” a drama pilot which hails from writer and executive producer David Appelbaum. In the prospective series, when a

March 4, 2020 5:04PM PT Troian Bellisario has been cast in one of the lead roles of the CBS drama pilot “Ways and Means.” It was previously announced that Patrick Dempsey would star in the series, with Amanda Warren also being part of the cast. The show centers on a powerful congressional leader (Dempsey) who

Pop TV is paring down its scripted programming commitments as dust continues to settle from the Viacom-CBS merger. Variety has learned exclusively that three original series — “Flack,” “Florida Girls,” and “Best Intentions” — will not move ahead at the network. Their respective studios will be free to shop the shows to other outlets. According

In today’s TV news roundup, MTV announced the premiere date and cast for the 35th season of “The Challenge,” and the CW announces premiere dates for three summer shows. CASTING MTV has revealed the lineup for season 35 of the reality-competition series “The Challenge,” dubbed “The Challenge: Total Madness.” To commemorate the landmark season, the

March 4, 2020 4:00PM PT Oprah Winfrey will premiere her interview with “American Dirt” author Jeanine Cummins as a two-part episode on her Apple Plus starting Friday, despite the recent controversy in which critics have claimed the novel to be a misrepresentation of the immigrant experience. “If you read the book there is no doubt

Sharon Levy is on a roll. For two years in a row, Endemol Shine North America — where Levy serves as president of unscripted and scripted programming — has been a part of the top-rated new show in primetime. This year, it’s “Lego Masters,” which is averaging a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49 in Live+7

March 4, 2020 1:30PM PT Emayatzy Corinealdi has been cast in “At That Age,” a drama pilot set up at NBC. The show is described as an exploration of an African-American family’s legacy. After the Cooper family’s golden child suffers a catastrophic event, seven family members face a foundational shift, make life-altering decisions and deal

Karin Gist is staying put at 20th Century Fox Television. The “Mixed-ish” showrunner has inked a new overall deal with the studio, where she signed her first ever overall three years ago. Under her new deal, Gist will continue to create, supervise and develop new projects the Disney-owned outfit. In addition, she has formed her

Eugene Levy is set to receive the first-ever Newport Beach Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award at the inaugural TV Awards Showcase, in partnership with Variety, during the 21st annual festival this April. The “Schitt’s Creek” star, co-creator and executive producer will be on-hand to receive this honor on the opening night of the TV Awards Showcase

Beloved “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek has provided a hopeful update on his health, almost one year after announcing his stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. In March 2019, Trebek shared a statement on social media acknowledging that his prognosis was “not very encouraging,” but vowing to fight to beat the odds. On Wednesday, Trebek made a

March 4, 2020 12:00PM PT “Stargirl” has an official premiere date on DC Universe. The live action DC Comics series will debut May 11 on the streaming service. It will then air on The CW on May 12, as it was previously announced that each episode of the series would run on the broadcaster the

If you’ve had trouble getting the “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” song from Netflix’s “The Witcher” out of your head, you can only imagine what it’s been like for Joey Batey.  “It’s pretty hellish, yeah,” says Batey, who plays Jaskier, the witty lute-playing bard who trails Henry Cavill’s Geralt in the epic fantasy series.

It’s fair to say MSNBC had a “Hardball” problem. Perhaps it wasn’t just the one everyone was talking about. Chris Matthews’ growing series of on-air gaffes in the midst of intensifying coverage of the 2020 campaign made keeping him on the air difficult for MSNBC executives, as did a litany of troubling stories about his

March 4, 2020 11:30AM PT Shannyn Sossamon has been cast in the lead role of the Fox drama pilot “The Cleaning Lady,” Variety has learned. Based on the Argentine series “La Chica Que Limpia,” the show follows Reyna Salonga (Sossamon), a whip-smart Filipina doctor who comes to the U.S. in hopes to get a medical treatment

William Boyd, the award-winning British novelist and screenwriter of “Chaplin” and “Any Human Heart,” is set to write the screenplay of a high-profile miniseries centred on the devastating fire that ripped through Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral in April 2019. Philippe Rousselet’s Vendôme, U.K.-based Xavier Marchand’s Moonriver TV and Pathé are co-developing the project in collaboration with

One month ahead of commercial launch, Quibi said it closed $750 million in second-round funding, which the premium mobile-subscription player believes will take it to the point of profitability. Led by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, the company has now banked $1.75 billion to date. Earlier this year, Quibi said it had raised

Colin Callender’s production company Playground has optioned the screen rights to C.K. McDonnell’s novel “The Stranger Times,” one of the most sought after titles in the publishing world. The project was brought in by Playground’s VP production and development, Elyse Dolbec, and is being developed as a returning series for the global market. “The Stranger

Late in the run of an episode of “Little Fires Everywhere,” Hulu’s new literary adaptation, our attention is divided between two women in different situations, both of them precarious and pushing each past frustration and into something like rage. Suddenly, music swells, and a high-dudgeon, piano-driven, choir-backed cover of a pop song kicks in to

Viacom Intl. Studios has signed a deal with German broadcaster RTL’s TV Now SVOD service for a local adaptation of dating gameshow format “Are You the One?” It’s Viacom’s second format deal with RTL exclusively for TV Now after last year’s sale of the dating show “Finding Prince Charming,” which has already been renewed for

Amazon Studios will no longer be going to SXSW, Variety has learned. The two screenings and panels planned for “Tales of the Loop” and “Upload,” in addition to a consumer marketing activation, have been canceled amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus. So far, 11 cases of the respiratory illness have been confirmed in Texas,

In today’s TV news roundup, BET Plus has announced the premiere date of “Tyler Perry’s Ruthless” and Usher has joined new series “The Sauce” on Quibi.  DATES BET Plus has announced “Tyler Perry’s Ruthless” will premiere March 19. The new original drama from Tyler Perry is a spinoff of the television series “Tyler Perry’s The

Emily Hampshire, best known for playing the motel clerk in “Schitt’s Creek,” has been cast in a forthcoming Epix series. She will join Adrien Brody in “Jerusalem’s Lot,” a drama based on the Stephen King story set in the 1850s, which received a series order late last year. “Jerusalem’s Lot” follows Captain Charles Boone (Brody),

March 3, 2020 2:30PM PT Multiple members of the production team behind ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat” are developing the comedy series “Asian Descent” at Freeform, Variety has learned exclusively. “Fresh Off the Boat” executive producers Melvin Mar and Jake Kasdan are both onboard the project, along with series writer and co-producer Cindy Fang. “Asian Descent”

Europe’s coronavirus outbreak is causing major headaches for the international TV industry as numerous companies move swiftly to rein in foreign travel and cancel crucial pitch events and company gatherings. The outbreak, which has so far claimed 56 deaths in Europe, comes at a particularly frenetic time for the local TV industry, which holds a

March 3, 2020 1:04PM PT Super Tuesday may stretch into early Wednesday. The major broadcast and cable news outlets have big plans for covering a large number of primaries among 14 states, the event known as “Super Tuesday” that some anchors believe is one of the two or three most important events on the political-news

March 3, 2020 1:47PM PT The series finale of “Fresh Off the Boat” ended up with more viewers than its season average. After seven days of delayed viewing, the first of its back-to-back episodes grew to 3.5 million total viewers, an 18% bump from its Live+Same Day audience and roughly 400,000 viewers more than the

ESPN plans to explore a new business plan for The Undefeated, its site devoted to exploring sports, culture and race that will expand the outlet to other parts of the sports-media outlet’s parent company. Walt Disney. The Undefeated, which was launched in 2016 under the auspices of John Skipper, previous president of ESPN, was envisioned

Though Lena Waithe’s latest project “Twenties” — a comedy that follows the adventures of a young, black, queer woman and her two straight friends struggling to make it in Hollywood — is semi-autobiographical, the 35-year-old actor says that that due to strides made by the industry, the series no longer resembles her journey. “It’s not

Daniel Baker still remembers the field trip he took in third grade to the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Baker, better known as Desus Nice and as the co-host with The Kid Mero (aka Joel Martinez) of Showtime’s “Desus and Mero,” told the crowd at the museum’s annual fundraiser on Monday night that the trip