WarnerMedia is the latest corporate entity to put new focus on employee travel as the coronavirus continues to spread around the world. In a memo sent to staffers Monday, Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia’s news and sports operations, said employees may need to get permission to travel, and indicated that he would personally have to
Television
The PGA Tour plans to make betting information available more widely to fans, the latest example of a major sports league digging deeper into connecting its followers with gaming as more states begin to allow interactive wagering on sports matches. PGA Tour and Action Network, a sports-betting site and app backed by The Chernin Group,
The finale for the current season of “The Bachelor” is still one week away, but the new star of “The Bachelorette” has already been revealed. Clare Crawley, a 38-year-old hair stylist from Sacramento, will lead “The Bachelorette” franchise during its 16th season. Crawley, announcing the news on “Good Morning America,” said she just found out
Reed Midem, the organizer of TV conference and market MipTV, said Monday it is “monitoring the situation” after the French government banned indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people as part of efforts to contain the country’s coronavirus outbreak. Last year, 9,500 attended MipTV. France has reported 130 cases of the Covid-19 disease. Two people
March 2, 2020 1:58AM PT Red Arrow Studios Intl. has scored its first deals in Europe for new gameshow format “Block Out.” The format has been sold to Endemol Shine Iberia for Spain and Portugal, Tin Can for the Netherlands and GM6 for France. Originally created by Nippon TV and Red Arrow Studios, the series
March 2, 2020 1:44AM PT Distributor Banijay Rights has struck a first-look deal with U.K. factual and formats producer Chatterbox, a relatively new production company founded by former Channel 4 commissioner Nav Raman and producer/director Ali Quirk. Chatterbox last year picked up two BAFTA Children’s TV Awards for its BBC documentary “Leaving Care.” Its agreement
Endemol Shine has cooked up new deals across Asia for its long-running format “MasterChef.” In Thailand, producer Heliconia H Group has commissioned a first season of “MasterChef All Stars Thailand,” expanding its five-year relationship with Endemol Shine. The new version of the format will continue to air in the Heliconia-owned airtime block on Sundays on
Margrethe Vestager, European Commission EVP for a Europe fit for the Digital Age, will open Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues, a one-day summit which this year debates regulation and commercial practice in a streaming platform age. Keynotes on the need – or not – for regulatory change will be delivered by Fremantle COO Andrea Scrosati and Giorgio
AT&T has officially kicked DirecTV, which has been hemorrhaging subscribers, to the back burner of its pay-TV strategy. But its new internet-fueled competitor likely won’t stanch the cord-cutting bleeding. Starting this week, the telco is throwing all its weight behind AT&T TV, which launches nationwide March 2. Built on an Android-based set-top, the broadband-delivered service
Case closed: Judge Judy Sheindlin is ending her blockbuster first-run syndicated series “Judge Judy” after 25 seasons, Variety has confirmed. Sheindlin is set to make the announcement on “Ellen” this Monday. The final full season of “Judge Judy” is yet to air, which means it will remain in originals through the 2020-2021 TV season. After
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Free Will,” the third episode of “Outlander” Season 5. “Free Will” was an interesting “Outlander” episode because a big chunk of the plot took Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) away from the main storylines and diverted them into a complete horror show
Vice president Mike Pence has been put in charge of managing the coronavirus concerns, and that is giving Beck Bennett a chance to step into the spotlight on “Saturday Night Live.” But he didn’t do it alone, as the sketch quickly turned toward the democratic presidential hopefuls, including special guest host John Mulaney as Joe
Joe Biden has won the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, marking the former Vice President’s first-ever state primary win despite two previous runs for the White House. CNN reported that Biden commanded an easy win with about 49% of the vote. Current Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) came in a distant second with about 20%
This week’s Intl. TV Newswire analyzes a surge in new studio complex announcements; HBO’s “Run” is chosen to close next month’s Series Mania, Endeavor and Elite sign up Mexico’s Sebastian Hofmann; and Scandinavian series snag a remarkable presence at Canneseries and Series Mania. Moviebox, Lansdowne Announce Portuguese Complex, as Studio Plans Proliferate MovieBox Premiere and
CBS Sports signed prize football analyst Tony Romo to a new deal, a major step in parent company ViacomCBS’ efforts to strike a new rights pact with the as its current contract heads toward the end of its term. CBS Sports said the company had signed Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback whose acumen for
February 28, 2020 5:17PM PT Hilary Duff has posted a statement asking that the planned revival of “Lizzie McGuire” be moved from Disney Plus to Hulu. “I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating,” Duff wrote on
Lorraine Toussaint has joined the CBS’ reboot pilot for “The Equalizer,” Variety has learned. She joins previously announced series lead Queen Latifah and recently announced cast member Liza Lapira. In the reimagined version, Queen Latifah stars as Robyn McCall, an enigmatic figure who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. Toussaint
In today’s TV news roundup, OZY Media announced Tan France, Jameela Jamil and others as headliners of OZY Fest, and Netflix dropped the official trailer of “On My Block” Season 3. DATES Disney Channel‘s second season of “Just Roll With It” will premiere on Sunday, March 15 at 8:45 p.m. The sitcom follows the Bennett-Blatt family
Herb Dorfman, former Orion Pictures executive and a home video industry veteran, died Feb. 25 of complications from Parkinson’s disease and dementia. He was 77. Dorfman served as head of home entertainment for Orion Pictures from 1987 to late 1996. Orion was a prosperous independent studio in those days that turned out a steady stream
February 28, 2020 3:30PM PT Ben Schnetzer has stepped into the role of Yorick Brown in FX’s upcoming “Y: The Last Man” series, Variety has learned. He takes over the role from Barry Keoghan, who exited the series at the beginning of this month. The show is based on Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s award-winning
Disney Plus will continue to expand its library next month, adding older films as well as new television shows, releasing as both weekly episodes and entire seasons. After streaming on Netflix for over a year, Marvel’s “Black Panther” is making its way to Disney Plus, leaving just “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp”
Theme parks and resorts aren’t likely top of mind for the industry set when they think of Disney. But in light of the recent (and very swift) appointment of parks and consumer products head Bob Chapek to succeed Bob Iger as Disney CEO, Chapek’s recent interviews at the parks offer a few insights about the
The finale to Netflix’s “Love is Blind” has been revealed, unleashing an emotional wave of broken hearts and shattered engagements across the the internet.Warning — “Love is Blind” finale spoilers below. After several on-the-altar dismissals and full on “the wedding is canceled” speeches, it was contestants Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton, who salvaged most of
The CBS reboot of “Hawaii Five-0” will end after its current and tenth season. The series will air a two-hour finale on April 3. Upon its conclusion, it will have aired 240 episodes, just shy of the 279 episodes of the original 1968 series. “It’s never easy to say goodbye to a hit franchise that
February 28, 2020 1:10PM PT “The Bachelor” benefited from a strong Live+Same Day performance to jump up one place in the Live+3 TV ratings chart. The Feb. 17 episode of the ABC dating show grew to a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49 after three days of delayed viewing, meaning it was beaten only by “The
ViacomCBS has named Comedy Central veteran Josh Line to serve as executive VP and chief brand officer for the newly enlarged company. Line will oversee all marketing strategies for the company with an emphasis on synergy efforts across a collection of brands that range from MTV, Nickelodeon, BET and Comedy Central to Paramount Pictures, CBS
February 28, 2020 12:47PM PT Courteney Cox has signed on for a starring role in the Starz horror comedy pilot. The half-hour series follows a dysfunctional family that moves from the city to a small town into a house in which terrible atrocities have taken place. But no one seems to notice except for Pat
The idea that Showtime’s “Homeland” is drawing to an end after eight seasons hasn’t quite sunken in yet for executive producer Lesli Linka Glatter. “It’s bittersweet,” she admits. “In any career, you only get a few of these where the material is incredible, challenging and provocative.” But although she is already onto scouting locations for
February 28, 2020 8:00AM PT FXX’s new comedy “Dave” exists in thrall to the phallus. Its protagonist (played by the rapper Dave “Lil Dicky” Burd in a sort of takeoff on his career and persona) is both obsessed by and ashamed of his anatomy, about whose particularities we come to learn in granular detail as
Syfy has a brain-eating series in mind. The network has issued a 10-episode order for a show inspired by George A. Romero’s classic zombie movie “Day of the Dead.” The remake will tell the intense story of six strangers trying to survive the first 24 hours of an undead invasion. It is described as an