February 19, 2020 10:58AM PT Patina Miller has been cast in a leading role in the upcoming “Power” prequel “Raising Kanan.” Officially titled “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” the series is a prequel set in the ‘90s during the early years of “Power” character Kanan Stark. Miller will star as Raquel “Raq” Thomas, Kanan’s mother.
Television
February 19, 2020 10:27AM PT AMC Networks’ streaming service Sundance Now has picked up U.S. rights to the literary adaptation “The Secrets She Keeps.” Based on a novel by Michael Robotham, the noirish drama builds on a chance encounter between two pregnant women in a supermarket just outside of Sydney. While Meghan (Jessica de Gouw,
Colin Jost has become famous by delivering fake news on the venerable “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live.” But he may be poised to deliver real headlines about his future with the program. Jost’s new memoir, “A Very Punchable Face,” is due out April 14 from Penguin Random House’s Crown imprint. In uncorrected galley
February 19, 2020 9:18AM PT Annaleigh Ashford will star in the CBS multi-camera comedy pilot “B Positive.” In the show, faced with finding a kidney donor, newly divorced dad Drew is at the end of his rope when he runs into Gina (Ashford), a rough-around-the edges woman from his past who volunteers her own. Together
Even as the Paley Center vacates its Beverly Hills museum, the org is still planning a full slate of L.A.-based events in the first half of 2020. As Variety previously reported, the Paley Center will no longer have a physical location on the west coast, but instead will hold events at a variety of locations
Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell are reuniting to star in a series adaptation of the Wondery and Bloomberg Media podcast “The Shrink Next Door,” Variety has learned. The series is in development at Media Rights Capital (MRC) Television with no network or streaming service currently attached. Inspired by true events, “The Shrink Next Door” is
Discovery has signalled a growing reliance on lifestyle and entertainment content with a slate of new and returning shows. New commissions “The Nolans in the Mood for Cruising,” “Cash in the Spare Room” and “Clear Out Cash In” will air on Discovery’s free-to-air channels Quest Red, HGTV and Really, respectively, while recommissions “Helicopter ER” and
U.K. coroners have labeled former “Love Island” host Caroline Flack’s death a suicide. The TV presenter was 40 years old. Flack, who left the show in December and was due to stand trial on assault charges in March, was found unresponsive at her London home on Saturday. Though no official cause of death was given
Sky Studios and Italy’s The Apartment, the Fremantle-owned production company headed by Lorenzo Mieli, have forged a multi-year development and production partnership that marks Sky’s first agreement of this type outside the U.K. Under the deal, Sky Studios, which is the Comcast-owned pay-TV broadcaster dedicated production arm, will provide The Apartment development funding for a
Netflix’s announcement of new Spanish series late last month underscored the platform’s intent to diversify its palette in the country while betting once again on one of their own, Carlos Montero. After co-writing “Elite” Season 2, and with a third set soon to bow, Montero has made the jump to the director’s chair for the
The Paley Center for Media has vacated its longtime Beverly Hills location earlier than expected, setting up offices in Century City and finalizing a new home for its digital archives. A spokesperson for the Paley Center confirmed to Variety that the Beverly Hills Public Library will be the new home for the TV and radio
February 18, 2020 7:06PM PT Actress Ja’Net DuBois died on Tuesday at her home in Glendale, Calif. at the age of 74. The actress, known for her role in the 70s sitcom “Good Times” as Wilona, the Evans family neighbor, died unexpectedly in her sleep. She appeared in several other films and shows throughout her
Between a high-profile press tour, a vortex of online negativity and a raging conversation around female genitalia, it is likely you are aware that Gwyneth Paltrow launched a docuseries on Netflix in late January. “The Goop Lab,” announced exclusively by Variety last year, is a six-episode manifestation of Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop and its many
In today’s TV news roundup, BET Plus renewed “Bigger” for a second season, and Netflix announced premiere dates for “On My Block” Season 3 and “Feel Good.” CASTING Josh Hartnett has been cast in Quibi’s upcoming series “Die Hart.“ Hartnett will play a fictionalized character of himself, an alumnus of the action school where Kevin
February 18, 2020 2:55PM PT Ja’Net DuBois, known for her turn as Willona Woods on “Good Times,” was found dead in her Glendale, Calif. home on Tuesday. Her family told TMZ the actress died unexpectedly in her sleep. She was believed to be 74. In addition to her role as the Evans family’s neighbor in
February 18, 2020 1:00PM PT Esther Scott, who appeared in “Boyz N the Hood,” voiced Shodu in the “Ewoks” series and guest starred on dozens of TV series, died Friday in Los Angeles, her representative confirmed. She had suffered a heart attack Tuesday at her Santa Monica home. She was 66. Born in Queens, N.Y.,
The idea that the technology industry has the power not just to reshape the world in which we live but — through acts of creative destruction — build a new one overlaying and eventually supplanting it has been fertile territory for the arts in recent memory. Indeed, to this point, one of the bards of
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Netflix has ordered an eight-episode limited series on the origins of the opioid crisis titled “Painkiller,” Variety has learned. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster will write and serve as showrunners and executive producers on the series. The pair recently wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and previously collaborated
February 18, 2020 11:30AM PT Raoul Peck is bringing his four-part series “Exterminate All the Brutes” to HBO. The project is described as an exploration of the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism. It will feature documentary footage and archival material as well as original animation and interpretive scripted scenes. Josh Hartnett will play
NBC and Ellen are teaming up for another season of fun and games. DeGeneres has revealed that the network has renewed her alternative series “Ellen’s Game of Games” for a fourth season. DeGeneres serves as host and executive producer of the one-hour show, which includes supersized versions of some of the most popular games from her
February 18, 2020 9:44AM PT “Hunters,” a new Amazon series about vigilantes seeking to bring justice to Nazis hiding in 1970s America, is fixated in ways by which violence can be made weird. It features a vast conspiracy of Nazis embedded in the U.S. government, one of whom enters the series by committing a gruesome
February 18, 2020 8:48AM PT BBC Scotland director Donalda MacKinnon has announced plans to step down this autumn. The first ever woman to hold that post, MacKinnon has led the public broadcaster’s Scottish division since 2016. “I’ve decided that this is the right time for me to stand down and allow a new leader to
February 18, 2020 8:38AM PT “The Bachelor” posted season high ratings once again, as “America’s Got Talent: Champions” concluded its second season to solid numbers. ABC’s reality dating show topped the night with a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 6.6 million total viewers, up fractionally from last week’s 6.6 million. “The Good Doctor” followed
The New York Post often runs stories filled with grit, color and melodrama – just the kind of stuff that seems right for TV. Now some of those stories will find their way to a TV network. Investigation Discovery, the Discovery-owned true-crime TV network, will partner with News Corp.’s New York Post on two new
The NFL has worked in recent years to take some commercials out of America’s favorite game. The XFL is experimenting with new ways to push them in. Anyone who watched the new league’s St. Louis BattleHawks triumph over the Dallas Renegades in its first week of official play might have noticed ads for Bud Light
Endeavor Content has taken a minority stake in “The Night Manager” producer The Ink Factory. Under the deal, the “Killing Eve” and “Night Manager” distributor is to set up a bespoke development fund for Ink Factory. The pact will specifically target the U.S. market with high-end TV series developed out of Ink Factory’s U.S. outpost
When Liz Tigelaar signed on as showrunner for Hulu’s “Little Fires Everywhere,” she knew it was going to be her toughest, most rewarding experience to date. “It was transformative,” Tigelaar says of the work she did on the series. “To be honest, it’s the first show that I felt as deeply connected to.” That isn’t
After years of being talked about, Kerry Washington is ready to steer the conversation herself. The 43-year-old actor and producer spent the better part of last decade playing the brilliant Olivia Pope on “Scandal,” Shonda Rhimes’ buzzy political drama that brought Washington into millions of homes. But as the series wound down, she kept a
Sony Pictures Television has invested in U.K. sports-focused production outfit Whisper Group. Effective immediately, the business will replace Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund as a minority stakeholder in Whisper, which has become a leading voice in sports entertainment. Founded by BAFTA-winning CEO Sunil Patel, broadcaster Jake Humphrey and F1 commentator David Coulthard, Whispers covers NFL,