Television

The CW has ordered pilots for the dramas “Kung Fu” and “The Republic of Sarah.” Both projects were previously set up at different networks prior to coming to CW. “Kung Fu” is a reboot of the original series created by Ed Spielman. In the new version, a quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to

January 30, 2020 3:00PM PT Studio veteran Bill Bost has been upped from senior vice president to president of Skydance Television, where he will now oversee the department and its growing slate of broadcast, cable and streaming projects. “Bill is an integral member of the Skydance executive team, and I’m thrilled to announce his well-deserved

In today’s TV news roundup, Nicki Minaj will make a guest appearance on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and Quibi has greenlit a new series from Adam Devine. CASTINGS Nicki Minaj will join host RuPaul, and judges Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley and Ross Mathews as a guest judge on the upcoming Season 12 premiere of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.“ The legendary

The BBC and other U.K. national broadcasters have been barred from recording Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit Day message. Johnson will issue an “address to the nation” on Friday, Jan. 31, to mark Britain’s exit from the European Union at 11PM. But Johnson intends to break with a long-standing tradition by filming the message internally,

January 30, 2020 2:00PM PT Sarah Shahi has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming Netflix dramedy series “Sex/Life,” Variety has learned. The series is described as the story of a love triangle between a woman, her husband, and her past. Shahi will play Billie Connelly, a woman with everything to lose, a suburban

Addressing the importance of representation both on screen and in the office, writer-director J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot co-CEO Katie McGrath discussed at the 2020 Upfront Summit in Los Angeles on Thursday the decision to bring more diversity to the “Star Wars” franchise and to their company, Bad Robot Productions. “In the earliest stages, we

January 30, 2020 1:51PM PT WWE is poised for a massive management shakeup as longtime executives George Barrios and Michelle Wilson have been forced out of their roles as co-presidents and from the company’s board of directors. Frank A. Riddick III, who has been a WWE board member for 11 years, has been named interim

“The Young and the Restless” has been renewed for four more years through the 2023-2024 broadcast season, announced CBS and Sony Pictures Television, taking the long-running daytime drama to its 50th year on the air. “Having the #1 show for any length of time in any daypart is a tremendous accomplishment,” said Kelly Kahl, president

“New Day” has brought new possibilities to CNN. The cable-news network had long run general-news A.M. programs like “American Morning” and “Starting Point.” And indeed, when “New Day” launched in 2013, it was initially billed as something in the tradition of NBC’s “Today.” Then the Trump administration came along. In 2020, CNN executives view “New

Fred Silverman, the executive who became the only person in TV history to have headed programming for each of the Big Three broadcast networks, died on Thursday at his home in the Pacific Palisades, Calif. He was 82. Silverman died with his family by his side. During his prolific career, Silverman was credited with helping

January 30, 2020 12:00PM PT ABC has ordered a drama pilot based on the book “Wreckage” by Emily Bleeker. In the project, Lillian Linden looks like a brave survivor of a plane crash on the surface. But she’s been lying to her family, her friends, and the whole world since rescue helicopters scooped her and

Thirty-five years ago, the Casting Society of America (CSA) held its inaugural Artios Awards to celebrate casting directors’ indelible contributions to the industry. The Beverly Hills ceremony was short and sweet, handing out awards in only four categories. As content has continued to increase in volume, so too have the Artios Awards grown. Now, the

Procter & Gamble has long studied consumer behavior to help it determine how it should sell popular supermarket staples like Tide, Crest, Pampers and Swiffer. Super Bowl Sunday will be no different. P&G intends to let its customers help create one of its Super Bowl ads, a star-studded affair that is slated to involve Sofia

January 30, 2020 7:11AM PT Missy Elliott, who starred with Katy Perry at the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show, returns to the big game via a new Pepsi commercial with H.E.R. Pepsi Zero Sugar debuted a 30-second teaser on Wednesday, which finds the pair performing a segment of the Rolling Stones’ 1966 song “Paint It

Lagardere Studios Distribution has boarded “The Machinery,” an action-packed thriller series headlined by Kristoffer Joner (“The Revenant”), which was teased by Viaplay during a presentation at Goteborg’s TV Drama Vision conference on Thursday. Set at the border between Sweden and Norway, the show follows Olle Hultén, an ordinary dad who wakes up on a ferry

January 30, 2020 5:11AM PT Mike Bloomberg may be vying with President Donald Trump for attention in Sunday’s Super Bowl, but he won’t be mentioning the current occupant of the White House in the minute-long commercial he plans to run in the big event. Bloomberg, who is making a national appeal for the Democratic nomination

Laurie Segall, a technology journalist and entrepreneur, has been named a correspondent for “60 In 6,” the new program being developed by “60 Minutes” for Quibi, the short-form video hub run by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. Segall is the latest journalist to join the new venture, which has also attracted staffers from Univision News

MADRID —  In news that will move waves in the Spanish-speaking world, international actor, Latin Grammy and Billboard winning recording artist Miguel Bosé looks set to become the subject of a bioseries from Shine Iberia, Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock Entertainment. The three companies have acquired his exclusive life-story rights and, together with Movistar Plus

“Fox & Friends” has long been the most-watched cable-news program in the morning slot, but it’s one particular set of eyeballs that has brought the program to new relevance in the current news cycle. President Donald Trump, who used to have a recurring segment on the program, is now an avid viewer, and what hosts

MADRID — Netflix announced Thursday in Madrid seven new Spanish Originals: Two series, three features, one documentary and an unscripted title. The titles confirm a rapid ramp-up in production volume for Netflix in Spain, whose output to date takes in two of the U.S. giant’s standout breakouts in international, not only in Spain but overseas

Canal Plus Group is joining forces with Netflix for the first time on an original series with “On The Verge,” a daring L.A.-set comedy created by Julie Delpy, Variety has learned. The series is being co-developed by the Creation Original label of the French pay TV channel Canal Plus and Paris-based company The FilmTV. Netflix

Swedish helmer Jens Jonsson, who is currently editing Netflix’s “Young Wallander,” is set to direct the political thriller “Eight Months” (“Åtta månader”), based on acclaimed Swedish author Magnus Montelius’ suspense eponymous novel. Swedish scribe Erik Ahrnbom (“The Bridge,” “Stockholm Stories,” “Arne Dahl”) will be adapting for television. Published last year by Albert Bonniers Förlag, the

January 29, 2020 8:15PM PT ABC News has suspended chief national correspondent Matt Gutman over a false statement he made on-air Sunday following the death of Kobe Bryant.  Gutman had erroneously reported that all four of Bryant’s daughters were on board the helicopter that crashed into the hills of Calabasas. Bryant and his 13 year-old

Flatiron Books, the publisher of Jeanine Cummins’ novel “American Dirt,” has decided to cancel the scheduled tour for the book’s launch citing safety concerns and “specific threats” made towards booksellers and the author. The novel centers around a Mexican woman and her son who flee to the United States to escape from drug cartel violence.

January 29, 2020 4:09PM PT “The Mel Robbins Show” is set to end its run this spring after one season in first-run syndication. The production on the syndicated talk show strip will continue through the spring to finish out the season order. The Sony Pictures Television talker bowed in September to weak overall ratings. Robbins

No tribute to an artist of Prince’s majesty can be perfect, but at first glance the lineup for “Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute to Prince” — which taped Tuesday night and will air on CBS on April 21 — did not make one’s heart skip a beat. While the show’s musical foundation could not

In today’s TV News round-up, AMC released the first full length trailer for the fifth season of “Better Call Saul” and Quibi announced two hosts for the doghouse construction reality show “Barkitecture.” CASTING Quibi announced that Tyler Cameron and Delia Kanza will host the reality show “Barkitecture” on the mobile streaming platform. The new show

January 29, 2020 3:19PM PT The iconic Japanese manga “One Piece” is being adapted by Netflix into a live-action series. Netflix has issued a 10-episode order for the project, teaming with Tomorrow Studios, which is also producing the streamer’s other forthcoming manga-based series “Cowboy Bebop,” and the original series’ publisher Shueisha. The series was first

“Days of our Lives” has been formally renewed for a record 56th season at NBC. It was previously reported in November that the show was near a deal for a renewal, though it was not official at that time. The news will no doubt come as a relief to fans, who feared the show had

January 29, 2020 2:00PM PT NBC has given a formal pilot pickup to a drama centered on Robert Langdon, the character made famous through the books of Dan Brown. The broadcaster had previously given the project a production commitment back in June. Titled “Langdon,” it is based on Brown’s book “The Lost Symbol” and follows