Television

“The Cave” director Feras Fayyad, who was supposed to be at the Television Critics Assn. press tour on Friday, failed to make a National Geographic panel for the show — after being prevented from entering the United States over the status of his visa. In a statement read by producer Sigrid Dyekjar, it was revealed

In a sketch from “The Armando Iannucci Shows,” a Channel 4 series from the “Veep” creator’s early catalogue, a couple tours a house with an eye to buying it. However, they discover that the property is, in fact, a paper drawing made by a bunch of youths with massive, life-sized crayons. Such commentary on the

National Geographic has renewed a trio of its franchise series. The network has announced that “Brain Games” hosted by Keegan-Michael Key will be returning for another season, as well as “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” and “Life Below Zero.” The renewals were announced by National Geographic Global Television Networks president Courteney Monroe during the network’s

The Nielsen ratings for the second night of Rachel Maddow’s interview with Lev Parnas Thursday on MSNBC fell short of Wednesday’s record-breaking viewership (4.5 million viewers), notching down slightly at 4.3 million. But it was the third most-watched program in the history of “The Rachel Maddow Show.” (The second most-watched was on Jan. 8, 2019.)

Amy Lippman, who co-created both the original 1994 version of “Party of Five” and the Freeform reboot, has been humbled by her work on the new drama. “I don’t think I realized until I got into that [writers’] room with people who had a very different life expeience than my own what value it was

Disney chief Bob Iger saw his compensation for 2019 drop to $47.5 million, a 28% decline from his 2018 pay package. Disney’s leader earned $3 million in salary and a $21.8 million bonus, plus another $10 million in stock awards and $9.6 million in stock options, Disney disclosed in the company’s annual proxy filing with

January 17, 2020 2:10PM PT Disney Plus has renewed “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” for a second season. The news comes ahead of the Season 1 finale on Jan. 24. The documentary series is the streamer’s first original with National Geographic. The second season will consist of 10 episodes. “Jeff has captured the imagination

National Geographic has announced it is launching a program aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion behind the camera. The Field Ready Program is described as a two-phased training program that trains entry-level participants to become production assistants. Partnering with National Geographic Society, Nat Geo will choose 10 individuals per year to complete online training followed

Apple TV Plus and Emmy and Peabody Award-winner R.J. Cutler (“Untitled Billie Eilish Documentary”) have partnered on a docuseries entitled “Dear…” Inspired by Apple’s “Dear Apple” spots, “Dear…” takes an “inventive and cinematic approach to biographies of the most iconic figures in society today by using letters written by those whose lives have been changed

January 17, 2020 1:45PM PT Freeform president Tom Ascheim laid out what he called the network’s “four-part formula for longevity and maybe gentle world domination” during an executive session at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Friday. “One, take a stand,” Ascheim began. “86% of young adults expect brands to be more than

Freeform has renewed comedy “Grown-ish” for a fourth season, a day after its season 3 premiere, and drama “Good Trouble” for a third. The pickup announcement was made at the network’s Television Critics’ Association press tour day. “Freeform is a megaphone for stories that deserve to be told and a place where the world’s biggest

Hillary Clinton called for Americans to come to grips with “basic facts” of reality in an appearance at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Friday. “We’ve got to somehow understand that you can’t make good decisions in a democracy if we can’t even agree on basic facts, if we cant have some understanding

Actors and comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short are coming to Hulu with a true-crime spoof. The streaming service has picked up a straight-to-series comedy starring the pair, announced Hulu senior vice president of originals Craig Erwich at the Television Critics Assn. winter press tour on Friday. The yet-to-be-titled series involves “three strangers who share

January 17, 2020 9:00AM PT Julia Louis-Dreyfus, of “Veep” and “Seinfeld” fame, has inked an overall deal with Apple TV Plus to develop new projects exclusively for the platform as executive producer and star. “I am thrilled about this new partnership with my friends at Apple,” said Louis-Dreyfus. “Also, many thanks and kudos to my

At first glance, the CW’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and Disney Plus’s “Diary of a Future President” could not be more different. The former centered on a woman with borderline personality disorder who overturned her life multiple times for a chance at love but who still struggled in relationships because she didn’t fully love herself, while the

January 17, 2020 8:56AM PT “Last Man Standing” helped Fox to a TV ratings win on a relatively quiet Thursday night. The Tim Allen-led comedy scored a 0.8 rating for both episodes, with the first drawing 4.6 million total viewers and the second 4.9 million. Freshman drama “Deputy” followed it up with a 0.6 rating

Meryl Streep is the latest big name heading to Apple. The acclaimed actor is attached to narrate a forthcoming animated short film about Earth Day, which is slated to premiere April 17 on Apple TV Plus. Titled “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth,” the short will also feature the voices of “State

“Little America” launches on Apple TV Plus at a time when the immigrant experience is a hot topic in the media, but the stories the writers and producers behind the new anthology series wanted to tell were not about race, says co-creator and showrunner Lee Eisenberg. “All of the stories are meant to be slices

The NATPE conference will mark its tenth iteration of dealmaking, networking, brainstorming and ocean-gazing in Miami this year. The move of the association’s annual market and conference to Miami Beach in 2011 was born out of desperate times, but the balmy setting has proven to be a boon for the National Assn. of Television Program

Comcast confirmed plans to launch a global news platform with Sky News at the launch of its highly anticipated streaming offering Peacock. Variety understands that the channel will be a brand new service that exists independent of Sky News and NBC News, with bases likely to be set up in London and New York and a

MADRID  — Spanish film-TV director Salvador Calvo, who made his mark with his debut feature, 2016’s “1898, Our Last Men in the Philippines,” plus a string of admired TV series, is joining Madrid-based Boomerang TV, a bastion of Spanish scripted fiction over the last two decades. Calvo – whose latest movie, Telvcinco Cinema’s immigration drama

MADRID  — Adding a new dimension to strong women action series, London-based global drama producer-distributor Fremantle is teaming with Fabula, headed by director Pablo Larrain (“Jackie”) and producer Juan de Dios Larraín (“Gloria Bell”), to produce “Talitha Kum.” Directed by Marialy Rivas (“Young & Wild,” “Princesita”), the high octane Mexico-set action series promises to deliver

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the sixth episode of “Project Runway” Season 18. Sergio Guadarrama is a self-proclaimed political designer and in this week’s heritage challenge, he had a message to share — literally. Guadarrama’s story behind his “Project Runway” design ultimately overshadowed the garment itself. His hot pink, cotton, Mexican-inspired

Facebook Watch has canceled two of its shows amid a scaling back of its scripted content. Both “Limetown” and “Sorry For Your Loss” have been cancled after their first and second seasons respectively, Variety has confirmed. Based on the podcast of the same name produced by Two Up,  “Limetown” followed Lia Haddock (Jessica Biel), a journalist for

In today’s TV news roundup, AMC has announced a premiere date for “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” and Netflix released a trailer for “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” Season 3. DATES TV One is celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with its annual two-hour broadcast of “Urban One Honors” on Jan. 20 at 8 p.m. This year’s honorees include Jamie

One of the hallmarks of Josh Thomas’ particularly spiky and sympathetic sense of humor is how he takes a situation we’ve seen unfold on TV before and makes the bold choice to let his characters react like actual human beings. On his semi-autobiographical comedy “Please Like Me,” people struggled through depression and their gnarled feelings

“Better Call Saul” has been renewed for season a sixth and final season at AMC. The final season will be 13 episodes and will go into production later this year and air in 2021. News that the “Breaking Bad” spinoff is coming to an end was announced by showrunner Peter Gould and co-creator Vince Gilligan

Fictional court made its way into real court when one of Harvey Weinstein’s attorneys brought up “Law & Order” in his line of questioning during jury selection on Thursday. “I have a great question. I wrote it myself,” Weinstein’s lawyer Damon Cheronis said, approaching prospective jurors with a smirk on his face and a charming

“Gentleman Jack” and “Doctor Foster” star Suranne Jones is to take the lead in “Vigil,” a nuclear submarine thriller for the BBC from World Productions, the makers of “Line of Duty” and “Bodyguard.” “Vigil” is written and created by Tom Edge, who penned Judy Garland biopic “Judy,” with episodes by Ed Macdonald, whose credits include “The End of

Katie Couric, Stephen King and “The Report” director Scott Z. Burns are several of the creatives who are getting into business with AMC. The network has unveiled an extensive development slate which includes both AMC Studios series being eyed for the company’s Entertainment Group, as well as projects that are being developed with an eye