Television

The Essel Group is to sell a further 16.5% stake in Zee Entertainment Enterprise Limited, India’s largest private sector broadcast group. The debt-reduction move comes just months after Essel auctioned off an 11% tranche of ZEEL. “The Group seeks to sell up to 16.5% stake in ZEEL to financial investors, in order to repay loan

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix announces the Fuller House’s final season premiere date, HGTV provides a Variety exclusive to the reboot of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and Freeform announces the premiere date for Josh Thomas’ new comedy “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay.” DATES HGTV provided Variety with an exclusive trailer for the reboot of “Extreme Makeover:

November 20, 2019 6:07PM PT Tomiko Iwata has been promoted to executive vice president, head of creative services at Fox Entertainment. She will be responsible for overseeing all of Fox’s creative services, including experiential marketing across divisions. In addition to overseeing her Los Angeles-based staff, she will lead a team based in New York. Her

Frank Cicha, head of programming for Fox Television Stations, saw the future coming nearly a decade ago when Fox’s TV station group committed many millions to land syndication rights to “The Big Bang Theory” back in 2010. Even then, it was clear that big hits on the scale of “Big Bang” were going to be

November 20, 2019 3:30PM PT Sterling K. Brown is set to lend his voice to the upcoming Disney Plus feature documentary “One Day at Disney,” Variety has learned exclusively. “One Day at Disney” will highlight the people who work on some of Disney’s most beloved stories. The film will highlight 10 specific people and their role

The weather outside may be frightful, but ABC is already planning another summer of fun and games. The network announced Wednesday that its primetime gamers “The $100,000 Pyramid,” “Card Sharks,” “Celebrity Family Feud,” “Match Game,” “Press Your Luck” and “To Tell the Truth” have all been renewed for another season, joining the previously announced second

David Cross has joined the cast of the upcoming third season of “Genius” at Nat Geo, which will focus on music legend Aretha Franklin. Cross will star as music producer Jerry Wexler. Cynthia Erivo is set to play Franklin, with Courtney B. Vance, Malcolm Barrett, Patrice Covington, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Sanai

Day 3 of the impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump drew big numbers yet again across the major broadcast and news networks. An average of around 12 million total viewers tuned in across the morning and afternoon sessions, with 11.4 million watching in the morning and roughly 13 million in the afternoon. Fox News drew

November 20, 2019 11:30AM PT Netflix has renewed the zombie thriller series “Black Summer” for a second season, Variety has learned. The second season will consist of eight episodes and will begin production next year in Alberta, Canada. Jaime King will return to star in the second season and will also serve as a producer. Cast

Viacom International Media Networks has named Pierluigi Gazzolo president of OTT International and Viacom International Studios. Gazzolo, who will report to VIMN president and CEO David Lynn, was most recently president of VIMN Americas and executive vice president of Nickelodeon International. As the streaming landscape becomes increasingly competitive, the move marks an increased focus on

“Days of our Lives” is launching a new digital series, entitled “Last Blast Reunion,” on the DOOL App Nov. 29. This streaming series will bring nine beloved characters from the 2000 season of the NBC daytime drama back together for a special Salem High class reunion. Brandon Beemer, Martha Madison, Nadia Bjorlin, Heather Lindell, Aaron

The drama on “Live PD,” which tracks actual cops in the course of duty, rivals that of any scripted drama set in a police squad. One recent episode followed police as they pursued a suspect driving a car with a little girl on board. Viewers watched as the vehicle flipped over. Miraculously, the man and

John Wells and Molly Smith Metzler of Showtime’s “Shameless” are teaming with Margot Robbie to adapt a best-selling memoir at Netflix. The series will be based on Stephanie Land’s “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive.” It will Chronicle a single mother who turns to housekeeping to—barely—make ends meet as she

The long list of series coming to Quibi just got whackier. Zac Efron is set to venture deep into the jungle on a remote island for a new show intriguingly titled “Killing Zac Efron,” the short form content platform has announced. “Killing Zac Efron” will see the actor go “off the grid” on this island

“Live ‘Cops.’ ” That was the shorthand pitch-in-the-hallway that intrigued A+E Networks executive Paul Buccieri enough to respond with an immediate yes. At the time, Buccieri, 53, was about two years away from being promoted to the top job at A+E Networks, the cable programming group jointly owned by Disney and Hearst. He didn’t know

Holly Hunter has been cast in the upcoming Tina Fey-produced LA mayor comedy series at NBC. The veteran actor will star opposite Ted Danson in the untitled series which is being written and executive produced by Fey and Robert Carlock. The series is about a wealthy businessman (Danson) who runs for mayor of Los Angeles

November 20, 2019 8:30AM PT “This Is Us” received a much needed boost in the TV ratings on Tuesday night, climbing to a four-week high. The NBC drama closed out its fall run with a 1.5 rating among adults 18-49 and 7.3 million total viewers, its highest viewership tally for seven weeks. NBC comfortably won

In today’s TV news roundup, Quibi announces new cast members for horror series “Emma” and Nickelodeon renews “Blue’s Clues and You!”  CASTINGS Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino and Rory Culkin have been cast in supporting roles in Quibi’s latest horror series “Emma.” The two are joined by Hannah Murray (“Game of Thrones”) and Michael Gaston (“Man

Emilia Clarke revealed that she’s been pressured to do nude scenes on projects following her role as the occasionally nude Daenerys Targaryen on “Game of Thrones.” Now a seasoned actor, Clarke is quick to shut down producers who won’t respect her boundaries. “I’m a lot savvier with what I’m comfortable with, and what I am

November 19, 2019 3:06PM PT Any news junkie in need of a live-Information fix can toggle on to any number of streaming news outlets. Now, TV stations affiliated with CBS can do the same. CBS News told affiliates in a memo Tuesday that it would allow them to use live coverage from its CBSN streaming-video

November 19, 2019 2:19PM PT SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of “The Mandalorian,” if wish to be surprised you do, only annoyance will you find.  BB-8 and the Ewoks can step aside with the latest expansion of the “Star Wars” universe with Disney Plus’s “The Mandalorian.” There’s a new

Fans of the History series “Vikings” rejoice! Netflix has ordered the follow up series titled “Vikings: Valhalla,” which will be set 100 years after the conclusion of the original show. The sixth and final season of “Vikings” on History is set to debut on Dec. 4. “Valhalla” will be executive produced by “Vikings” creator Michael

NBC’s Tokyo Olympics has a new contestant. Molly Solomon, a veteran sports producer who has been with NBC since 1990, has been tapped as the new executive producer of NBCUniversal’s Olympics broadcast, one of the most important production jobs at the Comcast-owned media conglomerate. She begins her new role immediately, with just months to go

Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” pilot is rounding out its cast. The network has announced that “Camping” star Juliette Lewis and original “Addams Family” actor Christina Ricci have boarded the project as series regulars, joining already announced cast members Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress and Jasmin Savoy Brown. “Yellowjackets” tells the story of a team of talented high school

November 19, 2019 11:34AM PT Kevin Hart is expanding his partnership with Netflix with a new six-part documentary series named “Don’t F–k This Up.” Hart’s Hartbeat Productions will produce alongside Lionsgate, Makemake, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Magical Elves, with the show set to debut on Netflix on Dec. 27.  It will follow the comedian’s day-to-day

November 19, 2019 11:08AM PT “The Little Mermaid Live” continues to perform swimmingly in the TV ratings. The ABC musical topped all non-football shows for the week of Nov. 4, growing 34% from its Live+Same Day rating and 30% in total viewership to finish with a 3.4 and 11.7 million total viewers. That represents pretty

According to the Directors Guild of America, the TV industry has made major gains in terms of diversity. Half of all TV episodes in the 2018-19 season were directed by women or directors of color for the first time, according to a DGA report released on Tuesday. The DGA’s episodic television director inclusion report noted

Joshua Johnson, a longtime public-radio host, is joining MSNBC as an anchor, and the network is expected to release the details of the program he will lead at a later date. Johnson is known for hosting the NPR program “1A,” and will continue to do so through December 20. The program, produced by Washington D.C.’s

November 19, 2019 8:26AM PT “The Neighborhood” hit a season high in last night’s TV ratings, as NBC narrowly topped ABC in the overall network rankings. The CBS comedy series rose to a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 and was watched by around 6.5 million total viewers, comfortably beating its previous season 2 high of

Showtime has handed a second season order to “Back to Life,” only nine days after the limited comedy series debuted in the U.S. “Back to Life” was created and written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon, with Haggard starring as Miri Matteson who, after 18 years behind bars, returns home and stumbles back into adult