WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sharon Fletcher traveled from Bethlehem, Pa., in the hopes of attending Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing in the civil rights lawsuit filed by entrepreneur Byron Allen against cable giant Comcast. Fletcher was one of several hundred people who waited in line for a seat in the courtroom. She was there before 8 a.m.
Television
A24 movies are headed for Showtime. The premium cable network and film and TV studio have inked a multi-year deal to air A24 feature films on Showtime, the Movie Channel and Flix, as well as on Showtime multiplex channels and streaming platforms. The deal, which includes up to 16 films annually produced by A24, covers
Dick Clark Productions chief operating officer and chief financial officer Amy Thurlow has been tapped to become president of the company behind the televised Golden Globe awards and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” while current chief executive Mike Mahan will transition to vice chairman in the second quarter of 2020. “I
November 13, 2019 10:48AM PT Sarah Michelle Gellar has set up her second starring vehicle at Fox this development season. Variety has confirmed that Gellar is attached to star in the limited drama series “Sometimes I Lie,” based on Alice Feeney’s novel of the same name and which has received a script commitment with a
Larry Wilmore and London Hughes have scored a put pilot order at NBC for a single-cam comedy project they co-created. The untitled series will star Hughes as London Jones, who, after getting dumped by her boyfriend in England, comes to America to find success, herself and maybe even love. Hughes co-wrote the series with Wilmore
November 13, 2019 10:28AM PT The newly launched Disney Plus has no shortage of content, ranging from original animated classics to live-action remakes and “Star Wars” offshoot “The Mandalorian.” With that deep library, Disney is offering a warning that some of the streaming platform’s older content has “outdated cultural depictions.” Films like “Dumbo,” “The Aristocats,”
November 13, 2019 10:16AM PT “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” has been renewed for a fifth season at TBS. In addition, the cabler has renewed its first-look deal with Bee’s production company, Swimsuit Competition. Under the first-look deal, Bee and her company recently began production on an untitled spin-off project from “Full Frontal” correspondent Amy
“This Is Us” star Jon Huertas, who’s being honored at the Napa Valley Film Festival with Variety Vivant’s Spice Award Nov. 13, has always known he wanted a career in Hollywood. But he’s something of an accidental restaurateur. No, he didn’t exactly stumble into co-owning Clutch, one of the hottest upscale casual restaurants in Venice,
The networks still want to be a part of your world, and the success last week of ABC’s “The Little Mermaid Live” was a reminder that they can — especially with the kind of appointment programming that the streamers still don’t do. “The Little Mermaid Live” averaged 9 million viewers and a 2.6 rating among
NBCUniversal is best known among advertisers for selling TV commercials. Now the media giant wants to burnish its reputation for selling something that is only tangentially related to the TV screen. People who signed up for the company’s “BravoCon 2019” fan event, slated to take place between November 15 and November 17 in New York
November 13, 2019 6:11AM PT Rob Lowe’s fish-out-of-water British cop show “Wild Bill” will not get a second season. Despite the pull of big-name U.S. talent, the series failed to set ratings alight in the U.K. and garnered mixed reviews. British broadcaster ITV said Wednesday that the show will not be coming back. The series
“The Great Century” is being adapted as an epic drama series by Dramacorp-Pampas Studios, which has landed the rights to Swedish author Jan Guillou’s book series. Guillou is known for his “Hamilton” spy-thriller novels, which Dramacorp-Pampas Studios has brought to TV as “Agent Hamilton.” That project had an international premiere at Mipcom and has presold
Emmy Award-winning producer Tony Hernandez and Emmy-nominated producer Lilly Burns will receive the Creative Leadership Award on behalf of Jax Media at the Variety New Leaders event presented by City National Bank, taking place Nov. 14 in New York City. As founders of Jax Media, Hernandez and Burns have produced shows and specials such as
More “Friends” could well be there for you when the HBO Max rain starts to fall. An unscripted “Friends” reunion special is in the works at the forthcoming WarnerMedia streamer, Variety has confirmed with sources. Sources say original cast members Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer are in discussions
When Olivia Colman steps into the royal shoes of Queen Elizabeth II, viewers in the U.K. and Ireland will be able to watch for free as Netflix makes the eagerly awaited Season 3 curtain-raiser available gratis. The streaming giant will launch the series opener on a dedicated site for a limited period starting Sunday, making it
November 12, 2019 3:01PM PT The entire cast of the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives” have been released from their contracts, Variety has confirmed. The daytime drama has run for over 13,000 episodes since first debuting in 1965. The show will go on hiatus at the end of November, though it has shot enough
Byron Allen’s racial discrimination case against Comcast Corp. on Wednesday heads to the Supreme Court, where justices will consider Comcast’s argument that the case should hinge on two words: “but for.” Allen filed a $20 billion lawsuit against Comcast in February 2015, arguing that the nation’s largest cable operator was discriminating against his company, Entertainment
HBO Max is developing a series based on Scholastic’s “Point Horror” books by R.L Stine, Variety has learned exclusively. The project hails from Picturestart and Lionsgate Television. The show, which is currently titled “Point Fear,” is described as an anthology series that exposes the horrors of being a teenager. Each episode of the show will
SPOILER ALERT: This review discusses some spoilers for the first episode of Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian.” A vicious killer with a tragic past and the faint glimmers of a beating heart is no stranger to television, a medium particularly suited to telling winding stories about rises, falls and redemptions. And yet it’s still something of
Rogers & Cowan/PMK has promoted Lindsay Galin, Jeff Raymond, Dennis Dembia, Michael Donkis, and Marian Koltai-Levine to executive positions in its entertainment division. Galin and Raymond have been named co-presidents of talent. Dembia and Donkis have been promoted to co-presidents of entertainment and business strategy, and Koltai-Levine will serve as president of film, content and
Laura Dern has wanted to act since she was seven years old, and, coming from acting parents including father Bruce Dern and mother Diane Ladd, one may think her parents encouraged the propensity. But according to Dern, that wasn’t the case. “They didn’t want me to,” the “Marriage Story” actress told Sterling K. Brown during
November 12, 2019 8:24AM PT Sean Spicer waved goodbye to “Dancing With the Stars” last night, but ABC waved hello to a pretty big bump in the show’s rating and total viewership. Monday night’s episode scored a 1.0 rating and 7.2 million total viewers, up roughly 25% from last week’s 0.8 and 6.2 million. The
Studio Lambert is linking up with Izzie Pick Ibarra, the showrunner and exec producer of Fox’s “The Masked Singer.” The development deal will see All3Media-backed Studio Lambert and Pick Ibarra work together on new projects and others already in the works at Stephen Lambert’s shingle. Having relocated from the U.K. to the U.S. 15 years
Discovery has long depended on traditional TV ratings to measure the activity of viewers of networks like HGTV and TLC. Now it’s hoping to bring another yardstick into the field. The New York owner of Discovery Channel and Food Network said it has struck a strategic partnership with Inscape, a provider of viewing data of
November 12, 2019 5:25AM PT Ricky Gervais is back. The comedian is returning as host of the Golden Globes for the fifth time. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the announcement Tuesday morning. “Once again, they’ve made me an offer I can’t refuse. But this is the very last time I’m doing this, which could
November 12, 2019 5:13AM PT CBS Corp. said third quarter profit dropped as investments in new series for its linear and digital outlets and costs associated with its pending merger with Viacom Inc. overcame increases in revenue during the period. The New York owner of the CBS television network and the Showtime premium-cable service is
Another TV head-to-head is brewing with the announcement of a second period drama series about Austrian Empress Elisabeth II – known as Sisi – in the works. Germany’s Story House Pictures and Austria-based Satel Film, which made Netflix’s “Freud,” are collaborating on “Sisi,” a six-part drama that goes into production in 2020. News of the project
November 12, 2019 1:01AM PT ITV revenues were down by 2% in the first nine months of 2019. CEO Carolyn McCall, who has set a strategy refresh in motion, said the U.K.-based broadcaster’s performance was in line with its expectations, adding that, “although the economic environment continues to be uncertain, we are making good progress
November 11, 2019 8:00PM PT Sean Spicer will no longer appear on America’s television sets every Monday evening, at least as part of “Dancing With the Stars.” The former White House press secretary was voted off “DWTS” Monday night despite President Donald Trump’s earlier tweet urging the American people to vote for Spicer on ABC’s
Alex Trebek appeared to tear up on Monday’s episode of “Jeopardy!” after a contestant used his response to a prompt to convey the message “We love you, Alex.” As his answer to one of Monday’s questions, Tournament of Champions semifinalist Dhruv Gaur penned the message with a heart in place of the word “love,” betting