Television

October 24, 2019 4:22AM PT Anne-Marie Duff and Rafe Spall will star in “Salisbury,” the fact-based BBC drama about the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the southwestern English city. Duff (“Shameless”) and Spall (“The War of the Worlds”) will star alongside Mark Addy (“Game of Thrones”), Annabel

Newen, the Paris-based production and sales company owned by TF1 Group, has signed a strategic deal with Anton, a producer and financier of global content. Under the pact, Anton will be co-investing in Newen’s distribution rights for both in-house productions and third-party programs across fiction, documentary and animation, up to €35 million ($39 million). This

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Episode 100,” the sixth episode of “American Horror Story: 1984.” One hundred episodes is a big milestone in television these days, so kudos to “American Horror Story” for getting there. Also kudos for pulling out all the stops for this big episode — it definitely

October 23, 2019 2:29PM PT Four women will moderate the next Democratic debate, slated for broadcast on MSNBC. Rachel Maddow, the primetime host; Andrea Mitchell, the veteran foreign correspondent; Kristen Welker, the NBC News White House correspondent; and Ashley Parker, a Washington Post White House reporter, will moderate the event, MSNBC said Wednesday. The broadcast

Megan Clarken, a Nielsen executive who has been instrumental in the company’s quest to keep tabs on consumers in the many new ways they have to watch TV, is leaving the measurement giant. “After 15 years at Nielsen, Megan Clarken will be leaving at the end of the month to take on a new position

James Murdoch doesn’t watch Fox News and he doesn’t watch “Succession.” “There are some shows that you just know you’re never going to watch,” the youngest son of media mogul and Fox Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch told Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones on Wednesday, alluding to to the HBO series centered on a family-run media

Freddie Prinze Jr. is joining another pilot, this time at NBCUniversal’s forthcoming Peacock streaming service. He will play a recurring role in the “Punky Brewster” sequel pilot which was ordered when the Peacock unfurled its slate of feathers back in September. Prinze Jr. was a part of the pilot for the CW’s “Nancy Drew” earlier

October 23, 2019 11:45AM PT Traci Lynn Blackwell has joined BET has head of scripted programming. Blackwell joins BET from the CW, where she led current programming. As executive VP, scripted programming, Blackwell will lead all originals efforts for BET Networks’ linear channels and streaming service BET Plus. She will report to BET Networks president

In an onstage conversation with Katie Couric at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit on Wednesday, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos waved away concerns over the streaming service’s upcoming loss of “Friends” and “The Office,” instead focusing on the company’s push in original programming and its international content growth. “One of the reasons ‘Friends’ and

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the first three episodes of “Castle Rock” Season 2, streaming now on Hulu. When “Castle Rock” co-creators and executive producers Dusty Thomason and Sam Shaw were first researching Maine to develop their Hulu anthology series based on the world of Stephen King, something that

Less than a week after announcing its historic deal with Studio Ghibli, HBO Max is continuing its push into animation. The forthcoming streamer has ordered four one-hour “Adventure Time” specials from Cartoon Network Studios, the first two of which will debut exclusively on HBO Max in 2020. Collectively titled “Adventure Time: Distant Lands,” the specials

The CBS Studios miniseries based on James Comey’s  book “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership” has added another player. Robert Coyote has boarded the show to play Robert Mueller, Comey’s predecessor in the role of FBI Director, who was appointed to lead an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. His final

Top media analysts have cut their short-term growth prospects for ViacomCBS following last week’s financial disclosures that came as part of the closing of CBS Corp.’s stock-swap takeover deal for Viacom. In the Oct. 17 filing, CBS Corp. released specific year-to-year projections for its free cash flow yield, guidance that the company has not offered

CBS has announced the six writers who will participate in its 2019-2020 Writers Mentoring Program. The eight-month mentoring program, set up in 2004, aims to provide access and opportunity for writers by pairing them with a CBS executive mentor who helps them develop a new piece of material. Following the mentorship period, the writers will

If France’s Banijay Group clinches its proposed purchase of Endemol Shine, which could happen within the next few days, the deal would mark peak M&A in the international indie content world. The MO of both companies is acquiring and aggregating brands and IP, and their union would be the largest ever of its kind on

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Storybook Love,” the fifth episode of the fourth season of “This Is Us.” “This Is Us” star Milo Ventimiglia is a veteran producer and director, having launched a production company (Divide Pictures) more than 15 years ago. But his first time stepping behind the camera

Television producer and executive Al Burton, known for his work on “The Jeffersons” and “Diff’rent Strokes,” died Tuesday at his home in San Mateo, California. He was 91. Burton leaves behind a six-decade legacy of hit television shows that also included “One Day at a Time,” “Silver Spoons,” “Square Pegs” and “Facts of Life.” However, long

Dwayne Wade is bouncing his way into WarnerMedia’s court. The retired NBA All Star has signed a multi-faceted, multi-year deal with the company, including a development deal via his 59th & Prairie Entertainment production banner. Part of the deal sees Wade sign on as a commentator at Turner Sports. He is set to make appearances

ESPN is designing a new configuration for “Outside The Lines.” The long-running investigative program, which has aired weekdays on various ESPN networks since 2003, is being cancelled in favor of an hour-long edition on Saturday mornings and various “OTL” segments that will pop up during programming staples such as “SportsCenter” and “E:60,” the Disney-backed sports-media

Prolific television writer James Schmerer, whose credits included “The High Chapparal,” “MacGyver” and “CHiPs,” died on Oct. 4 at his home in Eugene, Ore., following a stroke. He was 81. Schmerer, a native of Flushing, N.Y., launched his television writing career in the 1960s and became a member of the Writers Guild of America West

CBS has announced the four participants chosen for its 2019-2020 Directors Initiative. The initiative, which is now in its 16th year, aims to provide a platform for experienced directors to gain access to showrunners, execs, managers and agents, as well as shadowing network and TV studio shows at CBS throughout the year. This year’s participants

October 22, 2019 12:20PM PT Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were indicted on a charge of conspiring to commit federal programs bribery on Tuesday, in connection with allegations that they paid $500,000 to get their daughters into the University of Southern California. Loughlin and Giannulli already faced charges of conspiring to

October 22, 2019 11:55AM PT “This Is Us” and “The Masked Singer” continue to dual it out at the top of the delayed viewing ratings chart, with the NBC drama narrowly overtaking the Fox singing show after seven days of delayed viewing for week 3. “This Is Us” was the biggest grower of the week,

Former Fox TV Group chairman Gary Newman has joined Attention Capital, the startup venture launched earlier this year by another Fox alumnus, Joe Marchese. Newman and another media biz veteran, Lisa Gersh, were named Tuesday as executive partners of Attention Capital. Newman will focus on acquisition and investment opportunities. Marchese, who previously headed advertising sales

October 22, 2019 10:15AM PT Let’s talk about the whacked-out letters that hit the media sphere in the past eight days. One was that bizarre mea culpa dropped Oct. 17 by the no-holds-barred showrunner Kurt Sutter in response to getting canned from his series “Mayans MC.” No stranger to complaints of unprofessional behavior on his

Lisa Ling, the former “View” co-host who currently emcees “This Is Life with Lisa Ling” on CNN, has inked an overall deal with forthcoming streaming service HBO Max. As part of the deal, which marks an expansion of Ling’s relationship with CNN and HBO Max parent company WarnerMedia,  HBO Max has given the greenlight to

Writers’ assistant Olga Lexell used to rack up around $10,000 a year in medical bills to manage a chronic condition, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, that requires her to sit through thyroid X-rays and frequent blood tests. While her show was on hiatus, she would pay $500 a month to extend the insurance that the studio offered, even

HBO’s new comedy “Mrs. Fletcher” follows the journey of an empty-nester divorcee who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and sexual exploration following her son’s departure for college. At the series premiere on Monday night at the Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, Kathryn Hahn discussed playing the titular role of Eve Fletcher, a middle-aged woman

WarnerMedia has upped seasoned communications exec Oliver Herrgesell to become executive vice president of communications for WarnerMedia Sales and International. Gerhard Zeiler, WarnerMedia’s chief revenue officer and president of WarnerMedia International Networks, told staff about the change in a memo issued Tuesday. “Oliver has 20 years of experience as a communications and governmental affairs professional,

More than half of the world’s new TV dramas now hail from China, market research firm Ampere Analysis said Tuesday in a new report on global content production over the past six months. In the last half year, top Chinese broadcasters and OTT platforms have commissioned almost 300 new drama series – as many as