Television

October 18, 2019 1:01PM PT A bidding tussle for domestic streaming rights to Comedy Central’s long-running, irreverent animated series “South Park” may result in a deal as large as $500 million for cable parent Viacom and show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Bloomberg first reported news of the impending deal, pointing to a closing

It may not have even premiered yet, but Disney Plus has handed out a second season renewal for “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” Inspired by the “High School Musical” movies, the series was created and is executive produced by Tim Federle, and stars Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, Matt Cornett, Sofia Wylie, Larry Saperstein, Julia

Amy Schumer’s journey through her pregnancy is coming to HBO Max. The streamer, set to launch in the spring of 2020, has ordered the documentary “Expecting Amy” (working title), which will provide a “unfiltered,” “behind-the-scenes” look at Schumer as she goes through a difficult pregnancy while touring and preparing for a stand-up special. ”Women are

October 18, 2019 9:55AM PT “Bluff City Law” will wrap up its first season after the NBC drama airs its initial 10 episodes. While not an official cancellation, the move clearly does not bode well for the freshman series getting a second season. The show has aired four episodes to date, with the fifth set

A group of prominent women, all at the forefront of the Me Too movement, wrote a letter to Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, urging an external investigation of NBC News. Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Greta Van Susteren, Linda Vester, Addie Zinone and Eleanor McManus, the founder of Press Forward, have all signed the letter

NBC’s “Sunnyside,” which was pulled from the network’s schedule this week, closed off its broadcast run to roughly the same numbers as last week. The Kal Penn comedy posted a 0.3 rating and 1.2 million total viewers, continuing its run as the lowest rated and least watched new fall show in Live+Same Day. NBC has

Bill Macy, who played Bea Arthur’s husband Walter Findlay on the “All in the Family” spinoff, “Maude,” died on Thursday. He was 97. “My buddy Bill Macy passed away at 7:13pm tonight. He was a spitfire right up to the end,” producer and manager Matt Beckoff wrote on Facebook. “My condolences to his beautiful wife Samantha

All3Media has dropped out of the running to buy rival production and distribution giant Endemol Shine, Variety has learned. All3Media, jointly owned by Discovery and Liberty Global, had lately been running the numbers to see if the acquisition made sense. Liberty is building up a huge war chest, having gained approval to offload a raft

The comedian wanted people to laugh. But not all the time. Sometimes, not at all. Ryan Reiss typically spends his evenings warming up studio audiences for Seth Meyers’ “Late Night” show. Big guffaws are in demand. On recent Friday evenings, however, Reiss has held forth in a different studio at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters,

The international TV business convened in Cannes this week for Mipcom, the biggest television market of the year and a firm date on the calendar for distributors and acquisitions execs. Although no one title emerged as this year’s standout, there were deals aplenty on the ground. Here are some of the most eye-catching: – Pathé

Several protests have been filed with the federal government over the re-election of Gabrielle Carteris to the SAG-AFTRA presidency in August. Carteris won the contest handily to remain as top elected officer of the performers union with 13,537 votes, or 44% of ballots cast, compared to 10,682 for Matthew Modine; 5,048 for Jane Austin; 1,096

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix released the trailer for “American Son” starring Kerry Washington and first looks at Dolly Parton’s new anthology series, “Heartstrings.” FIRST LOOKS Netflix has released the trailer for “American Son,” which premieres Nov. 1 on the streaming service. Directed by Tony award-winner Kenny Leon, the film is based on the

October 17, 2019 3:25PM PT Monica Beletsky is the latest of a small group of content creators to set an overall deal with Apple and their streaming platform, Apple TV Plus. Under the multi-year deal, Beletsky will develop and produce television series exclusively for the streamer. This is the first overall of Beletsky’s career. Her

Saladin Patterson has signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television. Under the multi-year deal, Patterson will develop, write and produce comedy series for network, cable and streaming platforms. He was previously under a development deal at the studio earlier in his career. Patterson is currently an executive producer on the upcoming FX series

At TV market Mipcom in Cannes this week the team behind BBC-Hulu series “Normal People” – led by Lenny Abrahamson, the Oscar nominated director of “Room” – presented the first footage from the show, and explained how they approached the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel. Variety had exclusive access to the presentation. Ed Guiney, one

“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie,” which dropped on Netflix Oct. 11, drew around 6.5 million total viewers in its first three days on the streaming platform, according to Nielsen. The movie also reached just under 8.2 million unique TV viewers. “El Camino” unsurprisingly drew its biggest audience of the three days on day 1,

October 17, 2019 1:00PM PT Natalie Morales has been cast in “Dead to Me” Season 2 at Netflix, Variety has learned exclusively. Morales will appear in the recurring role of Michelle. Described as wry and down to earth, Michelle has a relaxed charm and infectious wit. She forms a connection with Judy (Linda Cardellini) at the

UPDATED: Kurt Sutter has been fired from his role as co-showrunner on “Mayans MC,” Variety has learned from sources. Sutter notified the cast and crew of the show of his exit in an email after several complaints were made about his behavior on the set of the series. In the email, Sutter wrote that he had

In the fourth season of PBS’ “Finding Your Roots,” musician Questlove learns his ancestors came over to America on the very last slave ship in 1860. Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., who hosts the show shows him the ship manifest and tells him about the settlement in which they lived, and the musician begins to

That Harvey Weinstein, the alleged sexual predator Ronan Farrow was investigating, had something in common with his father, Woody Allen, was something Farrow always knew. Defending his sister Dylan Farrow, who has said since she was 7 that Allen sexually abused her, has been “weaponized against me since the moment I started talking about it,”

Just days after Wendy Williams learned she’d be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the talk show host was in true form imagining how this honor would elevate her already storied career. “I’m already in the Smithsonian, so now I’ll be immortalized-immortalized,” Williams says. In addition to preparing for her star ceremony,

CBS, Stephen Colbert Extend Contract Through August 2023 – Variety You will be redirected back to your article in seconds Miramax owner beIN Media is pushing into the competitive Turkish drama market. The beIN-owned Turkish pay-TV operator Digiturk has commissioned production company Ay Yapim to make drama series “The Choice” for its streaming platform, beIN

Miramax owner beIN Media is pushing into the competitive Turkish drama market. The beIN-owned Turkish pay-TV operator Digiturk has commissioned production company Ay Yapim to make drama series “The Choice” for its streaming platform, beIN Connect, in Turkey. “The Choice” marks the first original series for Digiturk since sports and entertainment group beIN Media acquired the

October 17, 2019 8:35AM PT One performer’s routine on “The Masked Singer” last night might have been a little too bare bones for the judges, however, the show’s ratings showed a lot more flesh. The Fox singing competition show ticked up from last week among adults 18-49 to a 2.1 rating, and gained around 100,000

Megyn Kelly made the first steps toward a TV comeback on Wednesday night, appearing on Fox News, the network that brought her to prominence, to decry NBC, the network from which she parted ways last year. It was a booking that had everything that has made Kelly a compelling figure for years — a sense

October 17, 2019 7:06AM PT Negotiations between CBS and Viacom went down to the wire on the day the long-gestating transaction was finally sealed on Aug. 13. CBS Corp. and Viacom revealed the timeline of the merger talks in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday that runs more than 650 pages. Also Thursday, CBS

Newly launched streaming platform BET Plus is debuting its first new original unscripted series, “American Gangster: Trap Queens,” an inside look at the lives of some of the country’s most notorious female gangsters, Variety has learned exclusively. Narrated by rapper and actor Jeezy, the first five episodes of the two-part series — an adaptation of

“Daybreak” fits neatly into one of the genres that seems increasingly major for Netflix: The drama that places in counterpoint the big emotions felt by teens and the literal end of the world.  To wit: “The End of the F***ing World,” a well-regarded British co-production, is returning for a second season in November; Netflix’s Sabrina

October 17, 2019 6:30AM PT Food Network and celebrity chef Guy Fieri are teaming up again, this time on a culinary competition program. The five-episode “Tournament of Champions” will feature 16 chefs going head-to-head in a series of challenges using ingredients and special cooking tools and equipment  while racing against the clock. The difficulty of

Comcast-backed Sky is making a new Italian original titled “Anna,” centered on a 13-year-old Sicilian girl who must contend with a viral contagion that has killed off all adults on the island. The series, which has echoes of “The Walking Dead” and “Hunger Games,” is based on a book by the same title by author-turned-director