Television

In today’s roundup, Comedy Central renews “South Side” for a second season and Disney Channel sets an Oct. 4 release date for its interactive live special “Just Roll With IT: You Decide Live.” DATES The four-part HBO/Sky limited series “Catherine the Great,” starring Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke, will debut Oct. 21 on HBO. Mirren

William Schmidt, who’s challenging incumbent WGA West president David Goodman in the upcoming election, has accused guild leadership of bringing chaos to the industry. Schmidt, whose credits include “Yellowstone,” “Outsiders” and “Charmed,” has campaigned for the past two months in opposition to Goodman’s directive for members to fire their agents if they had not signed

Kurt Sutter says he will abdicate co-showrunner duties for “Mayans M.C.” if the show is renewed for a third season.  “It’s time for the white man to leave the building,” Sutter announced at the FX show’s season two premiere at the Arclight Hollywood Cinerama Dome on Tuesday night. Sutter’s potential exit would leave Elgin James

August 28, 2019 11:16AM PT The entire 2019 class of the Waner Bros. TV Directors’ Workshop has landed directing gigs on a Warner Bros. series. The workshop aims to bring talent from other creative fields to television directing and increase diversity in the field. The latest class marks the seventh annual graduating class since its

August 28, 2019 11:00AM PT Naomie Harris has been cast in the upcoming HBO–Sky Studios co-production “The Third Day.” In addition, Philippa Lowthorpe has boarded the series to direct the second half of the show’s six episodes. In the first half of the series, titled “Summer” and directed by Marc Munden, Sam (Jude Law) is

In a competitive situation, Netflix has given a series order to a drama series inspired by Amy Chozick’s best-selling book “Chasing Hillary.” Julie Plec will write and executive produce the series along with Chozick. Titled “The Girls on the Bus,” the series is inspired largely by the chapter of the same name from “Chasing Hillary.”

August 28, 2019 10:00AM PT Screenwriter and producer Mark Boal has boarded ABC’s planned adaptation of Mitchell Zuckoff’s book “Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11.” The broadcaster had announced earlier this month that they were developing the nonfiction book as a potential limited series with plans to air it in 2021 for the 20th

Here’s how sure Sarah Silverman was that her canceled Hulu series “I Love You, America” wouldn’t get an Emmy nomination: This past spring she hosted a For Your Consideration event for another show in her category, Sasha Baron Cohen’s Showtime series “Who Is America?” “I don’t think I realized we were eligible,” Silverman recently told

In a trailer for Paolo Sorrentino’s “The New Pope,” a grizzled new pontiff, played by John Malkovich, walks through the Vatican amid a bunch of male clerics while his predecessor, a winking Jude Law, strolls down a beach in a papal white Speedo amid a gaggle of female admirers. But in spite of his head-turning

August 28, 2019 8:49AM PT The BBC has launched its first look trailer for its upcoming high-end Second World War drama “World On Fire.” The seven-part series stars rising British actors Jonah Hauer-King and Julia Brown alongside an impressive ensemble that includes Academy Award-winner Helen Hunt, Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville, and Sean Bean – who all

“A Black Lady Sketch Show” is coming back for more sketches crammed with craziness and special guests. The series, created by Robin Thede, has been renewed for a second season on HBO with two episodes yet to air in its freshman outing. “A Black Lady Sketch Show” features narrative sketches performed by a core cast

 In today’s TV news roundup, “Mr. Robot” will premiere its final season on Oct. 6, and Lauren Graham joins “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” at NBC.  DATES The final season of USA Network’s “Mr. Robot” will return on Sunday, Oct. 6, a departure from its usual Wednesday time-slot. The 13-episode season will be set during the 2015 Christmas

With his company poised to merge once more with fellow media conglom Viacom, CEO Joe Ianniello on Tuesday addressed CBS’ diversity and inclusion efforts. In a company-wide memo, Ianniello touted recent hires in the news, casting, and television-stations divisions, as well growth in the company’s human-resources and diversity-and-inclusion departments. The chief executive also promised reforms

August 27, 2019 1:59PM PT The MTV Video Movie Awards posted only a small decline in the ratings from last year. This year’s iteration was down 6% in the 18-49 demographic and was watched by a total 4.9 million total viewers across the dozen or so networks on which it was simulcast. Last year’s show

When Netflix announced that it would be doing a “Dark Crystal” series, the reaction was twofold and extreme. There were the diehard fans who couldn’t believe that they were getting another chance to dive into this world, and the neophytes who had no idea what they were talking about. For the latter group, the two

Leslie Jones, one of the more dynamic cast members of “Saturday Night Live,” has opted to leave the late-night mainstay after five seasons, according to people familiar with the matter. Jones, who first joined the program as a writer and quickly became a featured player and cast member in 2014, is set to explore film

For six years now, Cartoon Network’s “Steven Universe” has been pumping out story after graceful story about the power of love, friendship, cooperation, self-acceptance and trust. Creator Rebecca Sugar, who previously worked on the network’s equally surreal “Adventure Time,” has created and honed an animated galaxy unlike any other, overflowing with distinct characters and complex

August 27, 2019 11:00AM PT ABC is developing a comedy based on the “I Mom So Hard” web series, with the duo of creators on board to star. Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley are also co-executive producers on the half-hour comedy which has received a script development deal at the Disney-owned network. The duo previously

ABC has given a put-pilot commitment to an untitled project from Sarah Hyland and Emily Gordon, a multi-camera comedy produced by 20th Century Fox Television and inspired by the real-life experiences of the “Modern Family” actress and “The Big Sick” writer. Hyland, who will serve as executive producer, will star in the series after the

August 27, 2019 10:00AM PT Apple TV Plus’ half-hour comedy series “Dickinson,” starring Hailee Steinfeld and Jane Krakowski, will headline the third annual Tribeca TV Festival on Saturday, September 14. Apple dropped the “Dickinson” teaser trailer on Monday, just a week after releasing a trailer for “The Morning Show,” as it slowly begins to unveil

August 27, 2019 9:45AM PT “Power” star Lela Loren has joined the cast of “Altered Carbon” for season 2. Loren will play Danica Harlan, the charming and ambitious governor of planet Harlan’s World who has the support of the people, but keeps an uneasy grip on the political players who surround her. Rumor has it

TV’s longest-running A.M. news battle is entering a new and potentially critical new phase. “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” are locked in a neck-and-neck race for dominance among the eggs-and-O.J. crowd, and their split has been stratified for months. For more than three years, “GMA” has typically commanded more viewers overall, while “Today” consistently

August 27, 2019 9:00AM PT Mitch Albom’s bestselling novel “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” is getting the TV series treatment. Fox has issued a script-to-series development order for the project, with Albom himself in place to write and executive produce. The one-hour drama project hails from Warner Bros. Television and Fox Entertainment. Using

Leave it to Betty White to keep conquering new fields of play. The 97-year-old actress, who has over the decades held forth on everything from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to a popular Snickers commercial, has found her next role. She is one of the main attractions in NBC’s next push to bring broader audiences

International TV production group Fremantle and Indonesia’s Wahana Kreator Nusantara have agreed a partnership for scripted projects. The first is an Asian horror anthology “The Sacred Riana: Bedtime Stories,” starring Indonesian magician and illusionist The Sacred Riana. “Bedtime Stories” is an English-language series set around the continent and inspired by folklore and urban legends. Each

Dave Chappelle doesn’t waste any time wading into controversy in his latest Netflix comedy special: the comedian doubts the Michael Jackson accusers, talks Kevin Hart’s Oscars controversy, discusses Louis C.K. and R. Kelly’s sexual misconduct allegations and makes fun of trans people in “Sticks and Stones,” which dropped Monday. “I don’t believe these motherf—ers,” says

Julia Louis-Dreyfus knew the bar was high when it came time to end “Veep.” “It was very important for us to stick this f—ing landing and then some,” she told Variety‘s My Favorite Episode podcast. “Because I really feel this has been the job of a lifetime for me thus far. I feel and felt

In today’s TV news roundup, USA Network drops the first trailer for “Briarpatch” with Rosario Dawson and Vudu givers viewers a sneak peek of its first original streaming series “Mr. Mom.” DATES Bravo‘s “Below Deck” will premiere its seventh season on Oct. 7. In the forthcoming episodes, Captain Lee, Kate Chastain (Chief Stewardess), and Ashton Pienaar (Bosun) return as

Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week, “Carnival Row” with Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom debuts on Amazon, and “The

“The Goldbergs” has found its two new showrunners for season 7. Chris Bishop and Alex Barnow, who have worked on the series since it premiered back in 2013, have been tapped to head the series as it moves forward. They are replacing creator Adam F. Goldberg who exited Sony Pictures Television, which produces the series,