Miriam Rivera, the world’s first transgender reality television star, died Feb. 5 in Mexico under mysterious circumstances. She was 38. Though Rivera died several months ago, the news emerged Friday. Her husband, Daniel Cuervo, confirmed her death in a February Facebook post. According to reports, she was found in her apartment and appeared to have
Television
For the past 14 years, Ava DuVernay has used film as a way to tell the often untold stories of marginalized communities — but the Oscar-nominated filmmaker has more IMDb credits as a publicist than as a director. DuVernay rose through the ranks as a PR executive early in her career before starting her own
August 9, 2019 9:00AM PT Audible has named Rachel Ghiazza to its newly created role of senior vice president of content acquisition and development, where she will build and develop partnerships with creators and publishers. There, she will lead the audiobook and audio storytelling company’s content acquisition, content deal operation and talent relations team. “Rachel’s
Universal Content Productions (UCP) has lined up three major stars for its upcoming “Dr. Death” series. Jamie Dornan, Alec Baldwin, and Christian Slater will all star in the series, which is based on the Wondery podcast of the same name. UCP in the process of shopping the series to networks and streaming services. “Dr. Death”
In this week’s International TV Newswire, Scandinavia’s NENT announces its latest Viaplay original, “Partisan,” DirecTV Go hits three new Latin American territories; “Blockbusters” will open the Edinburgh Intl. TV Festival; and Endemol Shine Poland announces theatrical for “How to Marry a Millionaire.” NENT ANNOUNCES VIAPLAY ORIGINAL ‘PARTISAN’ Swedish broadcaster Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) has ordered
“Saturday Night Live” cast member Leslie Jones has announced a new stand-up special with Netflix. Jones’ joins a growing number of Netflix comedy specials that includes recent additions “Best Time of Our Lives” with Adam Devine, “Live: Your Welcome” with Miranda Sings, “Son of Patricia” with Trevor Noah, “Homecoming King” with Hasan Minhaj, “Growing” with
With his new CBS All Access show “Why Women Kill,” Marc Cherry maintains the titillating drama of his previous efforts while pushing into more “mature” territory — a move he owes to the streaming platform. “Working on a network show where they want 23 episodes a season — it’s a really tough factory gig,” Cherry
In today’s roundup, Bravo announces its BravoCon lineup and Netflix rounds out the cast for the drama series “Away.” CASTING Netflix has announced the cast for their original series “Away,” about an astronaut who leaves her husband and daughter to take charge of an international space crew on a dangerous mission. Hillary Swank and Josh
August 8, 2019 2:25PM PT CBS is stepping up its plans to stream local news. The company said it intends to accelerate the roll out of local versions of its CBSN streaming-video news hub in all 13 markets where its CBS-owned TV stations have local news operations. CBS launched a New York version of the
Universal Television Alternative Studio has named producer and executive Toby Gorman as its new president, overseeing development, domestic sales strategy and creative affairs at the unscripted and alternative-formats studio. Most recently the interim CEO of Magical Elves, Gorman succeeds Meredith Ahr, who last fall was upped to president of NBC Entertainment’s alternative and reality group.
CBS Corp. delivered strong second quarter earnings on Thursday, posting top and bottom line growth as the company prepares for the transformation of a merger with its corporate sibling Viacom. CBS reported what it described as record second quarter revenue of $3.81 billion, up 10% from the comparable quarter last year. Operating income was up
The cast and creator of “The Good Place” got emotional about bidding farewell to the NBC comedy at its final Television Critics Association press tour panel. Ted Danson and Kristen Bell came out onto the stage holding hands, before it all got a little too much for Bell who had to reach for the tissues.
At a time when TV viewers have more power than ever to skip past commercials, Madison Avenue is acting like it’s the heyday of the Pillsbury Doughboy, Toucan Sam and Mr. Whipple. TV ads, those 30-second sales pitches that prognosticators like to say are on the way out and about which consumers complain incessantly, are
August 8, 2019 12:00PM PT The comedy series “Mr. Iglesias” has been renewed for a second season at Netflix. The series stars comedian Gabriel Iglesias as a a good-natured public high school teacher who works at his alma mater. He takes on teaching gifted but misfit kids to not only save them from being “counseled
“The Terror: Infamy” didn’t need ghosts to be frightening. Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein’s new iteration of the “Terror” series, both thanks to its subject matter and supernatural apparitions lurking at the edges, is permeated by an ever-creeping sense of dread that proves undeniable. Tracing the needless devastation of Japanese-American internment during World War II,
August 8, 2019 11:24AM PT Jimmy Fallon is stepping up his game for the coming season with plans to air five Sunday episodes of “The Tonight Show” following NFL games and a week of live broadcasts to launch the 2019-20 season. “The Tonight Show’s” Sunday run begins Sept. 8 following what is sure to be
Expanded universes, travelling characters, major crossover events — network television is banking on bigger franchise series across the board in the wake of overall creative deals and bolstered ratings, resulting in a new wave of storytelling and audience investment. In the 2019-20 television season, at least one franchise series punctuates each major net’s schedule, from
“Bluff City Law” is going to have more episodes in its freshman season than first expected. NBC had originally ordered the legal drama for a 13-episode debut season, but has now asked for six more scripts from Dean Georgaris and the other writers on the show. At the show’s Television Critics Association summer press tour
RIO DE JANEIRO — As part of an effort to cope with increasing competition and new viewing habits, Grupo Globo opened Thursday Aug 8 three 4K and 4K HDR equipped studios, totaling 26,000 square meters. With the expansion, Globo Studios, located in Rio, consolidates its position as Latin America’s largest content production center. The three
Baseball has long been a game that both kids and adults can enjoy. ESPN will soon test whether that maxim still holds. When the Disney-owned sports giant broadcasts one of the games in the annual Little League World Series on Wednesday, August 21, it will offer one traditional telecast on its flagship cable network and
August 8, 2019 4:55AM PT CBS and AT&T came to new terms on carriage of CBS stations on the telecommunications giant’s DirecTV satellite service, ending a prolonged blackout of CBS programming. CBS, the nation’s most-watched TV network, had become unavailable on the AT&T services in late July after the two parties failed to come to
Viacom said profit in its third fiscal quarter rose as the company saw positive ad sales from its cable networks for the first time in about five years. The New York owner of Nickelodeon, MTV and the Paramount movie studio said operating income rose 1%, to $757 million from $752 million. Revenue rose 4% to
August 8, 2019 2:30AM PT Netflix has set the cast for “Behind Her Eyes,” a psychological thriller from Left Bank Pictures, producer of “The Crown.” Simona Brown (“The Night Manager”) and Eve Hewson (“The Knick”) have signed on to the six-part series, which is an adaptation of a bestselling novel by Sarah Pinborough. Tom Bateman
August 8, 2019 1:54AM PT Entertainment One has hired Matt Pritchard and Matt Walton to boost its unscripted business in the U.K. and wider Europe. Independent production and distribution group eOne has been making moves into the unscripted space of late, buying Daisybeck Entertainment. It also owns another U.K. producer, Whizz Kid Entertainment. Pritchard and
For nearly two decades’ worth of the life of our culture, Tori Spelling has been apologizing for herself. The actress came to prominence on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” the teen soap through which she became an avatar of ditzy privilege, less so for anything she did onscreen than for the unavoidable fact of how she’d found
Netflix has won the battle for a multimillion-dollar, multi-year overall deal with “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the streaming platform confirmed to Variety. This follows a three-way bidding war that had recently narrowed from the six major studios to Netflix, Amazon and Disney. The deal is a multi-year agreement to write,
Fox Entertainment, now a network devoid of a companion studio, has inked an exclusive broadcast-only overall deal with “Criminal Minds” and “Teen Wolf” creator Jeff Davis, in what it says will be the first of a series of direct deals with creators. This new model is designed to remove some of the layers from the
In today’s roundup, Fox issued a new trailer for new crime series “Prodigal Son,” and announced a number of A-list guest stars on their animated shows. CASTINGS John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Jason Momoa, Bryan Cranston, Niecy Nash, Megan Mullally, Holly Hunter, Mary Steenburgen and Billy Eichner will all appear as guest voices along with a
If you’re watching Fox’s “BH90210” to see if Donna and David got hitched or more pressingly Dylan’s fate, you’ll have to save such fantasies for fan fiction. That’s because this “Beverly Hills, 90210” revival, which premieres tonight, is more of a soapy parody, giving the actors behind our favorite characters the space to play versions
Gains in affiliate fees and retransmission consent revenue drove Fox Corp.’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings, despite a downturn in advertising revenue and subscriber losses. Fox Corp. on Wednesday reported revenue of $2.51 billion, up 5% from the year-ago quarter and pre-tax income of $656 million. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 62 cents a