In today’s roundup, Amazon drops the first official trailer for “Carnival Row,” starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne. DATES August 1 will see the premiere of HGTV’s “Flip or Flop,” which follows divorced couple Christina Anstead and Tarek El Moussa as they figure out their relationship as co-parents and business partners. In the 18-episode season, the
Television
The most important television show of this unusual moment may just be one whose last new episode aired in 2013. “The Office” was, in its first life in the U.S., a beloved workplace comedy (based on a British series) that ran for nine seasons on NBC. In its protracted afterlife, though, it was known to
Art can provoke feeling, but its impact has limitations in the face of legal and systemic oppression, said Riz Ahmed, the activist and actor known for “The OA,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “The Night Of,” onstage at the CAA Amplify conference in Ojai on Tuesday, calling for the high-powered industry execs, talent,
Discovery Inc. is facing a backlash from the unscripted production community following a shift in the cable giant’s protocol for paying for programming. During the past year, Discovery has implemented a new system that calls for the company to pay producers for shows after all episodes and related material for a given season have been
Mike Richards, the longtime executive producer of both “The Price Is Right” and “Let’s Make a Deal,” is stepping down after signing a multi-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, Variety has learned exclusively. Richards will begin working with Sony in September. Under the deal, he will develop and produce game shows for network, cable,
June 26, 2019 11:00AM PT The CBS summer adventure series “Blood & Treasure” has been renewed for a second season. In the series, Danny McNamara (Matt Barr) is a former FBI agent specializing in stolen arts and antiquities. Lexi Vaziri (Sofia Pernas) is a resourceful art thief who is haunted by the tragic loss of
Charter Communications’ OTT service Spectrum Originals has reached a deal with Spain’s The Mediapro Studio for the U.S. rights to its popular series “Todo por el Juego,” (“Side Games”). The series will debut in the States on July 15. The Mediapro Studio produced the series, which was developed by popular Argentine screenwriter Eduardo Sacheri, a
Mary J. Blige has signed an exclusive first-look television deal with Lionsgate. Under the pact, Blige and her newly-launched Blue Butterfly productions will develop and produce TV series for the studio. The singer-actress will also have the opportunity to create content across Lionsgate’s various business platforms. “Mary is a very talented artist, fearless visionary and an
NBC News’ “Meet the Press” and CBS News’ “Face The Nation” regularly compete for Sunday-morning audiences and scoops from politicos. But this past weekend they looked nothing like one another. On NBC, President Donald Trump dominated the hour by sitting down for a taped interview with host Chuck Todd. Over at CBS, “Nation” moderator Margaret
June 26, 2019 9:30AM PT Fox is moving forward with its long-gestating American adaptation of the Australian comedy miniseries “A Moody Christmas” as a holiday event series, Variety has learned. The single-cam comedy follows Dan Moody as he returns home to spend Christmas with his dysfunctional family. When he arrives, he’s met with the inevitable
June 26, 2019 9:19AM PT Joyn has acquired a trio of international drama series from Beta Film. The German streaming service, run by local media giant ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery, has acquired Alex Pina’s acclaimed Spanish drama “The Pier,” Nordic noir thriller “Hassel,” and Russian drama “Trigger.” A U.S. deal is understood to be in the
Beth Chapman, who was a staple of the TV show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” along with her husband, died Wednesday at a Honolulu hospital after being in a medically induced coma. She was 51. Her husband Duane Chapman confirmed the news on Twitter. “It’s 5:32 in Hawaii, this is the time she would wake up
NBC News is gearing up to cover two sprawling Democratic debates. But the trappings around them may remind viewers of another network staple: “Sunday Night Football.” NBCUniversal will televise debates among the Democratic candidates for U.S. presidency over two nights and across three different TV networks, as well as via host of digital venues, including
June 26, 2019 3:04AM PT “Game of Thrones” star Maisie Williams will play a misfit on the run from a murderous gangster and the police in “Two Weeks to Live,” a new comedy series for Sky in the U.K. Williams will star as Kim Noakes, who was a young girl when her father died in
A second season of Netflix’s first Benelux original, “Undercover,” is in production, and the story will move from focusing on the illicit drugs trade to the illegal arms business. Non-English-language drama is finding a global audience on streaming platforms, and “Undercover” has ranked as one of Netflix’s most popular series in that category in the
“Always Be My Maybe” was “satisfying” to create because it gave focus to two characters that wouldn’t typically be portrayed as romantic leads, said director Nahnatchka Khan of her Netflix film at the CAA Amplify conference in Ojai, sitting on a panel with comedian Hasan Minhaj and NBA star Chris Paul. “We’re all big fans
In today’s roundup, “T-Pain’s School of Business” sets an August 6 premiere on Fuse, and OWN greenlights a new talks series. EXECUTIVE NEWS Matt Brodlie is leaving his role as director of original film at Netflix to join the Disney+ content marketing team as senior vice president of international content development. In his new role,
NBCUniversal announced Tuesday that it will begin streaming “The Office” exclusively on its standalone streaming service beginning in 2021. The popular comedy series will leave Netflix once the current deal with NBCU expires at the end of 2020, the same year that NBCU plans to launch its ad-supported streaming service. All nine seasons of the
David E. Kelley is returning once more to the court of legal dramas. CBS has issued a series production commitment for “The Lincoln Lawyer,” with Kelley in position to pen and executive produce. Based on the series of bestselling novels by Michael Connelly, the show hails from A+E Studios in association with CBS TV Studios.
“Maniac” creator Patrick Somerville has signed on to helm two new series, “Made for Love” and “Station Eleven,” for WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service. “Made for Love,” which will be executive produced and directed by S.J. Clarkson, is a 10-episode, straight-to-series adaptation based on the novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting. The half-hour comedy
Roger Ailes may have been the force behind the creation of Fox News, but the late newsman’s legacy will forever be his atrocious sexual harassment of several of the network’s female anchors and producers. Showtime premiered its new limited series “The Loudest Voice,” which chronicles Ailes’ rise and fall, on Monday night at the Paris
June 25, 2019 11:11AM PT Amazon has boarded “Small Axe,” the upcoming anthology series from “12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen, and will launch the series in the U.S. It will bow on the BBC in the U.K. and BBC Studios is selling it internationally. Amazon’s European content chief Georgia Brown revealed its involvement
“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” is rounding out its cast with the addition of six new actors. Michael Gladis has joined the show as a series regular, while Lorenza Izzo, Adam Rodriguez, Thomas Kretschmann, and Dominic Sherwood will appear in recurring roles. Ethan Peck will guest star in multiple episodes. The six join previously announced
June 25, 2019 9:32AM PT Colombian-Italian executive Maximo Ibarra is expected to be appointed CEO of Comcast-owned pay-TV operation Sky Italia, which has been without a chief executive for the past seven months, a source close to Sky Italia tells Variety. An announcement is believed imminent that Ibarra will be the Italian paybox’s new chief
June 25, 2019 9:00AM PT Comedy Central has given the greenlight to “Good Talk with Anthony Jeselnik,” a comedy interview series hosted by the former “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” writer. Each episode of the series, premiering September 6, will feature a conversation with one of Jeselnik’s friends, who happen to be some of the
Each weekday at 2 p.m., Dan Abrams talks to America for an hour about the law, politics and media. He’s been working steadily to expand the conversation. Abrams hosts an afternoon show on satellite-broadcaster SiriusXM, where he holds forth on the Mueller Report (if you haven’t read it, don’t try to debate him on what
June 25, 2019 5:30AM PT Katie Keenan is joining Sky as head of acquisitions at Sky Cinema, and will oversee film deals for the pay-TV giant’s channels. Keenan is a seasoned buyer. Most recently she was at Viacom’s international division and acquiring programming for its free-TV Channel 5 operation in the U.K., as well as
June 24, 2019 8:10PM PT WWE and PP Sports have signed a new multi-year agreement that will keep WWE programming airing live in Mandarin in China. In the past three years of the partnership, PP Sports has delivered more than 300 episodes of WWE programming. PP Sports will offer, “Raw,” “Smackdown, and the WWE Network
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the first episode of “Years and Years.” Russell T. Davies’ “Years and Years” begins with the members of a seemingly average family in the U.K. being drawn into a televised interview with entrepreneur Vivenne Rook (played by Emma Thompson) who admits she doesn’t “give
In today’s TV news roundup, ABC’s “Highwire Live in Times Square” tops Sunday night ratings, and “Total Bellas” has been renewed for a fifth season. DATES FX will air the special event “Peabody Presents: Stories of the Year” on July 7. The program will showcase the issues honored at the 78th Annual Peabody Awards Ceremony