Phylicia Rashad had no idea how big “The Cosby Show” would become as she was filming the family sitcom in the 1980s and 1990s — nor could she have imagined how its legacy would be complicated by allegations against the titular comedian. “We were [just] having fun,” the actress said at the ATX Television Festival
Television
Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety’s television podcast. In this week’s episode, senior features editor Danielle Turchiano talks with Tanya Saracho, executive producer of Starz’s “Vida.” “Vida” centers around two sisters, Lyn (Melissa Barrera) and Emma (Mishel Prada), who in season 2 embark on the monumental task of rebuilding their mother’s bar in the face of financial constraints,
June 7, 2019 3:37PM PT In today’s roundup, Amazon releases a teaser for the animated series “Undone,” and the “Billions” showrunners ink a new deal with Showtime. FIRST LOOKS Amazon has released the first teaser for the genre-bending, adult animated series “Undone” starring Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk. Made by the producers of “BoJack Horseman,” the show follows
June 7, 2019 1:30PM PT BMG Production Music (BMGPM) has revealed a new brand identity as well as a new initiative called “Hidden Hit Makers.” The Hidden Hit Makers concept first launched at South By Southwest in the form of Goodstock, which was billed as “the world’s first stock music festival.” Featuring BMGPM performing artists
June 7, 2019 1:30PM PT Traci Saulsberry, the vice president of publicity at NBC, has been promoted to senior vice president of the department. In her new role Saulsberry will continue to lead the unscripted publicity team and report to Chip Sullivan, EVP of Communications. She currently oversees publicity for many of the network’s biggest unscripted
June 7, 2019 12:34PM PT The Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein has been dropped by her book publisher following the release of Ava DuVernay’s “When They See Us” miniseries, her spokesperson confirmed to the AP on Friday. The former prosecutor began publishing novels in the mid ’90s, several years after she oversaw the wrongful
Mediaset, the Milan-based broadcaster founded by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is expanding its scope by moving its base to Amsterdam and setting up a pan-European media company, MediaForEurope, that will operate in Italy, Spain and Germany. MediaForEurope will merge Mediaset Italy and Mediaset Spain, and include the company’s recently acquired 9.6% stake in
June 7, 2019 12:08PM PT Oprah Winfrey is jumping in on the “When They See Us” conversation. The legendary talk show host will moderate two panels related to the Netflix show to close out the streamer’s Emmy FYSee showcase. Both conversations will be recorded to premiere on Netflix and OWN on Wednesday, June 12 at
June 7, 2019 11:52AM PT Lisa Vanderpump has officially called it quits on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” sources tell Variety. Vanderpump has been a mainstay of the show since the beginning, but will likely now focus her efforts towards her other Bravo reality series “Vanderpump Rules.” She had previously told the Daily Mail
June 7, 2019 11:09AM PT “Access” and “Access Live” have laid off multiple long-serving producers in both New York and Los Angeles, Variety has learned from sources. “Access” — formerly “Access Hollywood” — has let go supervising music producer Nancy Harrison and senior news producer Christine Fahey, along with supervising producers Ryan Patterson and Adam
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Armistead Maupin’s Tales Of The City,” streaming now on Netflix. Certain parameters for the new limited series version of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City” were already set when showrunner Lauren Morelli joined the project — most notably the fact that Mary Ann Singleton (Laura
Disney’s Dana Walden will sit for her most extensive interview since becoming one of the industry’s most powerful television executives when she and director-producer Ben Stiller offer keynote sessions next week at Variety‘s TV Summit. Variety‘s annual daylong event examining the state of the TV business is set for June 12 at 1 Hotel in
Penn Badgley and Gina Rodriguez sat down for a chat for Variety‘s Actors on Actors. For more, click here. Penn Badgley, a heartthrob on the 2000s soap “Gossip Girl,” graduated last year to even darker fare as a stalker with a literary bent on watercooler smash “You,” whose first season aired on Lifetime and which
June 7, 2019 2:59AM PT Production is underway on German period drama “Empire Oktoberfest,” set in Munich in 1900 and starring Mišel Maticevic (“Babylon Berlin”), Martina Gedeck (“The Lives of Others”), Klaus Steinbacher (“Das Boot”), and Mercedes Mueller (“Passenger 23”). Beta Film, which successfully brought “Babylon Berlin” to market, will launch it internationally at Mipcom
June 7, 2019 2:18AM PT Viacom’s U.K. and Northern and Eastern Europe boss James Currell has left the company. Viacom International Media Networks said Currell had departed with immediate effect and it has started the process of finding a replacement. VIMN CEO, David Lynn, will oversee the U.K. business until that appointment is made. Viacom’s
HBO’s adaptation of Israeli teen drama “Euphoria” explores the lives of high school kids who are grappling with social pressures, burgeoning sexualities and addiction. And in order to accurately but comfortably bring such tough topics to life, the show worked with an intimacy coordinator and was careful about how they shot certain scenes. “There’s a
June 6, 2019 3:38PM PT “Lucifer” is coming to an end — again. Variety has confirmed that the series has been renewed for a fifth and final season at Netflix. The series previously aired on Fox for three seasons before Netflix revived it for a fourth. The fourth season debuted on the streaming service in
In today’s roundup, Netflix releases the trailer for the third season of “Jessica Jones,” and Fox drops a short teaser trailer for its “Beverly Hills, 90210” reboot. FIRST LOOKS Fox has released a meta teaser trailer for its upcoming revival of “Beverly Hills, 90210.” The clip shows returning cast members Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Jennie
In the second chapter of AMC’s “The Terror” franchise, a number of suspicious deaths rock a a tight-knight Japanese-American during World War II. As the season progresses, the show explores the internment camps, something which showrunner Alexander Woo believes has been thus far underrepresented in storytelling. “There has been criminally very little done on-screen,” Woo
June 6, 2019 2:16PM PT Advertisers want to visit “Riverdale” once again. The CW expects to notch an increase in advertiser commitments for its primetime schedule, a sign of robust Madison Avenue activity in TV’s annual “upfront” sales market. CW secured more in advance commitments than it did in 2018, according to a person familiar
WarnerMedia’s streaming service has given a straight-to-series order to the drama “Tokyo Vice” starring Ansel Elgort, Variety has learned. The series is based on based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction book of the same name, which is a first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. Elgort will star as Jake Adelstein, an American journalist who
June 6, 2019 1:00PM PT CAA has asked a judge to dismiss claims made against the agency by showrunners David Simon and Meredith Stiehm as part of the Writers Guild of America’s lawsuit against four Hollywood talent agencies over the issue of packaging fees. CAA’s response to the WGA lawsuit filed in April asserts that
There’s safety in numbers, so people often say. Yet Madison Avenue thinks TV is getting safer even as many of its viewer numbers continue to decline. The big broadcast networks should secure an increase in advance advertising commitments – somewhere in the mid-single-digit percentage range – for their fall prime time schedules, according to six
As the United States steels itself for a new presidential election next year, TV-news viewers will still get horse-race stories – but, also, say three of the industry’s top executives, a lot more. The heads of CBS News, NBC News and ABC News jointly vowed Thursday that their outlets would cover the 2020 election in
Daniel Dae Kim has entered into business with Amazon. The actor and producer, along with his 3AD production label, has signed a new first-look deal with Amazon Studios. As part of the deal, Amazon will have first-look rights on projects developed by Kim and 3AD. Any collaborations between the two parties will premiere exclusively on
Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er. Hulu announced that it has acquired the exclusive U.S. rights to the cult hit Canadian comedy series, meaning when the seventh season debuts on Oct. 14, it will do so as a Hulu original, as will all future seasons of the show. Hulu already had the rights to the
It wasn’t so long ago that the mention of “runaway productions” would send the California below-the-line community into a panic. But in this era of peak TV and the demand for more and more content, California’s attractive rebates have lured producers back from other states. They have created a booking boom not only in the
June 6, 2019 10:30AM PT Ayo Davis, the head of casting at ABC, is expanding her role to include Disney Plus. Davis has been promoted to the newly created role of executive vice president of talent and casting at both ABC and Disney Plus, ABC president Karey Burke announced. In her new role, Davis will
Why should the film folks have all the fun? In features, the Oscar race is the stuff of constant conversation as contenders are continually placed on the field — first at various film festivals, then at a litany of awards shows before the Academy Awards picks the ultimate season-ending victors. In TV, the Emmy march
Streaming platform Rakuten Viki has acquired seven titles from Chinese firm Croton Media. They are set to premiere worldwide on the platform this month, some of them as Viki Originals. The titles include 58-episode show “Eternal Love,” a period drama starring Yang Mi and Mark Chao; 30-episode “Love O2O,” a modern drama starring Yang Yang