Television

When Marla Gibbs returned to set for ABC’s live remake of Norman Lear’s “The Jeffersons” and “All In the Family,” she never even looked at a script — she remembered her lines from playing Florence Johnston in the seminal sitcom nearly 40 years ago. “When something changes your life, you never forget it,” Gibbs said

MGM-owned premium cable network Epix has, for a few years, been working to define itself as an outlet for original programming. Their latest attempt, “Perpetual Grace, LTD.,” seeks the audience’s favor by cloaking itself both the familiar. The show’s cast includes familiar faces like Jimmi Simpson of “Westworld,” Terry O’Quinn of “Lost,” and Oscar nominees

It’s a tough time for the news business, with local publications having endured, or not, the collapse of the print-ad industry. The few truly national dailies, only slightly less beholden to changes in the wind, have had to adjust as well — seeking, in the short term, avenues towards financial stability and, in the slightly

Saturday night is a big one for the British sports history books. The day will feature a UEFA Champion’s League final between two British soccer teams, Liverpool FC and London’s Tottenham Hotspur F.C., and the nation’s once-in-a-generation boxing talent Anthony Joshua in his first U.S. fight when he heads to New York to face Andy

May 31, 2019 3:48PM PT In today’s roundup, “GLOW” will return to Netflix for a third season and Patrick J. Adams has been cast as the lead in National Geographic’s “The Right Stuff.”  DATES “GLOW” will return to Netflix for a third season on August 9. The upcoming season follows the women’s wrestling troupe as

As Emmy season kicks into high gear, the Television Academy took a moment on Thursday to celebrate a handful of programs that have tackled critical social issues. Hosted by “Claws” star Niecy Nash and held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the event honored the dramas “A Million Little Things” (ABC) and “Pose” (FX); the children’s

May 31, 2019 2:15PM PT Netflix’s planned “Little Black Mirror” promotional shorts will no longer be called “Little Black Mirror.” The short video series, first announced last week, will now be titled “Stories From Our Future.” The three shorts are aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences and are inspired by fan homages to the Charlie Brooker and

Jenji Kohan is a creative force helping to define two of the best shows of the streaming era — “Orange Is the New Black,” which she created, and “GLOW,” on which she is an executive producer. “American Princess,” which she produces with creator Jamie Denbo, takes key elements of the Kohan playbook — a character

May 31, 2019 12:45PM PT Starz has renewed the half-hour drama series “Vida” for a third season. The news comes after the show aired the first two episodes of its second season just last Sunday on the Starz linear channel. All 10 episodes of Season 2 are currently available on the Starz app and Starz

An article published Memorial Day in the New York Times captured the imagination — alternately hopeful, fearful, or just nihilistically curious — of a readership that’s never in recent memory felt quite so ready to learn about planets other than our vexed earth. The article described encounters between U.S. Navy pilots and unidentified flying objects,

May 31, 2019 12:05PM PT After easily topping the Live+Same Day ratings on the night it aired, the ABC special “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” has continued its success in delayed viewing. The show grew by 24% in delayed, hopping from a 1.7 to a 2.1 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. Its next

Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety’s television podcast. In this week’s episode, Variety executive TV editor Daniel Holloway chats with “Good Omens” showrunner Neil Gaiman. The television version of “Good Omens” was a long time in the making. Multiple attempts at screen adaptations of the novel — about an angel and demon working to stave off

The upcoming sixth season of “Silicon Valley” will be the HBO comedy’s last, Variety has learned. The final season will be an abbreviated seven episode run, making it the shortest season of the show. “Silcon Valley” is currently in pre-production and is slated to debut later this year. It had been announced late last year that

Imagine Kids & Family, the family-focused division of Imagine Entertainment, has won the rights to develop James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein’s “Max Einstein” books as an animated series, Variety has learned exclusively. The series follows heroine Maxine Einstein (Max for short), a 12-year-old orphan genius living on the streets in New York City. While she doesn’t

May 31, 2019 9:59AM PT Laura Ingraham brought a new swirl of controversy around her Fox News Channel program Thursday night after a graphic on her show, “The Ingraham Angle,” highlighted a range of controversial figures she described as “prominent voices censored on social media.” Among the people featured in the graphic were digital provocateur

FX Networks has named Eric Schrier president of FX Entertainment, a newly created role, and elevated Gina Balian to the position of president of original programming at FX Entertainment, as part of a reorganization of its original programming executive team. Additionally, Nick Grad has signed a new deal as president of original programming at FX

In this week’s International TV Newswire: the logic of an Mediapro IPO; TVE’s ‘Monteperdido’s’ renewed. MEDIAPRO IPO: DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH The big TV news from Spain this week, at least according to financial newspaper “El Confidencial,” is that Mediapro, the Barcelona based multinational is preparing to seek an initial stock market listing. Potential investors

After 25 years with the studio, Warner Bros. Television executive vice president of current programming Melinda Hage is retiring. She has managed programming for scripted series from “The Jamie Foxx Show” to “Murphy Brown” to “The Leftovers” to “Riverdale” over the course of her career, with her team currently overseeing about 45 drama and comedy

When mulling over who could do justice to the voice of Satan on “Good Omens,” the only name that popped up in Neil Gaiman’s mind was Benedict Cumberbatch — but not for the reason you might think. “It was from the point of view of going, ‘OK you’re in a show in which Frances McDormand

May 31, 2019 8:43AM PT Game 1 of the 2019 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors delivered the lowest ratings for a finals opener in 10 years. The game, which yielded a shock victory for Toronto over the defending champions, scored a 10.1 rating in metered market households. That’s down

Greg Gutfeld says he doesn’t have much time to watch Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert. But he spends his Saturday-night hour on Fox News Channel offering stuff that’s similar to what they do: quips, jokes, even sketches. “People say they are interested in a different perspective in terms of popular culture, coming from

The “Schitt’s Creek” team has officially closed up shop at the Rosebud Motel. At Thursday’s FYC event, held at the TV Academy’s Saban Media Center, star and executive producer Dan Levy recalled the cast’s tearful goodbyes to its favorite interior sets. “It’s been strangely — I guess not so strangely — emotional, but it’s definitely been

May 31, 2019 4:02AM PT “The Masked Singer” is coming to Britain. ITV, the U.K.’s biggest commercial broadcaster, has ordered up a local version of the wacky competition show, which originated in South Korea and has been a ratings hit for Fox in the U.S. The format involves celebrities concealing their identities behind bizarre costumes

The final scenes of “Big Little Lies’” first season were about as good as TV gets. The slow motion horror of its fatal climax, the sigh of catharsis left in its wake, and the camaraderie between the women at the center of it all made for such sharp, elegant television that it seemed like a

ABC has formally ordered a pilot for the comedy series based on the life of comedian Nate Bargatze, Variety has learned. The untitled multi-cam project was originally set up with a put pilot commitment at Fox before moving to ABC last year. Bargatze will star in the series in addition to writing and executive producing. The

In a clear nod to the neo-feminist movement spurred by current #metoo activism, Miami-based BTF Media has launched a new development and production arm to be 100% led by women. The new division, BTF Pink Unit, aims to foster gender parity and bolster more women in the audiovisual sector. BTF Media is best known for

In today’s roundup, Disney renews “Marvel’s Spider-Man” for a third season and Netflix releases the first trailer for its forthcoming series “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.” FIRST LOOKS Netflix has released the first trailer for its forthcoming series “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” which premieres on the streamer August 30. Based on Jim

Larry Wilmore is departing ABC Studios for a new, multi-year overall deal with Universal Television. Wilmore and his Wilmore Films banner will now be based at UTV, with Candace Rodney, vice president of development for Wilmore films, also making the move. “The number of successful shows that Larry has had a hand in launching is

May 30, 2019 2:30PM PT Jeff Glor is moving to morning news from evening news at CBS. CBS News said Thursday that Glor, recently moved off a stint of “CBS Evening News,” would take up duties as co-host of the Saturday edition of “CBS This Morning” abd also serve as a special correspondent. He will

May 30, 2019 2:28PM PT CBS and Showtime have issued a statement on the recent abortion legislation in Georgia and other states, saying that they “may not be viable locations for our future production” should the law take effect. “Creative voices across our industry have expressed strong concern about the recently signed bill in Georgia,”