Television

Emma Thompson got a little help from fellow mothers Tina Fey and Amy Poehler during the Mother’s Day episode of “Saturday Night Live” she hosted on May 11. Thompson brought the former “SNL” cast members out during her monologue to help teach the audience how to decipher “mother-speak.” The trio kicked things off by pointing

The penultimate episode of “Saturday Night Live’s” 44th season kicked off Saturday with a “Meet the Press” sketch in which Kyle Mooney portrayed Chuck Todd and welcomed Beck Bennett as Mitch McConnell, Cecily Strong as Susan Collins, Kate McKinnon as Lindsey Graham to discuss Donald Trump’s trade war with China and what it would take for

Peggy Lipton, actress and singer known for her roles in “The Mod Squad” and “Twin Peaks,” and the mother of Rashida Jones, has died at 72 of cancer. Her daughers Rashida and Kidada Jones announced her death to the Los Angeles Times. She had previously been diagnosed with colon cancer in 2004. Lipton won a

May 11, 2019 6:00PM PT ABC has ordered the drama project “The Baker and the Beauty” to series. In the series, based on the Israeli series created by Assi Azar for Keshet Broadcasting, Daniel Garcia (Victor Rasuk) is working in the family bakery and doing everything that his loving Cuban parents and siblings expect him

May 11, 2019 5:30PM PT The drama pilot “Emergence” has been ordered to series at ABC, though the project had originally been developed at NBC. The series, which hails from ABC Studios, centers around a police chief (Allison Tolman) who takes in a young child (Alexa Swinton) that she finds near the site of a

The New Fox is piling on the drama. The broadcaster has issued its fifth order for a drama series, this time for “Filthy Rich,” a southern Gothic family drama which hails from “Girl on the Train” and “The Help” director Tate Taylor. It’s understood that Fox had been keen to pick up the project earlier

Ellen DeGeneres is adding more NBC unscripted content to her roster. NBC has ordered three holiday specials titled “Ellen’s Greatest Night of Giveaways.” The three one-hour specials will see DeGeneres and some celebrity helpers give people and in-studio audience members gifts and prizes. “I was so excited when NBC told me that they had truckloads

NBC has picked up the drama “Lincoln” and the comedies “Perfect Harmony” and “Indebted” for the 2019-2020 season. Both “Lincoln” and “Indebted” hail at least in part from Sony Picture Television, with “Lincoln” a co-production between Sony, Universal Television, and Keshet and “Indebted” being solely a Sony production. The news comes after Sony recently scored

May 11, 2019 12:45PM PT Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi series “The Orville” has been renewed for a third season at Fox. Set 400 years in the future, the series follows The U.S.S. Orville, a mid-level exploratory spaceship stocked with a crew of both humans and aliens who have to balance complications in space, as well as

May 11, 2019 12:10PM PT Adam F. Goldberg is leaving his longtime home at Sony Pictures Television. The writer and executive producer behind ABC’s “The Goldbergs,” which has just been picked up for a seventh season, is moving to ABC Studios under a four-year overall deal. Goldberg’s deal with Sony is set to expire in

Comedies “The Goldbergs” and its spinoff “Schooled” have been renewed at ABC. “The Goldbergs” will return for its seventh season while “Schooled” will return for its second. “The Goldbergs,” Adam F. Goldberg’s autobiograpical family single-cam, stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, Sean Giambrone, Troy Gentile, Hayley Orrantia, Sam Lerner, George Segal and Jeff Garlin, with Patton Oswalt narrating.

Both “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” and “World of Dance” have been renewed at NBC. “AGT: The Champions” will return for its second season while “World of Dance” will return for its fourth. Both shows In partnership with global dance brand World of Dance, the competition series brings the world’s elite dancers together to compete

ABC has expanded its series pick ups for the 2019-2020 season with orders for a half-hour comedy, “United We Fall,” and an hour-long drama, “For Life.” The latter hails from “Without A Trace” creator Hank Steinberg and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and is described as a serialized legal and family drama inspired by the life of

Greg Berlanti has toppled his own record with an eye-popping 18 series ordered for the 2019 calendar year. Shows that hail from the super-producer’s Warner Bros.-based Greg Berlanti Productions dominate the CW’s schedule and are spread among five other major outlets: CBS, NBC, Fox, Netflix and the DC Universe streaming platform. This time last year,

Fox has pulled the plug on “Proven Innocent” after a single season, Variety has learned. The legal drama was Fox’s lowest-rated show for the 2018-19 season, with an Live+Same Day average of a 0.4 rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic. The legal drama also averaged just over 2 million viewers per episode. The Season 1 finale

TV’s annual “Upfront Week” is here, bringing with it the usual spate of mainstream media scrutiny of whether the medium is likely to survive that much further into the future. In an age of streaming video, the articles are right to ask the question. But the premise could not be more wrong. Yes, consumers are

ABC is not presently moving forward with its “NYPD Blue” series continuation, but the project is not outright dead at the broadcaster. Sources confirm to Variety that the network remains high on the project but feel it needs to be reworked before it is ready for air. The show may still get a midseason pickup once

Jeff Glor devoted the final few seconds of “CBS Evening News” on Friday to a story that’s not often told to his viewers: Dozens of staffers help him put together the program each night. Glor would have been well within his rights to take a few moments to reflect on his tenure at the long-running

May 10, 2019 4:32PM PT “Star” has been canceled after three seasons at Fox. The musical drama from Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy told the story of three girls’ rise to fame. It starred Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny, Brittany O’Grady, Queen Latifah, Quincy Brown and Amiyah Scott. Daniels, Pamela Oas Williams and Karin Gist were

Solvan “Slick” Naim is a creator at heart, and right now, his heart is focused on man’s best friend. “It’s about a man and his dog. And the crazy things that happen,” he told Variety about the premise of his upcoming Netflix comedy series “It’s Bruno.” Naim is already known as a rapper, writer and

NBC has ordered a fifth and final season of “Blindspot.” The series stars Jaimie Alexander as a woman who initially crawled out of a duffel bag in the middle of New York City, completely naked except for the tattoos that covered almost every inch of her body. The tattoos were codes, and she worked with

While the major studios watch and wait to see if a controversial new bill signed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp goes into effect, Hollywood players are evaluating the prospect of boycotting the production hub, insiders told Variety. Kemp will also visit Los Angeles in the coming months to meet with top executives, where the legislation

May 10, 2019 3:57PM PT The upcoming HBO series “Lovecraft Country” will continue shooting in Georgia as planned, but will donate money from the production to two charities. “Lovecraft Country” is being executive produced by Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions banner as well as JJ Abrams and Bad Robot Producitons. “Underground” co-creator and showrunner

May 10, 2019 3:41PM PT “The Big Bang Theory” once again came out on top in the Live+3 rankings, this time topping “Grey’s Anatomy” in terms of ratings and “NCIS” in terms of total viewership. The CBS comedy, which only has two episodes left to air in its 12th and final season, finished with a

UPDATE: Wu has denied that the renewal of “Fresh Off the Boat” caused her to be upset on social media. “I said I was upset and crying. I did not say it was over a tv show. You’re making an assumption,” she tweeted. Although fans may rejoice that ABC’s sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” just

May 10, 2019 3:32PM PT In today’s roundup, Variety has an exclusive clip from the Season 2 premiere of “Our Cartoon President” on Showtime. FIRST LOOKS Variety has an exclusive clip from the May 12 Season 2 premiere of the satirical animated series “Our Cartoon President” created by Stephen Colbert on Showtime. The clip also features a cameo

May 10, 2019 3:30PM PT The Edie Falco-led drama “Tommy” has been ordered to series at CBS for the 2019-2020 season. Falco stars as a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles. She uses her unflinching honesty and hardball tactics to navigate the social, political, and national

May 10, 2019 10:04AM PT Ruth Johnston has been promoted to general manager of Vulcan Productions, the Seattle-based company founded by the late Paul Allen and his sister, Jody Allen. Johnston will oversee all creative operations for the company that focuses on documentaries and productions that “entertain, inspire, change the way people understand and activate

In 2015, Jamie Morton received an email from someone named Rocky Flintstone that told him to “enjoy” the first few chapters of “Belinda Blinked,” which, upon opening the attachment, Morton discovered, was a series of erotic novels his father had penned. Rocky Flintstone was his nom de plume. “At first I thought, ‘Great, well done

In 2017, the United States was ranked No. 49 on the World Economic Forum’s report on gender inequality. This finding inspired an hour-long special from “The Daily Show” during which correspondent Desi Lydic traveled to three territories ranked significantly higher than her own — Iceland, Namibia and Spain — to find out what they are