The comedian Tim Robinson’s new Netflix series, “I Think You Should Leave,” was an instant standout when it debuted last week. In bizarre and outlandish sketches — set on a thrown-together game show, in a focus group overtaken by petty social competition, or in a house entirely decorated with “Garfield”-themed furniture — Robinson follows his
Television
“The Resident” co-creator Amy Holden Jones has signed a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV, just five days before the medical drama’s season 2 finale. Overall deals have been coming thick and fast at the TV studio since it was acquired by Disney a little over a month ago, with more apparently in
Tamara Reynolds’ first gig as a food stylist was no small job. Tasked with creating around 200 plates that, as she recalls, “would look Wolfgang Puck-y” for a wedding scene on the now-defunct USA Network series “Royal Pains,” her dishes included red kale and a zucchini cup filled with mashed potatoes and topped with cherry
With the WGA-ATA war fully raging, diversity discussions at the forefront of the industry and numerous new rivals entering the original-content game, there is arguably more pressure than ever on the broadcast networks to make the right call when it comes to pilot pickups. Here’s what Variety’s insiders are saying about this season’s offerings. ABC On
May 1, 2019 9:35AM PT Amazon Prime apparently doesn’t want you sleeping this month. From Luca Guadagnino’s reimagining of the 1977 horror film “Suspiria” debuting on the streamer May 3, to all seven of the “Friday the 13th” movies dropping on May 31, the month has a lot of scares in store for Amazon Prime
2019 may just be the year of Lucy Liu. The actress-turned-director-and-producer will wrap up her seven-season run as Dr. Joan Watson on CBS crime drama “Elementary” and then star in new streaming series, “Why Women Kill,” which she will also direct. She also inked a development deal with ABC Studios Intl. for “Unsung Heroes,” an
May 1, 2019 9:00AM PT Kanye West and Jaden Smith are teaming up for a Showtime series. Smith it attached to the star in the series, titled “Omniverse,” while West will executive produce. Showtime has ordered a script for the series. “Omniverse” is a limited half-hour anthology series examining the many doors of perception. Season
Michael Chiklis will star in and executive produce the drama “Coyote” currently in development at Paramount Network, Variety has learned. The series follows Ben Clemens (Chiklis) who, on the day of his mandatory retirement from the United States Border Patrol, discovers an illicit tunnel used to mainline black market goods into the United States from Mexico.
It was clear from the beginning that this wouldn’t be an ordinary tape night at Studio 25 on the Warner Bros. lot. As the cast and crew of “The Big Bang Theory” hit the stage to prepare for their Tuesday night taping — the show’s last, after 279 episodes — moist eyes could be seen
The Paley Center for Media will pay tribute to the LGBT community and its influence on television at this month’s Paley Honors gala in New York. Paley Honors is set for May 15 at Ziegfeld Ballroom. The focus on LGBT community is in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising, a landmark
Watch Showtime for hours, and you’ll see such high-quality dramas as “Homeland,” “Ray Donovan” or “Shameless.” Commercials, however, have never been part of the deal. Nor are they the main attraction at streaming-video hubs, where consumers expect high-quality programming with fewer commercials — and sometimes none. As the popularity of streaming video rises, however, the
“Game of Thrones” cinematographer Fabian Wagner isn’t apologizing any time soon for Sunday night’s poorly-lit episode. Fans were particularly excited for the show’s tentpole episode over the weekend, but many were left disappointed when multiple scenes were too dark for home-viewers to make out the much anticipated Battle of Winterfell. After receiving significant criticism for
After four years of watching the population of Seattle, Wash. gradually learn that there were zombies among them, as well as following a one key undead character as she worked with the police department to solve murders, “iZombie” is getting ready to sign off of the CW. The series, which premiered in 2015, has centered
In today’s roundup, Paramount greenlights “68 Whiskey” from Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, and PBS announces the dates for the documentary series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the summer of 1969. GREENLIGHTS Paramount Network ordered 10 one-hour episodes of “68 Whiskey,” a new scripted comedic drama series from Imagine Television Studios and CBS Television Studios. The dark comedy follows a
“Empire” has been renewed for a sixth season at Fox, though likely without Jussie Smollett. “By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett’s option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to ‘Empire,’” Fox Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television
SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading unless you’ve seen “Game of Thrones” Season 8 Episode 3, titled “The Long Night.” Up until Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones,” the Night King had never said a word and the show never fully explained his motivations. After that shattering conclusion in which Arya stabbed the evil leader, causing
A new study found that an increase in suicide rates among U.S. boys age 10-17 in April 2017 correlates with the release of Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” in 2017. The show depicts a teenage girl’s suicide following the recovery of a box of cassette tapes she left behind detailing the 13 reasons why she decided
April 30, 2019 1:00PM PT Showtime has announced it is renewing “The Chi” for a third season. The news comes only four episodes into the show’s second series, which is slated to run for 10 episodes. Produced entirely in Chicago, “The Chi” is a coming-of-age story which centers on a group of residents who become
SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading unless you’ve seen “Game of Thrones” Season 8 Episode 3, titled “The Long Night.” The brutal Battle of Winterfell during “Game of Thrones” Season 8 Episode 3 left thousands of casualties. Among the most tragic was Ser Jorah Mormont, who fittingly perished defending his beloved Khaleesi. Iain Glen, who plays
April 30, 2019 12:04PM PT Vincent Cassel has signed on for “Westworld” Season 3 at HBO. Like most things “Westworld,” the exact nature of Cassel’s role is being kept under wraps. He joins previously announced “Westworld” Season 3 cast members Lena Waithe Aaron Paul. Production recently began on Season 3 and the show is not
CBS is bringing back its entire daytime roster for the 2019-2020 television season, including soaps “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Other returning programs are “Let’s Make a Deal,” “The Price is Right,” and “The Talk.” “For almost a third of a century, CBS has demonstrated a remarkable legacy of
Great Point Media has made a trio of investments in U.K.-based media firms, the first out of its recently created Great Point Ventures fund. Screening portal ProgramBuyer, film and TV data analytics outfit Looper Insights, and kid-focussed immersive games platform Brightlobe are the first beneficiaries of investment from the fund. The Enterprise Investment Scheme structure
April 30, 2019 10:30AM PT Lynn Shelton has signed on to direct and executive produce the upcoming Hulu limited series “Little Fires Everywhere” starring Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, and Rosemarie DeWitt, Variety has learned exclusively. Shelton will direct four of the series’ eight episodes, including the premiere and finale. Her previous credits include seven features, including
In the first episode screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, Amazon’s new superhero series “The Boys” exhibits a fair bit of promise — as well as some frustrating tendencies. The best aspects of the pilot are all rooted in world-building, in thinking through a universe in which superheroes were actual celebrities, and monetizable at that.
Hulu is on a hot streak following the releases of three critically acclaimed original series this year: “Ramy,” “Shrill,” and “Pen15.” By the looks of the streamers upcoming slate, the momentum should continue through May. George Clooney’s anticipated adaptation of “Catch-22” is set to debut on May 17. In addition to directing and producing the
On CBS’ new limited series “The Red Line,” Emayatzy Corinealdi plays Tia Young, a woman deeply entrenched in Chicago politics, whose professional and personal lives begin to intersect in unexpectedly complicated ways when the daughter she gave up at birth decides she wants to meet her mother. The show has inspired the actress, who is
“New Girl” creator Liz Meriwether has signed another overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV. The new deal comes only seven months after she signed a multi-year extension agreement with the TV studio, where she signed her first overall deal in 2014. Meriwether’s overall is now the seventh that Twentieth Television has announced in the
April 30, 2019 9:36AM PT Higher Ground Productions, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company in partnership with Netflix, has unveiled an initial slate of projects that include adaptations of Michael Lewis’ “The Fifth Risk,” a Frederick Douglass biopic and a period drama set in the fashion world penned by Callie Khouri. The content comprises
ESPN, the sports-media giant with an influence that extends across several types of media, is getting out of one particular venue: print. The Disney-controlled company said Tuesday that it would shut down ESPN The Magazine, an influential sports publication that has been on newsstands since 1998, in September. The publication was no longer breaking even,
April 30, 2019 8:20AM PT “The Long Night,” or the longest ever “Game of Thrones” episode, was watched by 12.02 million viewers during its initial broadcast. That represents almost a two million viewer bump on the previous episode, which garnered 10.29 million viewers on initial viewing, and even more than the season 8 premiere, which