You can’t spell “Game of Thrones” without the letters O-M-G. HBO’s beloved series, which returned Sunday night for its eighth and final season (in case you hadn’t heard), has produced some of TV’s most shocking moments this past decade, from the infamous Red Wedding scene to Cersei blowing up the Sept Of Baelor to Jon
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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the Season 8 premiere of “Game of Thrones.” The final season of “Game of Thrones” began with an episode that does much of the table-setting to which fans have become accustomed — “Thrones,” more than most shows, tends to dole out its big moments deeper into
April 14, 2019 5:46PM PT The Internet is in a bit of a whirl after the highly anticipated final season premiere of “Game of Thrones” reportedly aired several hours early on DirecTV. According to posts on Twitter, the first episode of season 8 became available to stream some four hours ahead of schedule — it
Tiger Woods’ impressive comeback victory on Sunday at the Masters golf tournament was surely a gift for CBS Sports. Despite his lack of major wins in recent years, Woods’ remains the biggest draw in golf when it comes to TV ratings. CBS Sports chief Sean McManus said the combination of his underdog status and the
April 14, 2019 12:37PM PT [embedded content] Everyone’s other favorite HBO drama finally has a premiere date. “Big Little Lies” season 2 will hit HBO June 9. HBO also dropped a new teaser trailer for the second season, which sees the return of stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, and Laura Dern
A galaxy far, far away just got a little bit bigger as “Star Wars” fans got a first look at “The Mandalorian.” Disney debuted four new stills and roughly three minutes of teaser footage showing Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian warrior, Carl Weathers’ character Greef Carga, and Gina Carano’s character Cara Dune during the Star Wars Celebration
Even as “Game of Thrones” returns on Sunday night for its final season, the dispute between HBO and Dish keeps dragon on. In order to pacify “Thrones” fans who are also Dish subscribers, the satellite provider has taken the unconventional approach of directing customers to how they can separately sign up for HBO Now. Dish’s
April 13, 2019 10:01PM PT SAG-AFTRA’s national board has unanimously approved a three-year successor deal to its commercials contracts, triggering a ratification vote by its 160,000 members. The union announced the approval Saturday night. It touted the deals as a landmark agreements due to “flexible” alternative compensation models to promote growth of union-covered commercial work
Michael Keaton appeared in the April 13 “Saturday Night Live” cold open sketch as Julian Assange to counter Kate McKinnon’s Lori Loughlin and Pete Davidson’s Michael Avenatti for who committed the “craziest” crime. In a take on MSNBC’s “Lockup,” a couple of inmates (played by Chris Redd, Kenan Thompson and Kyle Mooney) were comparing notes
Bill Maher kicked off his “Real Time” monologue Friday with a few cheeky references to this weekend’s big event, Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival’s first weekend, featuring acts like Kacey Musgraves and Ariana Grande. “Just what America needs, another reason to take drugs,” he joked. “Coachella lasts two weekends, like a cabinet member who
April 13, 2019 10:00AM PT Lena Waithe is riding into “Westworld.” Variety has learned that Waithe has signed on for a role in the upcoming third season of the HBO drama series. The exact nature of Waithe’s role is being kept under wraps. Waithe previously starred in and wrote for the Netflix series “Master of
The room at the Beverly Hilton was booked until midnight. But it took only about an hour on Friday afternoon for contract negotiations to break down and war to ensue between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood’s top talent agencies. UTA co-president Jay Sures and CAA’s Bryan Lourd had testy exchanges with WGA West
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the “This Is Us” Season 3 finale. “This Is Us” wrapped up its third season with a flash-forward into the future, which introduced much new information about the Pearson family — and also brought about many new questions. Justin Hartley, who plays Kevin Pearson, was in the midst of
April 12, 2019 3:22PM PT In today’s roundup, Hulu announces July premiere dates for Mindy Kaling’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Veronica Mars” starring Kristen Bell. DATES Hulu has announced that Mindy Kaling’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral” will premiere on the streamer on July 31. Richard Curtis, who wrote the original film of
Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety‘s television podcast. In this week’s episode, Variety executive editor of TV, Daniel Holloway, talks with John Bradley, who plays Samwell Tarley on “Game of Thrones.” The final season of the HBO drama premieres Sunday, April 14th. At the end of season 7, Sam and his partner Gilly (Hannah Murray) left the Citadel, a
When Victor Hugo wrote the 1900-page tome “Les Misérables” in 1862, he gave the world a transcending and sweeping tale that dissected the division of class while breathing life into complex characters spanning decades. Unfortunately, no matter what your stance on musical theater, much of that tome has since been lost in Broadway and big
April 12, 2019 2:00PM PT Game developer Robin Hunicke is appearing as a guest judge on Bravo’s “Project Runway” next week, she confirmed in a tweet on Friday. “Cat’s out of the bag!” she said in response to a games editor who posted about her appearance. “Next week, I will appear on @BravoTV as a
April 12, 2019 1:37PM PT Former CBS chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves forfeited $34.5 million in CBS stock awards last year as part of the settlement agreement that saw him ousted from the company he steered for more than 20 years amid a sexual misconduct scandal. Moonves earned a total of $47 million from CBS in 2018,
“Good Girls” has been renewed for a third season at NBC. The drama about three friends who robbed a bank and then got sucked into the world of money laundering stars Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman and Retta. “We’re so excited to continue following the friendship and adventures of these three incredible women while also exploring
April 12, 2019 11:44AM PT The season 3 finale of “This Is Us” came out on top in in a close-fought delayed ratings contest with “The Big Bang Theory.” The NBC show, which aired its finale on April 2, was the top-rated scripted show in Live+3 ratings for the week of April 1, after it
Elise Henderson has been tapped as the new President of TV at MRC, Variety has learned. In her new role, the former SVP of Development for UCP will oversee MRC’s slate of in-development and current programming, which includes “House of Cards” and “Ozark.” She will also oversee the company’s multiple joint venture and strategic production partnerships.
ESPN’s newest game starts hours, even days, before any team steps onto the field of play. The Disney-owned sports-media giant heads this weekend into a massive round of live broadcasts across its flagship cable outlet, ESPN2, ESPNU, the broadband service ESPN+ and ABC that will showcase everything from the NBA Playoffs to UFC and Top
The eighth annual ATX Television Festival has added panels for “One Day at a Time,” “Veronica Mars,” “Into the Dark: Culture Shock” and “Letterkenny” to its lineup, Variety has learned exclusively. Additionally, Beau Willimon (“House of Cards,” “The First”) will return to host his own discussion event and join a panel about playwrights moving to
It’s difficult now to imagine “Game of Thrones” not being the staggering phenomenon it became. Since its 2011 debut, HBO’s landmark drama has smashed records and redefined the scope of TV as we once knew it, getting bigger and broader with every passing episode. But even if it was always ambitious, the early success of
Los Angeles-based content aggregator Cinedigm will launch its Chinese entertainment AVOD channel Bambu in June, and partner with OTT platform Future Today for distribution. The company also recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire the latter for $45 million in cash and $15 million in Cinedigm common stock, a deal expected to close in the
April 11, 2019 8:47PM PT Showtime got a bit creative Thursday in announcing the return of Noel Fisher for “Shameless‘” tenth season, staging a “Twitter hack” to make it appear that fans of the series had taken over “Shameless‘” social media account. The account’s name was edited to read “Shameless will return with NOEL FISHER,”
April 11, 2019 5:01PM PT “The Simpsons” have found a new streaming home. Disney+ will be the exclusive SVOD home of the long-running animated sitcom, with all episodes from the show’s 30 seasons available on the service at launch in November. The announcement was made during the Disney investor day on Thursday. The show is
April 11, 2019 4:54PM PT Disney+ is planning a number of behind-the-scenes production documentary series, making the most of its investment in content for the upcoming streaming services. Disney+ is also planning a Marvel “What If” animated series that will take a cue from its comic book series of the same name that explores alternative
In today’s roundup, Netflix releases the trailer for the new Chris Lilley show “Lunatics” and HBO sets a premiere date for upcoming teen drama “Euphoria.” FIRST LOOKS Netflix dropped a trailer for the new Chris Lilley created mockumentary series “Lunatics.” The show examines the lives of six eccentric people, all played by Lilley, and will
April 11, 2019 3:00PM PT Disney+ is developing a TV series based on “The Sandlot,” Variety has learned. David Mickey Evans, the co-writer and director of the 1993 film, is attached to write and executive produce the series. It is said to take in 1984 and would focus on the children of the original characters.