LILLE, France — It takes just the first five minutes of Shane Meadows’ “The Virtues” – written with Jack Thorne, produced by Warp Films, airing shortly on the U.K.’s Channel 4, part of ITV Studios Global Ent.’s spring drama slate – for viewers to feel a large compassion for Joseph, played by Stephen Graham (“This
Television
“Pose” co-creator Ryan Murphy revealed that Broadway legend Patti LuPone will guest star on the upcoming second season of the FX drama, and that the series will jump ahead to 1990. Murphy made the announcement while moderating the “Pose” panel at PaleyFest on Saturday, telling lead actress MJ Rodriguez that she will share many scenes
A creative force behind the hit Israeli series “In Treatment,” Nir Bergman is presenting his latest drama “Just for Today” in competition at Series Mania festival in Lille. Produced by Endemol Shine Israel for Yes TV, “Just for Today” follows Anat, an idealistic social counsellor who is dealing with the shutting down of a halfway
LILLE, France — God, Freddie Highmore’s good at crying. There’s a scene in “Neverland,” screened at his Series Mania masterclass, where he’s acting opposite Johnny Depp. His mother has just died. Highmore sits on a park bench, clutching a notebook, which she helped as tears well in his eyes, and he tries to keep in
It truly is the end of an era. The CW president Mark Pedowitz has sat on stage at the network’s Television Critics Assn. press tours for years now saying that “Supernatural” would go on for as long as its stars felt they had more in them. True to his word, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and
After saying goodbye to most of the original cast on “The Walking Dead,” Norman Reedus still feels his former co-stars with him during each episode. “I’ve seen so many people come and go,” he said during a “Walking Dead” panel on Friday at PaleyFest. “Right now on the show, the ghosts of all those guys
LILLE, France — Belgian production company De Mensen, which has just been acquired by France’s Newen, has teamed with Reel One Entertainment on a new cross-continental thriller series, “Capturing Big Mouth. The series will be pitched Monday at this year’s Series Mania Forum Co-pro Pitching section. It chronicles the unlikely rise and eventual fall of
UPDATED: Viacom and DirecTV executives are going down to the wire tonight on a combative contract renewal negotiation with high stakes for both sides. Talks were still going after the midnight ET deadline passed and the channels remain up on DirecTV. A team of Viacom executives led by Tom Gorke, exec VP and head of distribution
“Abby’s,” NBC’s new comedy about a cranky bartender (Natalie Morales) and her inner circle of regulars, is aware of the inevitable “Cheers” comparisons. Created by “New Girl” writer Josh Malmuth and executive produced by uber-producer (and unabashed “Cheers” superfan) Mike Schur, “Abby’s” therefore makes a few key choices in order to differentiate itself as its
In today’s roundup, Netflix announces the premiere date for Ryan Murphy’s “The Politician” series, and Kristin Cavallari will host “Paradise Hotel” on Fox. DATES Reality star Kristin Cavallari will host Fox’s reboot of “Paradise Hotel,” an unscripted dating show in which a group of singles will check into a tropical resort and compete to check
Netflix crossed another unscripted threshold on Friday with the launch of “Selling Sunset,” an 8-episode series that follows a group of real estate agents on the Sunset Strip. The show is believed to be the streaming service’s first docusoap, the now-ubiquitous format first popularized in the early 2000s by shows like MTV’s “Laguna Beach” and
March 22, 2019 3:20PM PT Discovery Inc. president-CEO David Zaslav is once again making headlines for an enormous compensation package. Zaslav’s 2018 compensation soared to $129.44 million in 2018, fueled by stock options and grants awarded as the longtime Discovery chief signed a new employment contract last July that takes him through 2023 at the
March 22, 2019 1:41PM PT “Supernatural” is ending after 15 seasons. Series stars Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins made the announcement in a video posted on Instagram on Friday. “We just told the crew that even though we’re very excited to be moving into our 15th season, it will be our last,” Ackles
March 22, 2019 1:24PM PT When it came to who won the Live+3 ratings race for the week of March 11, the rose went to “This Is Us” over “The Bachelor.” The NBC drama beat the ABC reality show in both ratings and total viewers in delayed viewing, with a 3.0 rating and 11.5 million viewers
Gayle King is likely to stay a morning person. The popular anchor, who has enjoyed a steady stream of big-interview “gets” in recent weeks, is moving closer to signing a new deal to stay at CBS News and “CBS This Morning,” according to two people familiar with the matter. The talks are still in flux,
Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety’s television podcast. In this week’s episode, Variety TV reporter Joe Otterson talks with Taika Waititi and Paul Simms, the executive producers of the new FX comedy “What We Do in the Shadows.” The show is based on Waititi and Jermaine Clement’s 2014 film of the same name, however, the TV
March 22, 2019 12:30PM PT Dani and Dannah Lockett have been cast in the NBC comedy pilot “The Kenan Show,” Variety has learned exclusively. The single-cam project stars “SNL” mainstay Kenan Thompson as a newly widowed dad determined to be everything for his kids while begrudgingly letting his persistent father-in-law (Andy Garcia) become more involved
Phylicia Rashad; upcoming series “David Makes Man,” “The Terror: Infamy” and “Los Espookys”; and some panels dedicated to female storytelling have joined the eighth annual ATX Television Festival. Rashad will be honored with this year’s “Award in Television eXcellence” and will take part in a Q&A discussion around the event. This award celebrates her iconic
March 22, 2019 11:00AM PT The Team Downey-produced “Perry Mason” limited series has been picked up at HBO. The series will be set in 1932 Los Angeles. Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner, this limited series follows the origins of American fiction’s most legendary criminal defense lawyer (Matthew Rhys). When a child kidnapping
A second day of layoffs has begun on the Fox lot in the wake of Disney completing its acquisition of 21st Century Fox on Wednesday. Longtime 20th Century Fox Television Distribution president Mark Kaner is among the senior executives who were formally notified with severance details on Friday morning. 21st Century Fox’s international TV sales
March 22, 2019 9:00AM PT H. Michael Croner has joined Fox’s multi-cam comedy pilot “Patty’s Auto,” Variety has learned exclusively. Inspired by Patrice Banks’ Girls Auto Clinic – an auto repair shop with all female mechanics – the project is described as an ensemble comedy centering on Patty (Carra Patterson) and the eclectic women who work
ABC has renewed its highest-rated new show, “The Conners,” for a second season, Variety has learned. The show’s stars, including John Goodman, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, Ames McNamara and Laurie Metcalf, are all set to return to Lanford, after several of them signed a new deal with the network on Thursday. “We are proud to be continuing
LILLE, France — Few festival heads are so ready to plunge into questions such as what their lineup suggests about contemporary drama series production as Series Mania’s director general Laurence Herszberg and Frédéric Lavigne. Series Mania was one of Europe’s first TV festivals to push drama series an art-form. Ten years later, it’s still a
LILLE, France – The 10th Series Mania kicks off in Lille, north-east France, on Friday March 22. Here are 10 down-to-the-wire takes on the banner European TV Festival: 1.NETFLIXMANIA Many Series Mania screenings are fully booked. But some sold out in the hour: “Osmosis,” and “The OA” Season 2, for instance. “Chambers” with Uma Thurman
March 22, 2019 8:07AM PT France’s Endemol Shine has announced the Australian sale of its hit cult-themed Israeli drama “Harem” to Australia’s SBS. During a keynote speech at last year’s Series Mania, Endemol Shine president Sohpie Turner Laing announced that Season 2 of the series had already been greenlit, and shooting would begin in 2019.
For one night, Hollywood felt a little like Pawnee. The cast of NBC’s hit comedy “Parks and Recreation” reunited at PaleyFest on Thursday in honor of the show’s 10th anniversary. The whole Pawnee gang showed up: Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman, Aziz Ansari, Rob Lowe, Adam Scott, Rashida Jones, Retta, and Jim
March 22, 2019 6:27AM PT Eunetta T. Boone was funny, sharp and extremely warm-hearted. That’s how WarnerMedia Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt remembered Boone as he paid tribute to the showrunner who died Wednesday at the age of 63. Greenblatt worked with Boone in the early 2000s when he was partnered with David Janollari in the
LILLE, France — “I must down to the seas again,” Amaré, an teen African illegal immigrant, reads aloud in a poetry lesson at a refugee center near the beach in Greece. Thoughts of wander-lust seen comically out of place. Amaré has just been seen in the prolog to “Eden” leaping out of a dinghy beaching
John Simm plays a rabble-rousing populist politician in “Cold Courage,” and Lionsgate has stepped up and taken international rights to the series. Based on the series of novels by Pekka Hiltunen, the drama is billed as the biggest yet out of Finland and will bow on the Viaplay streaming service in Scandinavia. With a cast
Writer-producer Eunetta Boone, creator of the UPN comedy “One on One” and showrunner of Disney Channel’s “Raven’s Home,” died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 63. Boone was found dead at her home of an apparent heart attack. Boone had most recently worked as showrunner on the third season of the Disney