Television

In today’s TV roundup, “On My Block” Season 2 releases a trailer and Netflix announces that it will add a new anime show to its slate, “Gods & Heroes.” FIRST LOOKS Netflix has given us a sneak peek into Season 2 of “On My Block” to be released on March 29.  The coming-of-age comedy, co-created by

March 12, 2019 3:23PM PT “Judge Judy” topped the February sweeps by the widest margin in the show’s history. “Judge Judy” averaged a 7.8 household rating from Jan. 31-Feb. 27, beating its three closest competitors–“Family Feud,” “Jeopardy,” and “Wheel of Fortune”–by more than a full ratings point, with all three of those shows averaging a

March 12, 2019 3:17PM PT A handful of advertisers indicated they would  move their commercials out of the Saturday-night broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” the latest example of some marketers expressing wariness with commentary made by some of the cable-news network’s opinion hosts. During her broadcast on Saturday, Pirro, a former

March 12, 2019 3:03PM PT Gerardo Celasco has joined the cast of the upcoming Fox drama pilot “neXT,” Variety has learned exclusively. The show is described as a fact-based thriller grounded in the latest A.I. research. It features a brilliant but paranoid former tech CEO who joins a Homeland Cybersecurity Agent and her team to stop

Camryn Manheim has been cast in the ABC drama pilot “Stumptown,” Variety has learned. Inspired by the graphic novel “Stumptown” by Greg Rucka, the project follows Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders), a strong, assertive, and unapologetically sharp-witted army veteran working as a P.I. in Portland, Oregon. With a complicated personal history and only herself to rely on,

The first episode of HBO’s new documentary “The Case Against Adnan Syed” premiered on Sunday, once again bringing the murder conviction of the Baltimore man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend back into the headlines. Syed, the subject of the popular 2014 podcast “Serial,” is currently serving a life sentence in prison for the 1999 death

CBS has taken full ownership of the Pop TV cable channel after buying out the 50% stake held by Lionsgate. CBS said it aims to better integrate Pop with the rest of CBS Corp. Pop will continue to field “idiosyncratic, comedy-leaning original programming” and it may add reruns of vintage and contemporary CBS shows, according

March 12, 2019 12:00PM PT Amy Adams and her manager Stacy O’Neil are launching a new production company that has secured a first-look deal at HBO, Variety has learned. The new company is called Bond Group Entertainment, with Kathleen Clifford set to serve as vice president of TV development for the company. Clifford was previously the

March 12, 2019 10:00AM PT Seasoned British producer Kate Solomon (“Green Zone”) has joined former Studiocanal UK boss Danny Perkins at Elysian Film Group as a partner and will spearhead the production side. Solomon, whose recent credits include José Padilha’s “7 Days in Entebbe,” is best known for her collaboration with the Oscar-nominated director Paul

March 12, 2019 10:00AM PT Tisha Campbell-Martin has been cast in the Fox multi-camera comedy pilot “Geniuses,” Variety has learned. Campbell-Martin will play Rita, a mother of three who works as a casino pit boss and is Cay’s (Maggie Lawson) closest friend at work. “Geniuses” is described as family comedy about a blue-collar couple, Cay and Mike (Jason

Judge Judy Sheindlin will receive the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 46th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards this spring, Variety has learned. Sheindlin is the first of her genre (courtroom or legal programming) to be recognized with this award, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced Tuesday. “The Daytime Emmy Awards

March 12, 2019 9:00AM PT “Orphan Black” fans could soon have reason to celebrate. Variety has learned from sources that a new series set in the “Orphan Black” universe is currently in the early development stages at AMC. Temple Street Productions, which produced the original series, is onboard to produce the new series as well.

“Fuller House” actress Lori Loughlin and “Desperate Housewives” veteran Felicity Huffman are among a group of 46 people who have been charged in a widespread college admissions bribery scandal. Prosecutors filed charges against 33 parents, some of whom are accused of paying between $200,000 and $6.5 million to get their children into elite universities. Also among

Long-serving PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger is headed to the Banff World Media Festival to give a keynote address on the role of a modern pubcaster. The PBS chief will speak as part of Banff’s Summit Series of headliners at the fortieth edition of the festival. She joins the previously announced Jeffrey Katzenberg in

Five years ago, then-Turner CEO John Martin unveiled a global initiative he called “Turner 2020,” a vision for the company as it entered the next decade. Of course, he couldn’t have anticipated what actually transpired before that date ever arrived: The wholesale acquisition of Turner parent Time Warner, which led to Martin’s departure — and

Joe Ianniello, CBS president and acting CEO, has a new name for the process known for decades in the pay-TV arena as “churn.” Ianniello, speaking Tuesday morning at the Deutsche Bank Media and Telecom conference in Palm Beach, Fla., said the company’s internal shorthand for the loss of a CBS All Access subscriber is to consider

Can the TV biz finally get its act together to target ads to viewers the way internet companies have done for years? A new consortium, led by TV manufacturer Vizio, is promising to assemble the right technology platform and media partners to make addressable ads on television a reality — as soon as early 2020.

“Saturday Night Live” and “Shrill” star Aidy Bryant knows what it’s like to be in the public eye and “be called a fat, disgusting pig constantly,” she said at SXSW Monday. But that is all the more reason she felt it was important to make her upcoming Hulu comedy series and make “this person the

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead, if you have not watched Part 1 of “The Bachelor” finale, which aired on Mar. 11.  The first part of “The Bachelor” finale was more emotional than most finales “The Bachelor” franchise has ever seen. After miraculously jumping over a fence last week, heartbroken over Cassie, the episode picked up

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the two-hour first season finale of “The Passage” that aired Mar. 11. The season finale of “The Passage,” adapted by Liz Heldens from Justin Cronin’s trilogy of novels, paid off a promise set up at the very start of the source material: It jumped

Tucker Carlson took to Fox News Channel’s 8 p.m. slot knowing he had the full support of the cable-news network’s regular viewers. He did not enjoy the same backing from big blue-chip advertisers. Fox News’ broadcast of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday night featured just four ad breaks and very few big national commercials, relying instead

Four episodes into “Shrill,” shy writer Annie (Aidy Bryant) goes to a party, makes new friends and slowly but surely allows herself to let loose. It’s a scene TV has done a million times, and yet in the hands of “Shrill,” it’s an extraordinary moment that looks and feels completely different from anything that’s come

“Empire” Season 5 returns on Fox this Wednesday night. The following day, series star Jussie Smollett will be arraigned in Chicago for allegedly staging a hate crime against himself. The turn of events that left the Hollywood community and “Empire” fans stunned has cast a pall over the midseason premiere and left those at Fox

WWE Superstar Roman Reigns returned to in-ring action in fine style Sunday night, reuniting with fellow members of the Shield Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose for a victory over the team of Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and Baron Corbin at the “Fastlane” pay-per-view. The victory came just under five months since Reigns announced to the

In today’s roundup, a premiere date is set for Kevin Hart’s first Netflix comedy special, and Ramy Youssef’s Hulu series “Ramy” gets a trailer. DATES In his Netflix comedy debut, a new original special from Kevin Hart will launch on April 2, titled “Kevin Hart: Irresponsible.” The one-hour stand-up was filmed in front of a sold-out

Both Michael Ealy and Mark Webber have been cast in the ABC dram pilot “Stumptown,” Variety has learned. Inspired by the graphic novel “Stumptown” by Greg Rucka, the project follows Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders), a strong, assertive, and unapologetically sharp-witted army veteran working as a P.I. in Portland, Oregon. With a complicated personal history and only

March 11, 2019 2:47PM PT Even after delayed viewing, the Oscars was still way ahead of the pack in the ratings for the week of Feb.18. The prestigious film awards show, which saw a 12% bump in total viewers from the 2018 ceremony, finished with a 7.9 Live+7 rating, up from 7.7 in Live+Same Day, and

Another Marvel-Netflix alum is making the move to Amazon. Erik Oleson, who was most recently the showrunner on “Daredevil,” has signed an overall deal at Amazon, Variety has learned. The news comes after it was announced in December that “Luke Cage” creator and showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker had signed a similar deal. “I want to tell

March 11, 2019 1:30PM PT Lucy Hale has been cast in the titular role for the upcoming CW pilot “Katy Keene,” Variety has learned. A “Riverdale” spinoff based on the Archie Comics character of the same name, “Katy Keene” follows the lives of four characters — including fashion legend-to-be Katy Keene — as they chase dreams

March 11, 2019 12:23PM PT Warner Bros. Television’s Erin Wehrenberg has been tapped to lead the ABC Entertainment comedy series development team and oversee its daily operations as senior vice president of network comedy. “We are so incredibly fortunate to have Erin join us as the creative force leading our comedy development team,” said ABC