Starz chief Chris Albrecht will step down from his position in March amid the continued integration of Lionsgate and Starz. “Chris’s renowned programming expertise and entrepreneurial abilities have helped build Starz into a premium global brand distinguished by its great shows, fast-growing direct to consumer initiatives, and expanding international footprint,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer in a statement.
Television
February 1, 2019 2:00PM PT The CW has ordered a drama pilot for “Glamorous,” about a gender non-conforming teen who scores a job at a makeup company. Written and executive produced by Jordon Nardino, the show centers around a gender non-conforming recent high school graduate who lands the gig of a lifetime interning at a
February 1, 2019 1:00PM PT Netflix has canceled the drama series “Travelers” after three seasons. Series star Eric McCormack broke the news on Twitter Friday. “A lot of you have been asking about the possibility of a season four, but many of you have been saying, ‘Look, if this is it, what a moving and
February 1, 2019 1:00PM PT “Village Gazette,” a comedy from “Late Night With Seth Meyers” writer Amber Ruffin, has scored a pilot presentation order from NBC. Ruffin will star in, write and executive produce the single-camera comedy. She plays the fluff piece-loving editor of the Benson Village Gazette, covering her idyllic hometown. But “when the
“I was in inappropriate rooms, and I was placed in hotel rooms. It is because of the casting director that I was a protected child in this industry. And even to the point of risking their own career, I have a couple of memories of the casting director saying, ‘No, I’m staying,’” Laura Dern said
Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety‘s television podcast. In this week’s installment, Variety’s executive editor of TV, Daniel Holloway, chats with Leslye Headland, the showrunner of Netflix’s new series “Russian Doll.” The show, co-created by Headland, Amy Poehler, and Natasha Lyonne, who also plays the lead role, follows a woman who is hit by a car after a
NBC has ordered the comedy competition series “Bring the Funny” to series with a 10-episode commitment. “Saturday Night Live’s” longest-running cast member Kenan Thompson will serve as a judge on the series along with Chrissy Teigen and comedy icon Jeff Foxworthy. Comedian Amanda Seales will serve as host. In partnership with the international organization Just
Filming has begun on Lucía Puenzo’s psychological gender thriller series “La Jauría,” a co-production by Fremantle with Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Chile-U.S.-based Fabula. The eight-episode Spanish-language drama series, shooting in Santiago, Chile, features Daniela Vega, the lead in Fabula’s Academy Award-winning “A Fantastic Woman.” Lucía Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most renowned women
There’s a certain sort of oddity that feels less like imagination or creativity than its opposite — as though the maker of a given work of art were out of ideas as to how to keep us on the hook and, instead, defaulted to the most self-consciously strange option. So it is, unfortunately, with “The
Francis Whatley said making “David Bowie: Finding Fame” – his third film about the rock star – has given him a chance to tell the story of the singer’s earlier years, which was previously denied him. But the race is on to restore what is believed to be the first TV footage of Bowie as
February 1, 2019 7:04AM PT Auto giant Fiat Chrysler, which has run convention-breaking ads in the Super Bowl since 2009, said Friday it would not run any commercials in the game this Sunday, marking the second big advertiser to pull back from the event this year. “This year, we will exclusively use social and digital
January 31, 2019 5:30PM PT CBS has given out a pilot order to the hybrid comedy “To Whom It May Concern.” In the series, Evan sets out with his group of 20-something friends to accomplish a list of challenges he wrote for himself years ago in an effort to turn around his banal life. Mike Metz
Showtime and The CW were up on Day 3 of the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Thursday. Showtime previewed its new drama “City on a Hill” and the premium cabler’s first late-night series “Desus & Mero.” The CW held an executive session with network head Mark Pedowitz and brought along the cast of
Amid the expansion of the streaming TV marketplace, the question of where a network’s shows land after their first-run airing is a growing business opportunity for programmers and producers. The CW is already the product of a blended family as a joint venture of CBS and Warner Bros. The network currently has a multiyear output
January 31, 2019 4:30PM PT ABC has ordered a one-hour drama pilot based on the John Mayer song “Heart of Life.” The show follows two sets of adult siblings from wildly different worlds who discover they’re related and must reassess everything they thought they knew about their shared father. As they explore the mystery of
In today’s roundup, Steven Yeun and Seth Rogen are among additions to “Invincible,” and “Russian Doll” releases its second official trailer. CASTING Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Andrew Rannells, Zazie Beetz, Mark Hamill, and more will star as voices in Amazon Prime Video’s new hour-long animated series “Invincible” from “The
TNT’s executive vice president of original programming Sarah Aubrey has been named the head of original content for WarnerMedia Streaming Service. Kevin Reilly, president of TBS and TNT and chief creative officer for Turner and WarnerMedia Direct-to-Consumer, made the announcement on Thursday. In addition, Reilly also named Brett Weitz general manager for TBS and TNT. Weitz
“Jane The Virgin” is coming to an end on the CW with a fifth and final season but series creator and showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman and series star Gina Rodriguez have known this would be the end for quite some time. “Around the second year Mark Pedowitz said to me that the show will go
January 31, 2019 2:30PM PT Maggie Kiley has signed on to direct the “Katy Keene” pilot currently in the works at The CW, Variety has learned exclusively. Kiley was the first mentee of Ryan Murphy’s HALF program to be assigned an episode of television to direct. She collaborated with Ryan when she directed episodes of Fox’s
Jussie Smollett’s family issued a statement on Thursday calling the alleged attack that the actor suffered early Tuesday morning “inhumane acts of domestic terrorism.” “We want to be clear, this was a racial and homophobic hate crime,” the statement said in part. “Jussie has told the police everything from the very beginning. His story has
January 31, 2019 12:03PM PT Comedian Artie Lange was held in the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, N.J., on Wednesday night allegedly in an effort to help him sober up before being relocated to a long-term treatment program. The former “MADtv” star’s team tweeted that he was not arrested, but only being held in
January 31, 2019 12:00PM PT Disney+ has given a straight-to-series order to “Diary of a Female President” with Gina Rodriguez attached as an executive producer, Variety has learned. The upcoming streamer has given the half-hour, single-camera comedy series a 10-episode order. Told from the narration of her diary, the series follows a Cuban-American 12 year old girl
January 31, 2019 11:47AM PT When asked if she was going to be a part of “The L Word” sequel, which Showtime announced Thursday is officially going into production this summer, Sarah Shahi didn’t hesitate before saying yes. “This was something that was brought up in a discussion [with original ‘L Word’ cast members] last
January 31, 2019 11:30AM PT Nickelodeon has named Rob Bagshaw as its executive vice president of unscripted content, where he will oversee the development and production of unscripted content across all platforms and formats. That ranges from reality competition shows to live events such as the Kids’ Choice Awards and Kids’ Choice Sports. He will
“Black Monday” co-creators Jordan Cahan and David Caspe have a storied history of broadcast comedies (“Happy Endings” for Caspe, “Breaking In” for Cahan, and “Marry Me” for both of them). When they set out on the new endeavor of 1980s-set stock market crash comedy for premium cabler Showtime they knew they’d have a bit more
Kevin Brockman, Disney-ABC Television Group’s executive vice president of global communications, will leave the company following the close of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The 22-year Disney communications veteran, who has been in his present position since 2008, will stay in his role through the transition, according to the company. He currently oversees all
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” made its move from Fox to NBC this month, marking the sixth season Stephanie Beatriz is portraying the gruff but lovable Det. Rosa Diaz. It is her longest-running role, and it may just be the one most close to her, as she personally inspired Rosa’s coming out storyline on the show last season.
When OCS entered the scene in France in November 2008, the media landscape looked wholly different. Netflix sent DVDs by mail; “The Sopranos” had come to an end, robbing HBO of a flagship title; and French viewers would sometimes have to wait weeks — or months — to catch up on the buzziest international series.
January 31, 2019 3:28AM PT A new Norwegian drama will tell the story of the people who responded to the horrific 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway that left 77 dead, most of them teenagers. “22 July” is being produced by Norwegian pubcaster NRK’s drama arm and will be distributed by DRG, which landed the international
When Bavaria Fiction executive producer Moritz Polter looks out at the company’s backlot from his office window, he can see the original sets built for “Das Boot,” the classic 1981 movie set in the belly of a German U-boat that’s been recently rebooted with stellar results. The Oscar-nominated anti-war pic, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and