Television

Bavaria Film’s powerhouse TV division boasts some of Germany’s hottest shows, and it is achieving worldwide success as it increases its focus on international co-productions. Launched in 2007, Bavaria Fiction produces a wide range of scripted formats, from daily and weekly series to TV movies and lavish event productions, including Germany’s favorite cop show. The

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Ragnarok,” the fifth season finale of “Vikings.” The era of “Vikings” may be coming to an end on History after its upcoming sixth season, but the international co-production still has a ways to go before it goes dark for good. The show’s penultimate run wrapped

CBS and CBS All Access took their turns at the winter Television Critics Assn. press tour on Wednesday (with a bonus appearance from PopTV’s upcoming publicist drama, “Flack,” starring Anna Paquin). Only two panels were devoted to new upcoming shows — including Super Bowl leadout competition show “World’s Best” and limited series “The Red Line”

In today’s TV news roundup, the “Twilight Zone” reboot gets a premiere date and Hasty Pudding Theatricals announced “This is Us” star Milo Ventimiglia as its 2019 man of the year. DATES AMC is set to simulcast the second season of “Killing Eve” on April 7 at 8 p.m. “When we launched ‘Killing Eve’ on BBC

Celebrated Colombian television scribe Fernando Gaitan, whose original telenovela “Yo Soy Betty, La Fea” (“Ugly Betty”), a global franchise hit, changed general perceptions about Colombian TV, died Tuesday of a heart attack. He was 58. Considered by the Guinness World Records as the most successful telenovela in history, “Ugly Betty” aired in some 180 countries, was dubbed

CBS All Access has seen double-digit growth during the past year, momentum that got a big boost earlier this month from the combination of the second season premiere of “Star Trek: Discovery” and the NFL’s AFC conference championship. Marc DeBevoise, president and chief operating officer of CBS Interactive, said Wednesday during the Television Critics Assn.

The third season of CBS All Access drama “The Good Fight” is set to premiere in March, on the backdrop of a still-fraught and potentially changing political landscape. The show changed course from its original intention after Donald Trump won the election and its lead character Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) was not able to work

CBS All Access has ordered 10 episodes of limited series “The Stand,” based on Stephen King’s eponymous novel, to be produced by CBS Television Studios. The apocalyptic series takes place in a world mostly wiped out by the plague and “embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil,” according to CBS. “The fate of

January 30, 2019 12:39PM PT Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has agreed to sit down for an exclusive on-screen interview with Kevin Frazier for “Entertainment Tonight” this Thursday in Atlanta to discuss his band’s upcoming halftime performance at the Super Bowl this Sunday. News of the exclusive interview comes a day after the NFL announced

January 30, 2019 12:30PM PT Fox has ordered a second season of the hit unscripted series “The Masked Singer.” Based on the international format, the competition series features celebrities facing off against one another with one major twist: each singer is shrouded from head to toe in an elaborate costume, complete with full face mask

January 30, 2019 11:58AM PT The severe arctic weather in Chicago has brought production to a halt Wednesday on the sets of both “Empire” and “Proven Innocent,” 20th Century Fox confirmed to Variety. No decision has been made yet on when production will resume. That no doubt largely depends on just how long the cold

The news came like a “bolt from the blue” to veteran reality producers Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth last spring. “Project Runway,” the reality franchise the pair created in 2004 through their Magical Elves banner, had been dropped by Lifetime. The show’s ratings had been on the wane, but the cancellation was fueled by the

CBS’ upcoming event series, “The Red Line,” starts with the shooting of an African-American doctor by a Caucasian Chicago police officer after a convenience story robbery, but the conversation the show aims to start, per the producers, extends beyond race. “There are two Americas living side by side and many different privileges and justices exist

There’s room in the unscripted television landscape for more than one talent variety show, according to the “The World’s Best” producers at CBS’ winter TCA press tour Wednesday. While indicating that the mid-season edition of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” was a “direct shot at us,” executive producer Mike Darnell sounded bullish on the

January 30, 2019 10:41AM PT Former Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy has joined Fox News Channel as a contributor, the latest recently-departed politician to take to the TV-news ranks as the networks seek out fresh faces to keep viewers intrigued by their broadcasts. Gowdy, who represented South Carolina starting in 2010, announced in 2018 he would

“Jane the Virgin” star Justin Baldoni has struck a deal with a private investor to sell a majority stake in his Wayfarer Entertainment banner to a private investor based in Chicago. The transaction also calls for the investor, whose name was not disclosed, to establish a $25 million fund to produce content that is in

January 30, 2019 5:16AM PT “We are all capable of disloyalty,” Richard Gere warns in his first role for the small screen in decades, in BBC drama “MotherFatherSon.” Gere plays media overlord Max, who can be seen as a kingmaker and family man in the show’s first trailer. Max is a newspaper and media baron

James Honeyborne, the creator of “Blue Planet II,” has inked an overall deal with Netflix. Honeyborne is an internationally acclaimed producer of blue-chip natural history programming. He recently left U.K. pubcaster the BBC’s Natural History Unit to set up his own banner, Freeborne Media, with director Renee Godfrey. They have inked a multiyear deal to

GOTEBORG, Sweden — After “Borgen” and “Ride Upon the Storm,” DR Drama’s next ambitious show is a fictional-character driven drama set against a terror attack in a Copenhagen restaurant. Penned by “Dicte” co-creators Ida Maria Rydén and Dorte W. Høgh, the series explores the lives of eight characters before and after the attack, and how

January 29, 2019 8:51PM PT An executive producer of “NCIS: New Orleans,” Adam Targum, is no longer with the series, Variety has confirmed. Targum is the subject of a report from Vulture, which indicated that his exit occurred after a complaint was received by HR. Targum had served as deputy to showrunner Christopher Silber and left the

January 29, 2019 5:00PM PT ABC has ordered a pilot for an untitled single-camera comedy from Hannah Simone. The “New Girl” alum will star in, write, and executive produce the project, which is inspired by Simone’s family. In the series, Hannah (Simone) and her Indian-American immigrant father have always been close, but after she admits to

Actor Kate del Castillo made headlines in October 2015 for taking Sean Penn on a risky trek to meet with notorious Mexican drug lord and fugitive Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in a remote location in Mexico. She has no regrets about the incident, even though it hurt her acting career and prevented her from returning

NBCUniversal kicked off the Television Critics Association press tour’s winter session with panels including NBC comedies (“Superstore” and “Abby’s”), reality programming (“Listing Impossible,” “Project Runway”), and upcoming dramas (USA’s “Suits” spinoff “Pearson,” Telemundo’s “La Reina Del Sur”). There was not, however, an executive session from new NBC chairmen George Cheeks and Paul Telegdy, who succeeded Bob

In today’s TV news roundup, “This Is Us” will not air next week due to the State of the Union and USA reveals “Pearson,” a spin-off of “Suits.” FIRST LOOKS USA has revealed the trailer for “Pearson,” an upcoming spinoff of legal drama “Suits” starring Gina Torres as lawyer Jessica Pearson. A recently disbarred NYC

January 29, 2019 3:15PM PT “Empire” filming is continuing as scheduled for the day, a source tells Variety, amid the assault and subsequent hospitalization of star Jussie Smollett early Tuesday in Chicago. The Fox show’s production schedule remains “fluid” for the rest of the week, according to the source. It is not yet known how

Even in a world overflowing with d— jokes, the name “Lorena Bobbitt” has proved to be one of the most enduring punchlines that pop culture’s ever had. The extremity of the inciting situation — which left her husband mutilated and both of them on trial — immediately captured the country’s attention and became a genuine

January 29, 2019 3:00PM PT ABC has given out two more drama pilot orders. First up, the broadcaster has ordered a pilot for a drama based on the graphic novel “Stumptown” by Greg Rucka. It follows Dex Parios, a strong, assertive, and unapologetically sharp-witted army veteran working as a P.I. in Portland, Oregon. With a

January 29, 2019 2:39PM PT Debra Bergman and Ken Basin have been promoted to executive VP rank at Paramount Television. Bergman will serve as head of physical production, reporting to Paramount Television president Nicole Clemens. Basin has advanced in business affairs, reporting to David Goldman, Paramount Television’s president of business operations. In addition, Robert West

January 29, 2019 2:30PM PT Fox has given out a pilot order to the multi-camera comedy “Patty’s Auto.” 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 and the eclectic women who work for her. Darlene Hunt will serve as

January 29, 2019 2:00PM PT CBS is working on a spinoff of the freshman drama “FBI,” Variety has learned. The new series would be titled “FBI: Most Wanted.” It would follow the division of the FBI tasked with tracking and capturing the notorious criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. It will air as a planted