Television

January 23, 2019 11:33AM PT Alec Baldwin pleaded guilty to a harassment charge stemming from an altercation over a parking spot, Variety confirmed with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Deputy Press Secretary. The “Saturday Night Live” star was sentenced to a conditional discharge on Wednesday and will take a short-term anger management class. Baldwin was charged

January 23, 2019 11:15AM PT JoAnna Garcia Swisher has signed on for a leading role in the ABC single-camera comedy pilot “Happy Accident,” Variety has learned. She joins previously announced cast member Matt Walsh. The show follows two Pittsburgh families – father Bud (Walsh) with three adult daughters, and a hotel lounge singer with her med

January 23, 2019 9:18AM PT NBC has promoted longtime “Saturday Night Live” PR chief Lauren Roseman to senior VP of NBC Entertainment Publicity. Roseman oversees the NBC Entertainment Publicity team in New York in addition to leading PR for “SNL” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” With the promotion, she will also focus on media

January 23, 2019 9:04AM PT Patrick Wachsberger, the former co-chairman of Lionsgate who recently created Picture Perfect Entertainment, is joining forces with France’s Federation Entertainment to launch a new TV production company called Picture Perfect Federation. The banner will be dedicated to the development and production of premium TV series for the U.S., as well

January 23, 2019 8:38AM PT Kate Winslet will star in and executive produce the limited series “Mare of Easttown” for HBO, Variety has confirmed. Winslet will play a small-town Pennsylvania detective whose life crumbles around her as she investigates a local murder. The series is a co-production between HBO and wiip, the CAA-backed independent studio headed

P.K. Subban is best known for his work on the ice on behalf of the Nashville Predators. But if NBC Sports and the National Hockey League defenseman have their way, he might gain some notoriety for his performance on solid ground. NBC Sports this evening will launch “The P.K. Project,” a multi-episode digital series featuring

“It is great to have such an acclaimed director, producer and screenwriter as Fernando joining us on this journey,” said Endemol Shine Boomdog CEO Alejandro Rincon, adding: “Fernando’s extraordinary experience and his close relationship with Joaquin make him the perfect choice to lead these productions.” Sabina, who is not only known as a world class

MIAMI — Turner Latin America and Mexico’s Dopamine, a Salinas Group company, have struck a production alliance to develop and produce three original series: “Tu parte del trato,” “Amarres” and “Coyatl.” The pact adds to the NATPE announcement on Monday of “Las Bravas F.C,” the first series in Turner Latin America’s five-year strategic production partnership

MIAMI — Boldly taking on the challenges of TV’s future as it turns 25, Argentina’s Pol-ka Producciones, one of Latin America’s few historic independent TV companies, is turning to the past. Shooting from Jan. 2, but set in Buenos Aires from 1936 to 1945, “Argentina, Land of Passion and Revenge,” (“Argentina, Tierra de Amor y

January 22, 2019 1:53PM PT Kevin Barnett, the comedian behind Fox comedy series “Rel,” has died while on vacation in Mexico of unknown causes. He was 32. Barnett’s New York City-based comedy career was just taking off at the time of his death, having recently executive produced and co-created Fox TV series “Rel” alongside comedians

January 22, 2019 1:08PM PT Famed New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast is taking her sardonic wit to a television screen near you. Her best-selling graphic memoir “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” is being adapted into a half-hour television series by Shivani Rawat’s ShivHans Pictures and Ken Kwapis’ In Cahoots, Variety has learned. Emmy-winning

WarnerMedia is launching an incubator meant to “combine emerging technologies with content from across its operating units to create new and innovative consumer experiences and businesses,” the company announced Tuesday. Led by Jesse Redniss, Turner’s executive VP of data strategy and product innovation, the WarnerMedia Innovation Lab is looking to integrate its intellectual property and talent

MIAMI  — In hallowed tradition, Brazilian TV giant Globo unveiled its NATPE line-up on the first day of the Miami trade fair. With scripted and non-scripted promos playing to a thundering soundtrack Jerry Bruckheimer would have been proud of, this was, as ever for Globo, a polished and powerful presentation. But it also said much

January 22, 2019 12:06PM PT The series premiere of “The Masked Singer” continued to pay dividends to Fox in the delayed viewing numbers. In Live+7 for the week of Dec. 31, “The Masked Singer”–which already had the biggest Live+3 gain of any unscripted premiere ever–rose 40% from its Live+Same Day haul in adults 18-49 to a

Paula Kaplan, the executive vice president of talent and development at Viacom Digital Studios, is expanding her role to new include overseeing talent for Nickelodeon. Kaplan’s new title will be executive vice president of talent and development for Viacom Digital Studios and EVP of talent for Nickelodeon. Kaplan will report to both Brian Robbins, president

Syfy has renewed “The Magicians” for a fifth season just ahead of the fourth season premiere. The show has also promoted Henry Alonso Myers to co-showrunner for the fifth season. “‘The Magicians’ raised the bar at Syfy and has gained momentum season after season, attracting a new audience to the channel. We are proud of

Singer-comedienne Kaye Ballard, who starred alongside Eve Arden in the 1960s sitcom “The Mothers-in-Law” and was among the stars of the 1976 feature based on Terrence McNally’s farce “The Ritz,” died Monday in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She was 93. She had recently attended a screening of a documentary about her life, “Kaye Ballard: The Show

January 22, 2019 10:00AM PT Showtime has renewed the animated comedy “Our Cartoon President” for a second season, Variety has learned exclusively. The 10-episode second season is slated to debut later this year. Stephen Colbert executive produces along with Chris Licht and showrunner R.J. Fried. Tim Luecke serves as lead animator and co-executive producer. Matt Lappin

Endemol Shine North America is teaming up with Michael Strahan’s SMAC Entertainment to develop a U.S. version of the game show “The Money Drop.” Originally launched in 2010 as “The Million Pound Drop Live” by Endemol UK’s Remarkable Television for Channel 4, the format has now been produced locally by Endemol Shine Group in 54

Last year saw the release of the most recent iteration of a Spidey game, “Marvel’s Spider-Man,” developed by Insomniac Games. “Marvel’s Spider-Man” smashed all kinds of records. It dethroned “God of War” as the fastest-selling Sony-exclusive of all time and it achieved launch month sales 37% higher than the launch month sales of every previous

January 22, 2019 9:00AM PT Endeavor Content has named Tim Robinson as its chief operating officer, a newly created role. As COO, he will helm Endeavor Content’s overall operations, including business affairs, finance, human resources and corporate development. He will also play a “key role” in the acceleration of the its growth strategy both at

More than 360 international delegates are expected at Göteborg’s 13th Nordic TV Drama Vision (Jan. 30-31) described by head of industry Cia Edström as a ‘boutique event’, where top Nordic and international drama professionals gather each year to gauge the state of the Nordic market and hot content. For the first time, to comply with the

When “The Simpsons” ends its 30th and current season this spring, it will have racked up 663 original episodes — having a season ago passed “Gunsmoke” (635) as the longest-running scripted program in television history. But with the Walt Disney Co.’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox pending, one of TV’s least likely institutions could prove more

January 22, 2019 6:25AM PT Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier and his family are safe after being involved in what the news host described as a major car accident while traveling to an airport after taking a ski trip to Montana. “After a weekend of skiing with my wife and two boys in Montana,

Lighthouse Studios has named Claire Finn its new managing director. The animation studio is based in Kilkenny, Ireland, and has just finished work on Amazon series “Bug Diaries,” and started on another kids’ project for the streamer, the second season of “Give a Mouse a Cookie.” Lighthouse is a joint venture between Mercury Filmworks, one

Mexico’s Televisa and Endemol Shine have inked a new pact for content development, cementing a long-standing relationship of 17 years. Mexico City-based Endemol Shine Boomdog, run by CEO Alejandro Rincon, and Televisa Studios will co-produce a slew of original scripted and unscripted series for the Hispanic markets of Mexico, the U.S. and the rest of

After several fallow years, the first-run syndication marketplace has come back to life with a half-dozen daytime strips on deck to premiere in fall 2019, including notably big-budget talk show efforts hosted by Kelly Clarkson for NBCUniversal and Tamron Hall for Disney. This burst of activity — and what it says about the willingness by

The new Disney-distributed talk show fronted by Tamron Hall has reached the 70% national clearance threshold now that stations from Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tribune Broadcasting, Cox and Meredith have signed on for the topical talker. Hall, the former “Today” anchor, is making the rounds at NATPE on Tuesday in preparation for the show’s fall launch.

MIAMI — To be presented Tuesday at Natpe by Globo, “Second Chance” marks “Central Station” co-screenwriter Joao Emanuel Carneiro’s second telenovela after “Brazil Avenue,” which he also created. Those are pretty hard acts to follow. Directed by Walter Salles, “Central Station” was nominated for two Academy Awards, foreign-language and best actress for Fernanda Montenegro: “Brazil

The Broadway play “American Son” is set to be adapted for Netflix. Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan, and Eugene Lee will reprise their roles in the Netflix production. Kenny Leon returns to direct and produce, with Jeffrey Richards and Rebecca Gold serving as producers. Washington and Pilar Savone of Washington’s Simpson Street banner will