CBS reality show “Big Brother” loves to tell its audience to “expect the unexpected,” but things went pretty much according to the assumed with Anthony Scaramucci on the second season premiere of the celebrity edition of the show. Right from his introductory package, Scaramucci had to acknowledge he was fired from the White House, “for
Television
MIAMI — Tyler Perry took time out of his “Madea’s Farewell” live stage tour and spent his Martin Luther King Jr. holiday giving an inspiring speech to aspiring producers and students gathered here for the annual NATPE convention. Perry was the keynoter Monday at the conference’s first ever “Living the Dream: A Career in Content” session
January 21, 2019 3:49PM PT Sunday’s AFC and NFC championship games were nail-biters that went into overtime and sent viewership into overdrive. CBS harvested a whopping 53.9 million viewers as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady led his team to their third consecutive Super Bowl berth in a hard-fought primetime game against the Kansas City
Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV. Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week, “Rent: Live” airs on Fox and “Celebrity Big Brother” returns for a second
Cocaine’s a hell of a drug, but you’re not seeing things: That, indeed is Showtime’s old 1980s-era logo pasted all over marketing materials and promos for “Black Monday,” a tongue-in-cheek tale of the excesses exhibited by Wall Street traders in the lead-up to the stock market crash of 1987. The logo, which hasn’t been in
This is a particularly tricky review to write, but not because the merits of “Russian Doll” are at all ambiguous. On the contrary, the show is so striking and smart that I made a note to include it on my favorite TV shows of 2019 immediately after blowing through the season — which is saying
Bringing to bear a talented cast on a story of real geopolitical significance, “Black Earth Rising,” Netflix’s drama about the long-tail aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, would seem to have had the potential to be one of 2019’s early television successes. Which makes its falling short all the more painful and pronounced. The show, previously
January 21, 2019 7:49AM PT The Season 1 finale of “Dirty John” on Bravo continued the scripted show’s ratings hot streak in Live+3. The finale, which aired on Jan. 13, grew to 3.3 million viewers in delayed viewing with 1.3 million of those falling in the key adults 18-49 demographic. That is up 10% in
January 21, 2019 4:40AM PT Former Sky One and Sky Living programming chief Adam MacDonald has joined Possessed, and will be the ITV-owned production banner’s first chair. The U.K.-based unscripted producer has also hired Lesley Davies, former head of international production at Warner Bros. She will head up production. The double hires follow a recommission
China Global Television Network, the English-language news channel that is part of China Central Television, has come on board high profile environmental documentary “Drowning in Plastic.” The show is represented by all3media international, and the agreement is the first between the two companies. CGTN comes on board as co-producer alongside Raw, and BBC One. The
A+E Networks has clinched a raft of new programming sales to top TV outlets in Latin America and NBC’s Universo Spanish-language cabler in the U.S. On the eve of the annual NATPE programming market in Miami this week, A+E said it has set new licensing agreements for scripted and factual content with Direct TV (Latin
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Providence,” the 12th episode of “Outlander” Season 4. There were two competing narratives on “Outlander” this week — one that was largely invented for the show but was a very clever way to keep a certain character involved, and another that was also changed
January 20, 2019 1:08PM PT “The Crown” has found its Iron Lady. Gillian Anderson is said to have signed on to play British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the fourth season of the much-praised Netflix drama series. Anderson’s casting was first reported by the Sunday Times. A Netflix rep declined to comment on the report.
The Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival (FICG) has announced that Estrella Araiza, until now the festival’s head of industry and markets and director of the Guadalajara IntL. Film Festival in Los Angeles, has been promoted to the position of general director of the prominent Mexican festival. She replaces Ivan Trujillo, appointed director of TV UNAM. Araiza
Starz has released a second season trailer for “American Gods,” which returns to the cabler Mar. 10, depicting the brewing war between Gods old and new in the series based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name. “When people first came to America they brought us with them,” the trailer begins, flashing images of
After sitting out the live sketches of the final episode of “Saturday Night Live” in 2018, cast member Pete Davidson kicked off the first episode of the new year right from the cold open. The sketch was a “Deal or No Deal: Government Shutdown Edition” that of course put guest player Alec Baldwin front and
January 18, 2019 6:00PM PT NBC has ordered comedies “Saving Kenan” and “Like Magic” to pilot. “Saving Kenan” is a single-camera comedy starring “Saturday Night Live” veteran Kenan Thompson as a “newly widowed dad determined to be everything for his kids while begrudgingly letting his persistent father-in-law become more involved in their lives.” Jackie Clarke
Hulu has grounded the space exploration drama “The First” after one season, Variety has confirmed. The series hailed from Beau Willimon and starred Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone in Penn’s first regular television role. “The First” was set in the near future and followed the first human mission to Mars. Hulu gave the show a straight-to-series order in
In today’s TV News Roundup, The CW releases a first look at Nicole Maines on “Supergirl” and Variety unveils an exclusive look at Gabriel Iglesias’ new comedy special. FIRST LOOKS truTV has released the first trailer for season 2 of Emmy-nominated series “At Home with Amy Sedaris.” The variety sketch comedy returns Tuesday, Feb. 19 at
January 18, 2019 1:36PM PT Disney has rejiggered its business segments for earnings reporting to make room for the new unit housing its global streaming operations. Disney on Friday released restated earnings for fiscal 2018, 2017 and 2016 to give investors and financial analysts better visibility into its spending on the launch of the Disney
January 18, 2019 1:11PM PT Annapurna TV has brought on Patrick Chu as the division’s new senior VP. Prior to that, he had served as an executive for Amazon in drama, production, and development, where he oversaw small-screen adaptations of “Hanna” and “The Hunt.” He will develop and produce new TV projects, focusing on drama,
Three years ago, Netflix overwhelmed Television Academy members by sending out a 20-pound shipment of DVD screeners. It was an exercise in excess, as insiders suggested that the streamer spent as much as $4 million to produce and ship the multiple boxes. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos hated the idea of sending out these
January 18, 2019 12:09PM PT “Manifest” returned from its first winter hiatus by doubling in adults 18-49 in the delayed viewing numbers. For the week of Jan. 7, “Manifest” went from a 1.1 rating in Live+Same Day to a 2.2 in Live+3. In total viewers, the show added 4.4 million viewers for 10.3 million total,
Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety‘s television podcast. In this week’s episode, Variety’s executive editor of TV, Daniel Holloway, talks with Curt Menefee, host of “Fox NFL Sunday,” the long-running pre-game show being inducted into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame in April. Menefee has a pretty packed week. Mondays are his weekend, he says, discussing the
The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) announced nominations for its 66th annual Golden Reel Awards Friday. On the film side, “First Man,” Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” “A Quiet Place” and “Roma” led the way with three nominations each. Musical dramas “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star Is Born” received two, as did “The Favourite.” Among broadcast
January 18, 2019 10:44AM PT Lifetime’s “American Beauty Star” has a new second season host who appreciates the contestants’ struggle for success as equally as their battle to break down diversity barriers in the fashion industry. “I have been doing this for almost 20 years… and people are finally catching up to what we’ve always
There are many mysteries in the “Star Trek” universe. One of them was explained on Thursday night at the season two premiere party for “Star Trek: Discovery” in New York when showrunner Alex Kurtzman revealed the backstory of how Tig Notaro found her way onto a spaceship in the role of brilliant engineer Jet Reno.
January 18, 2019 10:26AM PT Wendy Williams is taking an extended absence from her eponymous daytime talk show due to health complications after ongoing surgery for a shoulder fracture she said she sustained in December. “Over the past few days, Wendy has experienced complications regarding her Graves’ Disease that will require treatment,” according to a
January 18, 2019 10:00AM PT The “NYPD Blue” sequel pilot has cast Rick Gomez in the series regular role of Det. Craig Pettibone, Variety has learned. Pettibone is studying law at night with the goal of passing the bar one day. Although he hasn’t passed it yet, he’s aggressive enough to be already drumming up clients
January 18, 2019 6:00AM PT The Television Academy will eliminate distribution of DVD screeners for eligible shows beginning with the 2020 Emmy cycle. Designed to eliminate both monetary and physical waste, the move will have a substantive impact on the strategy of Emmy marketers. It also makes the academy the first major entertainment-industry organization to