Television

January 11, 2019 11:45AM PT Fox’s “The Masked Singer” and the 2019 Golden Globe Awards on NBC were the top entertainment programs in delayed viewing for the week of Dec. 31. In Live+3, the Golden Globes rose to a 5.4 rating in adults 18-49, putting them just below NFL coverage for the week. “The Masked

Alfonso Ribeiro burst on the entertainment scene with the title role in Broadway’s “The Tap Dance Kid,” and earned his first Variety mention on Dec. 22, 1983, a rave review, when he was just barely 12 years old. He went on to star in his most recognizable role as the sweater-loving Carlton Banks on 1990’s

Welcome to “TV Take,” Variety‘s television podcast. On this week’s episode Daniel Holloway, Variety’s executive editor of television, sits down with “Star Trek: Discovery” showrunner Alex Kurtzman to discuss the show’s upcoming second season on CBS All Access. Later, Variety‘s TV critics Caroline Framke and Daniel D’Addario discuss HBO’s “True Detective” Season 3 and Netflix’s “Sex

Just getting to one of the locations of BBC wildlife documentary series “Dynasties” — presented by David Attenborough and following the lives of endangered animals — requires an 11-hour flight from London to Johannesburg, a two-hour connection to Harare, Zimbabwe, an hourlong chartered Cessna 206 trip to Mana Pools National Park airstrip and an hour’s

“The Passage” star Saniyya Sidney was unaware that the book version of her character was originally white until her father, a fan of Justin Cronin’s apocalyptic trilogy, informed her during the audition process. “I was like, ‘Oh, she is?’” Sidney told Variety at Thursday’s series premiere in Santa Monica, Calif. “And when I got it,

When ITV CEO Carolyn McCall unveiled her strategy refresh late last year, content was one of three key pillars. That put ITV Studios firmly in the spotlight, and its boss, Julian Bellamy, is the exec tasked with delivering growth across the production business. International expansion is in the cards, but on the home front, ITV

MADRID — Stock prices at Mediaset España and Atresmedia, Spain’s two big broadcast networks, fell yesterday afternoon after local press reports that both face fines of up to about €100 million ($115 million) from Spain’s anti-trust authorities regarding abuse of dominant position. Mediaset España recuperated all of its 1.5% stock value loss by late trading

January 11, 2019 6:46AM PT Discovery is shifting its channel licenses for services in the European Union from the U.K. to the Netherlands. The U.S. firm said it wanted to ensure its licenses were valid post-Brexit. Channel licenses registered in the U.K. with the media regulator Ofcom are currently valid throughout the 28-nation European Union.

January 11, 2019 4:11AM PT Tribune Media stations and WGN America have been restored on Charter Communications cable systems after the sides came to terms on a new carriage deal covering 33 stations and WGN America. Tribune stations went dark shortly after 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 2 after the sides failed to reach an

“Kieler Street” begins with the aerial shot of sleepy small rural town Slusvik, on the Norway-Sweden border. The camera pans from a bright blue sky to a pine forest, then quaint slate grey houses nestling by a network of lakes. A guitar twangs placidly over the scene, as if a song is about to start

Millions of Americans are turning to a 34-year-old Japanese “organizing consultant” to help de-clutter their homes, and for Marie Kondo, the tidying expert and eponymous star behind Netflix’s “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo,” there’s nothing that “sparks joy” more than seeing people take ownership of their belongings — and their lives. Kondo, whose eight-episode series premiered on Netflix

The long-running CBS procedural “Criminal Minds” has been renewed for a fifteenth season, which will also be the show’s last, Variety has confirmed. The final season will consist of 10 episodes. The final 10 episodes will be shot back-to-back with the Season 14 episodes currently in production. With the final 10 episodes, the show will have

In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix released trailers for “”Marvel’s The Punisher” and “One Day At a Time.” FIRST LOOKS Netflix has debuted the trailer for the second season of “Marvel’s The Punisher“ starring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, the titular marine-turned-vigilante. In the sophomore season, Castle is drawn back to his life as The Punisher after getting

Comedians close to Artie Lange, “MADtv” star and former sidekick on “The Howard Stern Show,”  have taken to Twitter to urge the struggling comedian to seek treatment for severe drug addiction. Stand up comic and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Richard Lewis tweeted a heart wrenching statement Thursday. “Artie, this is my 1000th request over decades

January 10, 2019 2:05PM PT CBS said it appointed Lawrence Liding to oversee its operations in China, a new role. Liding has been executive vice president, controller and chief accounting officer since 2014. He will start his new role February 20. CBS disclosed the move in a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange

Unconventional families are as standard a sitcom premise as any, so it feels fitting that “Fam” is as standard as they come. CBS’ new multi-camera comedy introduces newly engaged couple Clem (former “The Vampire Diaries” star Nina Dobrev) and Jay (Tone Bell), and then almost as quickly, Clem’s surly half-sister Shannon (Odessa Adlon), who’s broken

January 10, 2019 11:15AM PT NBC has given out pilot orders to two drama projects for the 2019-2020 season. The first is titled “Bluff City Law.” The series is described as a character-driven legal drama that follows the lawyers of an elite Memphis law firm that specializes in the most controversial landmark civil rights cases. Led

Ever since the NFL launched “Thursday Night Football,” the Super Bowl has been a harder sell for advertisers. But CBS says it has commitments for “more than 90%” of its available commercial inventory with about a month to go before the game. Ads in the third quarter have sold out, with scattered availability in the

The trouble with the format popular among British dramas — a scant number of episodes, standing alone or else subject to years’-long hiatuses between installments — is that fans are bound to be left wanting more. But for everyone who felt a hankering for more propulsive counterterrorism drama after the recent Netflix import “Bodyguard,” with its relatively

Thespian Andrew Rannells is well-known for originating the role of Elder Price in “The Book of Mormon” on Broadway, as well as appearing as Elijah on HBO’s “Girls.” Now the multi-talented performer not only lends his voice to Netflix’s animated comedy “Big Mouth” and stars opposite Don Cheadle in Showtime’s Wall Street comedy “Black Monday,”

Don’t let the title of Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani’s counter-terrorism drama fool you: the series is not solely focused on the titular “Informer,” a young man named Raza (Nabhaan Rizwan) who, after getting arrested for possession, gets coerced into working with intelligence officers to gather intel about potential terrorists. Instead, the core of the

Al Pacino is close to closing a deal to star in the upcoming drama series “The Hunt” at Amazon, Variety has confirmed with sources. Should the deal close, it would mark Pacino’s first regular television role in his long and storied career. Amazon declined to comment. Pacino has previously starred in the TV miniseries “Angels in America”

January 10, 2019 8:35AM PT James Hickey is leaving Screen Ireland after serving two terms as its chief executive. Hickey, who has been in the post since 2011, signed on for a second term in 2016 and said Thursday that he would leave when that term expires in June. In a letter to the industry,

Twenty years ago, HBO was only beginning to establish its now-sterling reputation as a provider of top quality original series that took viewers to places network programs simply couldn’t dare venture. But soon enough David Chase’s “The Sopranos” would break out as a signature series and inspire a whole new wave of antihero-led programming. Dark,

Viacom International Studios is teaming with Endemol Shine Group to create a Portuguese version of hit format “Lip Sync Battle” for commercial broadcaster SIC. “Lip Sync Portugal Playback Total” represents VIS’ first-ever format production in the country. Produced by Endemol Shine Iberia, the show will air in a primetime slot on SIC’s eponymous flagship channel,

January 10, 2019 4:07AM PT TBS has snagged German comedy-drama “Arthur’s Law” from its Turner stablemate TNT in Germany. The U.S. channel has taken the finished show subtitled in English, as well as the option to remake it locally. TNT has been moving into originals in Germany with the acclaimed drug-trafficking drama “4 Blocks” on

January 10, 2019 1:07AM PT Action drama “24” is headed to Japan – not on an international mission for Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer, but in a local remake for free-TV player TV Asahi. The Japanese broadcaster announced the deal with Fox’s TV distribution arm, 20th Century Fox TV Distribution, and has struck an agreement to

Jan. 9’s 20th anniversary reunion of the cast and producers of HBO’s “The Sopranos” was a raucous family gathering from its first moments. “I saw a picture of myself in the newspaper,” series creator David Chase said at the start of the event. “And I thought, 20 years. Jesus Christ.” “People come up to me,”

Viewers of Wendy Williams’ daytime talker will have to wait another week for the host’s return. Williams, who is recovering from an injury she said she suffered last month, will resume taping of “The Wendy Williams Show” Jan. 21, distributor and producer Debmar-Mercury confirmed Wednesday. That’s a week later than the Jan. 14 return date

January 9, 2019 5:15PM PT CBS has given out one of its first pilot orders of the season to a drama that hails from Robert and Michelle King. Titled “Evil,” it is described as a series about the battle between science and religion. The show focuses on a skeptical female clinical psychologist who joins a priest-in-training