Television

Glen Basner’s FilmNation Entertainment and Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT Group) are joining forces to launch a new U.K.-based TV company which will develop, produce and finance premium scripted TV content for global audiences. The joint venture will operate under the FilmNation brand and is currently assembling its creative team. As both companies boast a deep

Netflix has proclaimed that “Bird Box,” its thriller from Susanne Bier and starring Sandra Bullock, is a big ol’ hit. And now Nielsen is agreeing with the streaming service — even if their numbers and measurement methodology differ. The ratings measurement company, which has been occasionally sharing viewership data as it unveils its own streaming

January 8, 2019 7:00AM PT Madden NFL football makes its return to broadcast television Tuesday with the premiere of the “EA Sports Madden NFL 19 Classic,” a chronicle of the first in-person Madden tournament following the fatal shooting in Jacksonville, Floriday last summer. The one-hour primetime esports special chronicles the largest tournament in Madden NFL Championship

The Cinema Audio Society has announced nominees for excellence in sound mixing for 2018 films and television series. In the film categories, music-driven hits “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Star Is Born” each scored nominations, though musical “Mary Poppins Returns” was passed over. “Black Panther,” “First Man” and “A Quiet Place” rounded out the live action

Aiming to expand its reach in the factual content landscape, ZDF Enterprises has fully acquired Off the Fence, a leading Dutch production and distribution company dedicated to nonfiction programming. Off the Fence Productions has created over 500 hours of TV content across a wide range of genres, including science, history, human stories and natural history.

January 8, 2019 5:01AM PT Less may be more for NBCUniversal. After selling ad schedules for the 2018-2019 season that cut commercial inventory in original primetime programming by 10% on many of its broadcast and cable networks, the Comcast-owned media conglomerate intends to take things further. The company’s TV shows run the gamut from “The

“It is a shame that left wing advocacy groups, under the guise of being supposed ‘media watchdogs’ weaponize social media against companies in an effort to stifle free speech. We continue to stand by and work with our advertisers through these unfortunate and unnecessary distractions,” Fox News said in a previous statement. Fox News has

After more than a year of speculation in Israeli news outlets, TV broadcaster and production giant Keshet has finally confirmed the existence of its long-rumored upcoming reality show, titled “2025.” The series – which some reports describe as a mashup of “The Truman Show” and “Big Brother” – is expected to pit a varied group

Jimmy Kimmel marked Day 17 of the government shutdown by inviting one of the nearly 800,000 federal employees working without pay to get a paycheck — by working on Kimmel’s late-night talk show. “It’s unfortunate that these people, these workers who have nothing to do with this ridiculous wall, aren’t getting paychecks, especially right after

The most surprising thing about “Project Blue Book” is that it took so long to become a TV show in the first place. As it will tell you itself at the top of every episode, History’s new scripted drama is “based on true events,” or at least the recorded instances of possible UFO sightings and

Nope, Hollywood notables aren’t suddenly shielded from catching the flu today. In one of the most memorable bits on Sunday night’s Golden Globe telecast, hosts Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh brought out an army of workers “from the Echo Park CVS,” armed with needles, to vaccinate audience members with the flu shot. “Roll up your

Growing up, Karen Chee looked up to Sandra Oh as “often the only Asian person” she could see on screen. Fast forward to 2019, and the 23-year-old Korean-American comedian got to write jokes for co-hosts Oh and Andy Samberg at the Golden Globe Awards. Chee, who has written for the New Yorker and the upcoming

The team behind “The Grand Tour” is in talks with Amazon about further seasons of the motoring show as Season 3 prepares to roll out of the garage on Jan. 18. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May took their “Top Gear” expertise from the BBC to Amazon Prime Video in a three-season deal that

In today’s roundup, ABC adds more episodes to Season 15 of “Grey’s Anatomy” and Netflix announces its first-ever animation anthology series. DATES  Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” returns to Los Angeles for four weeks of shows beginning Monday, Jan. 14 at 11 p.m. ET/PT. The Hollywood residency marks the third time Cohen has brought the

Turns out America likes its music-competition contestants better when they’re covered in bizarre, bejeweled animal costumes. “The Masked Singer,” the Fox show that has been described as “nightmare-inducing” (Entertainment Weekly), “dystopian” (The Ringer), and “three clicks away from an episode of ‘Black Mirror’” (Vulture), is off to a surprisingly strong ratings start. According to Nielsen

Veteran TV exec Joe Earley has been named head of marketing for Disney’s new subscription streaming service. Earley will serve as executive vice president, marketing ad operations for Disney+, the Walt Disney Co. announced Monday. Earley most recently served president of The Jackal Group, the production company founded by Gail Berman and based at Fox,

Susan Zirinsky, the CBS News executive known to her colleagues as “Z,” is getting ready for a heady tenure as the new president of CBS News. Gayle King, one of her top anchors, on live TV on Monday morning described her as a “badass.” But first, she asks for your forbearance. CBS News is grappling

HBO chief Richard Plepler was in possession of the best cocktail party gossip of all on Sunday night at the cabler’s post-Golden Globes bash. But he wasn’t sharing — much. As Plepler held court in the main dining room, staying away from the light rain that fell in the outside area (the Hilton pool was

Mark-Paul Gosselaar had just finished “Pitch,” Fox’s one-season baseball drama in 2016, when he took the role of Brad Wolgast in the network’s adaptation of “The Passage.” After some behind-the-scenes retooling, which included a restructuring of the pilot script, attaching a different director and some re-shoots, “The Passage” was ordered to series in May 2018

January 7, 2019 11:41AM PT “Saturday Night Live” is about to get marvelous. Rachel Brosnahan, the star of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” is set to host the Jan. 19 episode of the NBC sketch comedy series. This will mark Brosnahan’s first time hosting the show. Greta Van Fleet will

Netflix’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” scored three Directors Guild of America Award nominations in the children’s series category, the most of any program, while “Atlanta” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” were close behind with two nods apiece. Amy Sherman-Palladino, who won the Emmy in September for the show’s pilot, is nominated for the “Mrs.

“The Bachelor” returns for Season 23 with frontman Colton Underwood, who has made endless headlines for being a virgin. The 26-year-old former pro football player initially got mixed reactions when he was announced as ABC’s next Bachelor and since, viewers have been critical of the show’s marketing, which puts Underwood’s abstinence on a pedestal. (This

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, “True Detective” returns on HBO and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” debuts on NBC. “Manifest,” NBC,

January 7, 2019 8:54AM PT The Supreme Court has decided not to take up the suit brought by actress Olivia de Havilland against the makers of the FX series “Feud.” de Havilland’s suit was initially allowed to proceed by a Los Angeles judge, but a California appeals court reversed that decision back in March. The

After the Golden Globes were handed out and plenty of Moet champagne was sipped and Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg said good night to the television viewing audience, winners, losers, presenters and more hit the after party circuit. Here, Variety goes inside to give you all the scoop on the partygoers, the drinks, the menu,

January 7, 2019 7:15AM PT The 2019 Golden Globes took a minor hit in the ratings compared to last year. The awards telecast drew a 12.7 rating in metered market households, down just under five percent from the 13.3 the 2018 telecast drew. The initial viewership numbers will be available this morning, while the final numbers should

The Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) has announced nominees for excellence in production design in feature film and television for 2018. Among the film nominees in three categories — period, fantasy, and contemporary — were the Coen brothers’ Western anthology “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” hit Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Marvel blockbuster

January 7, 2019 6:45AM PT Kendis Gibson will start as a weekend anchor on MSNBC after a stint at ABC News, the latest hire by the NBCUniversal cable-news network as it continues to emphasize live news programming on Saturdays and Sundays. He starts his new job on Saturday, January 19. Gibson, who joined ABC News

January 7, 2019 5:02AM PT Starz’s SVOD service Starzplay is the new U.K. home of brothel drama “Harlots.” The streaming service, which is available via Amazon’s channels platform and the Virgin Media cable service in the U.K., will add the eight-episode first season of the drama on Jan. 18 before then adding the second eight-installment

January 7, 2019 4:31AM PT Anchors on “CBS This Morning” became the first CBS News employees to take to the network’s own air to discuss the naming of Susan Zirinsky as the new president of CBS News. The four anchors – Gayle King, Norah O’Donnell, John Dickerson and Bianna Golodryga – unsurprisingly praised their new