Television

October 2, 2018 3:16PM PT “Veep” star Reid Scott isn’t exactly jumping for joy that the HBO series is coming to an end with the upcoming seventh season. But he’s not exactly sad either. The cast and crew learned the fate of the political comedy not long after last year’s Emmys. “We won and it

October 2, 2018 2:45PM PT Giancarlo Esposito has joined the upcoming Epix series “Godfather of Harlem” in a series regular role, Variety has learned. The 10-episode series is inspired by the story of infamous Harlem crime boss Bumpy Johnson, who will be played by Forest Whitaker. Esposito will play Adam Clayton Powell, a Baptist minister, Harlem

October 2, 2018 2:21PM PT Missy Birns-Halperin has joined National Geographic Partners as exec VP of global talent. The hire is a sign of Nat Geo’s push to expand its profile in the talent community, as well efforts to engage directly with fans and pursue more elaborate marketing campaigns. Based in Los Angeles, Birns-Halperin will

October 2, 2018 1:20PM PT Tawny Newsome has been cast in a recurring role for the upcoming third season of “Brockmire” at IFC, Variety has learned exclusively. Newsome will play Gabby Taylor, described as a straightforward and hardworking NCAA Champion softball player and Brockmire’s newest partner in the announcing booth. A genuinely good person trying to make

October 2, 2018 11:00AM PT Tremendous! Entertainment announced today that Sarah Whalen has been appointed executive vice president of development. Whalen comes to TEI after 16 years at Original Productions, where, as executive vice president of programming and development, she developed and produced series like “Deadliest Catch,” “The Confession Tapes,” “Storage Wars,” and more. Based in

October 2, 2018 10:46AM PT Brad Kern is no longer a producer on the CBS series “NCIS: New Orleans,” Variety has confirmed. “We have ended Brad Kern’s role as consulting producer on ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ and his overall deal with the Studio,” a CBS Television Studios spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. Variety first reported in December that Kern

October 2, 2018 10:31AM PT HBO has given a series order to the Danny McBride comedy “The Righteous Gemstones,” about a family of televangelists. The series hails from McBride and his frequent collaborators Jody Hill and David Gordon Green. McBride wrote the script and serves as executive producer, director and co-star with John Goodman. Hill

Women in Film Los Angeles has partnered with Ghetto Film School to launch a filmmaker development program aimed at women of color. WIF will work with six Ghetto Film School participants for mentoring and master classes to be held as part of a yearlong development program dubbed Insight. At the end of the program, one

A pair of French production companies, Païva Films and Mirador Pictures, have boarded an untitled spy series created by Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz, the co-writers of Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.” Starting with Fidel Castro’s victory in January 1959, the series will depict the secret war between Cuban intelligence, the KGB, the CIA and the mafia,

Amazon hit London for its show-and-tell Tuesday with a starry cast in tow: Julia Roberts, Jon Hamm, Rachel Brosnahan, John Krasinksi, Orlando Bloom and Matthew Weiner were all in town to talk about their Amazon projects. Mark Burnett and Neil Gaiman also made cameos, the latter fresh off the announcement of his new overall deal

The new CBS comedies “The Neighborhood” and “Happy Together” debuted on Monday night, with the former show putting up solid ratings numbers and the latter failing to find much of an audience. “The Neighborhood” kicked things off at 8 p.m. with a 1.3 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.1 million viewers. “Happy Together” followed at

Lachlan Murdoch unveiled Tuesday the executive team that will run a new, slimmed-down and live-TV-and-sports focused 21st Century Fox once the company sells a large chunk of its assets to Walt Disney Co., a mammoth $71.3 billion deal that is expected to close in 2019. Murdoch, who will become chairman and CEO of a spun-off

For his first act after the triumphant end of his landmark series “Mad Men,” Matthew Weiner is bringing his opulent vision to Amazon for an ambitious new drama that lets him roam as free as he likes. The connective thread of the sprawling new series is ostensibly, as the title promises, “The Romanoffs,” the Russian

October 2, 2018 4:22AM PT PBS CBS and HBO took home the most wins in the 39th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Award, awarded Monday night by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at a ceremony at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City. PBS took home seven

After launching in many regions across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Viacom’s entertainment channel Comedy Central is set to expand its international footprint further with a roll-out in France this fall. Starting Thursday, Comedy Central will be distributed on all telecoms affiliate platforms, including Orange, Free, SFR, Numericable, Bouygues and Videofutur, reaching more than

Amazon Prime Video has greenlit a first season of “Bibi & Tina,” a live-action series adaptation of the popular German franchise, which already boasts a number of films and an animated show. The live-action family entertainment series, which will mark Amazon’s sixth German original series, follows the adventures of Bibi, a teenage witch, and her

Amazon Studios has ordered “The Wheel of Time,” an action fantasy series based on Robert Jordan’s bestselling fantasy novels, which have sold more than 90 million copies worldwide. Rafe Judkins (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) adapted the material into a series and serves as showrunner. Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television are co-producing the series, which was

Neil Gaiman has signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios to work exclusively on new series for Amazon Prime Video, which will launch them globally. The deal comes as the streaming service prepares for the debut of “Good Omens,” based on the novel co-authored by Gaiman, and as work continues on a second season of

Amazon has nabbed its next big unscripted series, following up “The Grand Tour” with Bear Grylls hosting a new MGM-produced version of “Eco-Challenge.” Billed as the toughest global outdoor multi-sport endurance race on Earth, the series will follow teams as they compete in the round-the-clock endurance event. The show is expected to debut on Amazon Prime Video in

October 1, 2018 4:12PM PT Jenna Dewan is leaving “World of Dance.” Dewan, who has served as host and mentor on the NBC competition show for its first two seasons, made the announcement via Instagram on Monday. “I won’t be able to stay away for long, and plan to return to mentor contestants as much

Strike’s back. Tom Burke will return as private eye Cormoran Strike and Holliday Grainger as Robin Ellacott in “Lethal White,” the latest TV adaptation of the crime thriller novel series written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The “Lethal White” book has just been published in the U.K.; the television series will run

In today’s roundup, Ann-Margret joins “Happy!” and teasers for “Bill Maher Anniversary Special” and Hulu’s “Marvel’s Runaways” have been released. FIRST LOOKS A promo has been released for HBO’s “Bill Maher Anniversary Special.” The 15th anniversary show will take a look back at “Real Time With Bill Maher” through the years with commentary from former President

October 1, 2018 3:00PM PT CBS is developing a police drama series that boasts former CBS Entertainment head Glenn Geller as an executive producer, Variety has learned. The project is currently titled “Body Cam Cop.” In the series, a cop’s heroism inadvertently lands him celebrity status after an on-the-job incident goes viral. He and his new partner

“Mayans MC” has been renewed for a second season at FX, the cable network announced Monday. “’Mayans MC’ is performing fantastically, proving to be a breakout first season,” said Nick Grad, co-president of original programming for FX Networks and FX Productions. “The series premiered as the highest rated cable series this year and continues to

Max Greenfield and Damon Wayans Jr.’s careers are running parallel to each other. The former “New Girl” stars are not only each appearing in a new CBS sitcom this fall, but both of their shows loosely based on the lives of their executive producers — and both feature white characters coming in to shake up

October 1, 2018 1:45PM PT Stephen Colbert is gearing up for a new round of election-night results. The late night comic will host a live broadcast of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS on Tuesday, November 6, continuing a tradition of doing the show live around big events of national importance. The last

October 1, 2018 12:59PM PT Communications executive Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul will return to Freeform as vice president of communications. The announcement was made Monday by Kevin Brockman, Disney/ABC’s executive vice president of global communications, to whom she will report. In her role, Bulochnikov-Paul will work closely with Freeform President Tom Ascheim and be responsible for all

October 1, 2018 11:10AM PT Merritt Wever has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming HBO comedy pilot “Run,” Variety has confirmed. Wever will star as Ruby Dixie, an American family woman who functions like clockwork, but feels like a fraud. Having packed away her younger self for the sake of other people, she is finally

When the wheels go up on Season 14 of “Criminal Minds” on CBS, the series won’t just unroll a new slew of cases and delve deeper into its roster of characters’ personal lives; it will also celebrate a landmark 300th episode. The episode, aptly titled “300,” picks up a few minutes following the Season 13

October 1, 2018 10:28AM PT Sharon Osbourne has left the U.K. edition of “X Factor,” saying she thought she was surplus to requirements. Her exit came after she said contestants on the talent show were “little s—s,” asked “Is this f—ing karaoke,” and leveled insults at Simon Cowell in a recent profanity-laced interview with Howard