It’s no understatement to say that the Grammy Awards faced some challenges with their 2019 nominations. While the nominee list for the 2018 awards was the most racially diverse in the Recording Academy’s history, it was painfully low on female representation — three of the four main categories each had one female nominee — a
The Academy music branch returned to the “shortlist” concept for the first time in nearly 40 years, and for the most part, it seems to have worked. The 15 scores and 15 songs chosen by the composers, songwriters and music editors — from which the final five in each category will be selected — in large
December 17, 2018 5:00PM PT Liz Heldens has signed a new multi-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television effective immediately. News of the deal comes ahead of the midseason launch of the Fox series “The Passage,” based on the book trilogy by Justin Cronin on which Heldens is the writer and executive producer. The
“America’s Got Talent” rocker Courtney Hadwin has signed a deal with Arista Record in partnership with Simon Cowell’s Syco Music, the label announced today. “It feels amazing to be joining Syco and I am super excited and feel so lucky,” said the native of Hartlepool in Northern England. “I’ve always wanted to work on original
December 17, 2018 4:05PM PT “Elementary” is coming to an end on CBS, Variety has confirmed. The procedural will wrap up following its upcoming seventh season on the broadcaster, which does not currently have a premiere date. All 13 episodes of Season 7 have been shot. According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the
Muse Entertainment has acquired the rights to Sarah Selecky’s novel “Radiant Shimmering Light” with plans to develop it for television, Variety has learned exclusively. The story follows Lilian Quick, a 40-year-old struggling pet portrait artist whose life changes drastically when she starts working for her motivational guru cousin, Eleven Novak. The job helps Lilian improve
In today’s TV news roundup, TBS announced the premiere date for season 16 of “American Dad!,” and YouTube released a trailer for season two of “Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television.” DATES “American Dad!” is returning for its sixteenth season Feb. 11 at 10 p.m. ET/ PT on TBS. This season, show creator Seth McFarlane will
A lawyer for Leslie Moonves has blasted the conclusions of the CBS internal investigation that cost the former CBS Corp. chairman-CEO the $120 million severance package he was due prior to his Sept. 9 ouster amid a swirl of sexual misconduct allegations. Moonves continues to assert that his workplace-related sexual encounters were consensual, despite numerous
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced shortlists of semi-finalists in nine separate categories. From here, the organization’s separate respective branches will vote to determine nominees, which will be announced along with all other Oscar categories next month. This year marks the first year since 1979 that shortlists have been revealed in
The media brand whose identity is having no identity has just hired an executive who made her name on her taste. Netflix’s news Monday that Channing Dungey was entering the company in a newly created role as vice president of original content would seem to be a step forward for a company whose vast volume
The CBS board of directors has denied former chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves any of the $120 million severance he was due under his employment contract after conducting a five-month internal probe of his conduct and the corporate culture at CBS Corp. “We have determined that there are grounds to terminate for cause, including his willful and
December 17, 2018 1:48PM PT The singer and songwriter penned the movie’s love song, “Everything I need.” The melody from “Everything I Need,” the song Skylar Grey penned for “Aquaman” is used in the scene — spoiler alert — in which the titular hero (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) kiss while an epic battle
December 17, 2018 1:07PM PT Brooklyn rapper 2 Milly, actor Alfonso Ribeiro, and Instagram star Backpack Kid are all filing complaints against Epic Games and Take-Two Interactive over dance emotes in “Fortnite” and “NBA 2K,” the law firm representing them told Variety on Monday. 2 Milly filed his suit against Epic Games earlier this month.
Screen Media has bought North American rights to Terry Gilliam’s troubled “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” starring Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgard, Olga Kurylenko, and Jordi Molla. The film had its world premiere as the closing night film at Cannes 2018. Directed and written by Terry Gilliam, the film is co-written by Tony
ABC Studios completed an investigation this year into alleged misconduct by Frankie Shaw, creator and star of the Showtime series “SMILF,” Variety has confirmed. The studio launched a probe into Shaw’s behavior after being made aware of a complaint by Samara Weaving, an actress who appears in the show’s first and upcoming second seasons. According
In 2018, more than 35 years after the music video became an art form, they continued to evolve. This year we saw clips with incisive cultural commentary (Childish Gambino’s “This Is America”), wildly creative and at times disturbing imagery (Tierra Whack’s “Whack World”), and of course a number of celebrity-studded outings (Drake’s “Nice for What?”
Elissa Karasik’s Snapchat drama “Frat Boy Genius” and scripts about Matt Drudge and the father of the Williams sisters are at the top of the 2018 version of the Black List. The list is an annual ranking of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. “Frat Boy Genius” centers on a disgruntled employee of Snapchat, who
Is Facebook about to become cable TV provider? Don’t bet on it. The social giant has held informal discussions with cable networks including HBO and Showtime Networks about potentially offering subscriptions to their streaming services on Facebook, multiple sources tell Variety, confirming a Recode report last week that first reported the talks. However, Facebook currently
December 17, 2018 11:15AM PT Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato’s song “Solo” was the most-Shazamed song and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” was the longest running No. 1 track on the service’s global charts, the company revealed today in its year-end lists. Nicky Jam and J Balvin’s “X” was the No. 2 most-Shazamed song and Calvin Harris
WASHINGTON — A pair of reports released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday show a much more widespread Russian disinformation campaign before and after the 2016 presidential election that sought to impersonate mainstream media organizations and at the same time try to discredit them. As much of the focus has been on Facebook, Twitter
Reviews are in for Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic, and it’s not all awards-season buzz. Despite garnering six nominations for this year’s Golden Globes, McKay’s kitschy approach to the politically charged film has polarized reviewers, prompting a mix of scathing critiques and celebratory praise for the director’s distinct film style. What critics can agree on, however,
As the number of scripted series continues to grow (more than 500 in 2018), it is not just a race to produce the biggest quantity, but also the highest quality programming. Looking at the upcoming slate for 2019, there appears to be no shortage of unique stories coming. Here, Variety previews the most anticipated scripted
CBS All Access has renewed “Tell Me a Story” for a second season. The renewal comes ahead of the first season finale, which is slated to air in January. The series, which has aired seven episodes thus far, takes the world’s most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller. Set
December 17, 2018 10:51AM PT A filing for a new TiVo remote control suggests that the company may be getting ready to show an Android TV-based set-top box at CES in Las Vegas next month. The device likely won’t be sold to end users, but instead ship to TV operators looking to combine TiVo’s DVR
Writer-creator Lena Waithe and actor Brian Tyree Henry will present a quarter of a million dollars in filmmaker grants come January as hosts of the annual Independent Spirit Awards nominee brunch. Waithe, this year’s Spirit Awards honorary chair, and Henry will dole out the prizes in four categories, including a $50,000 unrestricted grant for a
HBO is developing a female skateboarding comedy series that hails from Crystal Moselle and Lesley Arfin. Inspired by the film “Skate Kitchen,” which Moselle directed and co-wrote, the untitled series is set against the backdrop of New York City and will follow a diverse group of young women navigating their lives through the predominantly male oriented
December 17, 2018 10:30AM PT Director-producer Justin Lin has planted his Perfect Storm Entertainment banner with Apple in an exclusive overall TV development pact. Lin moves to Apple after six years with Sony Pictures TV. During that time Perfect Storm delivered three drama series for CBS — “Scorpion,” “S.W.A.T.” and the reboot of “Magnum P.I.”
One of the most interesting sketches from this past weekend’s broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” came not during the show, but rather one of its commercial breaks. Viewers who stuck around during advertisements in the first half of “SNL” no doubt saw cast member Kyle Mooney creating a short video with the use of Google’s
One of international cinema’s undisputed greats in costume design, Piero Tosi’s work first faced the awards season spotlight 64 years ago with only his third film, Luchino Visconti’s masterwork “Senso,” which competed for the Golden Lion in Venice in 1954. Nominated for five Oscars for costume design and recipient of an honorary Oscar in 2013,
Is 2018 an anomaly, or is it a harbinger of things to come? The awards derbies of recent years have seen a predominance of indie films at the expense of big studio features — resulting in a slate of Oscar contenders devoid not only of genuine blockbusters but also of more modest mid-budget crowd-pleasers. This