Jim Henson Gets Posthumous Honor As NAB Show Kicks Off Online Edition.... The National Association of Broadcasters kicked off the online version of its annual convention Wednesday with overtures to members hit hard by COVID-19 and a feel-good honor for Muppets creator Jim Henson. “We know this is likely the most challenging t...

Lea Michele Apologizes After ‘Glee’ Co-Star Samantha Ware Accused Her Of “Microaggressions”.... UPDATED at 6.30AM with Lea Michele statement: Lea Michele has apologized after her former Glee co-star Samantha Ware made accusations about her on-set behavior while filming the Fox show. On Twitter Tuesday, Ware bristled at Michele tweeting her support f...

Cinematographers Guild Issues Safe Return To Work Protocols: No Liability Waivers, Shorter Workdays, Nondiscrimination Against Older Crew Members, More.... The International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600, has released an 11-page set of protocols and recommendations for the safe return to work during the coronavirus pandemic, including a core principle that "no one should have to waive their rights...

‘After The Dance’ Reviews ESPN’s ‘The Last Dance’ Series With Stephen A. Smith Hosting.... ESPN host and NBA commentator Stephen A. Smith will host a one hour primetime special, After the Dance with Stephen A. Smith: A SportsCenter Special, on Tuesday, May 19 at 8 PM ET on ABC.  The outspoken Smith will be joined by basketball Hall of Famer Ma...

ITV Series To Go Inside London Zoo During Coronavirus Lockdown.... London Zoo and its sister wildlife park Whipsnade Zoo are to open their doors to ITV cameras during lockdown to reveal how animals and staff are coping with coronavirus. October Films and Circle Circle Films are making the two-part documentary, London Zoo...

‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Vs. The Reverend’: Tina Fey Takes Us Behind The Scenes, Reveals Comedy Science Of Interactive Special.... EXCLUSIVE: There’s a certain generation that is very familiar with a series of books that was filled with “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories — and that concept was reintroduced to a whole new generation with Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:...

Cineworld Plans To Reopen Theaters In July As Restrictions Lift, Anticipates Fresh Cash From Government Relief Programs.... Giant U.K. exhibitor Cineworld said it will open theaters in July when it currently anticipates restrictions on cinemas will be lifted in each of its territories, and that it antcipates a cash infusion from government COVID-19 relief programs in the U.K....

Indies Opine On National Cinema Day As ‘Golda’, ‘Bottoms’ & ‘The Hill’ Hit Theaters – Specialty Preview.... It’s an unusual theatrical weekend as the second National Cinema Day rolls out Sunday with $4 tickets for all shows and formats at participating theaters — the bulk of the nation's circuits big and small. The event was announced Monday with a dedicate...

Shari Redstone Says ViacomCBS Stock Undervalued, Shares Pop.... Shares of ViacomCBS are surging 10% Monday, way outpacing an already buoyant market, as chair Shari Redstone told the company's annual meeting that she's committed to boosting shareholder value and a stock that's been under immense pressure for months. Th...

Broadway Box Office Flat In Pre-Holiday Week; David Byrne, Tina Turner Musical Buck Trend.... Broadway box office mostly held steady last week, even as many shows might not have overmuch to cheer about during the pre-holiday week. In all, the 35 productions took in $32,015,929, down just 2% from the previous week’s 36-production roster. Total at...

CNBC Anchors Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernen Engage In On Air Clash Over Coronavirus Toll.... CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernen clashed on air on Wednesday over the toll of the coronavirus, a fight unusual even for the standards of talking head-heavy cable news. Kernen had accused Sorkin of being “panicked” about COVID-19 and its fall...

‘Honey Boy’ Opens Sweet And Strong, ‘The Kingmaker’ Debuts Solid – Specialty Box Office.... After its buzzy festival run, Shia LaBeouf’s semi-autobiographical Honey Boy finally debuted this weekend with four runs in Los Angeles and New York to strong and confident numbers at the specialty box office. Alma Har'el’s directorial narrative featu...

‘Prodigal Son’: Fox Renews Serial Killer Drama For Season 2.... Expect more blood after Fox picked up serial killer thriller Prodigal Son for a second season. The network is likely to air the second season of the series, which stars Michael Sheen and Tom Payne, in midseason, as a result of the COVID-19 production shut...

Celebrities Weigh In On #BlackoutTuesday, But Use Of Incorrect Hashtag Sparks Concerns.... It started as a way for the music industry to protest the death of George Floyd, with major labels giving their employees the day off on Tuesday "to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community", but the #BlackoutTuesday movement has spread like...

CBS Optimistic ‘Big Brother’ & ‘Love Island’ Will Air This Summer.... Big Brother and Love Island were two of the big-ticket reality shows that have been put into a holding pattern as a result of the COVID-19 production shutdown. However, CBS is confident that both non-scripted formats will air this summer, albeit slight la...

Warner Bros TV Launches Casting Initiative For Acting Students Hit By School Pandemic Shutdowns.... EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Television has launched a casting initiative to connect with students whose final year of training and customary year-end activities such as showcases have been halted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Through the WBTV Casting Initi...

NBC & ‘America’s Got Talent’ Producers Announce Results From Investigation Into Gabrielle Union’s Exit.... NBC, Fremantle and Syco on Wednesday morning issued a statement about the results from an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the firing of former America’s Got Talent judge Gabrielle Union. The investigation was originally expected to wrap...

ViacomCBS Brands To Go Dark As Tribute To George Floyd.... In an internal memo, ViacomCBS President of Entertainment and Youth Brands Chris McCarthy announced that all entertainment and youth brands and platforms will be going dark for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, which marks the time in which George Floyd was kille...

‘Clarice’: Elizabeth Klaviter Named Showrunner, Partners With Alex Kurtzman & Jenny Lumet On New CBS Series.... EXCLUSIVE: The Resident executive producer Elizabeth Klaviter has joined the newly picked-up CBS drama series Clarice, from Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, as executive producer/showrunner. Klaviter will serve as day-to-day showrunner on the Silence of the...

ViacomCBS Merger Offers Broadcast Net More Off-Bench Options If COVID-19 Shutdown Hits Fall Schedule, ‘Blood & Treasure’ Remains In Backup.... Fox, NBC and The CW have all turned to acquisitions, both international series and less watched U.S. shows, to fill gaps caused by the COVID-19 production shutdown. CBS has not yet gone down the route of picking up any third-party series but Entertainment...

Freeform Names Kristen Andersen VP Of Communications.... Kristen Andersen, former Director of Publicity at ABC, has returned to Walt Disney Television as Freeform’s vice president of communications. In her new role, Andersen will spearhead Freeform's corporate and consumer media relations with oversight of p...

More Than 100 News Organizations Call On Minnesota To End Police Arrests, Attacks On Journalists Covering Protests.... A coalition of more than 100 state and national news organizations, including all of the major networks, are calling on state officials in Minnesota to “end the series of police arrests and attacks on credentialed and clearly identifiable journalists in...

“This Is Likely The Most Challenging Time Local Stations Have Ever Encountered”: NAB Virtual Conference Puts Spotlight On Tough Times For Broadcasters.... The National Association of Broadcasters opened a virtual show on Wednesday with a far different scenario than envisioned just a few months ago —  the dire situation for some radio and TV stations amid the coronavirus pandemic. In his address to broadc...

Hyundai & Sony Team For Multi-Promotional Partnership On ‘Uncharted,’ ‘Spider-Man’ Sequels & More.... EXCLUSIVE: Hyundai Motor Company and Sony Pictures Entertainment have entered into multi-promotional partnership across five of the studio’s upcoming pics which will feature the automaker's new models and technologies. Hyundai Motor's new models and te...

Netflix Renews Spanish Drama ‘Elite’ For Season 4 With Cast Changes.... Spanish drama Elite has been renewed for season 4 at Netflix but with some cast changes at the boarding school series. The show, which was created and written by Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona, is one of the streamer's best performing Spanish originals...

John Cusack Allegedly Attacked By Police While Filming – Watch Video Of Incident.... John Cusack posted on Twitter that he was attacked by Chicago police while filming the protests in that city. Cusack, whose films include Better Off Dead, Say Anything, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity and Love & Mercy, is the brother of actresses Anne...

Judy Greer Boards Universal’s Rachel Morrison Boxing Drama ‘Flint Strong’.... EXCLUSIVE: Judy Greer has joined the cast of Universal Pictures' Flint Strong, in what we hear is a key role. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first female DP to be nominated for an Oscar on Mudbound and was also the cinematographer on the $1.3 b...

‘Circus Of Books’ Filmmaker Rachel Mason Signs With UTA.... EXCLUSIVE: Rachel Mason, artist and director of the Netflix Original documentary Circus of Books, has signed with UTA in all areas. Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Circus of Books puts the titular West Hollywood gay porn book store in the spotlight....

‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’ Sequel Gets Release Date.... Sony said Friday that the sequel to its Oscar-winning animated pic Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will hit theaters on April 8, 2022. The studio also said that another Sony Pictures Animation project — the musical adventure tale Vivo, with original s...

‘White Lines’: How Netflix’s Sun-Soaked Spanish Saga United The Creators Of ‘Money Heist’ & ‘The Crown’.... The coming together of the creative brains behind two of Netflix’s biggest international hits, The Crown and Money Heist, certainly sounds like an eye-catching proposition on paper. For Netflix, it was irresistible. Left Bank Pictures boss Andy Harries...

James Mattis Issues Blistering Statement About Donald Trump: “He Tries To Divide Us”.... James Mattis, the former secretary of defense under Donald Trump, wrote a blistering statement criticizing his former boss, writing that he is “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to t...

Chip & Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network Gets Strong Sampling As Preview Sets Ratings Records For DIY.... In a promising sign for Discovery and Chip and Joanna Gaines’ plans to revamp the DIY Network as Magnolia Network, the four-hour Magnolia Network preview on DIY on Sunday, April 26, drew sizable audiences. Overall, more than 2.3 Live+Same Day million vi...

‘This Is Us’ May Not Begin Production Again Until January, Says Supporting Actor Jon Huertas.... Governor Gavin Newsom hosted a Zoom roundtable with Californians who work in the film and television industry on Wednesday. Participants included Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and actor Jon Huertas, who plays Miguel Rivas on NBC’s Th...

101 Studios To Adapt U.S. International Women’s Rowing Team Bio ‘The Red Rose Crew’.... 101 Studios will produce, finance, and distribute the film adaptation of Daniel J. Boyne's biography The Red Rose Crew: A True Story Of Women, Winning, and The Water. The pic will rep the first feature film from Sports Illustrated Studios, the new banner...

MPA Chairman Charles Rivkin Addresses George Floyd Protests; D.C. Headquarters Building Sustains Defacement And Exterior Damage.... The building that houses the Motion Picture Association’s Washington headquarters, just a couple blocks from the White House, sustained some exterior damage and defacement on Saturday night, as protests continued over the death of George Floyd in Minnea...

John Leguizamo’s NGL Collective Launches Stay-At-Home Latinx-Driven #UnidosTogether Initiative.... NGL Collective (New Generation Latinos), a media company founded by actor John Leguizamo and David Chitel, has launched #UnidosTogether, a new initiative that will utilize various cross-platform brands and celebrities in order to unite, empower and entert...

Friday Ratings: ‘Shark Tank’ Keeps Swimming To The Top, As ABC And Fox Tie For Network Crown.... A rerun-heavy night saw an encore of ABC’s reality show Shark Tank tie for the win in the demo wars and also take home the crown for the largest audience of the night. Shark Tank scored an 0.6, tied with a new Fox WWE Friday Night SmackDown for top hono...

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’ Sets Ricky Martin, Tessa Thompson, Jane Krakowski And More As Guest Judges; Unveils Season 5 Twist.... The fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is about to serve some “La Vida Loca” realness with its slate of guest judges. Ricky Martin will kick things off as a guest judge for the premiere episode of the reality drag race competition which w...

Tribeca Co-Founders Robert De Niro And Jane Rosenthal On The “Science-Fiction Movie” Of COVID-19 And Film Industry’s “In-Between Stage”.... Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, co-founders of the Tribeca Film Festival, joined an online roundtable conversation Thursday about the future of the festival circuit as organizers navigate through COVID-19. The duo, along with YouTube chief business off...

Chris Aronson Taking Over Domestic Film Distribution At Paramount As President.... The former 20th Century Fox domestic distribution boss returns to work with his former 20th Century boss Jim Gianopulos and former marketing colleague Marc Weinstock, effective Dec. 2. Chris Aronson has been named President of Domestic Theatrical Distribu...

‘Parks And Recreation’: EP Mike Schur Teases COVID-19 Special, Explains Why This Is Likely A One-Off & Why Remote Isn’t “Sustainable Method For Making TV”.... Even though Parks and Recreation EP Mike Schur received an immediate response from cast members and writers about the idea to come together for a special fundraising at-home episode for the long-running NBC series, don’t expect a limited run series a...

Peter H. Hunt Dies: Tony Award-Winning ‘1776’ Director, Uncle Of Actress Helen Hunt Was 81.... Peter H. Hunt, who won a Tony Award for his direction in 1969 of the now-classic musical 1776, helmed the 1972 film version and numerous episodes of CBS’ Touched By An Angel, died Sunday at home in Los Angeles from complications of Parkinson’s disease...

January B.O. +13% Over 2019 Thanks To ‘Bad Boys For Life’ & ‘1917’; ‘The Turning’ Slammed With Second ‘F’ Of 2020.... 4TH UPDATE, Sunday AM Writethru following Friday updates: Who says January stinks at the box office? With Sony’s Bad Boys for Life and Universal-Amblin-New Republic’s 1917 crossing the $100M mark this past weekend, repping 2020’s first two century-...

Reporters Grill Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany: If Barack Obama Left Medical Stockpile “Empty,” Why Didn’t Donald Trump Replenish It?.... White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was grilled on Friday about a lingering question of its coronavirus response: Why didn’t it refill the national stockpile of medical supplies in the three years since President Donald Trump has been in office...

Coronavirus Confusion: LA Mayor Tries To Douse “Panic” Over Likely Stay-At-Home Order Extension Remarks By County Health Official.... Eric Garcetti has almost never met a media opportunity he didn't like, but today the Los Angeles Mayor had to jump into damage control mode over confusing comments the top Public Health official in the county made about stay-at-home restriction going deep...

Haystack TV Launches Live, Interactive News Ticker On Its Roku Streaming App.... EXCLUSIVE: News aggregator Haystack TV has launched an on-screen ticker on its Roku app, adapting a staple feature of live, linear news networks to the streaming era. The “Newsline” crawl emulates the ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen o...

Broadway Won’t Reopen For Some Time — But What About New York City Movie Theaters?.... Broadway theaters aren’t expected to reopen in New York City for quite a long time, Deadline sources saying not before 2021. And according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent reopening phase plan, indoor cinemas are in the same final Phase 4 classi...

Ted Cruz Introduces Bill To Restrict U.S. Government Help For Studios If They Alter Movies To Gain Entry Into Chinese Market.... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that he is introducing a bill to restrict federal government assistance for studios that alter their movies to get past China’s censors and gain entry into the country’s lucrative market. The legislation would prohibit the U....

TV Ad Buyers And Sellers Are Feeling Their Way Through Unprecedented Upfront.... The myriad complications and stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic have created a television upfront season unlike any in memory. In a typical spring and early summer, deals close for about one-third of the annual $70 billion in total TV ads. This year, most...

Quibi Sets ‘What We Keep’ Docuseries From Cynthia Erivo.... Quibi is teaming with Tony, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning and Oscar-nominated Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, The Outsider, The Color Purple) for the docuseries What We Keep which will bring audiences into the homes of remarkable people and asks the singular que...