Emmys Delay: Fox Pushing for January, TV Academy Lobbying for November Amid Strike Concerns (EXCLUSIVE)

estranged wife Christine Baumgartner, amid the couple’s sour split.Baumgartner, 48, filed for divorce from the 68-year-old “Yellowstone” actor in May citing “irreconcilable differences” after an 18-year marriage.The news comes just days before July 31, when the former handbag designer was ordered to vacate the family home in coastal Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, by the court, as per the couple’s prenup.The separation has allegedly been exceptionally bitter, with sources saying the “Yellowstone” star has sworn to make his Baumgartner’s life a “living hell.”The Post has reached out to both Costner and Baumgartner for comment.There have been reports the couple have been bitterly feuding over child support and their prenup — as well as Costner alleging Baumgartner has taken large sums of money and other assets behind his back.Earlier in the month, Costner was ordered to pay Baumgartner $129,755 per month to support their three children — more than double his proposed amount of child support of $51,940 a month.This comes after Baumgartner had deemed the latter amount “completely inappropriate,” claiming that she needed $248,000 a month in child support.The newly-single Costner was recently spotted with his children, soaking up the summer sun in Aspen, Colorado.Costner was seen shopping for groceries with Cayden, 16, Hayes, 14, and Grace, 13 on their way from the airport.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large CNN leads this year’s News & Documentary Emmy nominations, with 45 overall — including seven for “Anderson Cooper 360.” Meanwhile, “Vice News Tonight,” which was canceled this spring, landed 28 nominations — helping Vice News score a total of 30, good enough for second place among outlets. Among broadcasters, ABC and PBS were tops at 26 nominations each.

CBS and Fox weighed in on their upfronts today, following NBC last week. CBS has closed its 2024 selling season up “low-to-mid single digits” in dollar commitments. Fox Corp. showed gains in news and is looking at a fall slate of sports, animated and unsripted content.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As this year’s broadcast partner, Fox ultimately must decide when the 75th Primetime Emmys will actually air. And the feeling inside the network is that it should be January. As we’ve previously reported, the TV Academy would prefer an earlier date, like November, and I have to agree there.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa’s new HGTV docuseries “The Flipping El Moussas” has been renewed for a second season with an expanded 14-episode order. Per HGTV’s description for the second batch of “The Flipping El Moussas” episodes, “During the new season, the couple will face unexpected challenges both professionally and personally, including welcoming a new baby and contending with strong headwinds from the tumultuous southern California real estate market.

Meghan Markle's former close friend has weighed in on the rumoured relationship struggles between Prince Harry and the Duchess.

Anthony Mackie has had a blast introducing Harrison Ford to the MCU!Ford is making his Marvel debut as Mackie officially takes up the Captain America mantle in the upcoming -- a new subtitle for the film, which was previously called Thestar is taking over the role of U.S. President Thaddeus «Thunderbolt» Ross, who was previously played by William Hurt prior to his death in 2022.Last month, Mackie shared an on-set picture of the two checking out footage from their scenes, and when the actor spoke with ET's Ash Crossan recently, he admitted that working with the legendary star hasn't quite been what he expected.«It's been a lot of fun,» Mackie shared.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Telepictures exec VP of programming and development David McGuire, one of the architects behind the success of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” is exiting the Warner Bros. TV Group division after more than 30 years with the company. McGuire’s exit comes following the departure of Warner Bros. Unscripted TV president Mike Darnell, and a restructuring inside the company. As part of the changes, Telepictures current programming senior VP Lauren Blincoe will now solely oversee the division and report directly to Warner Bros. TV Group chairman and CEO Channing Dungey. McGuire most recently was in charge of the launch of “The Jennifer Hudson Show.” His oversight included all aspects of creative affairs for first-run syndicated series, unscripted series and digital content developed and produced at Telepictures, as well as working with advertisers on partnerships through its integration business. Annually, Telepictures handles more than 1,000 hours of TV across multiple genres.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Here’s some news that might even cheer up Oscar the Grouch: The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has created two new Emmy categories for puppetry performance and puppet design/styling. Both awards will be handed out at this year’s second-ever Children’s & Family Emmys. “Historically, puppetry performers would enter in the live action performer categories,” said NATAS CEO Adam Sharp, in announcing the new competition. “So, if you were the handler of a puppet, then you would go up against a lead actor or lead actress, and that created for some odd pairings. But managing a puppet is a very different kind of performance than a regular live action performance.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large KVEA is clearly doing something right. The Telemundo-owned Los Angeles station, part of a duopoly with sister NBC outlet KNBC, swept this year’s key newscast categories at the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards. The Spanish language station dominated the evening, winning the Emmys for evening (7 p.m. to 12 a.m.), daytime (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and morning (4 a.m. to 11 a.m.) newscasts. KVEA had won the daytime newscast Emmy last year as well (while KTLA won evening, and KNBC won morning, in 2022). Overall, KVEA earned eight L.A. Area Emmy awards this year, tied with local public broadcaster KCET. (That was also up from KCET’s haul of six last year.) Given the tie with KVEA, that still preserves KCET’s streak of this being the seventh year in a row that KCET won the most.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Don’t cancel those Emmy campaign plans: As expected, the Television Academy has decided to keep its Phase 2 calendar intact, news confirmed on Thursday night during the org’s board meeting. That means final-round voting for the 75th Primetime Emmys will still take place between August 17 and August 28 (ending at 10 p.m. PT) as previously planned. But that also means that Phase 2 campaigning will have to continue without the presence of any of the nominated actors or writers, as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are ongoing. The strikes had led some awards pundits to wonder whether the TV Academy might push the Phase 2 window, given the inability of stars to campaign per SAG-AFTRA’s strike rules.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday stepped up her rhetoric on the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, calling for “a fair and equitable solution” in contract negotiations for both sides.“Los Angeles is experiencing a summer of struggle to make ends meet,” Bass said in a statement. “Whether you’re a writer who has been on strike for more than 72 days or an actor who has been on strike for 72 hours, wages and health benefits to afford housing, food and the basic necessities to survive should be a minimum requirement in discussions.”She added that “a strong business sector is essential for our city to become affordable for working families once again,” noting that the Los Angeles is facing “a historic inflection point” as the entertainment industry experiences economic pressure and business uncertainty.“A fair and equitable solution must be reached,” Bass said, adding that “in all industries — education, hospitality, goods delivery or entertainment — Angelenos deserve fair contracts.”Meanwhile, California Gov.

pic.twitter.com/AazUm1jalaA representative for Aldean confirmed the news to Fox News Digital.Prior to his performance, Aldean’s wife, Brittany shared on Instagram that she would be joining her husband on his Highway Desperado tour next weekend, along with their children. He is scheduled to play two shows in Ohio next Thursday and Friday.The comment section was flooded with regard for Aldean, with fans extending their well-wishes.

Jason Aldean's concert came to an abrupt end after the singer showed obvious distress on stage Saturday night in Connecticut. While performing at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Aldean struggled to get through his song "Crazy Town." In the middle of his performance, he retreated from the microphone to cough. Trying to power through, Aldean could barely sing another line of his song before he ran off-stage.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast hosts Michael Schneider, Clayton Davis, Emily Longeretta and Jazz Tangcay gathered on Wednesday, just hours after the Television Academy announced this year’s Emmy nominations, to dissect the news — from the big winners like “Succession,” to the shocking omissions (no Harrison Ford or Elizabeth Olsen), and then the nice surprises (wow, “Jury Duty”!). The nominations were telling on a number of fronts — including the current assessment that we may very well see a beat “Succession”/”Ted Lasso” dominance. Did the voting procedural changes help bring in a wider group of nominees? No. And will voters pick straight tickets of “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” nominees? Quite possible. Who will win the “SNL”/”Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” smackdown? What are our favorite faceoffs this year? (How can one pick between birthday celebrations for Norman Lear and Carol Burnett, for example?)

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Remember AMC’s “The Walking Dead”? You know, the biggest series on TV at one time. Most-watched basic cable show in history, and I can guarantee that will never be topped. But yet, an Emmy dud. The series (which will live on via a frenzy of spin-offs) ended its run last November after 11 seasons… and it’s still ignored by TV Academy voters, failing to pick up a single nomination on Wednesday. And yet… this may have been the most successful year at the Emmys ever for “The Walking Dead.” That’s because two of the franchise’s most beloved actors, Steven Yeun and Jon Bernthal, picked up their first-ever Emmy nominations. Granted, it’s not for “The Walking Dead” — Yeun is nominated in lead limited/anthology actor for “Beef” and Bernthal is a comedy guest actor nominee for “The Bear” (which is about… Chicago’s “Beef” restaurant) — but at least it’s a belated victory for two actors that made a name for themselves by fighting zombies.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As expected, it was a good day for Casey Bloys. The chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content was celebrating his outlet(s)’ 127 Emmy nominations — not a record for the company, but nonetheless marking a dominant year. Whereas the HBO vs. Netflix horse race has been a headline in past Emmy years, it wasn’t much of a contest this year, as Bloys’ team outplayed the competition by 24 nods (with Netflix picking up a still-impressive 103). According to HBO, it was the 21st time that HBO had led the Emmy nomination tally. That haul included 27 nominations for outgoing drama “Succession,” which landed three nominations in the lead drama actor category (a first). And in picking up four drama nominations (which also included “The Last of Us,” “The White Lotus” and “House of the Dragon”), HBO pulled off something that had only been done twice before, by CBS in 1973 and NBC in 1992.

this year’s Emmy nominations is the looming actors strike. The writers strike, in effect since early May, has already severely curtailed celebrating the best and brightest of the 2022-23 TV season. And now, with SAG-AFTRA almost certainly joining the WGA on the picket line in a matter of hours, there’s an air of doom over what should be a happy event.  On another, less existential level, what does Harrison Ford have to do to get an Emmy nomination?! The Emmys’ diamond anniversary brought widely expected nominations for previous Emmy favorites like “Succession,” “The White Lotus,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Ted Lasso.” A new shift in rules that capped the number of names voters could submit per category was expected to keep those shows from total domination of the acting categories — but they all still managed to overwhelm the supporting and guest actor categories, along with newly crowned Emmy favorite, “The Last of Us.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Emmy-winning writer/producer/director Manny Coto, whose credits include “24” and its sequels “24: Live Another Day” and “24: Legacy,” as well as “American Horror Story,” “Star Trek: Enterprise” and “Dexter,” died Sunday in Pasadena. He was 62. News of Coto’s death was confirmed by a family representative. Coto died after a 13-month battle with pancreatic cancer, and passed away at his home, surrounded by family. Born in Havana, Cuba, Manuel Hector Coto was one of primetime’s most prominent Latino writers and showrunners. He shared the outstanding drama series Emmy in 2005 for Season 5 of “24,” and co-created “24: Legacy.” Coto also spend four seasons as exec producer of “American Horror Story,” and also exec produced two seasons of “American Horror Stories,” directing the 2021 episode “Feral.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “A Transparent Musical” is heading to New York and Broadway. The show, the first stage play from Amazon Studios, premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in May — becoming the last show at the Taper for now, as Center Theater Group has canceled all shows at the stage following the close of “A Transparent Musical” on June 25. But whereas the Mark Taper is on hold, “A Transparent Musical” has big things in store. According to Amazon, the show’s producers “intend to bring the show to Broadway sometime in 2024.” The musical, or course, is based on Amazon Prime Video’s Emmy-winning series “Transparent,” created by Joey Soloway, who also wrote the book to the stage musical with MJ Kaufman. Faith Soloway wrote the music and lyrics to “A Transparent Musical.”