‘Life In Pieces’ Creator Justin Adler Seals Deal to Develop Comedies for Fox Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Holy DC synergy! “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” stars Dame Helen Mirren and Zachary Levi will pop up on tonight’s episode of “The Masked Singer,” which is being billed as “DC Superheroes Night.” Variety has a first look at their appearance; scroll down to watch. Also appearing will be DC chief creative officer Jim Lee. All three will pop up to offer “superclues” about some of the night’s contestants. Mirren and Levi, who appear remotely on screen and not in person, present clues for two of the night’s contestants, “Gargoyle” and “Wolf,” while Lee presents a clue for “Squirrel.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large After conquering primetime, Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer have their sights on prime beef. (Not to mention chicken, pork and everything else.) The actors are partnering to launch their own barbecue label, AC Barbeque, and will document their quest to perfect the skill of the grill via the new A&E Network series “Kings of BBQ.” The series, which is still being developed under that working title, will follow the pals as they travel the country looking for advice and techniques from barbeque experts. A&E announced the greenlight of the 10-episode unscripted series on Wednesday as part of a flurry of news tied to its upfront meetings with advertisers.

EXCLUSIVE: Fox Entertainment has announced the names of the five Fellows for the 2023 Fox Writers Incubator (FWI), an initiative designed to nurture diverse and creative voices, as well as provide training to five writers of all genres, including comedy, drama and animation.

Krapopolis could spawn Fox’s next iconic animated figure to sit alongside Homer Simpson, Bob Belcher and Peter Griffin, according to the network’s President of Scripted Programming Michael Thorn.

Ellise Shafer In an unprecedented move, Fox has renewed Dan Harmon’s upcoming animated comedy “Krapopolis” for a third season ahead of its series premiere. Additionally, the premiere of the show — which was most recently set for May — has now been pushed to the 2023-2024 season. The news was announced by Michael Thorn, president of scripted programming at Fox Entertainment, at the London TV Screenings on Wednesday. “The 2023-24 season is the perfect launching pad for this highly-anticipated and very funny animated comedy, complete with multiple seasons of epic laughs for fans,” Thorn said. “The more we see from production, the more excited we are about their creativity, story arcs, flawless execution, brilliant voice cast and ability to pump out episode after episode of astonishing events and outrageous, unexpected hilarity.”

EXCLUSIVE: Krapopolis has scored a third season renewal before a frame of the animated series has been seen by the viewing public.

Emily Longeretta “Thoughts and Prayers,” an emotional short film that debuted at Hollyshorts Film Festival and made its rounds at numerous festivals, is now available for global audiences to watch for the first time, exclusively on Variety. The movie was helmed by Evan Miller, who directed, produced and co-wrote the script with Hardy Janson. Zachary Levi and Adrianne Palicki star in the film and also serve as producers alongside John Trefry and the co-founders of the ATX Television Festival, Caitlin McFarland and Emily Gipson. Per the official logline, “A powerful United States Senator lives out every American parent’s worst nightmare when she receives a call from her teenage son and talks him through the horror of an active school shooting as she desperately makes her way to him, unsure of what she’ll find once she arrives.”

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Reelz, the small independent cable network behind the live P.D. series “On Patrol: Live,” has landed distribution on Peacock. Reelz’s linear feed will be available to Peacock Premium and Peacock Premium Plus subscribers starting March 1. Some Reelz library content, including next-day episodes of “On Patrol: Live,” will also be available on-demand on the platform. Reelz programming also includes “On Patrol: First Shift,” “Jail,” “Cops,” “Autopsy: The Last Hours of…” and more. The deal means Peacock subscribers will be able to stream “On Patrol: Live” on Peacock as it airs live on Reelz every Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to midnight ET.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large There have been a lot of TV crossover episodes over the years, but this may be the most unique one yet: PBS’ “Finding Your Roots” and host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. will make a major appearance on Fox’s “The Simpsons” this Sunday. Variety has an exclusive first look at Gates’ appearance; scroll down for more. Gates is a major guest star on “The Simpsons” episode that airs Sunday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. ET. The episode, “Carl Carlsen Rides Again,” centers on Homer Simpson’s colleague at the nuclear power plant (and Lenny’s best friend) Carl, who delves into his racial identity for the first time. On the episode, Carl discovers his background by going on “Finding Your Roots.”

Matt Cohen is finding love on Hallmark!Cohen co-headlines , Hallmark Channel's new romantic movie opposite Alexandra Turshen, which premieres this Saturday. The «Loveuary» film follows a sculptor, Rachel (Turshen), who uses magic to mold her ideal man, Clay (Aaron O’Connell), into reality but begins to fall for her real-life friend, David (Cohen), and embraces the flaws that make love perfectly imperfect.

Last year, Fox’s in-person Upfront event at the Skylight venue in New York surprised ad buyers with a largely pre-recorded video led by then-boss Charlie Collier.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large No lie, “Poker Face” will enter the Emmy awards race as a comedy. The show is an hour-long whodunit but also contains plenty of comedic elements, which is why Peacock has decided to enter it in that lane. News comes as awards consultants across town make the final decision on where to place their programs, as the Television Academy officially opens this year’s Emmy submissions starting Feb. 21. For example, on Friday, Variety exclusively reported that HBO’s “The White Lotus” would submit in the drama space, after the TV Academy ruled that it no longer qualified as a limited series (due to the return of star Jennifer Coolidge) In the case of “Poker Face,” the decision to enter in comedy comes as the show continues earn strong reviews from critics. “Poker Face” is currently “99% certified fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its whodunit nature, insiders note that Lyonne is widely seen as a comedic actor — her previous series, Netflix’s “Russian Doll,” also mixed comedy and drama but was entered in comedy categories (receiving nominations in 2019 for best comedy and lead comedy actress, for Lyonne, as well as for two different episodes in comedy writing).

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As Showtime prepares to launch Season 2 of its hit thriller “Yellowjackets,” the network is bringing the show to Austin’s South by Southwest festival next month via a three-day interactive popup. “Camp Yellowjackets” will open the first weekend of SXSW, from Friday, March 10 to Sunday, March 12, at the Fair Market in Austin. The installation kicks off with a private opening event on Friday, and then will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT on Saturday and Sunday. The “Camp Yellowjackets” experience will create the look of a 1990s-era summer camp that has been abandoned. Visitors will be able to spot hidden Easter eggs from the show while exploring the campsite. Among the activities on site will be ax throwing, BBQ and specialty cocktails. Fans can sign up to attend at CampYellowjackets.com.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The DGA Awards are under way at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills. In TV, “Severance,” “Station Eleven” and “The Daily Show” were among the frontrunners (with two nods each), while Steven Spielberg was gunning for his fourth trophy, for the semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans.” But also in the hunt are Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the duo behind the sci-fi comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” At the DGA, Spielberg holds the record for the most nominations and wins, at 13 and three, respectively. The DGA boasts a voting body of around 19,000 members. Over its 75-year history, the DGA Awards has been the most reliable barometer for the Oscars’ best director prize. Only eight DGA winners have failed to walk away with the Academy Award, most recently Sam Mendes (“1917”), who lost to Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) in 2020.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Weeks after helping his Kansas City Chiefs team win the Super Bowl in Arizona, tight end Travis Kelce will travel to New York to host “Saturday Night Live” on March 4. A week later followed by breakout “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega on March 11. But first up, as previously announced, Woody Harrelson will return to the “Saturday Night Live” stage to host for a fifth time on Feb. 25. He leads the next batch of hosts as “SNL” returns at the end of the month for three consecutive weeks. Musical guests for those nights include Jack White (Feb. 25), Kelsea Ballerini (March 4) and The 1975 (March 11). Harrelson will host while promoting the new film “Champions,” in theaters March 10. In the film, from Bobby Farrelly, Harrelson plays a minor-league basketball coach who gets fired and then winds up in legal trouble. As part of a community service requirement, he coaches a Special Olympics basketball team.

The Resident creator Amy Holden Jones is turning to crime.

EXCLUSIVE: Matt Nix, the man behind Fox’s X-Men series The Gifted, is going direct with the broadcast network.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Fox Entertainment is developing a one-hour medical drama based on the Italian hit series “Doc — Nelle tue mani.” (Translation: “Doc — In your hands.”) The U.S. adaptation, titled “Doc,” will come from writer Barbie Kligman (“Magnum P.I.”). Fox Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television are behind “Doc,” which will also be executive produced by Hank Steinberg (“Without a Trace”) and Erwin Stoff (“Julia”), who both will serve as non-writing producers. Kligman will handle showrunner duties as writing executive producer. The show is being developed as part of Fox’s script-to-series process. As the network will no longer shoot pilots, it instead develops several scripts before deciding whether to go forward with a series order.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As networks across the industry pull back on the number of series pilots they order, Fox is taking it one step further: They’ve decided to completely get out of the live-action pilot business. The network launches its only new live-action comedy of the season, “Animal Control,” on Thursday, and Fox Entertainment’s scripted president Michael Thorn says that show’s development is a case study in how series will be ordered moving forward at the network. Instead of a pilot, Fox commissioned multiple scripts in order to test the viability of the sitcom. “Script-to-series,” which has been a staple at several cable networks for years, will now be the standard for Fox as well.