The Upfront Show Must Go On: Media Companies Fine-Tune Their Pitches While Navigating Through WGA Strike, Murky Economic Climate And Streaming Shift

Six Netflix television shows were originally renewed for new seasons before the streamer decided to change course.

On-location filming of scripted TV shows in Los Angeles has ground to a near-complete halt in the fourth week of the Writers Guild’s strike, according to data compiled by FilmLA, the city and county film permit office.

Apple TV+ has unveiled a new super tease, highlighting new footage of several current and upcoming shows, including “The Morning Show” season 3.

has finally shared the first official look at season 3, with new footage of stars Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Billy Crudup as well as newcomer Jon Hamm appearing in the extended Apple TV+ teaser for its upcoming slate of series and films. «It looks fabulous,» Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon) tells fellow UBA anchor Alex Levy (Aniston), who responds by saying, «I can't wait to see it.» Later, Crudup's character, Cory Ellison, is seen on a set saying, «This is a show.

Amber Dowling Last April, Sphere Media took the Canadian Screen Awards by storm with 22 awards for its scripted content, including a record 12 wins for the historical Black drama “The Porter” and seven for queer comedy “Sort Of.” It was a big night for Canada’s third-largest independent producer, and in particular for Jennifer Kawaja, Sphere’s president of scripted and feature films for English Canada. Previously, Kawaja spent decades heading up Sienna Films with her business partner, Julia Sereny, helming several award-winning projects like “Cardinal,” “Trickster” and “One Dead Indian.” The duo sold the company to Kew Media Group in 2017 and in 2020, Montreal-based Datsit Sphere snatched it up when Kew was placed into receivership. Last year, Sphere restructured and rebranded under a single banner with the intention of streamlining content creation, production and distribution.

The One Show's Alex Scott revealed a quirky story about her family on tonight's (Friday) show. Reporter Matt Allwright was visiting the world-famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London as part of a package.

Another brand-defining, Best Drama Emmy-winning HBO series is coming to an end this Sunday when Succession airs its finale. Just like when each of its esteemed predecessors, The Sopranos and Game Of Thrones, ended, there is the inevitable succession question about what comes next.

Vogue Williams looked sensational when she arrived for the second day of The Podcast Show at London Islington's Business Design Centre this week alongside a raft of other famous faces. The model, 37, who shares Theodore, four, Gigi, two, and baby Otto with her husband, former Made In Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, looked glowy and bronzed when she rocked up to the event in a pair of leather shorts. The co-host of My Therapist Ghosted Me, which she releases weekly with her best friend comedian Joanne McNally, paired her stripped back look with a basic black T-shirt and some pointed toe leopard print flats.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor That was the week that was, and last week was an upfronts week like no other. Variety’s team of New York-based television and digital reporters offer a debrief on the 2023 programming presentations in New York on the latest episode of Variety weekly podcast “Strictly Business.” The drama roiling the industry was evident in all the Writers Guild of America picket signs that swarmed around the major events held from May 15 to May 17. That added to the general madness of the week that is a television and advertising industry tradition but is starting to feel anachronistic in the streaming era. But the upfronts are still a hard habit to break. Netflix even crashed the party this year, albeit virtually.

EXCLUSIVE: Showtime’s hit drama The Chi, which films entirely in Chicago, has paused production on its upcoming sixth season, effective today. The decision was made Monday after a second consecutive day of shooting was disrupted by WGA strike-related picketing.

The NBCUniversal Upfront kicked off a week of events in New York amid a writers strike.

Dave Mustaine is “still bitching” about getting kicked out of Metallica 40 years ago.Mustaine, Megadeth frontman and former guitarist for Metallica, was ousted from the latter band in 1983 due to problems with alcoholism, drug abuse and personal clashes with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich.Mustaine formed Megadeth the same year, with Ellefson playing bass in the band from its inception through to 2002, and again from 2010 until 2021 before being sacked after claims emerged that he had groomed an underage girl online.He had denied any wrongdoing at the time, saying that explicit text messages were between consenting adults and that the woman was not underage when the encounters happened.He subsequently filed revenge-porn charges against the person whom alleged illegally leaked a video and screenshots that prompted the allegations.Ellefson has now reflected on the musicians’ respective firings in a new interview with online Brazilian show Heavy Talk, explaining how he personally handled the news that he was sacked from Megadeth.“I got one call: ‘You’re fired,’” he said [via Blabbermouth]. “And I said, ‘What the fuck, man?’ I said, ‘Some shitty fucking people just dropped a bomb on my house.

tweeted a selfie at the New York picket lines captioned “Let’s do this.”Odenkirk and Patinkin also posed together for a photo, which the latter captioned with: “Saul’s unite.” In addition to Odenkirk’s work as Saul Goodman, Patinkin is also known for playing a character named Saul in “Homeland.”Saul’s unite! #wgastrong Support our writers! pic.twitter.com/VdyElwh7C5Adam Scott, who can most recently be seen in “Severance,” also joined the picket line. Ran into Mandy Patinkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Adam Scott on the WGA picket line.

Fran Drescher. While on Sirius XM’s “The Julie Mason Show,” the actor teased that the possible November special could “maybe” become a backdoor pilot. She also highlighted the importance of SAG sticking with the Writers Guild of America during the WGA strike.

As you have no doubt already heard, the WGA is on strike right now. Just over a week into it, this strike has already caused quite a few disruptions, with productions being halted and development coming to a standstill.

When are things not strange in Hollywood? Should we be surprised that there is always some industry or world crises crashing an awards season? Probably not, but it’s been quite a long time since a work stoppage affected the Primetime Emmy Awards. And, as we’ll discuss later, that means while writers form picket lines, actors and directors are still engaged in that Emmy nomination fight.

Another TV shoot has been disrupted by striking writers, Michelle and Robert King’s supernatural drama for Paramount+ Evil, which has been filming its fourth season at Brooklyn Stages in Brooklyn.

“You make billions/pay us some!” striking Writers Guild of America members chanted on the street of New York today near where filming was going on for Showtime’s Billions.

Chelsea Handler is standing with the WGA strike — “obviously.” The comedian told TheWrap as much during an interview promoting her “Little Big Bitch” comedy tour, which will see Handler headlining the the Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver on May 10 for SeriesFest.“Obviously, I stand with the writers, absolutely, and the WGA,” Handler said. “It’s unfortunate that it has to come to this.”To Handler, sharing profits and offering better deals to writers seems like an “obvious move” for large corporations that “make tons of money.” “The trickle-down economics don’t necessarily work. So I think it’s the only fair thing to do, and hopefully it’ll be over sooner than later,” Handler said.The actor and writer also spoke about potentially taking over “The Daily Show” after Trevor Noah left the late-night show in December.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor As the Writers Guild of America goes on strike, late-night television has been put on pause, including NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which is on an indefinite hiatus. Multiple sources confirm to Variety that, in the unlikely event the strike is resolved in the coming weeks, “Succession” star Kieran Culkin is scheduled to take the stage at Studio 8H on May 13, with musical guest Labrinth, while “The White Lotus” star Jennifer Coolidge is set to close out “SNL’s” 48th season with Foo Fighters. This would have been Culkin’s second time hosting following his season 47 appearance. After being brilliantly imitated by “SNL” cast member Chloe Fineman, Coolidge would have made her long-awaited debut on the show.