David Boreanaz to lead NBC’s The Rockford Files reboot / Ryan Gosling to host SNL for the fourth time / Michaela Coel’s First Day on Earth casts Thandiwe Newton and Ncuti Gatwa
PLUS: Dancing with the Stars is getting a spinoff to find the next pro, with Robert Irwin in talks to host.
David Boreanaz to lead NBC’s The Rockford Files reboot
The former Angel, Bones and SEAL Team star will succeed James Garner as James Rockford, the witty, world-weary and chronically broke private investigator that Garner originated on the 1974-1980 NBC drama series and a bunch of TV movies. Only two actors were offered the James Rockford role, reports Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva, adding: “Both got interest and led to negotiations, with the reason the first did not pan out being logistical, tied to the series’ filming location, I hear. While The Rockford Files is set in Los Angeles, the pilot will shoot in Atlanta with additional filming in Los Angeles. It has not been determined yet where production on the potential series would be based should the pilot gets picked up; it’s possible that the show applies for a California tax credit.” As Andreeva notes, “getting Boreanaz could be a good omen given his broadcast track record, with all pilots he has starred in going to series and all series having long, successful runs. The WB’s supernatural drama Angel, which only did a short presentation since it was spinoff from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and CBS/Paramount+’s military drama SEAL Team each produced more than 100 episodes; Fox’s crime procedural Bones did more than 200.”
Dancing with the Stars is getting a spinoff to find the next pro, with Robert Irwin in talks to host
Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro will feature up-and-coming professional dancers who will live in a house together and compete in a grueling audition process. The winner will become a pro dancer on next season of Dancing With the Stars. Dancing with the Stars veteran dancing pro Mark Ballas is being eyed to judge. So is his mother Shirley Ballas, known as “The Queen of Latin,” who is head judge on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. The spinoff is also considering a mentor role on the judges’ table.
Ryan Gosling to host SNL for the fourth time
Gosling, who previously hosted in 2015, 2017 and 2024, returns to Saturday Night Live as host on March 7, joined by first-time musical guest Gorillaz.
Michaela Coel’s HBO-BBC series First Day on Earth casts Thandiwe Newton and Ncuti Gatwa
Maxine Peake and Danny Sapani have also joined the 10-episode series that marks Coel’s first series writing credit since her smash hit series I May Destroy in 2020. “British-Ghanaian novelist Henri (Coel) is on the run – from herself, her life, her partner, and that weird guy at her book talk,” reads the official logline. “When she ends up in Ghana, her ancestral homeland, she finds herself submerged in an altogether different world. Amidst new friends, fresh joy, and many different and nuanced relationships, Henri also finds secrets, lies, difficulty, and denial, leading her to question everything about herself, her heritage, and her family.”
Katie Holmes posts an emotional handwritten letter honoring James Van Der Beek
“I formed some words with a heavy heart,” Holmes wrote in the caption of her Instagram post honoring her Dawson’s Creek co-star, featuring a picture of her handwritten letter. “This is a lot to process. I am so grateful to have shared in a piece of James’ journey. He is beloved. Kimberly, we love you and will be here always for you and your beautiful children.” In the handwritten letter, Holmes thanked Van Der Beek for all the memories they made together. “To share space with your imagination is sacred — breathing the same air in the land of make believe and trusting that each others’ hearts are safe in their expression,” she wrote.
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Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin WIlliamson pays tribute to James Van Der Beek: “To everyone, thank you for your outpouring of love. It has been felt,” he wrote on Instagram. “Several times today, from my heart, I’ve tried to form the words to express the beautiful brilliance of James and what his presence has meant to my life. But I am truly at a loss for words. I will have to trust that one day those words will come... But today, all I can think about is Kimberly and the entire Van Der Beek family. My heart is with you.”
CBS Evening News loses 11 of 40 staffers to buyouts
“Approximately 11 members out of a production staff of about 40 have opted to leave,” reports Variety’s Brian Steinberg of the CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss-led overhaul. According to Steinberg, “at least two employees taking the buyout were veteran producers, who played significant roles in getting CBS Evening News out each weekday.”
JD Pardo boards Amazon Bosch prequel series Start of Watch
The former Mayans MC star will play Cory, who is described as “a brilliant, disciplined professional thief whose calm precision was forged in the foster system, where he learned early how to read people, anticipate danger, and stay in control. Raised alongside his younger surrogate brother, Bosch, Cory developed a fierce loyalty to the family he chose. Confident, calculating, and methodical, he acts as provider and protector – every job is a step toward mastering the chaos that shaped him, and earning a way out of Los Angeles.”
Stanley Tucci to star in Amazon French-Italian drama Masterplan
In the drama series from Reacher director Thomas Vincent, Tucci plays a feckless father who sets out to reunite with his long-lost children by getting them to help him steal the Mona Lisa. “I thought it was one of the best characters I’ve ever read and I was thrilled to be asked to play it, it’s an actor’s dream,” says Tucci. “The international cast are great, Victor is a wonderful actor, Simona is wonderful and Thomas is an accomplished director, and the locations are stunning and has everything you could want.”
John Oliver says Sunday’s Last Week Tonight’s Season 13 premiere will focus on ICE
Oliver tells The Ringer his team began working on this Sunday’s season premiere segment after the Minneapolis ICE killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.
Tyra Banks: I plan to revive America’s Next Top Model for Cycle 25
“After the show, I had so many different ideas for my life. I’m obsessed with pivoting,” Banks says in the new Netflix docuseries Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. The last ANTM season, Cycle 24, aired in 2018.
Amazon renews Off Campus for Season 2 ahead of its series premiere
The college soap based on the Elle Kennedy book series of the same name has received an early renewal for Season 1 premieres in May.
Jaden Michael joins Hulu’s Foster Dade pilot
Michael, best known for playing a young Colin Kaepernick in Netflix’s Colin in Black & White, will play Mark Stetson, described as “one of only two openly gay students at Kennedy. Stetson comes from new money and is following his dream to become an actor.”
The Empress team developing Netflix historical drama series Witches, set during the European witch hunts of the 17th century
“Set in medieval Germany, Witches follows the story of three sisters as they face the rising terror of a rarely dramatized chapter of European history: The German witch hunts,” per Deadline. According to the official logline, Witches “will revolve around a family torn apart by suspicion, accusation and betrayal, and tell a story of protecting loved ones in the grip of fear and fanaticism — and of unyielding resistance in the shadow of one of Europe’s darkest chapters.”
Apple TV’s The Off Weeks adds Zoë Winters, Ravi V. Patel, Will Yun Lee and Tony Macht
They’ll recur on the limited series starring Jessica Chastain and Ben Stiller, Arian Moayed, Annaleigh Ashford, Richard Gere and John Cho.
Rehab Addict host Nicole Curtis apologizes, says “there is more to this” after HGTV canceled her show for saying the N-word use on set
After news of Rehab Addict’s cancelation broke Wednesday, Curtis wrote on her Instagram Stories: ““There is more to this, but my family comes first and I need to be mom right now more than anything else. .. I will take the time to be as I’ve always been with you, transparent and honest. TMZ called me as I had just turned my phone on after being at school – I said this briefly – but there is more…” In a subsequent Instagram Story, Curtis shared a text message exchange with TMZ in which she addressed her use of the racial slur and Rehab Addict’s abrupt cancelation. “I want to be clear: the word in question is wrong and not part of my vocabulary and never has been, and I apologize to everyone,” she wrote.
Super Bowl LX streaker used smart glasses to capture his rushing the field
“Thanks to smart glasses, we didn’t just get secondhand videos of rushing the field at the Super Bowl; we got a whole POV,” Gizmodo’s James Pero says of the streaker, who wasn’t shown on television. “Above is a video from one of the people who managed to get onto the field (the other was tackled immediately), and it’s pretty wild to watch.”
Paramount+ announces college basketball docuseries Made for March
The four-part docuseries, premiering April 4, will follow the University of Michigan Wolverines and the University of Kansas Jayhawks across the entire season. “Both teams have provided off-court access exclusive game footage and interviews and coverage of key regular‑season, conference and postseason matchups in the Big 12 and Big Ten,” per Deadline. “It marks the first time that cameras have followed either team across a whole season.”
Taylor Armstrong is the latest Real Housewives vet to walk back an anti-Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show rant
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum has issued an apology for bashing a “personally didn’t connect” and the “creative direction” of the halftime performance. Armstrong joins Real Housewives of New York vets Jill Zarin and Bethenny Frankel, who both walked back anti-Bad Bunny posts. Zarin’s racist rant led to her firing from E!’s The Golden Life.
Everybody Loves Raymond stars to celebrate their 30th anniversary at the ATX TV Festival
Ray Romano and series creator Phil Rosenthal will reunite with writers from the long-running CBS comedy for a special conversation at the May 28-31 annual festival.
Netflix’s The Plastic Detox to explore the impact of everyday exposure to plastics and chemicals in plastic on health and fertility
“With the help of scientists and researchers at the cutting edge of reproductive and environmental health, the film traces how these substances seep into daily routines and investigates whether changing daily habits can make a difference,” Netflix says of the documentary premiering March 16.
Amazon unveils Nicolas Cage-led Spider-Noir trailer
In Oscar winner Cage’s first lead TV role has him playing Ben Reilly, an aging and down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero. Spider-Noir will be binge-released on May 27.
Watch Taylor Tomlinson’s new Netflix special trailer
Tomlinson’s Prodigal Daughter, her fourth Netflix standup special, premieres Feb. 24.
Formula 1: Drive to Survive gets a Season 8 premiere date and trailer
The hit Netflix docuseries returns Feb. 27.