Idris Elba reuniting with Ruth Wilson in Netflix’s second Luther movie / Fox announces midseason premiere dates / Carrie Ann Inaba on negative DWTS comments
PLUS: Jenny McCarthy is set to host a daytime talk show/podcast hybrid that will feature husband Donnie Wahlberg.
Idris Elba reuniting with Ruth Wilson in Netflix’s second Luther movie
Wilson, who played fan-favorite psychopathic murdering research doctor Alice Morgan on the Luther series, will reteam with Elba on the second Luther film after her absence in the first movie, 2023’s Luther: The Fallen Sun. Dermot Crowley, who played Luther’s former boss Martin Schenk on the original series, will also make his Luther movie debut with the second film. Jamie Payne, a member of the Luther family who helmed episodes of the Luther series and The Fallen Sun, is returning to direct. Luther creator Neil Cross will pen the second movie, which “sees a new wave of brutal, seemingly random murders hit London, with Luther secretly called back into service,” per The Hollywood Reporter. “But the dramatic question is, how can Luther save London when everyone on all sides seems to want him dead?” “Neil has yet again, created a wonderfully dark tale to bring us all back together,” said Payne in a statement. “It’s a true joy to be back on the streets of Lutherland with the supreme talents that are Idris Elba and Dermot Crowley. I am also thrilled to be reunited with the brilliant and dangerous Alice Morgan played by the extraordinarily talented Ruth Wilson.”
Jenny McCarthy is set to host a daytime talk show/podcast hybrid that will feature husband Donnie Wahlberg
McCarthy is a veteran of both the daytime talk show and podcast world. She was on The View for one season and hosted VH1’s The Jenny McCarthy Show. And she hosted SiriusXM’s The Jenny McCarthy Show for six years. Her new talk show/podcast will be produced by Telepictures “in the style of a video podcast but pitched to market as a daytime talk show,” says Variety’s Michael Schneider. ”The daytime talker/podcast hybrid would feature McCarthy sharing celebrity gossip, sharing advice, telling stories and talking to celebrity guests, experts, everyday people and viewer call ins. Episodes will center on a daily theme cued to something McCarthy is passionate about, while segments will also focus on human interest stories, viral trends, and self-help/beauty/wellness.” Boston Blue star Wahlberg will join his wife in recurring segments.
Fox announces midseason premiere dates, sets a Tuesday medical drama block
Doc will be joined on Tuesdays by the Josh Charles-led Best Medicine, starting Jan. 6, 2026. The Patrick Dempsey-led Memory of a Killer will be paired with Extracted on Mondays, starting Jan. 26. The Johnny Knoxville-hosted Fear Factor: House of Fear debuts Jan. 14 and The Simpsons will return for its 800th episode on Feb. 15.
Squid Game star Oh Yeong-su acquitted of sexual misconduct
An appellate court in South Korea has overturned a lower court’s 2024 sexual misconduct conviction against the 81-year-old Oh that found him guilty of sexually harassing a woman during a 2017 regional theater tour. Oh was accused of hugging and kissing the woman on the cheek without her consent. The appellate court acknowledged that suspicion existed, but expressed concern about the possibility of the victim’s memory being distorted over time and emphasized the need to protect the defendant’s interests when doubts remain. Oh was previously given an eight-month suspended sentence. The alleged victim spoke out against today’s verdict, saying: “Despite today’s ruling, I will continue to speak the truth to the very end.” Squid Game Season 1 made Oh internationally famous. He won the Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a supporting role on TV in 2022.
Carrie Ann Inaba has evolved in her reaction to negative comments from Dancing with the Stars fans
“It used to really affect me,” Inaba tells Variety. “I have been targeted with this kind of negativity since the show began, back when we had chat rooms. I remember seeing some horrible words written about me, and I was shocked, because as a dancer, you’re used to just getting the fan love.” Inaba adds: “I’m going to judge and speak my opinions freely, whether they’re popular or unpopular, I do believe I have to give the same grace to everyone else. It does hurt. Sometimes the things they say are cruel, and that has affected me. It’s made me scared. It’s not so much that I get hurt as I get afraid, because it feels like they’re like attacking me verbally, so I shrink down a little during the season, especially after week five or six. That’s when it usually starts to happen.” As for the negative comments this season, she says: “I don’t really understand it, but I’ve come to terms with it. Now that I’ve come to terms with it, now I can speak about it. Sometimes, I’ve looked at the scores that are given, I read the comments back and think, “Well, what did I do? Let me see.” Sometimes I check! Like people blamed me about Danielle Fishel going home, and I had to look back at the scores. My scores were not the lowest scores. So, that’s fans passionate for Danelle, and I can see the positive in that. And if they come at me for scoring Whitney and Mark Ballas well, it’s because they love Alix Earle. There’s always a positive to even the most negative comments.” Inaba also discussed Andy Richter’s popularity this season. “I think he’s held to the appropriate standards for who he is,” she says. “This kind of goes back to what people always ask me: Why did I uphold the lift rule all these years? Well, because the lift rule makes it a level playing field. It was originally designed so that people who are older or maybe not in the physical shape to be able to do lift could be equal to everybody else. So even if you had more dance experience, you would be the same playing field. Andy has his own journey. It’s really more of a competition with yourself, and we just happen to be putting them next to each other while it’s happening. But it’s a competition with yourself to see how far you can push yourself, how far you can grow, how open you can be to the public, how willing you are to try and fail, which is such a vulnerable position to be in.”
Elsbeth books Steve Buscemi, Hamish Linklater and Jeff Hiller
They’ll appear in guest-starring roles this season. Buscemi will play a five-time crossword champion, Linklater will play a a tech-entrepreneur turned fitness freak with a quest to live forever and Hiller will portray one of the top wigmakers in the city.
Dune: Prophecy Season 2 casts Ashley Walters, Indira Varma and Tom Hollander
They join returning cast members Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Jodhi May, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Josh Heuston, Chloe Lea, Jade Anouka, Faoileann Cunningham, Edward Davis, Aoife Hinds, Chris Mason, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jessica Barden, Emma Canning, Yerin Ha, Barbara Marten and Tessa Bonham Jones.
YouTube TV blackout is reportedly costing Disney $4.3 million per day
Morgan Stanley analysts estimate Disney is losing $30 million per week from the YouTube blackout. Today is the 12th day of the blackout.
Tell Me Lies Season 3 premieres in January
Hulu has released the first look and announced a Jan. 13, 2026 premiere date with two episodes for the eight-episode third season of the drama series starring Grace Van Patten and Jackson White.
Marvel’s VisionQuest adds Lauren Morais and Diane Morgan
Morais will play Lisa Molinari, a character closely connected to Mollica’s Thomas Shepherd. Morgan is playing an associate of Stashwick’s character, Paladin.
Luke Cage creator Cheo Hodari Coker to adapt novel Don’t Let The Devil Ride
Ace Atkins’ 2024 Southern noir novel is being adapted by Coker for Tomorrow Studios, the ITV joint venture behind series such as Netflix’s One Piece and Amazon’s The Better Sister. Don’t Let the Devil Ride “tells the story of Addison McKellar, who thought she knew the man she married – charming, successful Dean McKellar – until he vanished,” per Deadline. “Fearing the worst, she hires private investigator Porter Hayes, an old friend of her father’s and a legend in Memphis. As Hayes starts pulling at loose threads Addison’s entire life unravels. Her husband’s prosperous construction firm? It doesn’t exist. Instead, her easy, affluent lifestyle is funded by blood money from Dean’s shadowy international mercenary firm – and she doesn’t even know his real name.”
Dan Fogelman’s Hulu NFL series adds Michael McGrady
The Beyond and Ray Donovan alum is expected to play the defensive coordinator on the untitled series starring Christopher Meloni.
The Game Awards to make its subscription streaming debut on Amazon Prime Video
The Geoff Keighley-hosted video game awards show, which launched in 2014, has previously streamed on platforms including YouTube, Twitch, X and TikTok. This year’s ceremony will stream on Prime Video, in addition to YouTube, on Dec. 11.
Allison Mack claims Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk introduced her to sex cult NXIVM
On her new Allison after NXIVM podcast, the former Smallville star recalls Kreuk taking a NXIVM course while shooting in Toronto. ‘”It’s the science of joy. It’s the most amazing thing,’” Mack recalled Kreuk telling her, per the New York Post. “‘It’s made everything so much better in my life. You’ve got to do this.’” “It was all she could talk about,” said Mack of Kreuk. “She was super excited about it.” Kreuk has yet to respond to Mack’s claim.
Amazon Prime Video says its ad-supported platform has reached hit 315 million monthly viewers
Amazon is calling the global figure a “transformative milestone.”
Sally Kirkland, Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress, dies at 84
Kirkland, who amassed 270 credits in a career spanning more than 60 years, died this morning after she was placed in hospice care last week with a diagnosis of dementia. Kirkland was best known for her Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning performance in the 1988 film Anna. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination for the 1991 Fox TV movie The Haunted. Kirkland’s TV credits include guest appearances on Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, Three’s Company, Charlie’s Angels, Three’s Company, Roseanne, Murder, She Wrote, The Nanny, Felicity, The Agency and Criminal Minds. Kellerman also had a brief recurring role on Days of Our Lives and starred on the 1994 syndicated Valley of the Dolls series.
Netflix’s Missing: Dead or Alive? gets a Season 2 premiere date and trailer
The true-crime docuseries returns Nov. 24.
Netflix releases the trailer for John Cena’s last Monday Night Raw
Cena’s farewell to the WWE franchise is set for next Monday.