Jamie-Lynn Sigler to guest on Grey’s Anatomy as a doctor with MS / Hugh Laurie joins Amy Poehler's Dig / Disney to make its characters available to OpenAI
PLUS: Beast Games Season 2 will feature a Survivor crossover with Jeff Probst.
Jamie-Lynn Sigler to guest on Grey’s Anatomy as a doctor with MS
The former Sopranos star, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at age 20, will guest on the Jan. 15 episode of the ABC medical drama in a role created for her. Sigler will play Dr. Laura Kaplan, a urologist living with Multiple Sclerosis, who visits Grey Sloan at the request of Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) and offers Richard (James Pickens Jr.) a unique perspective on his case, according to Deadline. The role marks a return to acting (and to ABC) after a three-year absence after previously starring in Big Sky. “I hear it was important to the show’s producers and to Sigler that the character is not defined by their affliction and has a full life and a career,” says Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. Sigler currently hosts the MeSsy podcast with fellow MS sufferer Christina Applegate.
Beast Games Season 2 will feature a Survivor crossover with Jeff Probst
The Season 2 trailer for MrBeast’s Amazon reality competition features an appearance by Probst as the cast heads to Fiji to compete. “You’re on my island now, you’re now in the big city anymore,” says Probst. Beast Games contestants will “take on a hybrid challenge course that blends Beast Games’ larger-than-life innovation with Survivor’s groundbreaking format,” per a press release. “The special incorporates authentic Survivor elements — including mid-challenge bribes, strategic twists, and signature physical obstacles — resulting in an episode that seamlessly bridges the worlds of content creators and traditional television.”
Hugh Laurie joins Amy Poehler on her and Mike Schur’s Peacock comedy Dig
The series that reunites Poehler with Parks and Recreation co-creator Schur, that they are both adapting based on Kate Myers’ bestselling book Excavation, has tapped former House star Laurie to play the male lead. “Laurie will play Neville, a British professor who sincerely loves archaeology and strives to uphold the traditions of this dying profession. He fancies himself an inspiring mentor to everyone who works at the site,” per Deadline. Laurie recently wrapped production on Apple TV thriller series The Wanted Man and will next appear in Season 3 of Apple TV thriller Tehran.
Disney to make its characters available to OpenAI for use in ChatGPT and Sora as part of a $1 billion deal
The three-year will allow users to generate their own videos using more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar characters. A curated selection of these short videos will be available to stream on Disney+. Disney and OpenAI announced the deal a day after Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google accusing the tech giant of “infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale,” demonstrating the carrot-and-stick approach it is taking to artificial intelligence. As part of the deal, Disney will invest $1 billion in OpenAI. Disney CEO Bob Iger said on CNBC’s Squawk Box the OpenAI deal won’t threaten creatives. “We are not including name and likeness, nor are we including character voices,” he said. So in reality, this does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all. In fact, the opposite. I think it honors them and respects them, in part because there’s a license fee associated with it. The other thing it does is it enables us to be comfortable that open AI is putting guardrails essentially around how these are used.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger expresses concern over streaming “pricing leverage” with Netflix acquiring Warner Bros.
“We haven’t determined whether we will take a position or not,” Iger said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday when asked if he favors Netflix or Paramount taking over Warner Bros. Discovery. Iger said there were possible regulatory concerns with Netflix’s proposed $83 billion takeover of Warner Bros. “I think if I were a regulator looking at this combination, I’d look at a few things. First of all, I would look at what the impact is on the consumer,” Iger said, per Variety. “Will one company end up with pricing leverage that might be considered a negative or damaging to the consumer? And with a significant amount of streaming subscriptions across the world, really, does that ultimately give Netflix pricing leverage over the consumer that it might not necessarily be healthy?”
South Park’s Season 28 finale was dark even by its own standards
Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s holiday message this year is: “no antichrist, no grand miracle, no justice,” says Dustin Rowles. “Trump wins, Satan loses, and Jesus finally snaps out of it. South Park closes the season, much like our country, in a very dark place.”
David Del Rio’s final Matlock appearance aired last week following his October firing
Showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman tells Deadline that Del Rio, who was fired after co-star Leah Lewis accused him of sexual assault, will be written off the show off-screen. “I’m not going to discuss details, but what I can talk about is in terms of the show,” she says. “The last episode you see him is in 7, and then you find out how Billy’s story ends, which is in a very organic way that has to do with our whole office and how things are being shaped in this merger.” Del Rio’s appearance on last week’s episode surprised fans in wake of his October firing. ALSO: Matlock casts Henry Haber and Sarah Wright Olsen in recurring roles.
SZA slams Trump’s White House for using her performance in SNL’s “Big Boys” sketch to promote ICE
“White House rage baiting artists for free promo is PEAK DARK ..inhumanity +shock and aw tactics ..Evil n Boring,” SZA tweeted of the White House’s use of her song from the 2022 “Big Boys” sketch. This is the second time in a week the White House used SNL to promote ICE. Last week, the White House used Sabrina Carpenter and Marcello Hernández’s SNL promo to falsely imply that he was an illegal immigrant.
Director Carl Rinsch found guilty for swindling Netflix out of $11 million in never-completed sci-fi series White Horse
Rinsch, who was convicted today, “faces the threat of many years in prison when he is sentenced on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and making illegal transactions. His sentencing was scheduled for April 17,” report Variety’s Gene Maddaus and Antonio Ferme. “The director, 48, took the stand in his own defense on Tuesday, chalking up the dispute to a misunderstanding. He has maintained that he completed principal photography on the first season of the show and needed the money for pre-production on Season 2.”
Friday Night Lights cast to have a 20th-anniversary reunion at the ATX TV Festival
Showrunner Jason Katims and stars Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton and Adrianne Palicki are among the confirmed guests for the 2026 ATX TV Festival, which takes place at where Friday Night Lights was set: in Austin, Texas. ALSO: ATX Festival will include a Homicide: Life on the Street retrospective and a Sweet/Vicious cast reunion.
Survival of the Thickest‘s final season books Wanda Sykes, D.L. Hughley, Ice-T, Jenna Lyons, Ronny Chieng, Wyatt Cenac and more
Michelle Buteau’s Netflix sitcom has enlisted a slew of big names to send the third and final season off in style. Other guest-stars include Ashley Graham, LaQuan Smith, Charles Harbison and Ashley Romans. ALSO: Marouane Zotti promoted to series regular.
Netflix renews Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black for a third and final season
The final season renewal was announced ahead of the Season 2’s return for Part 2 on March 19.
Lola Petticrew to star in Netflix’s live-action Assassin’s Creed series
The former Badlands star will co-lead opposite Toby Wallace in the TV adaptation of the hit video game franchise. Details about Petticrew’s role are being kept under wraps.
Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers to make a rare late-night appearance on The Tonight Show
Matt and Ross Duffer, who will visit Jimmy Fallon next Wednesday to promote Stranger Things 5, were last guests on a late-night show in October 2017, when they appeared on Last Call With Carson Daly. They also FaceTimed with David Harbour during a 2019 Late Night with Seth Meyers interview.
Seth MacFarlane’s Ted gets a Season 2 premiere date and racy first-look images
All eight episodes of the Peacock comedy’s second season will drop on March 5. ALSO: Seth MacFarlane to stay with UCP with a new first-look deal.
Paramount+ greenlights two animated series based on beloved children’s author Mo Willems’ book series
The Elephant & Piggie Show! and The Pigeon Show! Starring the Pigeon will mark the first collaboration between Paramount’s streaming service and Willems’ Hidden Pigeon Company. The Elephant & Piggie Show! adaptation is billed as a “warm, comedic pre-kindergarten series about “best-friending.” The Pigeon Show! Starring the Pigeon adaptation follows the day-to-day struggles of a pigeon who just wants to be heard.
Bowl game that launched as the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl in 2021 to shutter after 5 years
Saturday night’s Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk at SoFi Stadium between Washington and Boise State will mark the end of the road for the LA Bowl, which launched in 2021 as the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. Kimmel was the first living person to have a bowl game named after him. After a second year with Kimmel as its main sponsor in 2022, the LA Bowl was renamed after Rob Gronkowski in 2023. The LA Bowl matched the Pac-12 and Mountain West. “The bowl’s fate was ultimately decided when conference realignment gutted the Pac-12 and the league lost 10 schools to the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC,” says On3’s Brett McMurphy.
Elsbeth’s Robert and Michelle King renew their CBS Studios deals
The creators of The Good Wife and its two spinoffs, The Good Fight and Elsbeth, will stick with CBS Studios, where they’ve also produced Evil, Your Honor and the upcoming Cupertino and Vatican City.
Jeff Probst says this week’s Survivor 49 big twist was what they had hoped would happen
Probst discussed the intricacies of this new equal parts delicious and diabolical twist on the latest episode of the On Fire podcast.
After 21 years, The Apprentice UK is getting a full-fledged celebrity edition
Lord Alan Sugar, who has hosted The Apprentice UK since its launch in February 2005 premiere, will front The Celebrity Apprentice for the BBC next year, marking a first full season for the broadcaster. “We’ve had some great celebrity names walk into my boardroom over the years, but they’ve only ever had a small taster of what it’s like to be a candidate,” said Sugar. “It’ll be interesting to see how our future celebrities fare across a full series, removing their PAs, PRs, agents and all the other assistance they have in their day-to-day lives to fully immerse themselves into The Apprentice world.”
Check out Richard E. Grant and Ruth Jones in the first look at The Other Bennet Sister
BBC and BritBox have released the first look at the Pride & Prejudice spinoff ahead of Jane Austin’s 250th birthday on Dec. 16. Indira Varma and Richard Coyle also star in the drama series about the oft-overlooked middle sister in Pride and Prejudice.
Jim Ward, Daytime Emmy-winning The Fairly OddParents star, dies at 66
Ward, who died Wednesday, was best known for his roles as business owner Doug Dimmadome and Chet Ubetcha, news reporter for Dimmsdale’s local station Channel 7 News, on Nickelodeon’s The Fairly OddParents. Additionally, Ward also lent his voice to various characters on the 2005 Cartoon Network animated series Ben 10 and voiced Captain Qwark in Ratchet and Clank, the action-adventure video game series. Ward won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for the syndicated cartoon Biker Mice from Mars.
My 600-lb Life star Pauline Potter dies at 62
Potter died Nov. 27, nearly a year after a serious car accident left her with broken ribs and other lingering injuries. Her death was announced by her son Dillon in a YouTube video. Potter appeared on the TLC reality show in 2015 having been confirmed by Guinness World Records as the heaviest living woman weighing 643 pounds. She also appeared on Dr. Phil. In a January 2022 Instagram post, Potter wrote: “I haven’t posted on here in a long time, but I’m proud to say that now I’m down to 223 pounds, it feels so great to be able to not be reliant on someone else to do even the littlest things for me.”
Idris Elba returns to defuse a Berlin train crisis in Hijack’s season 2 trailer
Elba returns for his action-packed Apple TV real-time thriller on Jan. 14.
Watch the trailer for The Night Manager Season 2
The British spy thriller series starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman returns to Prime Video on Jan. 11.
Netflix teases Kelly Clarkson kicking off NFL Christmas Gameday
Clarkson will open the Dec. 25 Netflix doubleheader with a performance of her holiday hit “Underneath the Tree.”
Netflix unveils the trailer for His & Hers, starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal
The thriller limited series, premiering Jan. 8, “is set in the sweltering heat of Atlanta. Anna (Thompson) lives in haunting reclusivity, fading away from her friends and career as a news anchor,” per Deadline. “But when she overhears about a murder in Dahlonega – the sleepy town where she grew up – Anna is snapped back to life, pouncing on the case and searching for answers. Detective Jack Harper (Bernthal) is strangely suspicious of her involvement, chasing her into the crosshairs of his own investigation. There are two sides to every story: his and hers, which means someone is always lying.”