Martin Short to host ABC's Match Game revival / Sam Elliott boards Landman / Corporation for Public Broadcasting sues the Trump White House
PLUS: Hulu gives Call Her Daddy's Alex Cooper the docuseries treatment.
Martin Short to host ABC's Match Game revival
The star of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building is expanding his relationship with Disney by hosting a reboot of Match Game, which features four contestants competing for $25,000 as they try to match the answers of six celebrities in a game of fill-in-the-blank. Short will succeed Alec Baldwin, who hosted ABC's last Match Game reboot for five seasons, from 2016 through 2022. “The latest iteration of the series is expected to begin production in Montreal in the near future for a potential premiere on ABC as soon as this summer,” according to Vulture’s Josef Adalian. The Match Game format has been around since 1962, first hosted by Gene Rayburn, and has had different versions on ABC, CBS, NBC and in syndication. According to Deadline, "Sarah Jessica Parker had been in talks to be involved in the reboot of the show but a deal wasn’t closed." As Adalian notes, “casting Short for this new revival obviously gives Match Game 2025 another well-known name as emcee, but it’s also a synergistic slam dunk: New episodes of Match Game will stream on Hulu hours after the debut on ABC, while the Alphabet network airs older seasons of Short’s Emmy-winning Only Murders. What’s more, having Short on board probably won’t hurt in landing celebrity panelists for the series.”
Sam Elliott boards Landman Season 2
Elliott will become a series regular on the Taylor Sheridan Paramount+ series. His role is being kept under wraps. Landman will mark a reunion for Elliott and Billy Bob Thornton, who shared a scene in Tombstone. They also both appeared on Sheridan's Yellowstone prequel series 1883.
Hulu gives Call Her Daddy's Alex Cooper the docuseries treatment
Premiering June 10, the two-part Call Her Alex will follow the podcast host in the lead-up to her first tour. It will also look at her early years as “a self-conscious kid growing up in Pennsylvania” and charts her rise “from a 24-year-old woman with a sex and dating podcast to the CEO of a media empire in just six years.” “I’ve shared my life with the Daddy Gang since I started Call Her Daddy — but this documentary series takes it even deeper,” Cooper said in a statement. “It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the moments that shaped me — the raw, the messy, the personal stuff I’ve never felt comfortable sharing until now. My hope is that by bringing people along for this part of my journey, they’ll feel both more connected to my life and more empowered in their own.”
Stephen Root joins Resident Alien
Root will appear on Season 4 as the father of Alan Tudyk's Harry, appearing to his son in human form to “push Harry to go back to his evil alien roots.”
Jordan Klepper next Daily Show special to examine MAGA: The Next Generation
Premiering after The Daily Show on May 19, Klepper will seek to answer the following questions: “In 2024, Donald Trump did better with voters under 30 than any Republican candidate since 2008. Was it because of economic anxiety or were they drawn to the rizz of a 78-year-old fist dancing to YMCA? Is the MAGA vibe shift permanent, or are young voters just rebelling against a Constitution that’s been bossing America around for 250 years?”
Corporation for Public Broadcasting sues the Trump White House to block board firings
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which spends more than $500 million annually on organizations like PBS, NPR and radio and TV stations across the United States, "sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, accusing it of illegally trying to fire three members of the company’s board," reports The New York Times' Benjamin Mullin. "In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, the media organization said the White House emailed three of the company’s five directors on Monday, telling them that their positions had been terminated. The administration did not offer any justification for the dismissals. The lawsuit argues that President Trump does not have the authority to fire directors from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which an act of Congress created more than a half-century ago. The suit asks the federal court to block the firings." The Corporation for Public Broadcasting said in a statement: "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity, and its board members are not government officers. Because C.P.B. is not a federal agency subject to the president’s authority, but rather a private corporation, we have filed a lawsuit to block these firings.”
Fox News hits record high viewership in President Trump's second first 100 days
"For Fox News, President Trump’s first 100 days back in the White House were a big success — even when compared to his first term," says The Wrap's Sean Burch. "The ratings make that clear, with Fox News averaging more viewers — both in primetime and over the course of the entire day — during the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term than during the first 100 days following his 2017 inauguration. In fact, Fox News just enjoyed the highest-rated first 100 days of any presidency in cable news history, surpassing the record it set in ’17." ALSO: Fox & Friends celebrates Trump's first 100 days with a "cringeworthy" montage of the president "having fun.”
Fortnite players will gain early access to Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld days before it's released on Disney+
As part of a new partnership between Disney and Epic Games, the new Star Wars animated anthology series from Dave Filoni will be available on Fortnite starting May 2 before its debut on Disney+ on Star Wars Day, May 4.
Poppa's House ends on a cliffhanger
Monday's Season 1 finale of the Damon Wayans-Damon Wayans Jr. CBS sitcom was an unintentional conclusion following CBS' recent cancelation.
MGM+'s Kevin Kline-Laura Linney comedy American Classic adds seven, including Jane Alexander and Jessica Hecht
Harris Yulin, Billy Carter, Nell Verlaque, Ajay Friese and Elise Kibler will also star in the comedy series starring Kline as a Broadway star and notorious narcissist who suffers a meltdown and returns to his hometown and the family-run theater where he first became aware of his own brilliance.
NCIS: Origins creators break down the shocking Season 1 finale
“We knew going into this show that we wanted to take big swings … and there’s more to the story,” co-creator David J. North tells The Wrap. In an interview with EW, North adds: "In this season finale, hopefully we invoked that same kind of emotion out of the audience."
Amazon sets a premiere date for Countdown starring Jensen Ackles and Eric Dane
Jessica Camacho also stars in the drama series about a secret task force of law enforcement officials who investigate the death of an officer with the Department of Homeland Security. Countdown premieres June 25 with three episodes, followed by a weekly release.
Amazon adds TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy to its NBA coverage
Van Gundy will join Ian Eagle for Prime Video NBA game telecasts, reports The Athletic's Andrew Marchand, who adds: "While Prime has designated Eagle as its No. 1 play-by-play announcer, it plans on waiting to name its top game analysts."
Netflix announces four new Mexican original series, including one starring Gael García Bernal and Paulina Dávila
Bernal and Dávila will star in Santita, about "a woman who, after a car accident confines her to a wheelchair, abandons the love of her life at the altar. Now, two decades later, she must face the consequences of her past when he unexpectedly reenters her life." Netflix also announced romantic comedy series Love 9 to 5, 1986 Veracruz-set I’m Not Afraid and Corruptors, a drama about political corruption and friendship.
Ellen Pompeo reveals her objection to a Grey's Anatomy storyline involving Meredith Grey
“My problem with that storyline,” Pompeo tells Variety of a Season 21 storyline, “was the Meredith Grey that I’ve created would have always been like, ‘I’m pissed that you lied, (but) let’s figure out how to game the system together to get you this f*cking liver. F*ck the system. The system is broken.’" ALSO: Shonda Rhimes and Debbie Allen help Ellen Pompeo unveil her Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
Michael Fishman: There is no "conflict or controversy" over my exclusion from The Conners finale
Fishman said on Instagram that "I have been inundated with people looking for a reaction. People seem to want to have there be some kind of conflict or controversy, especially on my part. The reality is, all I really have is empathy and understanding for all of the people on set and for all of our audience that’s grieving. I prefer to be a lighthouse in the dark. It’s for that reason that I’m creating a safe space to build community to process difficult emotions and transitions.” He added that "I have only gratitude" for his experience on Roseanne and The Conners.
BBC orders an A.I. documentary it describes as a "real life Black Mirror"
AI Confidential with Hannah Fry will have its host investigating "extraordinary tales from the front lines of the AI revolution." “There are amazing yarns that have something really interesting, illuminating and I think quite disturbing to say about AI,” says the BBC's Jack Bootle.
Walton Goggins shares a behind-the-scenes of his Teenjus recording for The Righteous Gemstones
Watch Uncle Baby Billy go Method to sing “Turn the Other Cheek."
Priscilla Pointer, Dallas star and mother of Amy Irving, dies at 100
Pointer, who died Monday, had numerous roles in TV and the movies. But she is perhaps best known for playing Rebecca Barnes Wentworth, the mother of Victoria Principal’s Pamela Barnes Ewing, on Dallas for three seasons from 1981 to 1983. Pointer also had recurring roles as a judge on L.A. Law.
PBS' American Experience to delve into the history of the Polaroid camera
Watch the trailer for Mr. Polaroid, premiering May 19.
Nicole Kidman heads to the Austrian Alps in Nine Perfect Strangers' Season 2 trailer
The Hulu series returns for its eight-episode second season on May 21 with a two-episode premiere, followed by a weekly release.
Netflix unveils the trailer for Untold: The Fall of Favre
The documentary, premiering May 20, promises an "eye-opening" look at Brett Favre's many controversies.
Watch Netflix's trailer for Conan O'Brien's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony
The star-studded ceremony, taped last month, will drop on Netflix on Saturday.
Netflix goes behind the scenes of the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds
Watch the trailer for the documentary Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds, premiering May 23.