Pop the Balloon is headed to Netflix / Oscar Isaac to play a conman on Apple TV+ / Could Adolescence return for Season 2?
PLUS: Grey's Anatomy turns 20: Shonda Rhimes reflects on creating a TV sensation with "zero experience in television."
Viral YouTube dating show Pop the Balloon is headed to Netflix with Yvonne Orji as host
The streamer has ordered Pop the Balloon Live, a reimagined version of the YouTube dating show that SNL spoofed in January. Arlette Amuli created and hosts Pop the Balloon. Orji will host Pop the Balloon Live, streaming live on Netflix on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET starting April 10. "In the dating experiment, singles test their chemistry while trying to keep their balloon intact," notes Deadline's Peter White. "As connections form and tensions rise, one thing is certain: when your balloon pops, so does your shot at love. …Amuli and her husband Bolia Matundu have run nearly 50 episodes of Pop The Balloon or Find Love on her YouTube channel, which has scored over 100M views."
Oscar Isaac to play conman Juan Carlos Guzmán in Apple TV+'s Stowaway
Stowaway, created by Steven Levenson and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, "centers on Guzmán, who, in 1993, was discovered as a wheel-well stowaway, nearly frozen onto the wheels of a cargo jet that landed in Miami," per Variety. "He claimed to be a 13-year-old orphan from Colombia left with no choice but to risk a better life in America, but in reality, Guzmán was 17 years old, with an aunt in Miami and a mother alive and worried sick about him in Bogota."
Amazon MGM Studios boss Jennifer Salke is out after seven years
Salke, the former president of NBC Entertainment who has overseen Amazon's TV and movie output since early 2018, will transition to producing. She won't be replaced. Instead, Mike Hopkins, head of both Amazon MGM and Prime Video, will take full command, with theatrical/streaming film chief Courtenay Valenti and TV chief Vernon Sanders reporting directly to him. Salke’s accomplishments include Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power, Jack Ryan, The Boys, Fallout, Reacher, The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Wheel of Time, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Beast Games.
Jasmine Cephas Jones to guest on DC's Lanterns
The Emmy winner will play "Young Bernadette,” John Stewart’s "resilient mother and forever the family fixer," per Deadline. "She is a perceptive, big-picture thinker who demands excellence from herself and her family."
Hallmark Channel orders Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story
The followup to last year's Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story will have filming take place "entirely at locations in and around Buffalo, New York, including iconic Highmark Stadium, which is making its last stand as the Bills home field in the upcoming 2025 NFL season," Hallmark and the NFL announced. Additional details, such as "the starting lineup will be announced at a later date."
Lily Taylor joins Daredevil: Born Again
Taylor will recur in Season 2, possibly as a political foe for Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk.
Reacher tops Nielsen streaming charts for the second time as Running Point debuts at No. 4
The Amazon hit, currently in Season 3, beat Netflix's Zero Day with 1.5 billion viewing minutes for the week of Feb. 24. Running Point made its Nielsen chart debut with 1.05 billion viewing minutes.
Warner Bros. to raze Looney Tunes building to create more space for HBO
Building 131, which once housed Looney Tunes, "will be torn down to create more base camp space for the myriad HBO shows that are shooting on the lot," according to Deadline.
James Patterson and MrBeast team for a Squid Game-like novel that could become a movie or TV series
"An eight-figure bidding war has broken out on the rights to a new thriller novel from the unlikely pairing of James Patterson and MrBeast aka Jimmy Donaldson," reports Deadline's James Whittock. The book, with "shades of Squid Game, is being shopped for TV and movie rights. "One source said it was going under the title The Most Dangerous Game, but this hasn’t been confirmed and we hear other titles are being considered," says Whittock.
Baby Reindeer shines, The Day of the Jackal snubbed at BAFTA TV Awards nominations announcement
As Deadline's Jake Kanter notes, "Baby Reindeer has been a darling of the season, and the BAFTA TV Awards will be the big crescendo to its campaign." Meanwhile, Peacock and Sky's The Day of the Jackal "failed to sharpshoot its way to any nominations in the main awards," says Kanter. "The lavish assassin drama, which has been renewed for Season 2, was one of Sky’s big hopes for the BAFTAs, but has only managed to get nominations at the Craft Awards for editing and production design. Eddie Redmayne was among the cast shut out of performance categories."
MLB.TV goes down on Major League Baseball opening day
MLB fans have been revolting online as the premium service, which costs $149.99 annually, has been down.
Grey's Anatomy turns 20: Shonda Rhimes reflects on creating a TV sensation with "zero experience in television"
"You have to understand, (I had) zero experience in television," said Rhimes, who 20 years ago was best known for writing the Britney Spears movie Crossroads, in an interview with EW. "I didn't even realize how it all worked with studios and networks, and who you're supposed to suck up to. I didn't understand any of that. But I thought the pilot was really good, and I knew that I wanted to see it. And Betsy (Beers) thought the pilot was really good, and she really wanted to see it. So to me, I was like, 'Okay, we'll have experience making a pilot,' and we made it, and I thought it was really good. But I wouldn't have made it if I didn't think it was really good. I wasn't even thinking about Will the audience think it's really good? I hadn't gotten there yet. I think the moment I realized we were special in some way was they were doing audience testing with the pilot. It used to be that they'd bring you in and there'd be this screen, and the audience would be on the other side and they'd be turning dials as they watched the show. And so we were there in real time watching it, and the trajectory kept going up, up, up — and it never dipped. Somebody turned to me and said, 'This has literally never happened in the history of ABC.' And I don't know if it really never happened in the history of ABC, but that's how they said it to us. And I thought, 'Oh, so we're doing really good,' but I still felt like a student getting my A-plus." ALSO: Shonda Rhimes looks back at the Grey's spinoffs that never made it.
Stephen Graham: "There's a possibility" of Adolescence returning for Season 2
Graham, who co-created Adolescence with Jack Thorne, was asked by Variety if Netflix has approached them about a sequel. “Possibly, let’s see how the figures are,” says Graham with a smirk since viewership is off the charts. “But yeah, there’s the possibility of developing another story.” Thorne is already on the record as saying "Jamie’s story is finished," telling ITV’s This Morning: "I don’t think there’s anywhere more we can take Jamie, so I don’t think there is a Series 2...We’d love to explore the one shot format in another way. We’d love to tell other stories with it, but I don’t think a series two of Adolescence is quite right for us.” What they wouldn't do is tell Katie's story. "I don’t think we’re the right people to tell Katie’s story,” said Thorne. “I think there are other makers out there that could tell beautiful dramas about Katie or girls like Katie, and that those shows should be made. Our aim was to try and tell Jamie’s story as fully as we possibly could, and maybe trying to tell her story would dilute that in some way and maybe we would be inadequate for that task.”
Blue-chip advertisers are flocking to Fox News in the aftermath of the election
Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Netflix and UBS are among the big-time companies that have been buying up ad space, according to the Financial Times. “Historically, after an election, networks will see ratings dips,” Fox Corp’s ad sales chief Jeff Collins told the Financial Times. “When we saw an acceleration in ratings, we saw new advertisers coming in.”
Widow of late Fox News video journalist Pierre Zakrzewski sues over his death in Ukraine
Michelle Ross-Stanton has filed an $11.6 million lawsuit, arguing that Fox News didn't protect Zakrzewski. Her husband was killed by Russian bombs alongside Ukrainian journalist Oleksandra “Sasha” Kuvshynova in March 2022. Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall survived the explosion. According to The Washington Post, Ross-Stanton’s suit argues that Fox is liable for the absence of a security consultant and for what she says was inadequate risk assessment before the trip. As such, she alleges the network failed “to determine, or heed, that it was not reasonably safe and would expose the Deceased and his colleagues to unnecessary risk of serious injury or death.” “It’s not that I don’t trust Fox to give me the right answers, but I don’t trust anybody to give me the answers that I want to hear,” said Ross-Stanton.
ABC schedules Pat Sajak's final Celebrity Wheel of Fortune episodes, plus Jeopardy! Masters
Both will premiere on April 30.
Maury Povich is launching a video podcast
On Par with Maury Povich, premiering March 31, will feature "thought-provoking conversations" with guests including his wife Connie Chung, as well as cultural icons and industry leaders.
Television Academy is launching "Televerse," its first-ever TV festival
The two-day event, from Aug. 14 to 15 at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, will offer fans and Emmy voters unprecedented access” to Emmy-nominated shows.
Legally Blonde prequel series adds three
Chandler Kinney, Gabrielle Policano and Jacob Moskovitz will play high school classmates of Lexi Minetree's Elle Woods.
The Young & The Restless brings back Mishael Morgan
Morgan, the first Black woman to win the Daytime Emmy for lead actress, will reprise her Amanda Sinclair role in a guest arc.
Hot Bench brings in a new judge and bailiff for Season 12
Trial attorney Daniel Mentzer, replacing retiring Judge Michael Corriero, will join Yodit Tewolde and Rachel Juarez on the syndicated court show. Meanwhile, Gina Findley takes over from Sonia Montejano as bailiff as Hot Bench moves to Connecticut.
Major League Baseball commissioner admits to "dissatisfaction" with ESPN before the network announced it was cutting ties
"You know, look, we — there was a level of dissatisfaction on our part. It started, you know, with the end of Baseball Tonight, I think if you watch ESPN — and I do — you know, where we appear on SportsCenter in the morning, there were issues," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told Chris "Mad Dog" Russo.
Felicity Huffman and Eric Johnson to star in Lifetime movie The 13th Wife: Escaping Polygamy
Olga Petsa will also star in the two-part original movie "on the extraordinary true story of Rena Chynoweth (played by Huffman as present day Rena and Petsa as young Rena), a brave survivor and former wife of a manipulative polygamist group leader, who escaped a life of oppression and dedicated herself to freeing others," per Deadline.
Chloe Fineman and Mikey Madison dance Anora-style in SNL promo
Oscar winner Madison makes her hosting debut this weekend with musical guest Morgan Wallen.
Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly bring Texas romance in Netflix's Ransom Canyon trailer
The adaptation of the Jodi Thomas’ book series centers around “three ranching family dynasties locked in a contest for control of the land, (all while) their lives and legacies are threatened by outside forces intent on destroying their way of life.” Ransom Canyon premieres April 17.