Shohei Ohtani interpreter gambling scandal is getting the TV treatment / Lauren Graham is headed to Tubi / Ted renewed for Season 2
PLUS: Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson are launching a Cheers rewatch podcast: Where Everybody Knows Your Name.
Shohei Ohtani interpreter gambling scandal is getting the TV treatment
Lionsgate Television is in early development on a scripted series on the scandal that broke this spring surrounding the star Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher and hitter Shohei Ohtani. On March 20, as the 2024 Major League Baseball season was kicking off, the Dodgers fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani's longtime interpreter. It was later revealed that Mizuhara had allegedly nearly $17 million from Ohtani to cover gambling debts. Ohtani had just joined the Dodgers are signing a 10-year $700 million contract. The untitled series, which has no network or streaming home, will also chronicle the rise of the Japanese baseball superstar. On Wednesday, ESPN reported Mizuhara has agreed to plead guilty to federal tax and bank fraud. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday. The untitled series doesn’t have a writer or network or streaming home. But Station Eleven's Scott Delman and Albert Chen are both attached to produce. Chen is author of the 2019 book Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings That Upended Sports in America.
Lauren Graham to star in The Z-Suite, Tubi's first homegrown live-action series
Former Teachers star and writer Katie O'Brien created The Z-Suite, "set at a boutique New York ad agency where generational divides see the established C-Suite and rising Gen Z employees collide," per Deadline. "After a company decision spirals out of control, the agency’s reigning executives are pushed out and the Z-Suite employees are suddenly put in charge, ultimately testing both generations’ skills and patience." Graham will play Monica Frazier, described as "an advertising agency mogul who is fired as CEO and finds herself clawing her way back into the company she helped build." “When I first read the script for The Z-Suite I responded to Katie O’Brien’s fresh and funny take on the workplace,” said Graham, who will also serve as executive producer. “The character of Monica is smart, strong, and appealingly a bit unhinged,” Graham added. “I’m excited to work with the team at Tubi as they ramp up their Originals slate and continue their ascent in the streaming space.” The Fox-owned Tubi has mostly relied on acquisitions for its original programming. The animated series The Freak Brothers, which premiered in 2021, is Tubi's first original series. The Z-Suite will become Tubi's first original live-action series.
Peacock renews Seth MacFarlane's Ted for Season 2
Ted, the prequel series to MacFarlane's film franchise of the same name, was originally billed as an "event series." But Peacock has ordered another season, making it an ongoing series, after Ted premiered to solid ratings in January.
Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson are launching a Cheers rewatch podcast: Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Premiering on SiriusXM on June 12, the podcast from Conan O'Brien's Team Coco will feature guests including Eric Andre, Will Arnett, Kristen Bell, Laura Dern, Jane Fonda, Simu Liu, Megan Mullally, Conan, Nick Offerman, Martin Short and Danson's wife Mary Steenburgen. “Though I’ve always dreaded small talk at a cocktail party, I’ve found that it is a genuine privilege to sit down with someone for a deep, uninterrupted conversation. With this podcast, we’ll do just that,” says Danson. “And that I get to do it with Woody, my dear friend of many decades, is the cherry on top of the sundae. Each week, we’ll reflect on our own friendship and careers, and get to the core of the special guests who join us. I can’t wait for you to listen.” Harrelson adds: “The best part about doing this podcast is that it’s given me an excuse to hang out with Ted. Sure, we’ll talk with interesting guests, and sure we’ll share some laughs along the way, but the biggest win will be rekindling our romance, I mean friendship, after all this time. And I’m glad listeners will be able to join us for that.” Listen to the trailer.
Jeremy Allen White teases The Bear Season 3, announces June 27 premiere date
The teaser, featuring the music of Tangerine Dream's "Love on a Real Train" from Risky Business, doesn't reveal much about Season 3.
Taye Diggs is returning to All American, despite his character dying last season
Diggs will appear in one episode only on May 20. Details of his return are being kept under wraps.
Peabody 2024 winners include The Bear, The Last of Us, Reservation Dogs, Fellow Travelers, Dead Ringers and Jury Duty
Somebody Somewhere, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Bluey are also among the 34 recipients of the 2024 Peabody Awards.
Melissa Roxburgh to lead NBC drama series The Hunting Party
The Hunting Party is described “a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist." Former Manifest star Roxburgh will play an "ex-FBI agent recruited to an elite government task force due to her reputation as a "shrewd, steadfast and obsessively curious....ex-FBI agent recruited to an elite government task force due to her reputation as a savvy profiler who’s caught some of the world’s most dangerous serial killers.”
Special Ops: Lioness renewed for Season 2 with a new title: Lioness
The Zoë Saldaña-led Paramount+ espionage from Taylor Sheridan will return without the "Specials Ops" in its title.
See the first look at Batman: Caped Crusader, featuring an Asian American Harley Quinn
Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm's new animated series, which was picked up by Amazon after it was rejected by Max, will premiere later this year. On Batman: Caped Crusader, Harley Quinn is Asian American and will be separated from the Joker, as Timm intended. “I co-created the character, so I have a lot of love and affection for her, but I thought there might be something interesting about bringing her on the show, just not as Joker’s girlfriend,” Timm tells EW. “So how do we do that? A big part was just doing a basic flip. The original Dr. Quinzel was a little bit more serious, and then when she became Harley, she got really goofy and weird. So we thought, what if we reverse that? When she's Dr. Quinzel, she's a little bit more whimsical and fun, and then when she's Harley Quinn, she's scary.”
Netflix comedy executive: Kim Kardashian didn't ask to remove booing from the Tom Brady roast
Robbie Praw, Netflix's vice president of standup and comedy formats, explained to The Hollywood Reporter the decision to remove the booing after Sunday’s live The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady. "Post edits are standard practice for comedy specials and happen in live broadcasts, whether that’s subtitles, adding things or removing things that we can’t do when it’s streaming live," says Praw. "It’s part of, quite frankly, the fun of watching it live to not miss those things. But I will just say this, in addition to that, that no talent were consulted as part of that." Asked about some reviews suggesting that the roast would've been better off as an edited show like the old Comedy Central Roasts, Praw says: "Everything’s different. We’re going to do some things live, we’re going to do some things taped, but I think this being live, what it was was exhilarating and I think we’re really thrilled with bringing it to the world in that way." ALSO: Nikki Glaser says she'll "totally apologize" to Gisele Bündchen after a report said Tom Brady's ex-wife was "hurt" by the roast.
Kristen Johnston reunites with Chuck Lorre on Netflix's Leanne Morgan comedy series
Johnston, who previously starred on Lorre's Mom, will co-star with Morgan on the untitled sitcom that Morgan co-created. She'll play the sister of Morgan's character, also named Leanne.
Jon Stewart to launch The Weekly Show podcast with Comedy Central: "I have decided to extend my work week to two days"
“After much reflection, meditation, and prayer, I have decided to extend my work week to two days,” The Daily Show host said in a statement. “All hail Comedy Central!” Premiering in early June, The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart will span “the most critical topics across current events,” featuring a variety of guests including newsmakers, authors and celebrities. ALSO: Arby's in Hollywood uses it sign to troll Jon Stewart after he visit outside with Jimmy Kimmel earlier this week.
Jerry Seinfeld: Chris Rock turned down our Unfrosted idea to parody the Will Smith Oscars slap
“Chris Rock was going to be the emcee of the Bowl & Spoon Awards,” Seinfeld told Dana Carvey and David Spade on their Fly on the Wall podcast, according to Indiewire. “We shot that right after the Will Smith slap, and I was gonna have somebody come up on the stage and have Chris punch ‘em out as they got there. And then Chris wasn’t— he wasn’t up to perform, he was still a little shook from the event. But that was what that scene was going to be, but Cedric (The Entertainer) saved the day.”
Lost's Yunjin Kim drops by Station 19
Kim will guest-star on tonight's episode and the series finale as the "full Korean sister" of Merle Dandridge's Natasha Ross.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is "hopeful" about retaining NBA rights, reveals that TNT could retain NBA rights by matching Amazon's offer
Speaking to analysts this morning, Zaslav said that Warner Bros. Discovery has the rights to match third-party offers. So if NBC outbids Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT could maintain NBA rights by matching Amazon's offer. Zaslav said he is “hopeful we will be able to reach an agreement that makes sense for both sides.”
Joe Berlinger docuseries Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial gets a Netflix premiere date
In his six-part docuseries, the true-crime documentarian "explores the rise and fall of Hitler and his enablers who were fueled through propaganda, censorship and a campaign of antisemitism" through the "framing of the Nuremberg trials and eyewitness testimony of American journalist William L. Shirer. Berlinger says that he owes his path to filmmaking “to my obsession with German history,” adding: "When I was a teenager, I was exposed to some of the Holocaust liberation footage that’s in the show. And like any young person who sees that footage, I was absolutely horrified. After seeing this footage, I became obsessed with the idea that had I been born in that era, I would have been rounded up and murdered. So I wanted to understand how such evil could have ever taken place, to such a degree that I became a German major in college and fluent in the language. That led to an opportunity to work for an American ad agency in their Frankfurt office, where I found myself on TV commercial sets – that’s where I fell in love with filmmaking.”
Netflix defends Baby Reindeer's "disguising of characters" in a British parliamentary hearing
The streamer's UK policy chief Benjamin King said during the British Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee that Netflix had taken “every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story in the making of the show while also striking a balance of veracity and authenticity of Richard (Gadd's) story.” ALSO: Doctor Who's Russell T Davies says the BBC would have been “much stricter” about hiding Baby Reindeer identities.
The Real Bros of Simi Valley: High School Reunion adds Retta, Tony Hawk, Shaun White, Zoey Deutch, Tyler Posey and Rob Riggle
They’ll appear alongside the full original cast of 2017’s The Real Bros of Simi Valley on The Roku Channel series, including Jimmy Tatro, Nick Colletti, Tanner Petulla, Cody Ko, Peter Gilroy, Colleen Donovan, Madeline Whitby, Monica Joy Sherer, Monette Moio, and Christian Pierce. The Real Bros of Simi Valley: High School Reunion premieres July 5.
Matt Rife mocks his trans and domestic violence jokes controversy
While performing last night at the Hollywood Bowl as part of Netflix Is a Joke Fest, Rife told a few trans jokes and said: What am I gonna do? Get canceled? Cool, I’ll do another Bowl show, awesome," according to Variety. He added: “You know that’s not a real punishment… nothing happens. Prison’s a punishment.” Rife later referred to his domestic violence joke controversy, quipping: “Domestic violence is not funny, ever, ever, on any comedy special ever.”
Simu Liu: "I'm Just Ken" Oscars Saturday rehearsal "went so poorly" we had to do another rehearsal the day of the ceremony
Liu said on Live with Kelly and Mark it was a “logistical nightmare that’s like seventy dancers rotating with a steady cam," according to Decider. Rehearsing on the day of the Oscars left him little time prepare.
Happy Face adds Damon Gupton and Momona Tamada
The respective Black Lightning and The Baby-Sitters Club alums will recur on the upcoming Paramount+ drama series.
Percy Hynes White confirms Wednesday exit after one season
"I had so much fun working on this show," Hynes White, who played Xavier Thorpe on Season 1 on the Netflix series, wrote on his Instagram Stories accompanied by a cast photo."I can't wait to watch season 2 :) Much love," Hynes White added in his text, ending the caption with a red heart emoji.
Rainn Wilson loves that The Office follow-up series isn't set at Dunder Mifflin
“The announcement came out yesterday and I learned about the show. I literally know nothing about it,” he said on The View, per Decider, of the news that the Peacock series will be set at a dying newspaper. “But I love the idea that they’re trying to do an Office spinoff not in Dunder Mifflin, not with the same characters but a documentary crew following a different workplace. That’s a great concept.” ALSO: Wilson picks a scene showing why The Office UK is superior to NBC's The Office.
Disney announces new Bluey Minisodes
Starting in July, Disney Jr. and Disney+ will roll out a collection of 20 shorts ranging from one to three minutes that feature the titular protagonist and her sister Bingo.
Netflix launching a Roblox "digital theme park" featuring Stranger Things, One Piece, Cobra Kai and more
Dubbed “Nextworld,” the web-based universe will feature characters and content from Netflix IP. “Once you enter Nextworld — which is your central hub in the Netflix universe — you can dive deeper into the series and films you love,” Netflix wrote in a blog post. “(Think: A digital theme park full of characters, easter eggs, and games.) Immersive games like Stranger Things: Escape from Hawkins High, One Piece: East Blue Brawls, and Rebel Moon: Outskirts Battles will connect you with your favorite characters in a whole new way. While you’re there, say hi to Dustin from Stranger Things, Luffy from One Piece and Jimmy from Rebel Moon, who’ll serve as guardians of their respective worlds. Some of them might even guide you through your quests and you never know who else you might encounter.”
Pretty Little Liars: Summer School opts against a Pretty Little Liars crossover
A crossover teased on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is not happening on Pretty Little Liars: Summer School.
Disney+ shares first-look images of Rivals, starring David Tennant and Aidan Turner
The adaptation of author Jilly Cooper’s bestselling Rutshire Chronicles is set against the backdrop of the excess and antics of the power-grabbing social elite of 1980s England.
Power Book II: Ghost unveils its fourth and final season trailer
The walls are closing in on Michael Rainey Jr.'s Tariq and he’s reconciling with just how much his life compares to his late father’s in the trailer for Season 4, premiering in two parts: on June 7 and Sept. 6.
Watch Krysten Ritter in the full trailer for Orphan Black: Echoes
The Orphan Black spinoff premieres on AMC, AMC+ and BBC America on June 23.
Freeform releases the trailer for Royal Rules of Ohio
The docuseries, premiering May 15, follows three Ghanaian sisters as they navigate their twenties in Columbus, Ohio.