South Park to skip the 2024 presidential election "on purpose" / 9-1-1: Lone Star to end / Billie Jean King getting the ESPN 30 for 30 treatment

PLUS: Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen to star in Paramount+'s JonBenét Ramsey limited series.

South Park to skip the 2024 presidential election "on purpose" and return for Season 27 in 2025
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who last put out a South Park season amid a presidential election during Donald Trump's first campaign in fall 2016, opted to avoid Trump's third run for president. “Honestly, it’s on purpose,” Stone tells Vanity Fair, adding: “We’ve tried to do South Park through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing to—it’s such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance. Obviously, it’s f*cking important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun.” Parker adds: “I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.” The pair also say they are “waiting for Paramount to figure all their sh*t out." South Park's previous season, the six-episode Season 6, aired in spring 2023.

9-1-1: Lone Star to end with Season 5
As expected, the Fox first responders’ drama and spinoff of 9-1-1 will conclude this fall with a 12-episode final season. "This marks a milestone for Fox as Lone Star is the last drama series on the network produced by its former corporate sibling 20th Television which used to supply the majority of the Fox’s scripted series before the TV studio, along with other assets, was sold to Disney in 2019," reports Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "(20th TV also is behind Fox’s legacy animated comedies, which are up for renewal this season.) Like with the mothership 9-1-1, which ended its run on Fox last year after six seasons, the cancellation of Lone Star is a product of the changing economics of the TV business, especially on the linear side and particularly for non-vertically integrated broadcast networks."

Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen to star in Paramount+'s JonBenét Ramsey limited series
McCarthy will play JonBenet Ramsey’s mother Patsy Ramsey and Owen will play father John Bennett Ramsey in the limited series, tentatively titled JonBenét Ramsey. The limited series will be penned by Richard LaGravenese, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated screenwriter behind The Fisher King, The Bridges of Madison County and Behind the Candelabra. "JonBenét Ramsey explores the tragic unsolved murder of the eponymous six-year-old beauty queen," per Deadline. "It follows the Ramsey family, before and after the tragedy as they go through the painful loss of a child while facing intense public scrutiny caused by a media frenzy that caused this case to captivate an entire nation. At the heart of the series, it is the story of Patsy and John Ramsey – exploring the unbreakable partnership of these two complex people – as husband and wife, as mother and father – who had committed themselves and their children to building the narrative of a perfect, privileged life only to have it destroyed one Christmas night in 1996."

Anna Delvey's Dancing with the Stars casting denounced on fellow ABC show The View
According to Deadline, when Joy Behar quipped this morning that the convicted con artist seems to be getting her second chance “because she’s pretty,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg said: “Well, that’s a little bit of a piss-off. I like pretty people too, but I gotta say I listen to people bitch about what’s going on at the border and I’m listening to people who bitch about all these people who shouldn’t be here? Well, what the hell man? How does this work?”

Tennis icon Billie Jean King to get the ESPN 30 for 30 treatment
The ESPN Films documentary from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff promises “the unfiltered, untold story of how King broke the rules and proved her critics wrong.” “The legacy of Billie Jean King is like none other,” says Garbus. “She is a generational athletic talent, a pioneer in women’s sports, and a leader in the fight for equal pay and against discrimination in sports and society. Her bravery and her chutzpah are unmatched as she risked everything for everyone to have a chance at succeeding. Elizabeth and I are so excited to introduce Billie Jean to a whole new generation of young people who will see they are standing on her shoulders and be inspired to keep fighting for equality.”

One Day at a Time reboot stars to reunite for a charity table read of an unseen episode to benefit Norman Lear's foundation
The Netflix/Pop TV show’s cast and executive producers will reunite to read unproduced scripts on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the TV Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood to benefit the late Lear's People For the American Way foundation. The table read will include an unseen Season 4 episode.

BBC removes "true story" label from Hulu's Dopesick
The British broadcaster has been streaming the 2021 Hulu opioid crisis limited series since April, describing it as the “true story of the dealers, doctors and the billion dollar drug that fuelled America’s deadly opioid addiction.” But in wake of the fallout over Netflix's Baby Reindeer scandal, the BBC has decided to drop the words “true story” from the description in recent days, according to Deadline. Dopesick is now billed as “a story” about the opioid crisis.

Netflix is trying to cut the carbon footprint of shows like Virgin River, Bridgerton and Stranger Things, but the effort has been marginal
"On most film and television sets, illumination is powered by loud, clunking diesel generators. Virgin River is one of a number of Netflix’s productions replacing generators and fossil fuel-based transportation with greener alternatives," reports Bloomberg's Michelle Ma. "In Atlanta, Stranger Things is dabbling with solar-powered trailers, and just outside London, Bridgerton has tested a hydrogen power unit. It’s all part of Netflix’s plan to cut its emissions roughly in half by 2030. Yet, Netflix’s progress has been marginal in the three years since it began focusing on sustainability in 2020. Its emissions in 2022 increased compared to 2019, the year the company chose as its baseline year. (Emissions dropped dramatically in 2023, the company’s latest reported year, but that was largely attributed to work stoppages during the Hollywood strikes.)" Ma adds: "If Netflix persuaded its suppliers to buy low-emissions equipment, it could prompt an industry-wide change. Netflix’s emissions are broadly in line with its industry peers, and its challenges are the same. The same shops that rent lights, portable power sources and vehicles tend to service productions across the various studios, and so more green tech for Netflix means more all around. And if the company succeeds in communicating to the makers of this equipment that a buyer exists, that would help de-risk the investment and encourage more adoption industry-wide."

Max gives James Gunn's Creature Commandos a Season 2 renewal three months before its premiere
The Gunn-created animated series has already earned a second season ahead of its premiere on Dec. 5. Creature Commandos “tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option.”

Jimmy Kimmel mangles his monologue while mocking Donald Trump for doing the same thing in a campaign speech
"You know what? That’s karma. That’s why I’m not gonna be president!" Kimmel said after he was forced to eat his own words during his Wednesday monologue.

Megan Thee Stallion and Travis Kelce help Pepsi kick off the 2024 NFL season with Gladiator-inspired “We Will Rock You” ad campaign revival
The follow-up to the 2004 Pepsi ad starring Beyoncé, Britney Spears and Pink, titled “Make Your Gameday Epic,” "will fire up the start of the new NFL season, and features Megan Thee Stallion as Empress Megan along with NFL superstars turned Gridiron Gladiators Josh Allen, Derrick Henry, Justin Jefferson and Travis Kelce, who are locked in an epic battle with Pepsi at the heart of the action," according to Deadline. "The spot also features Saturday Night‘s Lamorne Morris and Apples Never Fall actor Jake Lacy."

Wynonna Earp: Vengeance gets a Tubi premiere date
The 90-minute special premiering on Tubi on Sept. 13 picks up roughly 18 months after the events of the Season 4 finale.

Check out Glen Powell on the Chad Powers football field
The actor is stepping into cleats of Oregon Ducks college quarterback Russ Holliday for his Hulu series.

Taylor Swift is expected to attend more Kansas City Chiefs games this NFL season
“She wants to be a fan,” says Chiefs president Mark Donovan of Swift, who's dating tight end Travis Kelce. “This is her off time. She wants to be there to support Travis. We’re going to create that opportunity where we provide that.”

Gary Oldman agreed to his Oppenheimer cameo as Harry Truman on one condition: He'd have to maintain his hair for Slow Horses
“This (role) is a little different because I’m tethered to it, even when I’ve got a six-month break. And it dictates if I do anything else,” Oldman told the Wall Street Journal Magazine about playing Jackson Lamb on the Apple TV+ series. “I did a day on Oppenheimer. I said to Chris Nolan, ‘I would love to come and do it, but I’m going to have to wear a prosthetic cap and a wig and I can’t cut my hair. So if you can deal with that, then I’d love to come and do it. And if you don’t want wigs, then you have to get someone else to do it.’ Lamb is never far away in that sense.”

Jay Pharoah heads to YouTube for his second comedy special
The SNL alum's second special, after his 2015 Showtime special Can I Be Me?, is titled Jared and will be available on YouTube starting Sept. 22.

Drag Race México renewed for Season 3
World of Wonder has ordered a third season after seeing a 40% increase in viewership between Seasons 1 and 2.

Netflix renews Unicorn Academy for Season 2
The children’s fantasy-adventure series has been picked up for a 16-episode second season.

Netflix’s Mr. McMahon's trailer gives Vince McMahon the docuseries treatment
The Bill Simmons-produced six-part docuseries that has been in the works for four years premieres Sept. 25 with interviews with Dwayne Johnson, John Cena, Hulk Hogan and McMahon himself.

Watch Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, Jon Hamm and more in Paramount+'s Landman trailer
The oil drilling drama series from Taylor Sheridan premieres Nov. 17.

The Diplomat's Season 2 teaser ties up Season 1's massive cliffhanger
The brief teaser also shows the first glimpse of Allison Janney as the vice president. The Diplomat Season 2 drops on Oct. 31.

Will Ferrell and best friend Harper Steele go on emotional road trip after she comes out as trans in Netflix's Will & Harper trailer
"Hi there, I'm Will Ferrell. One of the greatest actors in the world," Ferrell says in the trailer. "A long time ago, back when I was at Saturday Night Live, I met a guy hired as a writer the same week I was hired. He wrote a bunch of sketches for me, and eventually became the head writer of SNL. And, over the years, he became one of my closest friends. And then one day I got this email. 'Hey Will, something I need you to know. I'll be transitioning to live as a woman.'" Will & Harper premieres Sept. 27.

Demi Lovato's Child Star documentary trailer shows the ups and downs of young celebrity
Raven-Symoné, Drew Barrymore, JoJo Siwa, Christina Ricci and Kenan Thompson are among the participants in the documentary premiering on Hulu on Sept. 17.

Netflix unveils the trailer for Arcane's final season
The Season 2 trailer promises an explosive conclusion to the award-winning Netflix series. Arcane's final season kicks off in November.