Stephen Amell to lead Suits: L.A. / Porsha Williams returning to RHOA / Tracker premieres to 18.4 million after Super Bowl
PLUS: Marjorie Taylor Greene goes on a tirade against Curb Your Enthusiasm: "Nasty commies from California."
Stephen Amell to lead NBC’s Suits: L.A.
The former Arrow star, whose Starz wrestling drama Heels was canceled last year, has been tapped to star in the drama series pilot extension of the Suits universe for NBC. Created by Suits creator Aaron Korsh, "Suits L.A. centers on Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles," per Deadline. "His firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives. All of this is going on while events from years ago slowly unravel that led Ted to leave behind everything and everyone he loved. Amell’s Ted Black is described as a charismatic force of nature who puts his own needs above others. Fifteen years ago, the former New York prosecutor joined forces with his old buddy, Stuart Lane, to build an L.A. law firm that specializes in criminal and entertainment law."
Marjorie Taylor Greene goes on a tirade against Curb Your Enthusiasm: "Nasty commies from California"
The Republican Georgia congresswoman isn't happy with a Curb final season storyline that has Larry David dealing with Georgia's election laws while visiting Atlanta. "I watched this week’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm and it was a glaring reminder of why most Georgian’s resent Republicans in our state for inviting the nasty commies from California, the Hollywood elites, into our state by dishing out Hollywood tax credits," Greene began a long Twitter/X post. "This week’s episode lied and painted GA conservatives and Trump supporters as racists and red necks and made fun of our good new law that stops the Stacey Abrams vote pandering machine and prevents voter fraud. We in Georgia are fed up with disgusting Hollywood and their disgusting values and elite judgement in our state that is trying to turn GA blue!”
Porsha Williams Guobadia returning for Bravo’s rebooted Real Housewives of Atlanta
Williams Guobadia — who now goes by her married name — is the first cast member for the rebooted Real Housewives of Atlanta, which will be the 16th season. She was a fan-favorite from Seasons 5-13 before leaving voluntarily in September 2021.
NFL was reportedly "blindsided" by the ESPN-Fox-Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming partnership
Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that the upcoming streaming service "will offer content from all major leagues." Puck News' John Ourand reports, however, that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn't learn about the sports streaming service until hours before it was announced. During a call with ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro, NFL executives made it clear to Pitaro that they were unhappy about “being left in the dark,” Ourand reports, adding that NFL executives felt “blindsided” by the move, even having lawyers attempting to find out whether the media companies were within their legal rights to launch such a service without their knowledge, considering the league has media rights deals with both Fox and ESPN.
Michelle Buteau lands a Season 2 renewal for Survival of the Thickest, plus a second Netflix special
Buteau's Netflix comedy series Survival of the Thickest has been picked up for a second season more than six months after its premiere last July. Buteau will also star in her second Netflix standup special after 2020’s Welcome to Buteaupia.
truTV cancels Tacoma FD after four seasons
The firefighter comedy from the Broken Lizard comedy group won't return for a fifth season after airing its fourth season last fall.
Apple TV+ renews Invasion for Season 3
Created by Simon Kinberg and David Weil and premiering in 2021, Invasion follows an alien invasion through different perspectives around the world. “I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to do with our first two seasons of the show with our partners at Apple TV+ and our cast and crew,” said Kinberg in a statement. “This new season will continue to build on the scale, stakes and propulsion of the Invasion, while keeping our characters front and center, bringing them together in ways that will hopefully surprise and most importantly move our audience, who have been so incredibly supportive and inspiring since day one.”
CBS’ Tracker premieres to 18.4 million after the record-breaking Super Bowl
The Justin Hartley-led drama retained about 15% of the 123.4 million people that watched the Super Bowl, about 120 million of which watched on CBS. Tracker’s premiere was delayed by the longest Super Bowl in NFL history. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and After Midnight also benefitted from the Super Bowl with a viewership of 3.7 million and 2 million, respectively, late Sunday night.
True Detective: Night Country has become the most-watched season of the True Detective franchise
Season 4 is averaging 12.7 million viewers across all platforms.
The Handmaid Tale's final season to premiere in 2025
The final chapter of the Emmy-winning Hulu series originally was to begin production in 2023 for a fall 2024 premiere. But due to the Hollywood strikes, production on the sixth and final season will begin this summer with a premiere date in 2025.
Jennifer Lopez: Ayo Edebiri "apologized with tears in her eyes" at SNL after her podcast comments calling her a “scam” were resurfaced
“She was mortified and very sweet,” Lopez told Variety about Edebiri after the two appeared together on SNL earlier this month. ”She came to my dressing room and apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. She felt really badly and loved my performance because we had just done my soundcheck and she actually got to hear me perform. She was just like, ‘I’m so f*cking sorry, it was so awful of me.’” Edebiri ended up obliquely referencing the controversy in one of her sketches.
Roy Wood Jr. is the latest to say that Hasan Minhaj was supposed to be the new Daily Show host before The New Yorker exposé
"As far as I was told, Hasan was going to be the guy,” Wood said on Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast, according to EW. Wood noted that his initial reaction was: "Okay, cool, so I’ll hang out here the rest of the year, and we’ll see what Hasan wants to do, what his vision is, whether I fit in that. I'm still trying to sell my own sitcom, trying to write movies, there's other sh*t I wanna do, but let's see." But then The New Yorker article came out accusing Minhaj of fabricating jokes. "That's literally why everything fell apart," Wood said after a big laugh, repeating what The Hollywood Reporter recently reported. After it became clear that Minhaj was "not going to be the guy, the question was just, ‘What’s gonna be the process now?'" Wood said. “In my opinion, they couldn’t articulate adequately enough for me what that process would be and whether or not I fit into that process."
Naomi Osaka to produce and star in an anime series
The tennis star's "production company Hana Kuma has teamed with Rebel Maverick, run by the queer, Afro-Latinx writing and producing team, Matt Nicholas and Nastassja Kayln, to develop manga series Allure: The Evening Primrose as an adult anime TV series," reports Deadline. Osaka will lead the voice cast while serving as executive producer.
Jon Stewart is going on a limited-run standup tour
After returning to The Daily Show, Stewart will set out on "An Evening With Jon Stewart" in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware.
Only Murders in the Building Season 4 will be set in Los Angeles
Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez's characters will "take a little break from the apartment building and come to Los Angeles," Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich tells Deadline. “So in the same way that (co-creator) John Hoffman used the canvas of Broadway to tell what I think was one of the most unique seasons you’ve ever seen, the same unique Only Murders take will be applied to Los Angeles.”
Bravo's Winter House is "on pause" after three seasons
The Summer House spinoff, which premiered in 2021, is "definitely not canceled," a source tells People magazine. The Winter House news comes after Paige DeSorbo, who appeared on the show's first two seasons, claimed on her Instagram Story that Winter House was "canceled."
ESPN and College Football Playoff reportedly agree to a six-year extension worth $1.3 billion per year
The Athletic reports that the College Football Playoff has agreed to make ESPN the exclusive home of the new 12-team tournament through the 2031-2032 season in a six-year deal worth $7.8 billion. The full contract’s completion is still contingent on CFP leaders finalizing details of the expanded format.
Laura Ingraham to host a pretaped Fox News Trump town hall
Ingraham will host the town hall next Tuesday from South Carolina as part of The Ingraham Angle.
Dunkin Donuts drops a 4-1/2 minute extended cut of "The Dunkings" Super Bowl ad
The video shows the boy band starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Tom Brady's full journey to assemble a boy band and become pop stars.
Night Court welcomes back Brent Spiner and Annie O’Donnell, books Kate Micucci, Melissa Fumero, Ryan Hansen and Julia Sweeney
Spiner and O’Donnell, who recurred on the original series as the dirt-poor couple The Wheelers, will reprise their roles on the reboot alongside Kate Micucci, who will play their daughter. Fumero, Hansen and Sweeney will guest on Season 2. ALSO: Marsha Warfield will return for the Season 2 finale.
Ashley Park is back at work filming Emily in Paris after hospital scare
Park has been posting on her Instagram account, saying she is "takin it slow, steady, and styling" in her return to her Mindy Chen after she was hospitalized last month for "what started as tonsillitis spiraled into critical septic shock."
CNN's Abby Phillip asks Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes about the right-wing conspiracy that the game was "scripted"
"What do you make of just how this has spiraled, not just to football, but to politics in all these different areas?” asked Phillip. To which the Super Bowl MVP of the Kansas City Chiefs responded: “Yeah, it’s been wild to see. I mean, I try to focus in on football as much as possible, but there’s always some conspiracy theories out there. I just try to enjoy football, my family, and I kind of stay off social media as much as possible.”
HGTV renews Bargain Block for Season 4, orders a New Orleans-set spinoff
Both reality shows will star home renovation experts and partners Keith Bynum and Evan Thomas as they restore neighborhoods in Detroit and New Orleans, one house at a time.
John Oliver bring a giant Steamboat Willie on The Late Show
The Last Week Tonight host continued taunting Disney by bringing the recent public domain entry with him to his Stephen Colbert interview. “I feel like I’ve been ignored, so they’ve left me with no choice but to take this up a f*king notch," said Oliver.
Maisie Williams says rewatching Game of Thrones gave her perspective
“I sat down and watched the whole thing and finally now feel like I have perspective on it,” Williams, who was a child when she began starring on the HBO series, told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, adding: “Obviously House of the Dragon came back, and I think like a lot of people I was like, ‘Let me sit down and watch Game of Thrones again. I just feel like when it was coming out, I was not even really, like, sentient yet. It feels like a different time in my life — like it’s not me a little bit.”
James Corden and Ruth Jones are bringing back Gavin & Stacey for another Christmas special
Their acclaimed BBC sitcom, which originally aired from 2007 to 2010, returned in 2019 for a Christmas special. The new special is expected to air this year, five years on from the previous ratings-topping special.
Amazon's Roma Downey-led The Baxters unveils its premiere date and first-look clip
The drama series, premiering March 28, follows Elizabeth and John Baxter, played by Downey and Ted McGinley, and their five adult children.
Watch Amazon Freevee's trailer for Boat Story
The BBC limited series co-production from the Fleabag producers, which aired late last year in the UK, "follows two strangers played by Daisy Haggard (Back to Life, Breeders) and Paterson Joseph (Wonka, Timeless) who can’t believe their luck when they stumble upon a shipwrecked boat full of cocaine." Boat Story premieres March 12.
Peacock puts a spotlight on Natalee Holloway's killer in the trailer for Pathological: The Lies of Joran van der Sloot
The Peacock documentary, premiering Feb. 27, features interviews with Holloway's family and friends, Flores' father, Peruvian police and van der Sloot's former girlfriend, all to show van der Sloot's pattern of "conning and manipulation."
Selling the Hamptons unveils its Season 2 trailer
The Max real estate reality show returns March 1.