The Witcher to end with Season 5 / Elsbeth renewed / Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did accused of using AI images
PLUS: Whoopi Goldberg urges sibling network ESPN to "sweeten" its deal over WNBA rights since Caitlin Clark is poised to generate big ratings.
The Witcher to end with Season 5
Netflix announced today that it has renewed The Witcher for a fifth season that will film back to back with Season 4 and mark the fantasy drama's final season. Liam Hemsworth, who assumed the role of Geralt of Rivia from Henry Cavill in Season 4, will return for the final season. “It is with huge pride that we begin shooting our penultimate season of The Witcher with a stellar cast, including some exciting new additions, led by Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia,” The Witcher creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be able to bring Andrzej Sapkowski’s books to an epic and satisfying conclusion. It wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t push our family of characters to their absolute limit — stay tuned to see how the story ends.” Netflix also released footage of the Season 4 table read, featuring Hemsworth and fellow new cast member Laurence Fishburne.
CBS renews Elsbeth for Season 2
The Carrie Preston-led spinoff of The Good Wife has been picked up for a second season after its first four episodes has made it the second most-watched new show this season, after fellow CBS drama Tracker. Elsbeth has averaged 11 million viewers on all platforms. “Elsbeth has charmed audiences with its singular blend of delightful humor, distinctive ‘how-done-it’ storytelling, and the inventive, brilliant quirkiness of Elsbeth Tascioni,” said CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach in a statement. “Executive producers Robert and Michelle King have a stellar track record for creating critically acclaimed series full of unforgettable characters and, alongside showrunner Jonathan Tolins and his writing team, have developed an incredibly entertaining and engrossing New York City-centric world for the show to explore.”
Netflix documentary What Jennifer Did accused of using AI images
As pointed out by Futurism, the new documentary on accused killer Jennifer Pan uses photos of her at the 28-minute mark that "have all the hallmarks of an AI-generated photo, down to mangled hands and fingers, misshapen facial features, morphed objects in the background, and a far-too-long front tooth." As 404 Media points out, "the first of the photographs in this sequence appears to be real, and shows her in a red dress, smiling at the camera and throwing up the peace sign. The next two, however, seem clearly fake. One image also shows her smiling and throwing up the peace sign, but her hands are mangled in that now signature tell of older AI image generators. Another image, which also appears to be AI-generated, also appears in some of the promotional material for the documentary." Netflix has yet to respond to the AI accusations.
Rhys Darby to narrate Peacock's The Hungry Games: Alaska’s Big Bear Challenge — the first wildlife reality competition
The three-part The Hungry Games "follows the bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park as they bulk up for winter hibernation," per Deadline. "Over 150 days, the bears battle the elements – and each other – using brains and brawn to consume three million calories and gain up to 200 pounds in Nature’s real-life survival show. Unbeknownst to the bears, their progress is being tracked and ranked for a television audience with narration that combines fascinating facts about bear behavior with color commentary from Darby."
Whoopi Goldberg urges sibling network ESPN to "sweeten" its deal over WNBA rights since Caitlin Clark is poised to generate big ratings
On The View, Goldberg pointed out that Clark's new team the Indiana Fever has an entire team payroll of $1.2 million. "That is less than the minimum salary for a single NBA player with a year’s experience," Goldberg said, per Deadline. The women players, Goldberg added, “have the headlines, they have the fans, they have the viewers, when the hell are they going to get paid?” Noting that ESPN and ABC are both part of the “Disney thing,” Goldberg added that ESPN “should have kissed this deal by taking care of all of the WNBA and given them enough money for a bump up because you know you have another deal to make. Sweeten that deal.”
Netflix teases America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: But is it essentially Cheer Season 3?
From Cheer producer Greg Whitely, America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, premiering this summer, "is not associated with Cheer," a Netflix rep told Indiewire. But as Indiewire's Tony Maglio notes, "there’s plenty of precedent here. While Cheer Seasons 1 and 2 focused on competitive collegiate cheerleading (mostly) at Navarro College (also in Texas!), Whiteley’s precursor Last Chance U not only changed schools — it changed sports. Originally a junior-college football docuseries, Last Chance U converted to a junior-college basketball docuseries for Seasons 4 and 5. Why not just graduate Cheer to follow a professional football cheerleading squad this season?" Maglio adds: “Cheer has an existing fanbase of Netflix subscribers and the brand is far more culturally relevant (and certainly of higher quality) than that other Cowboys cheerleader reality show, the long-running Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team. After 16 seasons, Making the Team on CMT ended, opening the locker room door for Whiteley and Netflix. Upgrade!" ALSO: Watch the trailer for America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
O.J. Simpson If I Did It interviewer Judith Regan recounts her harrowing five-hour, on-camera conversation with Simpson in 2006
Celebrity book editor Regan, whose 2006 interview was supposed to air on Fox but was scrapped due to backlash, saw the light of day on the same network in 2018 as O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession. "As part of his contract, O.J. agreed to do one major TV interview — I wanted his confession on videotape so he could not deny it," Regan recounts in a lengthy Hollywood Reporter essay in wake of Simpson’s death at age 76. "We kept the project under wraps but shared the manuscript in an ironclad confidentiality agreement with Barbara Walters. She was champing at the bit to do the interview. Champing! ABC said yes, and she was ready to go. Every major journalist wanted that scoop, but a few were happy to badmouth it when they didn’t get it, envy being one of the key motivating features of bad characters in great literature. The deal with Walters was done, but then, boom, out of the blue, she canceled and disappeared without a trace...Anyway, Fox stepped in, desperately needing something big for sweeps, and days later, instead of Babs, I found myself sitting in this warehouse in Florida with very lovely hair and makeup done, my stiletto heels pointed toward Him, that top-notch five-camera crew encircling us. Everyone in the room had signed confidentiality agreements."
Rashida Jones' Sunny gets an Apple TV+ premiere date
The darkly comedic half-hour mystery thriller involving a domestic robot named Sunny will debut on July 10 with two episodes.
We Are Lady Parts sets Season 2 premiere date, adds Malala Yousafzai and Meera Syal as guest-stars
The series, following the Muslim punk band Lady Parts, returns to Peacock with six new episodes on May 30.
HBO developing a drama series on arts fraudster Inigo Philbrick
The flamboyant art dealer jailed for committing more than $86 million in fraud will be the subject of an HBO series based on All That Glitters, an upcoming memoir from Orlando Whitfield, who was a close friend and business partner of Philbrick. The untitled series is from Bad Wolf, the production company behind Industry.
GMA3 co-host Dr. Jennifer Ashton is leaving ABC News
Ashton, who is also ABC's chief medical correspondent, will leave the network in June after 15 years to launch a new wellness company called Ajenda.
Valerie Bertinelli walks back comments accusing Food Network of no longer being about cooking and learning
After one Twitter/X commenter called out the former Valerie’s Home Cooking host for judging Food Network cooking competitions, Bertinelli clarified her criticism. "This isn’t something new," she tweeted. "I’m also not bashing food network by saying I wish there were more actual cooking shows. I will always be very grateful that I was able to work for them for seven years."
Independent Spirit Awards sets February date for 2025
The 40th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025.
Bill Belichick went from subject of a negative ESPN article to an ESPN employee on the same day Wednesday
"In the morning, Belichick’s failed job search for 2024 became the focal point of a lengthy article on ESPN.com. In the afternoon, Belichick was introduced as ESPN employee on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show," notes ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio. "It’s a sharp contrast from the days of the author of a #LongRead appearing on every ESPN show to discuss and promote it. None of the authors appeared on McAfee’s show to discuss or defend the reporting. Instead, the article was attacked and undermined, with words like 'bullsh*t' used." On Wednesday, the former New England Patriots head coach was announced as a co-host on McAfee's Draft Spectacular on ESPN+ on draft night. So how did Belichick go from being bashed in an ESPN article to ESPN employee in the same day? "Here’s a theory. Or at least a hypothesis," says Florio. "ESPN surely knew Belichick would be announced as an employee on Wednesday afternoon. Maybe someone at ESPN decided that, even though it would be an awkward contrast to have the report land on Wednesday morning, it would have been far worse if it had landed, say, today. Or tomorrow. Or next week. Or whenever the sourcing had been sufficiently tightened to allow such a major claim to be made on less shaky ground."
Willow's Warwick Davis pays tribute to his "soul mate" wife Samantha Davis, who has died at age 53
The couple met on the set of the 1988 fantasy film Willow, which later became a Disney+ series. Speaking about his wife, who died on March 24, Davis said: “She was a unique character, always seeing the sunny side of life. She had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed at my bad jokes. Without Sammy, there would have been no Tenable quizshow, no Willow series. No Idiot Abroad series 3.”
The Chi drops its Season 6, Part 2 trailer
The Lena Waithe Paramount+ with Showtime drama series recently wrapped production in Chicago on the remaining eight episodes of the supersized 16-episode season. Season 6, Part 2 premieres May 10.
Nikki Glaser's second HBO standup special gets a trailer
Premiering May 11, Nikki Glaser: Someday You’ll Die follows 2022's Good Clean Filth.
Watch Pretty Little Liars: Summer School's Season 2 trailer
The followup to Season 1's Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin premieres on Max on May 9.
Clarkson’s Farm gets a Season 3 premiere date and trailer
Jeremy Clarkson's Amazon Prime Video reality series will drop Season 3 in two parts: The first four episodes on May 3 and the last four on May 10.