YouTube TV and NBC Universal strike a long-term carriage deal / The Ultimatum: Queer Love canceled / Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik to star in Netflix road trip series
PLUS: Louis CK to make his first TV appearance in more than 8 years on Real Time with BIll Maher.
YouTube TV and NBC Universal strike a long-term carriage deal
After the previous agreement expired on Tuesday night, YouTube TV and NBC Universal have reached a multiyear distribution agreement to keep NBC and its channels (Telemundo, Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, E!, Oxygen True Crime, MSNBC, USA, Syfy and Universo) on the Google-owned internet pay-TV service. YouTube TV is the biggest internet pay-TV service in the United States, with an estimated 9.5 million customers. The deal will also include the newly relaunched NBC Sports Network (NBCSN). Additionally, the deal calls for Peacock to be available in the coming months as a subscription through YouTube Primetime Channels, which means Peacock won’t be “ingested” into YouTube TV, as had become a sticking point in negotiations.
Netflix cancels The Ultimatum: Queer Love after two seasons
The Queer Love spinoff of The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On is ending after launching in May 2024. Its second season premiered in June.
One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik reunite for a Netflix U.S. road trip docuseries
Directed by Demi Lovato’s Child Star co-director Nicola Marsh, the untitled series will follow the former One Direction bandmates as they travel America. They are expected to discuss last year’s tragic death of fellow band member Liam Payne, along with their own lives and careers.
Louis CK to make his first TV appearance in more than 8 years on Real Time with Bill Maher
CK will appear on this Friday’s Real Time for his first TV interview since he admitted to sexual misconduct in November 2017. CK’s last late-night interview was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in April 2017, the same month he last hosted SNL.
Bari Weiss to be named CBS News’ editor in chief
According to Puck News’ Dylan Byers, the polarizing editor and founder of the conservative outlet The Free Press is expected to be named editor in chief of CBS News on Monday. She’ll report directly to Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison as part of a deal to acquire The Free Press, which is also expected to be announced on Monday. According to the New York Post’s Alexandra Steigrad, “Weiss’s direct line to Ellison means she will not report to CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, who currently reports to George Cheeks, chair of TV media at Paramount Skydance. No further details could be immediately learned about how Weiss would work with Cibrowski.” Steigrad adds: “Sources told The Post that Weiss could be a strong counterpart to Cibrowski, a former Good Morning America executive who is regarded more as a production wizard than a journalist. Others said they expect it will only be a matter of time before Weiss — who has emerged as a leading voice against antisemitism and the ‘woke’ elites in mainstream media — zeroes in on Cibrowski’s job.”
Jon Stewart explains why President Trump doesn’t try to cancel him
“I’ve had my experiences” as Trump’s target, Stewart said on his Weekly Show podcast Thursday, per The Daily Beast. “I take great pride in the fact that Donald Trump, at 2:30 AM, just tweeted, I think in all caps, ‘Jon Stewart is a pussy,’” he said. “This is obviously before he was the commander-in-chief of the United States,” he said. But now Trump never mentions his name, and Stewart thinks he knows why. “It’s a function of relevance,” Stewart said, self-deprecatingly. “I don’t think we are on the radar.”
Brooke Shields is returning to When Calls the Heart after 10 years
Shields last appeared on the Hallmark series in 2016 as Charlotte Thornton, Jack’s mother and Elizabeth’s former mother-in-law. She’ll return for three episodes in Season 13 when When Calls the Heart returns in 2026.
Eric Dane says he was in the hospital during the Emmys
The Grey’s Anatomy alum, who was scheduled to present with Jesse Williams in honor of Grey’s 20th anniversary, told The Washington Post he had a hard fall in his kitchen due to his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis that led to him pulling out of last month’s ceremony. “ALS is a nasty disease… So I was in the hospital during the Emmys getting stitches put in my head,” Dane said.
John Corbett says he learned And Just Like That was ending through news reports
“I was as shocked as everybody when it was announced that it was over,” he tells Variety, adding: “I’m bummed. I’m gonna miss seeing what those girls are up to.” As for Carrie being single in the end, Corbett laughed: “Carrie’s gonna be alone for about 12 hours,” he says. “As soon as she breaks up with somebody, it’s about seven or eight hours before she’s in the sack with someone else. Don’t be fooled by Carrie being alone. By dinner time the next night, she’ll have a new guy.” ALSO: Sarah Jessica Parker tells CBS Mornings ending And Just Like That was a “very tough” and “difficult” decision.
Netflix’s The Age of Innocence rounds out its cast with Hayley Mills, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Will Tudor and more
Ryan Morgan, John Light, Steven Pacey, Kel Matsena, Lucia Balordi, Elly Roberts, Fiona Glascott, Belinda Bromilow and Emma Shipp are joining the limited series based on Edith Wharton’s classic novel of forbidden love in 19th century New York.
Amazon would lose $40 million if The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was canceled after Season 3
With Season 3 in production after viewership fell from Season 2 to Season 1, Amazon would have to pay a $20 million per season kill fee if it canceled The Rings of Power after signing a five-season deal with the J.R.R. Tolkien estate, reports The Ankler. While $20 million was the cost of a single Season 1 episode, The Rings of Power has been able to get its costs down through tax incentives from relocating the production out of New Zealand to Britain.
Chicago Med boss explains Hannah Asher’s pregnancy and the three daddy candidates
“It’s a lot to ask of an actor, because it means, on a very basic level, that Jesse’s going to have a prosthetic strapped to her, and it’s going to get bigger and bigger as the season goes on,” says showrunner Allen MacDonald of Jesse Schram’s character. “It’s hard. I’m not the first TV writer to say this, but it’s hard to commit to having a baby on a TV show, but I felt that this was the right way to do it. Jesse was completely on board. It’s going to be hard on her for that part of it, but it is something we intend to follow through with.” ALSO: Steven Weber reacts to the Season 11 premiere.
Showtime acquires two British drama series: The Guest and the Andrew Lincoln-led Coldwater
ITV Studios’ four-episode The Guest, which premiered on the BBC in September and makes its Showtime debut on Oct. 17, combines action, intrigue and twists, and themes of class and social mobility. It follows two unlikely friends, played by Eve Myles and Gabrielle Creevy, as their lives begin to unravel. The six-episode Coldwater, which premiered in September on ITV and debuts on Showtime on Oct. 19, stars Lincoln in his long-awaited return to British television in a “twisted thriller about a normal man, in a normal marriage, who finds himself in a far from normal situation when he falls under the influence of someone incredibly dangerous.”
Netflix‘s Boss Baby: Back in Business is headed to Nickelodeon
The four-season 2018-2020 animated series based on the 2017 film The Boss Baby is set to premiere on Paramount’s kids cable network Oct. 3. “As part of the streaming business model, linear rights to shows from outside studios revert back to the producers several years in (unless Netflix buys out all rights as it has done with signature non-owned series like Orange Is the New Black),” explains Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. “This is most prevalent in animation, and especially in kids animation where most of Netflix’s programming is from third-party suppliers. The Boss Baby: Back in Business comes from DreamWorks Animation, as does the streamer’s Gabby’s Dollhouse.”
The NFL is giving Australia a regular season game next year – Asia will get one soon after
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said today in London that the NFL is trying to become a truly global sport, with a sixth game played in Mexico City next year. “If you’re going to be global, you have to do it beyond Europe, beyond the Americas,” Goodell said. “You need to reach into other areas and territories, and next year we’re going to Australia. We have plans to go to Asia shortly thereafter.”
Tommy Egan is blowing sh*t up” in Power Book IV: Force’s trailer for its third and final season
Season 3 of the Power spinoff premieres Nov. 7 on Starz.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 2 trailer teases a Big Bang Theory connection
The Young Sheldon spinoff returns to CBS on Oct. 16.
Maxton Hall – The World Between Us unveils its Season 2 trailer
The Amazon German YA drama series returns Nov. 7 with three episodes.
Watch the trailer for HBO Max’s Charlotte’s Web series
The Sesame Workshop-produced animated miniseries based on E.B. White’s classic story is now streaming.