TV

It’s a longstanding Saturday Night Live tradition for celebrity guests to appear alongside the cast member that impersonates them on the show. Previous pairings have included Mick Jagger and Jimmy Fallon, Hillary Clinton and both Amy Poehler and Kate McKinnon, Sarah Palin and Tina Fey as well as Donald Trump and Darrell Hammond. Rami Malek

An audition for a fictional Jordan Peele biopic about music icon Prince saw a surprise guest on Saturday Night Live. Chris Redd took on the Get Out director alongside casting directors played by Punkie Johnson and Ego Nwodim. After rounds of auditions, the two actors standing were Keenan Thompson and Rami Malek who, donning their

A day after the European premiere of season three of his HBO series Succession at the London Film Festival, the show’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, took to the stage with comedian Nish Kumar to discuss the art of screenwriting. In between dispensing pearls of wisdom for aspiring comedy writers (“Don’t write any jokes,” was especially memorable),

EXCLUSIVE: B Positive creator and co-showrunner Marco Pennette has left the sophomore CBS comedy. Deadline understands that former Mom co-exec producer Pennette exited the series, which he exec produced with Chuck Lorre and former Two and a Half Men executive producer/co-showrunner Jim Patterson, at the end of the first season. The show, which returned for

EXCLUSIVE: UK broadcasting union Bectu has urged members to “do nothing to undermine the IATSE action” and say no if offered the work of a striking IATSE member. In an email sent by Bectu head Philippa Childs this afternoon to thousands of UK behind-the-camera workers, seen by Deadline, the union boss said Bectu is “fully

For the first time in its 128-year history, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees could go on strike this weekend and shut most of Hollywood down, unless the studios, networks and streamers agree to a new contract for below the line workers. In that context of conflict, which show is the one you have

Apple TV+ has unveiled the trailer for its upcoming basketball drama Swagger, from Kevin Durant and Rocky Bythewood. Fall Premiere Dates For New & Returning TV Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming Written and directed by Bythewood, who also serves as showrunner, Swagger is inspired by Durant’s youth basketball experiences. It explores the world of

The controversy over Netflix’s Dave Chappelle special The Closer continued today with allegations that employees had raised concerns about the doc before it debuted, reports of a planned walkout next week by and in support of the company’s trans employees and a leaked memo from company co-CEO Ted Sarandos maintaining that violent or abusive content

UPDATE, 8:29 AM PT: As other Blue Origin crew members whooped and hollered and pop champagne outside their landed spacecraft, William Shatner chatted with Jeff Bezos to describe the experience, often in philosophical terms. Now the oldest person ever to go into space, Shatner, 90, called his flight “unbelievable” and “profound.” “I hope I never

Netflix engineer Tara Field has been reinstated after she criticized the company’s new Dave Chappelle special on Twitter. Netflix has maintained that her suspension had nothing to do with that criticism, but was rather about Field’s unauthorized attendance — and that of two other employees — at a high-level meeting. “It is absolutely untrue to

Discovery+, which has launched in the UK, Europe and the U.S., will light up in Canada on October 19. The streaming service will join an increasingly crowded marketplace in a nation with 38 million residents. Disney+ and Apple TV+ are among the recent entrants competing with entrenched incumbents Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Netflix leads

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is moving forward with plans to bestow Golden Globe honors this movie season, even in the absence of the typical awards ceremony broadcast on NBC, Deadline has confirmed. A source said Monday that “the HFPA plans to recognize the performances of 2021 to celebrate the great work of the industry

EXCLUSIVE: NBA star Chris Paul’s production company, Ohh Dip!!!, is teaming up with format specialist Parker Paige Media on a new competition series format called Playdate. The show features a multi-generational set of challenges involving fish-out-of-water activities. The comedic format pits teams of two — one senior citizen and one child — against each other

Granville Adams, who portrayed Zahir Arif in HBO’s Oz, died after a battle with cancer. He was 58. The news was confirmed on Sunday by multiple friends including Oz‘s showrunner/executive producer Tom Fontana, and costars Kirk Acevedo and Harold Perrineau. “I lost my brotha today after a long battle with cancer,” Acevedo shared via Twitter.

Kim Kardashian West showed off her social connections during her hosting stint on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, assembling an impressive roster of guest stars in the dating reality series parody skit The Dream Guy. A take on ABC’s The Bachelorette, it featured Kardashian as Rochelle, a single woman during a ritual resembling The Bachelor/The Bachelorette’s

On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 28 new deaths from Covid-19, along with 1,195 new positive cases. The number of deaths and confirmed cases reported today may reflect delays in weekend reporting. But today’s numbers brings the County to a total of 26,308 deaths and 1,469,790 positive cases. At time

IATSE and the AMPTP have concluded their fourth day of do-or-die bargaining and will resume negotiations for a new film and TV contract on Saturday. But if a deal is to be reached, and a strike averted, it will have to be made soon. “It’s a matter of days, not weeks,” IATSE president Matthew Loeb

EXCLUSIVE: NBC has opted not to proceed with its drama pilot Getaway. Headlined by Annie Ilonzeh, it starred two leads of recently canceled broadcast series that have since been resurrected, Manifest’s Matt Long and All Rise‘s Marg Helgenberger. Both actors are now available to do other shows, including their old ones, which both have been

In a new promo for tomorrow’s episode of Saturday Night Live, host-to-be Kim Kardashian West tells cast member Cecily Strong she isn’t nervous about trying sketch comedy. (Watch the clip above.) “I don’t have to write sketches, do I?” she asks Strong, who confirms she doesn’t. “Memorize lines?” she asks. Halsey, this week’s musical guest,

Grey’s Anatomy has set a date for Addison’s return. A trailer for next week’s episode, which aired after the end of tonight’s ABC telecast, featured Grey’s Anatomy alumna Kate Walsh and her character Addison’s grand re-entrance at Sloan Grey as the residents’ feared new mentor. Addison later is in the OR performing a surgery when

EXCLUSIVE: Trioscope, the company behind Netflix’s animated drama The Liberator, has raised over $5M in investments from companies including venture capital firm Bitkraft Ventures and Sony. Sony, via its Innovation Fund, and Bitkraft Ventures, a fund focused on gaming, esports, and interactive media, have been joined in the $5.25M round by Transcend Fund, Cordillera Investment Partners and Thomas

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about Riverdale‘s Season 5 finale, “Riverdale: RIP.” Hiram Lodge has left the building, and Mark Consuelos has departed Riverdale as a series regular, Deadline has learned. Consuelos, who has starred as Veronica Lodge’s (Camila Mendes) conniving father since Season 2, made his final appearance as a series regular in

Beloved children’s book series Mr Men Little Miss is to be adapted for TV as producer-distributor Endeavor Content closes a deal with license holder Sanrio. The deal will allow Endeavor to create TV properties around the emotion-centered characters, which were written by Roger Hargreaves in the 1970s and helped light up the lives of a

EXCLUSIVE: It was a bittersweet goodbye for Emily VanCamp on Tuesday night’s episode of Fox’s The Resident, as her character Nic Nevin succumbed to her injuries from an automobile accident. But VanCamp says she made the right decision for her and her growing family, which now includes a daughter, Iris. Yes, there was some overlap

The first project to emerge from the BBC and NBCUniversal’s (NBCU) landmark entertainment tie-up is a double season reversion of Dutch psychological adventure format The Traitors.  All3Media-backed Gogglebox producer Studio Lambert’s newly opened Scottish office is behind the two-series order, which will air in both the UK and US, including on NBCU streamer Peacock. The

EXCLUSIVE: Eric Nicks, who has worked with the likes of Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, and Foxy Brown, has teamed up with Dorothy Toran and Leslie Farrell’s Lauren Grace Media to develop a range of music television projects. Nicks has struck an overall deal with the production company, which was set up last year by

Embattled Ozy Media continues to make headlines as founder-CEO Carlo Watson tell the Today show that the company is not in fact shutting down in the wake of a fast unfolding financial scandal last week as it previous announced. “We’re going to open for business, so we’re making news today,” Ozy CEO Carlos Watson told

A former Facebook employee who has, with the release of a trove of internal documents, become a whisteblower over the company’s practices, revealed herself on Sunday on 60 Minutes. Frances Haugen, a data scientist who until May worked on the company’s efforts to combat misinformation, told correspondent Scott Pelley that the company is “paying for

Saturday Night Live went into Season 47 with eight cast members who had been on the show for at least seven seasons, which is the standard length of an SNL contract: Kenan Thompson (18 seasons), Kate McKinnon (10), Aidy Bryant (9), Cecily Strong (9), Colin Jost (8), Beck Bennett (8), Kyle Mooney (8), Michael Che

On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 20 new deaths from Covid-19, as well as 1427 new positive cases. The number of deaths and confirmed cases reported today may reflect delays in weekend reporting. But today’s data brings the County to a total of 26,143 deaths and 1,462,013 positive cases. At