Category Archives: US television

‘Exceptional’: Hollywood writers hail tentative deal to end strike

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Writers Guild of America says agreement on pay and conditions ‘due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power’

The tentative deal reached between Hollywood and studio executives has been received well by those on strike and others within the industry.

Members from the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who took on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) with demands that included better pay and residuals, and safeguards on the use of artificial intelligence, shared their collective relief.

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‘Full fascist’ Trump condemned after ‘treason’ rant against NBC and MSNBC

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Former president vows to investigate TV networks for ‘country-threatening treason’ should he win US election next year

Donald Trump said Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason’” and promised to do so should he be re-elected president next year.

In response, one progressive group said the former US president and current overwhelming frontrunner in the Republican 2024 presidential nomination race had “gone full fascist”.

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Billy Miller, star of The Young and the Restless and General Hospital, dies aged 43

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Actor’s manager says the Daytime Emmy-winning star ‘was struggling with manic depression’ when he died in Austin, Texas

Billy Miller, a Daytime Emmy-winning actor best known for his roles on US soaps The Young and the Restless and General Hospital, has died aged 43.

In a statement to Variety, his manager, Marnie Sparer, said Miller “was struggling with manic depression when he died”.

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Michael K Williams: drug dealer in overdose death of Wire actor sentenced to 30 months in prison

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Williams’ nephew and The Wire creator David Simon spoke on behalf of Carlos Macci, 72, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to possessing and distributing narcotics

A 72-year-old man linked to a crew of drug dealers blamed in the fentanyl-laced heroin death of The Wire actor Michael K Williams has been sentenced to more than two years in prison at a proceeding in which the actor’s nephew recommended compassion for the defendant.

Carlos Macci was sentenced to 30 months in prison by US district judge Ronnie Abrams, who told Macci that selling heroin and fentanyl “not only cost Mr Williams his life, but it’s costing your freedom” – in part because he did not stop selling drugs after Williams died.

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Fran Drescher’s fiery speech against Hollywood studios goes viral as actors strike

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The Nanny star turned Sag-Aftra union president wins praise for her passion as performers join writers in action expected to halt majority of US film and TV production

Fran Drescher has blasted Hollywood studios in a fiery speech after talks between the actors’ union and studios failed to avert a strike, calling them “disgusting” for claiming “they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs”.

In a speech that was widely circulated on Thursday – particularly among many who did not know The Nanny star was heading up Sag-Aftra, Hollywood’s biggest union – Drescher said actors were being “marginalised, disrespected and dishonoured” by a business model that has been drastically changed by streaming and artificial intelligence.

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Emmys 2023: Succession’s final season scores 27 nominations

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The acclaimed business drama leads the pack with The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Ted Lasso following

The final season of Succession has dominated this year’s Emmy nominations with 27 nods.

The acclaimed HBO series picked up 14 acting nominations including recognition for Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook. It marks the first time in Emmys history that three performers from the same show have scored lead actor nominations in the same category.

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Marvel faces backlash over AI-generated opening credits

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Social media users condemned use of AI -generated opening credits for Secret Invasion premiering this week on Disney+

Marvel’s Secret Invasion, a new television series which launched on Disney+ this week, has received backlash online after it was revealed that its opening credits were generated by artificial intelligence.

In an interview with Polygon on Wednesday, director Ali Selim confirmed that AI operated by a company called Method Studios produced the opening sequence to the new series, which stars Samuel L Jackson as Marvel fixture Nick Fury.

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Kim Cattrall to reprise Sex and the City role in And Just Like That

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The actor will briefly return as Samantha Jones in one scene of the second season of the comedy spin-off

Kim Cattrall is reportedly returning to play the role of Samantha in one scene of Sex and the City spin-off And Just Like That.

According to Variety, the actor shot her dialogue without speaking to or seeing the rest of the cast. Cattrall has spoken of tension between herself and star Sarah Jessica Parker and was not included in the first season of the new series.

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Campaign group teams with Hollywood to sharpen human rights focus

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Human Rights Watch follows lead of Pentagon, FBI and CIA to insert its messages into popular film and TV culture

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has decided to take on Hollywood to improve the visibility and awareness of humanitarian issues in popular culture.

As part of the move, the advocacy group has signed up with a talent agent firm, Activist Artists Management (AAM), to provide “scripted and unscripted content in film and television”, an HRW statement said.

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Oscars TV ratings improve – to third worst ever

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This year’s Academy Awards with Jimmy Kimmel at the helm drew an average TV audience of 18.7m – and a bigger share of younger viewers

The audience for the 2023 Academy Awards broadcast improved substantially on last year’s unimpressive figures, with a 12% jump on what was the second worst ratings performance in history.

Early ratings from Nielsen, supplied to the Hollywood Reporter, said that the show on ABC attracted an average of 18.7m viewers, compared to 16.6m in 2022. The audience share in the key 18-49 age demographic also improved, from 3.76 last year to 4.0.

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Screen Actors Guild awards 2023: Everything Everywhere All at Once breaks record for wins

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The multiverse adventure picked up four major categories, while The White Lotus and Abbott Elementary won big for television

Everything Everywhere All at Once reigned supreme at this year’s Screen Actors Guild awards, winning four major awards and breaking the record for most wins for a single film.

The multiverse fantasy film picked up the night’s biggest award for ensemble in a motion picture, female actor for Michelle Yeoh and both supporting actor awards, for Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan.

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Richard Belzer, Detective John Munch in TV hits, dies aged 78

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Standup comedian played police role in Homicide: Life on the Streets, Law & Order: SVU and other series

Richard Belzer, a stand-up comedian who became one of TV’s most indelible detectives as John Munch in Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU, has died. He was 78.

Belzer died on Sunday at his home in Bozouls in southern France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft told the Hollywood Reporter.

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Annie Wersching, best known for role in TV series 24, dies at 45

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Actor appeared in two series of the thriller as well as Star Trek: Picard, and was reportedly diagnosed with cancer in 2020

The actor Annie Wersching, best known for playing FBI agent Renee Walker in the TV series 24, has died at the age of 45.

Wersching died on Sunday morning in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer, her publicist told the Associated Press. The type of cancer was not specified.

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‘Soho grifter’ Anna Sorokin developing Delvey’s Dinner Club reality TV series

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Convicted fraudster and inspiration behind Inventing Anna is creating a series in which she hosts dinner parties in her apartment

Anna Sorokin, the convicted con artist who went by the name Anna Delvey, subject of a viral New York magazine story and inspiration for the Netflix series Inventing Anna, is reportedly working on her next act: a reality TV series.

The Russian-born former “Soho grifter”, who is currently under house arrest after overstaying her visa, will host “celebrities, moguls and glitterati” for dinner parties in her Manhattan apartment for an unscripted series tentatively titled Delvey’s Dinner Club, according to a statement from producers on Wednesday. Sorokin, who just turned 32, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention last October after overstaying her visa; she already completed her sentence for her 2019 conviction for attempted grand larceny.

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Man who plays dead on TikTok gets new life as corpse on TV crime show

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Josh Nalley specialized in pretending to be a lifeless body on social media – then CSI: Vegas came calling

A man from Kentucky who plays dead on TikTok has finally caught the attention of CSI: Vegas after the crime show decided to cast him as an “un-alive body”.

Josh Nalley from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, is the owner of the TikTok account @living_dead_josh where, since last October, he has featured hundreds of videos in which he mimics a corpse.

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‘Detached from reality’: Trevor Noah’s view of racist Sunak ‘backlash’ divides opinion

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Authors and politicians have accused the US comedian of projecting an American cultural context on to the UK

The row began with a single call to a UK radio station, was stoked by one of America’s best-known comedians and ended with former Cabinet ministers wading in – and Downing Street, too.

At the heart of the furore: a claim that Rishi Sunak had experienced a racist “backlash” after becoming the UK’s first British-Asian prime minister.

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Actor Leslie Jordan dies at 67 in car accident

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Reports suggest that the character actor appears to have suffered a medical emergency before crashing his car in Hollywood

Actor Leslie Jordan has died after a car accident in Los Angeles on Monday at the age of 67.

Law enforcement sources told TMZ and then the Los Angeles Times that they suspected the beloved actor suffered a medical emergency before crashing his BMW into the side of a building in Hollywood.

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House of the Dragon: HBO ‘disappointed’ as season finale leaks

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The final episode of the first season of the hit Game of Thrones prequel has landed online days early

The season finale of House of the Dragon has leaked online just two days before it was set to premiere on HBO.

According to an HBO spokesperson, the much-anticipated episode of the hit Game of Thrones prequel appears to have come from a distribution partner in Europe, the Middle East or Africa.

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Riverdale actor Ryan Grantham receives life sentence for killing his mother

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Canadian actor had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder over shooting near Vancouver

The actor Ryan Grantham – featured in the CW show Riverdale and the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid – has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting his mother in their home in Canada.

Grantham, 24, was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison, reported the New York Times.

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Nichelle Nichols to become latest Star Trek star to have ashes sent into space

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The late actor best known as Lieutenant Uhura will join James Doohan, who played Scotty, and creator Gene Roddenberry

The late actor Nichelle Nichols, best known as Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, will become the latest member of the 1960s television series to be memorialized by having some of her earthly remains flown into space.

Nichols, who died on 30 July at age 89, is credited with helping shatter racial stereotypes and redefining Hollywood roles for Black actors at the height of the US civil rights movement, as one of the first Black women to portray an empowered character on network television.

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