Craig Erwich: Last News

Will Trent and The Rookie debuted their new seasons earlier this month, but fans are wondering why the two ABC hit TV shows were held until 2025, versus debuting in the Fall of 2024.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Hollywood is forever cyclical, which means it was broadcast’s turn to experience a bit of a glow-up this season. While cable continues to struggle and streaming experiences some growing pains, the broadcast networks have been the beneficiary of a recent narrative that they still matter.

Adrien Brody finish his speech,” O’Brien said in a statement.This year was O’Brien’s first time leading the show, which attracted its biggest broadcast audience in five years despite the winning movie, “Anora,” being relatively small. An estimated 19.7 million viewers watched the 97th Academy Awards ceremony earlier this month, according to broadcaster ABC, with a big lift among people aged 18 to 49, driven by mobile and laptop watches from younger viewers.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Oscars want more Conan! After a rapturous reception at this year’s Academy Awards, emcee Conan O’Brien will return to the Dolby Theatre for the 98th Oscars on March 15, 2026. The announcement comes from Bill Kramer, Academy CEO, and Janet Yang, Academy president, who also confirmed the return of the Emmy-winning producing team Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, who will lead the show for the third consecutive year.

In 2024, as the film and television industry looked to repair after the year of double labor strikes, comedy continued to explode. Emerging in recent years as the leader in the field, Netflix got the biz off to a good start with a second edition of its festival, Netflix Is a Joke, which expanded its scope as 600-plus artists hit Los Angeles over the course of 12 days, with more than 360,000 tickets sold.

EXCLUSIVE: ABC‘s hit procedural The Rookie may spawn a second spinoff series — and unlike the first one, it would stay in the cop show arena. The network, Lionsgate Television and 20th Television are in early development on the offshoot, written by The Rookie creator Alexi Hawley, sources tell Deadline.

Hulu is now streaming Jim Gaffigan‘s newest comedy special under the streamer’s new “Hulu Laughing Now” brand, which will feature 12 new comedy specials on the platform per year. “The Skinny,” Gaffigan’s 11th standup special, was taped earlier this year in Boston at the Wilbur Theater. It is now streaming on Hulu, and will be available to stream on Disney+ outside the U.S.

“Conan O’Brien Must Go,” that was recently renewed for a second season. He also joked that he wanted to join “The White Lotus” Season 3 and offered to play a male gigolo.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The lines between Hulu and ABC (already programmed jointly under head Craig Erwich) continue to blur, as the Alphabet web unveiled a midseason schedule heavy on repurposed hits from the streamer. That includes the addition of Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which will air on Mondays at 10 p.m. starting Jan.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter UPDATED: Disney is reorganizing major parts of its television operations, with the Mouse House set to combine the ABC and Hulu scripted drama and comedy teams. Simran Sethi will be promoted to the role of president of scripted programming of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment to run the combined teams. She will continue to report to Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group.

In a consolidation move six years in the making, ABC Signature is no more. The production unit is being shut down, with its operations folded into 20th Television under 20th TV President Karey Burke.

Fans might be upset to learn that The Rookie and Will Trent‘s new seasons are not airing on ABC until 2025.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor It’s not about volume, it’s about curation. It’s not about serving up shows for specific demographics so much as it is having something on the menu to satisfy subscribers’ ever-shifting moods and tastes. So says Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich in discussing the art of managing content for Hulu Originals, ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television and Freeform.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large With less than a month to go before the 76th Emmy Awards, the telecast’s hosts are finally set. As expected, the father-son duo of Eugene Levy and Dan Levy will emcee this year’s Emmys, which take place on Sunday, Sept. 15, live on ABC.

It’s official: Eugene Levy and Dan Levy have closed deals to host the 76th Emmy Awards Sept. 15 on ABC. As Deadline reported last week, the Levys, who in 2020 became the first father-son duo to win Emmys in the same year, will now be the first father-son team to host the awards show.

EXCLUSIVE: A year and a half ago, Kim Kardashian landed her first major acting role in Season 12 of FX’s American Horror Story. Since then, she has been tapped to star in and produce a new drama series for Hulu, All’s Fair, and has driven two movie and one scripted TV series packages that sold in bidding wars. Now, Kardashian has signed a first-look deal with 20th Television, the studio behind AHS and All’s Fair, which will span drama, comedy and limited series.

Carrie Underwood prepares to take Katy Perry’s seat on the “American Idol” judging panel, the country superstar confessed a challenge she will face.When asked what kind of judge she would be on the popular singing competition show, she admitted, “I do have a big problem … I can’t lie.”“I feel like I’ll be very honest but hopefully constructive and encouraging,” Underwood told “Good Morning America,” ahead of her debut.Underwood added that although she’ll be honest, she won’t be “too tough” on the “American Idol” contestants.“Just ask my kids,” she quipped, as she referred to her two sons, whom she shares with her husband, former NHL center, Mike Fisher.The “Before He Cheats” singer reflected on how she feels returning to “American Idol” after she won the fourth season of the competition show in 2005.“It feels like home,” Underwood said. “There are so many people that even still work on the show that were there when I was a contestant.”“I feel like being on both sides of the coin, I’ll be able to hopefully offer some insight, and help.

American Idol debuted a new video on GMA today featuring career highlights of new judge Carrie Underwood, who will appear and perform on the ABC morning show Friday.

The Rookie and Will Trent‘s new seasons are not airing on ABC until 2025. It was revealed a few weeks back that several ABC shows would be pushed from the Fall to have midseason debuts.

Family Guy was one of the biggest stars of the 2024 upfronts, prominently featured at two different presentations – Fox and Disney. Seth MacFarlane’s animated hit helped open Fox’s event and then was part of a Disney skit featuring an animated version of the company’s ad chief Rita Ferro making a sales pitch while hanging out with Peter Griffin and his dog, Brian.

Fans were not happy to learn that The Rookie and Will Trent‘s new seasons would be held until mid-season at ABC, meaning, they won’t air until 2025.