Jennifer Maas: Last News

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe “V.C. Verse” has found its official home at A+E Networks.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Lucifer” star Tom Ellis has joined the cast of Hulu’s Sterling K. Brown-led “Washington Black” limited series in the role of steam-punk inventor Christopher “Titch” Wilde.Described as an epic nine-episode adventure series based on Esi Edugyan’s novel of the same name, “Washington Black” follows the extraordinary 19th-century adventures of George Washington “Wash” Black, an 11-year-old boy on a Barbados sugar plantation who must flee after a shocking death threatens to upend his life.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterParamount Plus and Showtime are two separate subscription services owned by the same company in a market that is already overcrowded with streaming and pay-TV competition. But that’s the way it’s going to stay for the two ViacomCBS brands — for now at least — as Paramount Plus president of original scripted series Nicole Clemens says the young streamer continues to carve out its identity as the home of “big blockbuster originals” versus Showtime’s slightly “more coastal” audience.“I think they’re complementary and I think there’s going to be some overlap in a Venn diagram,” Clemens told Variety Tuesday, following Paramount Plus’ day of presentations at the virtual Television Critics Association winter press tour.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe second season of “Euphoria” is a dream for HBO. Over the first three installments of its second season, the Zendaya-led drama has nearly doubled its Season 1 per-episode viewership, Variety has learned exclusively.The “Euphoria” Season 2 premiere, which first aired Jan. 9, has drawn 13.1 million viewers across multiple HBO and HBO Max to date, with Episodes 2 and 3 tracking similarly, per HBO.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“9-1-1” and spinoff “9-1-1: Lone Star” will be reunited on Fox’s Monday primetime lineup when the O.G. show comes back from hiatus in March. When the two are once again airing in the back-to-back 8 and 9 p.m.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterParamount Plus revealed Tuesday it is moving forward on developing TV series remakes of classic ’80s movies “Urban Cowboy” and “Flashdance,” bringing on “Dear White People” creator Justin Simien to write and direct the latter project.Additionally, the ViacomCBS-owned streamer said during its virtual session at the Television Critics Association press tour it has put a docu-comedy series from “Mr. Show” duo Bob Odenkirk and David Cross in the works.The “Urban Cowboy” project comes after Paramount Television Studios first set up development on a TV series based on the film of the same name at Fox in 2015, which was later scrapped.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterParamount Plus has renewed its revival of “The Game” for Season 2.Starring Wendy Raquel Robinson and Hosea Chanchez, the show is a continuation of the-CW-network-and-later-BET-show of the same name. “A modern-day examination of Black culture through the prism of pro football,” “The Game” follows the team as they face racism, classism and more, all while fighting for fame, fortune, respect and love.“The Game” revival also stars Adriyan Rae, Vaughn Hebron, Analisa Velez and Toby Sandeman.The first iteration of “The Game” debuted on The CW in 2006.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterWhoopi Golberg apologized on Tuesday’s “The View” for her comments on yesterday’s show about the Holocaust, saying she now believes “it is indeed about race.”“So yesterday on our show, I misspoke,” Goldberg said at the top of Tuesday’s show. “And I tweeted about it last night but I kind of what you to hear it from me directly.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Los Angeles Rams beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 on Sunday to clinch the NFC Championship in a Fox primetime broadcast that drew more than 50 million viewers. That makes it the most-watched NFC Championship since 2014.A total of 50,420,000 viewers tuned in across Fox, Fox Deportes, Fox Sports streaming platforms, NFL Digital and Yahoo! Sports properties for the telecast. Viewership for the game peaked at 55,218,000 from 9:15-9:30 p.m.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Push,” Monday’s episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”We did it, “9-1-1: Lone Star” fans. On Monday, the Fox drama finally made it to the end of the four-episode ice storm arc that kicked off its third season, and turned viewers into nervous puddles of emotion for a month. In the epic fourth-hour climax came three very big moments: The birth of Grace (Sierra McClain) and Judd’s (Jim Parrack) baby girl; the recovery of T.K.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Nasdaq Composite ended the trading day Monday down 9.49% from where it started at the beginning of January, marking its worst month since March 2020 — the start of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.The Nasdaq opened Jan. 3, the first trading day of 2022, at 15,732.50.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAMC Networks has renewed its multiyear distribution deal with Comcast.Under the continued agreement, AMC Networks’ linear channels — AMC, We TV, BBC America, IFC, and SundanceTV — and streaming service AMC Plus will remain available to Comcast Cable’s Xfinity TV, broadband and XClass customers. Additionally, the pact covers expanded availability of AMC Networks’ other targeted streaming services — Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, Allblk and the recently acquired Hidive — to Comcast users.Among this year’s upcoming content offerings from AMC Networks are the final seasons of “The Walking Dead,” “Killing Eve” and “Better Call Saul,” as well as the launch of new shows “61st Street,” “Dark Winds,” “Tales of the Walking Dead,” “Moonhaven” and the first two series in its Anne Rice TV universe, “Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire” and “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches.” “We are excited to continue and also expand our longstanding partnership with Comcast through a new agreement that includes not only continued carriage of our cable networks, but also our fast-growing targeted streaming services including AMC+, which was made available first to Xfinity customers,” Josh Reader, president of distribution and development for AMC Networks, said.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterFox revealed a first look at some of the costumes for “The Masked Singer” Season 7 during the network’s telecast of the NFL’s NFC Championship game on Sunday, with a promo showing six competitors from the season’s three groupings: The Good, The Bad and The Cuddly.The specific classifications are a new touch, seeing as “The Masked Singer” has only referred to a season’s groups by an assigned letter (i.e. Group A) throughout its first six seasons.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBCUniversal is about to begin broadcasting the second half of a rare Olympics doubleheader — and fatigue has set in.The Winter Games in Beijing begin Feb. 4, just six months after the close of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games that were postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBCUniversal revealed that its streaming service Peacock has 9 million paid subscribers during parent company Comcast’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday.Ahead of the call, Comcast reported in its letter to shareholders that Peacock hit 24.5 million monthly active accounts (MAAs) in Q4.“Within these 24.5 MAAs are over 9 million paid subscribers approaching $10 in paid ARPU, which includes the advertising,” Brian Roberts, Comcast chairman-CEO, said during the investor call. “And that is without much focus on paid subscriber growth.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterComcast reported its fourth-quarter 2021 earnings Thursday, beating Wall Street’s expectations on both revenue and earnings. NBCUniversal revenue was $9.338 billion, up 25.6% from the previous year’s Q4.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterChad Matthews has been named president of ABC Owned Television Stations, effective immediately. He takes over the position vacated by Wendy McMahon, who exited the company last year.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterCBS is bringing the funny to a larger audience than its broadcast competition this season with eight of the top 10 most-watched comedies belonging to channel that’s home to “Young Sheldon.” And yes, “Young Sheldon” is by far the most-watched of that group.Out of the 34 comedy titles that have aired across ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW at this point during the 2021-2022 season, a tally that includes repeats of the broadcasters’ sitcoms, CBS has the six most-watched all to itself: “Young Sheldon,” “Ghosts,” “The Neighborhood,” “Bob Hearts Abishola,” “United States of Al” and “B Positive.”The rest of the top 10 list is made up of encores of “Young Sheldon” in seventh place, followed by ABC comedies “The Conners” and “Abbott Elementary” in the eighth and ninth slots, and reruns of “The Neighborhood” in 10th. At this time last year, there were 38 comedy series airing across the broadcast networks — again, including repeats — and CBS had six of the 10 most-watched.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterAT&T CEO John Stankey told investors he expects HBO Max to recoup all of the subscribers lost last fall after WarnerMedia pulled HBO from the Amazon Prime Video Channels marketplace in September amid ongoing agita in the TV industry about the fees Amazon takes for facilitating sales of subscription TV services.During AT&T’s hourlong fourth-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, Stankey also noted that market conditions have spurred price hikes by HBO Max rivals, which means that HBO Max is not the most expensive of the major domestic players at present. Stankey didn’t mention Netflix by name, but the inference was clear.Last October, AT&T reported that HBO and HBO Max lost about 1.8 million subscribers in the third quarter after the disengagement from Amazon in the previous month.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Don’t Let Me Keep You,” Tuesday’s episode of “This Is Us.”While there are many loose ends that “This Is Us” still has left to tie up for fans almost halfway through its sixth and final season, the fate of Milo Ventimiglia’s Jack Pearson has been a firm knot for years now. However, this week’s episode of the NBC family drama revealed one heartbreaking still-untold story about the now-deceased family patriarch: How his own mother, whom he had moved to Ohio help her escape his abusive father, died before he ever ever got to really know her.“Looking at Jack’s arc from Season 1 to 2 to 3, there’s a lot that we’re learning about him, good and bad,” Ventimiglia told Variety ahead of Tuesday’s episode of “This Is Us,” titled “Don’t Let Me Keep You.” “The things that he struggles with, the things that he’s really great at, the father he is, the husband he is, the individual.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterByrde family fans flocked to Netflix to watch “Ozark” Season 4, Part 1, drawing more viewers than any other TV series in its debut week on the streamer.The first half of the final season of the Jason Bateman-led drama landed at No. 1 on Netflix’s English-language TV Top 10 list for the week of Jan. 17-23, with 77 million hours viewed in just its first three days.