Some mild duck energy for your weekend:
@seducktiv
Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News
The Critics Choice Award nominations are out and once again, it’s hard to complain.
That said, Last Week Tonight is being screwed by a change by the Critics Choice Awards, which has booted it out of the Talk Show category and placed it in Comedy. And arguably, it’s not a talk show: it doesn’t feature guests like others in the category. But classifying it as a “comedy” doesn’t exactly fit either.
Speaking of “comedies but not”: Ben Stiller originally envisioned Severance as a comedy, but during development, it became “weirder and stranger.” As for why there’s such a huge gap between seasons one and two, blame the writers’ strike.
Lance Bass has revealed that a pilot he was working on at The CW was canceled when he came out as gay (as if everyone didn’t already know?).
SNL cast members talk about their first “big” purchases with their first paycheck and it’s less than impressive.
Congratulations, you’re about to get an all-50 Cent FAST channel over on Roku.
The Harry Potter series at HBO will begin filming this summer. Over 32,000 kids auditioned for it.
Things are going GREAT over on Morning Joe! On Wednesday, Morning Joe guest David Frum made a joke about known drunk Pete Hegseth being drunk on Fox News. He said later he was told in his earpiece to not repeat the joke, and later in the episode, Mika Brzezinski issued an apology: “The comment was a little too flippant for this moment that we’re in. We just want to make that clear. We have differences in coverage with Fox News, and that’s a good debate that we should have often. But right now, I just want to say there are a lot of good people at Fox News who care about Pete Hegseth, and we want to leave it at that.”
Frum then wrote a piece in The Atlantic calling the whole thing “unsettling.”
“It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for discussion of public affairs are already feeling the chill of intimidation and responding with efforts to appease,” he wrote. “I do not write to scold anyone; I write because fear is infectious. Let it spread, and it will paralyze us all.”
Joe Scarborough just blasted his remaining viewers this morning in the most condescending way for criticizing him & Mika for going to Mar-a-Lago to talk to Trump ‘on background’.(1 of 2)
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) 2024-12-05T12:36:39.588Z
LOL, THIS AIN’T IT, JOE. Anyway, Joe and Mika were missing from the show this morning, but don’t read too much into it, they often don’t appear on Fridays.
Get better soon, Adrian “Woj” Wojnarowski.
Renewals
- The Agency has been renewed for a second season on Showtime.
- The Thaw has been renewed at Max for season three.
Cancellations
- Like Water for Chocolate will end with season two on HBO.
In Development
- A reboot of Scrubs is officially in early development at ABC.
- ABC is trying another spinoff of The Rookie.
- Climbing in Heels is being developed into a TV series at Universal Television by Darren Starr.
Casting News
- Julie Bowen will lead the comedy Taste on NBC.
- Real-life couple Chris Wood and Melissa Benoist will star in Duo in development at NBC.
- Nat Faxon is your new Alexander Hamilton on Ghosts on CBS.
- Marlon Wayans is going to guest star on Poppa’s House on CBS.
- Ivan du Pontavice and Taïs Vinolo have joined Étoile on Prime Video.
- Paapa Essiedu will likely be the next Severius Snape in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series. (Cue the freakout over his race.)
- Conan O’Brien is going to guest star on Australian soap opera Shortland Street.
- Sienna Miller will co-star in the new Jack Reacher movie at Amazon MGM.
- Sam Richardson and Arturo Castro have joined the Matchbox movie at Apple.
- Meet the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 17.
Mark Your Calendar
- Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches returns on AMC+ on January 5.
- Doctor Who: Joy to the World premieres on Disney+ on December 25.
- 1923 returns on Paramount+ on February 23.
- Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… will debut on Netflix on December 10.
- American Primeval premieres on Netflix on January 9.
- Lockerbie: A Search for Truth premieres on Peacock on January 2.
- Murder Under the Friday Night Lights returns on ID on January 8.
- Conclave will debut on Peacock on December 13.
R.I.P.
Thom Christopher, One Life to Live star, who also appeared on Ryan’s Hope, Law & Order, Guiding Light, Murder, She Wrote and others
Kabir Singh, Comedian and former America’s Got Talent semifinalist
Marvin Laird, Broadway and film composer
Kyle Birch, British actor on the West End
Miho Nakayama, J-Pop singer and actress
WATCH THIS
FRIDAY
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The streaming premiere of the long-awaited sequel. Max
The Sticky: Margo Martindale stars in this limited series based on the very true story of the 2012 “Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.” Premiere. Prime Video
Fly Me to the Moon: Streaming premiere of the Scarlett Johansson, Chatum Tanning comedy about faking the moon landing — for legitimate purposes, obviously. Apple TV+
Biggest Heist Ever: This documentary follows the story of Ilya Lichtenstein and his “rapper” wife Razzlekhan who tried to launder nearly 120,000 Bitcoin. Netflix
Speak No Evil: James McVoy stars in this thriller in which a family who has been invited to the woods for a weekend getaway begins having some … reservations. Premiere. Peacock
A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter: Sabrina Carpenter hosts her first holiday special and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this one probably isn’t for the young kids. Netflix
SATURDAY
Saturday Night Live: Paul Mescal & Shaboozey 10:30 p.m., NBC
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story: The emotional story of our Superman, the accident that paralyzed him, and his fight for spinal cord treatments. Be ready to cry. Premiere. 7 p.m., HBO and Max
SUNDAY
Somebody Somewhere: Sam takes a chance with Iceland in the series premiere. 9:30 p.m., HBO
America’s Funniest Home Videos: Fall finale. 6 p.m., ABC
The Equalizer: McCall and her ex are held captive in the fall finale. 7:30 p.m., CBS
| FRI. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | College Football (live) |
| CBS | S.W.A.T. (new) |
Fire Country (new) |
Blue Bloods (new) |
| CW | Bob Hearts Abishola | Bob Hearts Abishola | Children Ruin Everything (new) |
Children Ruin Everything (new) |
Local |
| FOX | College Football | Local |
| NBC | Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer | Happy’s Place (new) |
Lopez vs. Lopez (new) |
Dateline |
—
| SAT. | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | 10:30 | 11:00 | 11:30 |
| ABC | College Football (live) |
News/Local |
| CBS | College Football (live) |
News/Local |
| FOX | Women’s College Basketball (live) |
News/Local |
| NBC | Dateline (repeat) |
Dateline (repeat) |
Saturday Night Live (repeat) |
News/ Local |
Saturday Night Live (Paul Mescal & Shaboozey) |
—
| SUN. | 6:00 | 6:30 | 7:00 | 7:30 | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 |
| ABC | America’s Funniest Home Videos (new) |
The Lion King |
| CBS | 60 Minutes | The Equalizer (new) |
Tracker (repeat) |
The Neighbor-hood (repeat) |
| The CW | Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch (repeat) |
The Conners (repeat) |
The Conners (repeat) |
| FOX | NFL Football | Universal Basic Guys (new) |
The Simpsons (new) |
Bob’s Burgers (new) |
Krapo-polis (new) |
Local/News |
| NBC | Sunday Night Football (live) |
Look at Evil getting a nod for best drama series!