BET Media Submits for More Emmys Than Ever Before: Ms. Pat, ‘Average Joe,’ ‘Diarra From Detroit’ and More Seek Nominations (EXCLUSIVE)

K.J. Yossman Canada’s Sphere Media is set to acquire distributor Abacus Media Rights from Amcomri Entertainment Inc. The deal, which is valued at $24.6 million, is expected to close in mid-August.

Canada’s Sphere Media has acquired Abacus Media Rights, the UK-based distributor that sells Leaving Neverland and Scrublands.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter “Actors on Actors” Season 20 was the most-watched Emmys lineup in Variety history, garnering 97 million video views across social media and outpacing 2023’s record-breaking TV season. Occurring twice a year during Emmys and Oscars voting, Variety’s “Actors on Actors” spotlights the biggest and buzziest names of each awards season. The 2024 TV lineup included Robert Downey Jr.

EXCLUSIVE: Never Mind, a new comedy special from renowned comedian, musician, author and actor Reggie Watts, has been set to premiere on the streaming platform Veeps at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, July 20.

Marta Balaga So you think you know everything about attorney Elsbeth Tascioni? Think again. “We will learn more about everybody’s backstory,” says Carrie Preston, teasing Season 2 of “Elsbeth.” “There will be delving not just into her past and personal life, but also Captain C.W. Wagner’s, played by Wendell Pierce, and Carra Patterson’s Officer Kaya Blanke.

The nominations for the eighth annual Black Reel Television Awards are out. Topping the list is Genius: MLK/X, Season 4 of National Geographic’s biographical series, and Abbott Elementary is next with 12.   

Sixteen-time champion Joey Chestnut has been banned from Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in a beef over sponsorship. It seems the folks at Major League Eating, which oversees the contest, didn’t think his reported deal with Impossible Foods was kosher.

BET Media Group’s FYC House was packed as it celebrated its impressive roster of shows submitted for Emmy consideration produced by BET and BET+. At the center of the evening, the legacy media company featured artists and creatives from some of its hit series on three-panel conversations: “The Women of BET,” “How We Made It,” and “Diarra from Detroit.” In a sold-out room of industry attendees, including members of the Television Academy, the talent shared stories about their journeys of working in the industry while facing rejection and collaborating and overcoming challenges with other creatives.

Don’t expect to see Jeremy Strong at the next Roy family reunion.

Elizabeth Taylor Kerry Washington no longer plays the fictional Olivia Pope on “Scandal,” but she still suits up like a gladiator when it comes to expressing her opinions about Washington, D.C. and Hollywood.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Legendary actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke has made history, winning the 2024 Daytime Emmy award for guest performer in a daytime drama series — via his spot on Peacock’s “Days of Our Lives.” At 98, that makes Van Dyke the oldest actor to receive a Daytime Emmy win. Van Dyke came into Friday’s 51st Daytime Emmy Awards already making a mark as the oldest Daytime Emmys nominee ever. Night one of the 51st annual Daytime Emmy Awards took place live on CBS on Friday, June 7, from the Westin Bonaventure hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Of all the heady-cool, matrix-of-reality, the-digital-future-is-now movies released in 1999, “Run Lola Run” may have been the 1999iest. Sure, “The Matrix” was the sci-fi landmark that bullet-timed audiences into the 21st century. But science-fiction movies have always looked ahead.

In less than a week of Love Island, there's already been enough tension and drama in the villa to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Now a former Love Island star has stirred the pot by suggesting that reality TV king Joey Essex isn't on the show for the "right reasons." The 33 year old left fans gobsmacked earlier this week when he strutted into the villa as the first bombshell of the series.The star, who shot to fame on The Only Way is Essex, immediately turned heads as he sauntered over to the fire pit sporting a fresh look.

EXCLUSIVE: BET+ has picked up darkly comedic drama series Average Joe, headlined by Deon Cole, for a second season.

Princess Lilibet is 3!

, so named for Aniston's beloved character on Friends, and even 27 years later, it remains a pop culture emblem of the ‘90s.Its various spin-offs have created just as much hype—from Aniston's brunette lowlights to her , and even a golden blonde lob. But it is Jennifer Aniston's new, that we can't get enough of right now.Back in January the star debuted her shortest cut in years on the red carpet, cropping her hair to her collarbone.

Joe Jonas and model girlfriend Stormi Bree have allegedly broken up, after five months together. According to reports from Page Six, the musician split up from Stormi because he's focusing his time outside of their relationship.

Andra Day was rising all the way up as a Grammy-nominated chanteuse — for her 2015 debut album, “Cheers to the Fall” — who sang like the spiritual goddaughter of Billie Holiday and Erykah Badu.Then in 2021, the 39-year-old singer — born Cassandra Monique Batie — flipped the script to become the Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated star of “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” the Lee Daniels-directed biopic about the same Lady Day who inspired her stage name.Now, nine years and three movies later — she also shot the indie drama “Exhibiting Forgiveness” and the upcoming supernatural thriller “The Deliverance” — Day is back to bringing her own jazzy, sultry vibes with her long-awaited second studio album, “Cassandra (cherith).”And she will continue to get her own gardenia groove back in the most pastoral of New York settings — Central Park — when she headlines the season kickoff of the SummerStage series with a free concert on Saturday.Still, she hasn’t completely kicked the Holiday habit.“There are some parts for sure that I could still shake and then some parts I’m realizing, well, I’m just growing, you know what I mean?” Day told The Post.

Addie Morfoot Contributor In “Flipside,” documentary filmmaker Chris Wilcha grapples with personal regrets and middle age through the lens of the documentary projects he started but never finished. The 96-minute doc, which premiered last year at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, looks at those abandoned ideas including one about television writer David Milch and his connection to jazz photographer Herman Leonard; a passion project on the New Jersey record store where Wilcha worked as a teenager and a look at radio host Ira Glass’ attempts to make a musical.

Starz dropped the first look photos for it’s upcoming limited event series Three Women!