Gordon Ramsay on Changing Judging Approach for Fox’s ‘Food Stars,’ His ‘Top Chef’ Obsession and the Role of Unscripted Series in the Writers Strike

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer At long last, Netflix has revealed the first footage of its highly anticipated sci-fi epic from “Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — their first large-scale project at the streamer since signing a mega overall deal in 2019 — and Alexander Woo. Based on the book series by Cixin Liu, the eight-episode drama, which recently wrapped production, will launch in January 2024. Per Netflix’s logline for the sci-fi series, “A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes, five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Joker” fans who are theorizing about the reported musical aspects of the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix-led sequel film finally have a little bit more clarity, thanks to star Zazie Beetz. “I think people will be surprised. I don’t think it’s going to be what they expect, around it being musical,” Beetz, who is reprising her role as Sophie Dumond for “Joker: Folie à Deux,” told Variety Monday at Chanel’s Tribeca Film Festival Artists Dinner in New York. “We all sort of express musically and dancing in our lives day-to-day. I think it’s going to work really well.” Todd Phillips returns to the director’s chair for the “Joker” sequel, which is rumored to take place prominently in Arkham Asylum.

Gordon Ramsay's daughter Holly Ramsay has appeared to confirm her budding romance with Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty.The famous chef's daughter shared a series of snaps on her Instagram page labelling them "this week's camera roll", with one of her posing in a black bikini in the sunshine, which she revealed was taken by Adam.The blonde beauty, 22, showcased her gorgeous locks with a centre parting, and the star was all smiles as she beamed to the person sat behind the camera lens. As the influencer and model sat cross-legged in the garden with two dainty necklaces around her neck, former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Adam, 28, took to the comments.

TV chef Gordon Ramsay and TikTok star Nick DiGiovanni have become Guinness World Record holders for the largest beef wellington, weighing the equivalent of an eight-year-old boy.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Season 20 finale of Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Buddha Lo became the first ever “Top Chef: World All-Stars” winner Thursday, beating out his finale competition Sara Bradley and Gabri Rodriguez in the Paris-set “Top Chef” Season 20 finale. But Lo’s win was historic beyond that special 20th anniversary season achievement, as he became the first “Top Chef” contestant to ever win two seasons back to back, having claimed victory in Season 19, “Top Chef: Houston.” Adding another layer of prestige, Lo has the honor of being the final contestant to be declared winner by Padma Lakshmi before she exits the cooking competition after 19 seasons as host.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Molto bene! Food Network has renewed its new Italian cooking competition “Ciao House,” hosted by Alex Guarnaschelli and Gabriele Bertaccini, for a second season. “Shot on-location in Italy, the series takes ten rising culinary stars on the journey of a lifetime to live in a breathtaking Italian villa and compete against each other as individuals and in teams to prove their mastery of Italian cooking techniques and dishes,” per Food Network’s logline. “Each episode’s culinary challenges are steeped in tradition and the competitors must also navigate alliances and rivalries as they pick their own teams and each week, the losing team must vote off one of their own. In the end, the last chef standing wins a life-changing grand prize: an immersive culinary education across Italy, training with renowned Italian master chefs.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When Variety broke the news that Kim Cattrall will reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones for a cameo in the Season 2 finale of “And Just Like That,” I couldn’t help but wonder… is there anything that could thrill a “Sex and the City” fan more? The answer is yes: the HBO show’s 25th anniversary experience in New York City, as put on by Max, to celebrate Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha and — possibly most important — all of their stunning clothes. Formally titled “And Just Like That…It’s Been 25 Years, A Sex and the City Experience,” the event will be open June 8-June 11, but Variety and other members of the press were let into Carrie’s closet early Thursday to explore.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer In Fox’s “Crime Scene Kitchen,” it’s not (entirely) about who wins or loses the most-delicious-baked-good portion, it’s about how you play the baking-detective game. For the second season, which premieres Monday at 9 p.m., host Joel McHale and judge Yolanda Gampp said the competition becomes even harder, as it includes both self-taught and classically trained bakers who come at deciphering the mystery baked goods in very different ways. This season also throws savory recipes into the mix in an attempt to trip up contestants who saw only sweet treats featured in Season 1. “The new bakers all saw the show, and I will say a lot of them swore they could do it,” McHale, who also hosted the first season of “Crime Scene Kitchen” back in 2021, told Variety. “It’s just like anything you see while you’re watching it at home, you’re like, ‘I can do that, I can figure that out.’ And then because we opened up the competition a little bit, so now it can be sweet and savory, we put in another variable that did stump a lot of them. Because some of them were classically trained, they knew their stuff very well. But some of the non-classically trained ones thought out of the box a little bit. I would say the advantages are almost equal, in a weird way.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Vice TV is once again expanding its “Dark Side” franchise with a new spinoff that should hit close to home for millennial audiences in particular: “Dark Side of the 2000s.” Premiering July 18 at 10 p.m., the 10-episode season will cover aughts subjects including the radio wars between Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony, “TRL,” the rise of TMZ, Lindsay Lohan, Charlie Sheen’s “Two and a Half Men” conflict, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” “The Bachelor,” Siegfried & Roy and men’s lifestyle magazines, or “lad mags.” Per its official logline, “From outrageous shock jocks to record breaking reality TV, and the rise of celebrity gossip to the downward spiral of a child star, ‘Dark Side of the 2000s’ delves into the decade’s untold histories, revealing dark secrets and personal insights from the people who witnessed it all first hand.”

Tom Holland just celebrated his 27th birthday and fans from across the globe took to social media to share celebratory messages for the Spiderman actor. One of his well wishers included his girlfriend - and fellow co-star - Zendaya, who gave fans a glimpse into the couple’s private life by posting two never-before-seen photos of the pair.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Could 2023 be the year of genre? Thanks to a pandemic that created a deep desire for escapist TV, there are more shows that fit into that box now than ever, many of which are eligible for Emmys this season. They include Amazon Prime Video’s “The Boys” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and “The Last of Us,” Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” Disney+’s “Andor” and “The Mandalorian,” Paramount+’s “Star Trek: Picard,” Netflix’s “The Sandman” and AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire.” Of the eight series that Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis has predicted will get a nomination in the drama category, three would fall into the sci-fi or fantasy field: “Game of Thrones” offshoot “House of the Dragon,” video game adaptation “The Last of Us” and critical darling “Yellowjackets.”

Selena Gomez makes for a charming presence in the kitchen. The singer and actress has been involved in “Selena + Chef” for four seasons, showing her willingness to learn and mess up when faced with some food prep.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Colin Farrell, Mariska Hargitay, Danny Strong, Paula Pell, Rachel Dratch, Michael Kelly and Craig Zobel were among the stars who came out to the writers strike picket line outside Paramount Global’s New York City office in Times Square Thursday. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.-N.Y., and local politicians spoke at the event in support of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) cause against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that has led to a four-week-and-counting work stoppage due to the organizations’ inability to ink a new contract May 1. “This is about what’s right. We’ve seen income inequality grow exponentially over the last decade; and in your business, it has never been more present,” Gillibrand said to the crowd, filled with not only WGA members, but also those from SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters, among other unions. “We see writers working hard every day to produce content and we have an unfair playing field. Not only does AI want to displace our writers, they simply can’t. AI generates content based on what’s been written before the work you did last year, and the year before. It’s not original. It’s not imaginative. It doesn’t come from the human heart. It’s not about a human experience. It’s not about what people actually want to learn about or know about or see or experience. That is what writers bring to the equation every single time. So this strike is so important for the future of this country. It’s about the value of workers; workers and what they create is fundamentally valuable.”

Perez is making his way through all of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants in Las Vegas! @CaesarsPalace 

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fox is serving up a new season of Joel McHale’s mystery baking competition “Crime Scene Kitchen” next week and bringing several celebrity new guest judges along for the ride. Variety can exclusively reveal that the lineup of Season 2’s famous faces includes “Real Housewives of Atlanta” alum NeNe Leakes, country music star Martina McBride, “Next Level Chef” (a Gordon Ramsay-led Fox food competition) and “Top Chef” star Richard Blais and NBA champ and “Special Forces” (yet another Fox competition) contestant Dwight Howard. Those guest judges will pop in during different episodes this season to join host McHale and full-time judges Curtis Stone and Yolanda Gampp in their evaluations.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SAG-AFTRA has struck a deal with celebrity video platform Cameo to cover the brand deals that members make through Cameo for Business (C4B) under a guild contract. The new pact, “C4B x SAG-AFTRA Agreement,” will allow SAG-AFTRA members to count C4B earnings toward health and pension benefits, just as those earnings become a growing concern for out of work actors while the Writers Guild of America’s strike against Hollywood studios and their organization, Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), rages on. SAG-AFTRA has been a big supporter of WGA on the picket line over the first three weeks of the strike, with SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher being very vocal ahead of the the actors guild entering its own contract negotiations with the AMPTP on June 7.

Six By Nico is all set to open a second site in the city centre. The ‘affordable’ bistro chain will be opening up the new restaurant on the corner of John Dalton Street and Deansgate.

Gordon Ramsey, his wife Tana, and daughter Holly enjoyed a family trip out to the prestigious Savoy in London for a spot of lunch and to launch the renowned chef’s newly designed grill restaurant at the hotel. The 56 year old first teamed up with the Savoy back in 2003 in a bid to bring his culinary expertise and cut through the competition.

“This is not exactly the show we expected to do today,” said Warner Bros Discovery ad boss Jon Steinlauf in opening his company’s second Upfronts presentation as a merged company.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview reveals major plot points from the “9-1-1: Lone Star” Season 4 finale, “In Sickness and In Health,” which aired Tuesday on Fox. They finally did: After seasons of will-they-won’t-they drama, surprise wives, multiple tripes to the ICU, and a last-minute murder, T.K. Strand (Ronen Rubinstein) and Carlos Reyes (Rafael Silva) made it down the aisle, said their vows, and were pronounced husband and husband on the Season 4 finale of Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star.” Here, the on-screen newlyweds discuss with Variety the beauty and tragedy of the two-hour Tarlos wedding episode, and what it sets up for the married first responders in Season 5 (the first season that “Lone Star” will air on a different network from its parent series, “9-1-1,” which is moving to ABC).