‘Hightown’ Renewed for Season 3 at Starz

EXCLUSIVE: Nickelodeon has handed an early Season 2 renewal to SpongeBob SquarePants spinoff The Patrick Star Show. The network has ordered a 26-episode season of the hit original animated series, which is halfway through its 26-episode freshman run.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“The Adam Project” and “Pieces of Her” topped Netflix’s lists of English-language film and TV series for the week of March 7, when the fifth and final season of “The Last Kingdom” was viewed for 63.5 million hours in its first five days after launch.Debuting March 11, the Ryan Reynolds-led flick drew 92.43 million hours viewed in just its first two days on the platform. Meanwhile, “Pieces of Her,” which premiered Season 1 March 4, was the No.

Abbott Elementary has been renewed for a second season at ABC!

Class will remain in session at Abbott Elementary. ABC has given an early Season 2 renewal to Quinta Brunson’s breakout comedy series.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeABC’s breakout comedy hit “Abbott Elementary” will be back for another school year. The Alphabet net confirmed on Monday that the critically acclaimed workplace laffer, from Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSean Astin is joining Dwayne Johnson’s “Young Rock” Season 2 in the role of The Rock’s childhood nemesis, Variety has learned exclusively.A recurring guest star for the NBC comedy’s upcoming second season, Astin will play Dr. Julian Echo in the show’s fast-forwards.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“The Boys” Season 3 teaser trailer dropped Saturday, revealing an almost-two minute look at the upcoming season of the Amazon Prime Video series filled with lasers, blood, guts, glory and, apparently, dancing.In the video, which you can view below, Butcher (Karl Urban) is struggling with a mysterious case of glowing, light-beam-shooting eyeballs, while Homelander (Antony Starr) is unsuccessfully attempting to curb his rage, Hughie (Jack Quaid) is having a mental breakdown in his new supe-regulation government job, Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy has awoken, Annie a.k.a. Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is crying, and there’s something that has caused Frenchie (Tomer Capone) and Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) to break out into an apparent big musical number, complete with backup dancers.

Ex On The Beach will return to MTV, which renewed the dating series for seasons 5 and 6.

Epix has ordered an eight-episode second season of historical drama Domina. The renewal follows a deal between Epix and global distributor Banijay Rights for a second season of the drama produced by Tiger Aspect, in association with Epix Studios.

Starz has handed a second season order to Power Book IV: Force. The renewal announcement Wednesday follows strong ratings for the February 6 debut of the third spinoff in the Power franchise, which notched the most-watched series premiere in Starz history, with 3.3 million multiplatform views in the U.S. alone.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“Power Book IV: Force” has been renewed for Season 2 at Starz.The third spinoff of the original “Power” to debut on Starz, the series saw Joseph Sikora return as Tommy Egan, who leaves New York and finds himself caught up in the Chicago drug game. The series also stars Isaac Keys, Lili Simmons, Gabrielle Ryan, Shane Harper, Kris D.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe “Vikings: Valhalla” team is already hard at work on a second and third season following the launch of the Netflix historical drama series.“Valhalla,” a followup to the History Channel’s original series “Vikings,” previously received a 24-episode series order from the streaming service, which Netflix confirms will now be broken into three, eight-episode seasons. Jeb Stuart will return as creator, showrunner and executive producer for both upcoming seasons, along with stars Sam Corlett (Leif Eriksson), Frida Gustavsson (Freydis Eriksdotter) and Leo Suter (Harald Sigurdsson), among others, reprising their roles.“Vikings: Valhalla” chronicles the heroic adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived — the legendary explorer Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), his fiery and headstrong sister Freydis Eriksdotter (Frida Gustavsson), and the ambitious Nordic prince Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter).

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterIMDb TV is keeping Judge Judy Sheindlin in session. Amazon’s free streamer has renewed “Judy Justice” for a second season after the first batch of episodes drew 25 million hours viewed by users to date.Sheindlin’s second act after the end of the long-running, iconic daytime series “Judge Judy,” “Judy Justice” launched on IMDb TV last November.

Court will definitely be back in session for Judge Judy Sheindlin. The IMDb TV series Judy Justice has been picked up for a second season.

Katie Price has been caught on camera performing a rendition of Whitney Houston's 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' whilst on holiday in Thailand. She was filmed by an onlooker as she sang along to the track with a friend in a Bangkok bar, and the TikTok video has accumulated hilarious comments on Pricey's questionable vocal range and singing technique. One viewer wrote: "It's the fact she's holding the mic like she can really sing for me", whilst another added, "omg tone deaf".

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched “One Plus One Equals Two,” the finale of the first season of “The Boys Presents: Diabolical.”Amazon’s animated anthology “The Boys Presents: Diabolical” launched Friday, just under two months out for the third season premiere of its parent series, “The Boys.” While the majority of the bite-size shorts that make up the adult cartoon’s first season serve mainly as “a bloody amuse-bouche for Season 3” of the OG show, per “The Boys” showrunner Eric Kripke, there are pieces of the third-season plot that will be served up straight from the delicious chaos in “Diabolical.”First, there’s the finale episode, titled “One Plus One Equals Two,” written by “Diabolical” showrunner Simon Racioppa, which centers on Homelander’s (played by Antony Starr on “The Boys,” and voiced by him in this animated episode) introduction into the Supes of the Seven and the bond he forged with Black Noir (played by Nathan Mitchell on “The Boys” but voiced by no one in this because he’s always silent) out of working together to cover up a mostly accidental massacre on Homelander’s part. (Starr was arrested for alleged assault after these interviews were conducted.) “The finale is canon, yeah,” Kripke told Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Scott Foley-led drama “The Big Leap” has been canceled after just one season at Fox, Variety has learned.A modern tale about second chances, chasing your dreams and taking back what’s yours,”The Big Leap” revolves around a group of diverse, down-on-their-luck characters attempting to change their lives by participating in a potentially life-ruining reality dance show featuring a modern reimagining of “Swan Lake.”“The Big Leap” starred Scott Foley, Teri Polo, Piper Perabo, Simone Recasner, Kevin Daniels, Ser’Darius Blain, Jon Rudnitsky, Mallory Jansen and Anna Grace Barlow.The drama from creator/executive producer Liz Heldens (“The Passage,” “Friday Night Lights”), director/executive producer Jason Winer (“Modern Family,” “Perfect Harmony”) and executive producer Sue Naegle (“Soundtrack,” “The Plot Against America”) premiered as part of Fox’s fall lineup. It averaged a 0.4 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic and 2.8 million multiplatform viewers throughout its 11-episode run in Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data, which counts a week’s worth of delayed viewing where available.

Starz has renewed its critically acclaimed crime drama series Hightown for a third season.

HBO Max and CBC have ordered a second season of the critically praised comedy series Sort Of. An official selection of the 2021 Toronto Film Festival, Sort Of debuted on HBO Max in November 2021, a month after its Canadian premiere on CBC Gem.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterShowtime’s upcoming “The First Lady” anthology series is described as “a revelatory reframing of American leadership, told through the lens of the women at the heart of the White House.” While the first season focuses on icons Michelle Obama (played by Viola Davis), Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson), the executive producers are not opposed to a potential future season including possibly the most divisive first lady: Melania Trump.During a virtual panel promoting the show at the Television Critics Association’s press tour Wednesday, “The First Lady” showrunner Cathy Schulman and director and executive producer Susanne Bier playfully tossed a reporter’s question about featuring President Donald Trump’s wife as subject before Bier answered definitively, but with a laugh: “Look, I do think that the series could do with a fun season — so let’s talk about that.” Star Anderson, who was sitting on the panel alongside co-star Davis, added: “I think the hope is that there’s going to be future seasons and there will be the opportunity to have many, many more first ladies represented. So maybe not just four — but maybe 104.”But Bier says that no matter how many seasons they do, she’d like to keep the number of first ladies to three per installment for a very specific reason.“Three is a great number for a season because you can do in-depth contrasts, but it’s also incredibly interesting how the three ladies reflect upon each other,” Bier said.