Jerrod Carmichael Inks Big Overall Deal With HBO, Sets New Comedy Special

Joe Otterson TV ReporterRodney Barnes has renewed his overall deal with HBO for a further three years, Variety has learned.Barnes most recently worked as a writer and executive producer on the premium cabler’s hit series “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.” Barnes was credited with co-writing nine episodes of the show’s 10-episode first season. The show was renewed for a second season in April, with Barnes continuing on with the show as writer and executive producer.Under the terms of the deal, Barnes will continue to develop, write, and produce shows in a variety of formats under his Rodney Barnes Productions banner.Barnes’ past TV credits include shows like “Everybody Hates Chris,” “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” “The Boondocks,” and “My Wife and Kids.” His current development slate include: the feature adaptation “Ride Around Shining” at Netflix; a miniseries on Tiger Woods; a feature for New Regency with Jordan Vogt-Roberts attached to direct.

Winning Time writer, producer and comic book creator Rodney Barnes is staying in business with HBO, with a renewal of his overall deal for three more years.

Just several weeks after Adele said she stood by her decision earlier this year to postpone the Las Vegas residency, the British singer has announced the rescheduled dates: The “Weekends With Adele” residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas will now take place from November 18, 2022, to March 25, 2023.

FX’s Mayans M.C. will return for Season 5, it was revealed during the show’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Sunday. The gritty motorcycle drama wrapped its fourth season on June 14.

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-producer Erika Green Swafford (New Amsterdam) has signed an exclusive overall deal with Disney’s Onyx Collective. Under the pact, Green Swafford will develop television projects exclusively for Onyx, with a focus on drama series, which she will produce through her production company, Chocolate Girl Wonder. In addition to expanding the scope of stories and characters seen on TV through her own development, Green Swafford is committed to acting as a ladder for other underrepresented creatives.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterAtsuko Okatsuka has lined up her first comedy special, which will air on HBO and HBO Max, Variety has learned exclusively.The special will tape this fall. The news comes just over a month after Okatsuka was named one of Variety‘s 10 Comics to Watch. She is a writer, actor, and stand up comedian currently based in Los Angeles.”I’m so excited to work with HBO on what my family calls ‘an hour of you talking funny,'” Okatsuka said.

Veteran director, producer and actor Salli Richardson-Whitfield is staying in business with HBO/HBO Max, with a renewal of her overall deal for two more years.

Mo’Nique is planning a new comedy special for Netflix.

EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Murphy is set to star in Candy Cane Lane, a Reginald Hudlin-directed holiday comedy for Prime Video. Produced by Amazon Studios, Imagine Entertainment, and Eddie Murphy Productions, the comedy was acquired as a spec script written by Kelly Younger and inspired by Younger’s childhood holiday experiences. Production begins this winter in Los Angeles.

came out as gay.“I rebelled against it my whole life,” he said at the time. “I thought I’d never, ever come out.

Rashida Jones and Will McCormack are getting into business with Lionsgate TV. The prolific duo have signed a first-look producing deal with the studio via their Le Train Train Productions under which they will produce scripted programming for multiple platforms.

Wilson Chapman editorAmy Schumer, Hasan Minhaj, Taylor Tomlinson and Jerrod Carmichael will receive awards at the Just for Laughs award show next month.The ceremony will take place at the Just For Laughs Montreal festival, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The award show, which takes place July 29 at the DoubleTree, will see Schumer receive an award for comedy person of the year.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMelissa Benoist and her Three Things Productions banner have renewed their overall deal with Warner Bros. Television.In addition, Benoist has officially signed on to star in and produce the upcoming HBO Max-WBTV series “The Girls on the Bus.” She was first reported as being in talks for the series back in February.Under the terms of the overall deal, Benoist and Three Things will continue to develop and produce programming across all platforms for WBTV. Benoist runs three things with Sahar Kashi, the company’s vice president of development.“The Girls on the Bus” is inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s book “Chasing Hillary.” Benoist will play Sadie McCarthy, a journalist who romanticizes the original “Boys on the Bus” and who scrapped her whole life for her own shot at covering a presidential campaign for the paper of record.

Melissa Benoist and her production banner Three Things Productions has renewed its overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Group as the former Supergirl star officially joins HBO Max series The Girls on the Bus.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorA24, the indie studio behind TV shows and movies like “Euphoria,” “Minari,” “Moonlight” and “Lady Bird,” signed a first-look deal with Pushkin Industries, Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg’s audio production company.Under the new deal, A24 has the right of first refusal to develop film and TV projects based on Pushkin’s intellectual property. The companies are already in development on “a few” projects including a documentary series based on Gladwell’s “The Bomber Mafia,” to be directed by filmmaker Morgan Neville.Pushkin Industries CEO Weisberg and president Gladwell will executive produce projects developed through the A24 pact.Pushkin Industries, founded in 2018, has produced several podcasts that have broken into the top 10 on Apple’s Top Podcasts chart, including Gladwell’s “Revisionist History,” as well as “Against the Rules,” “The Happiness Lab,” “Broken Record,” “Cautionary Tales,” “The Last Archive,” “Deep Cover,” “Lost Hills” and “A Slight Change of Plans.” Pushkin’s audiobooks include Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Netanyahus” by Joshua Cohen and Gladwell’s “Miracle and Wonder: Conversations with Paul Simon.” In “The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War,” Gladwell uses original interviews and archival footage tell the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard.In the years leading up to World War II, most military strategists saw the airplane as an afterthought.

Apple TV+ has inked a multi-year first-look deal with Animal Pictures, the production company from Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne and Danielle Renfrew Behrens.The deal gives Apple TV+ the first-look on series and digital features developed and produced by the company.The news comes not long after the debut of Rudolph’s new workplace comedy series “Loot” on the streamer. “Loot” follows Rudolph’s Molly Novak, “a billionaire who has a dream life, complete with private jets, a sprawling mansion and a gigayacht — anything her heart desires. But when her husband of 20 years betrays her, she spirals publicly, becoming fuel for tabloid fodder,” per a logline from the streamer.

EXCLUSIVE: Time to update the Pink Lady Pledge to act cool, look cool, be cool … and snag an overall deal.

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Bergman will soon learn whether he’ll take home another Daytime Emmy, but the beloved star of The Young and the Restless has already won big: Deadline has learned the actor, who has played Jack Abbott since 1989, has inked a new, five-year deal to keep him on the CBS sudser.

EXCLUSIVE: Writer-producer Francisca X. Hu is getting into business with UCP. Hu has signed an overall deal with UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, under which she will develop and produce projects for a variety of television platforms.

previous one with WBTV, signed back in 2020.Thede’s current projects include the acclaimed “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which was renewed for a fourth season earlier this month. Starring, created, showrun, executive produced and written by Thede, the historic sketch series is made entirely by and for Black women, whose skits touch on topics like sex, relationships, religion and social norms.