Keshet Studios Names NBC Drama Exec Lisa Roos Head of Television

Joe Otterson TV ReporterShanola Hampton has been cast in the lead role of the NBC drama pilot “Unfound,” Variety has learned.The one hour drama deals with the fact that, in any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. More than half that number are people of color that the country seems to forget about. Public relations specialist Gabi Mosley (Hampton) — who was once herself one of those forgotten ones — and her crisis management team now make sure there is always someone looking out for the forgotten missing people.

EXCLUSIVE: Dean Georgaris’ agent drama Blank Slate has found its pilot director.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched “In the Unlikely Event of an Emergency,” the Feb. 28 episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”Gwyn Morgan (Lisa Edelstein) went as far as she could with her son, T.K. Strand (Ronen Rubinstein), on Monday’s “9-1-1: Lone Star” before leaving him to go the rest of the way on his own — both in the past and the present.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Celebrity Book Club” podcast host and Apple’s “The Problem With Jon Stewart” head writer Chelsea Devantez has signed a multi-year overall deal at Disney’s 20th Television.Under the pact, Devantez will write and produce her own comedy projects for the studio, as well as supervise others.Devantez began her TV writing career on Stewart’s writing staff on his never-released and untitled HBO show. Her other TV credits include Tina Fey and Meredith Scardino’s Peacock comedy “Girls5Eva” and Liz Meriwether and Lake Bell’s ABC comedy “Bless This Mess.” Last year, Devantez sold her pilot, “This Is Our Year,” to 20th Television and CBS.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterReese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has acquired lifestyle brand The Home Edit, the company announced on Wednesday.Founded by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, The Home Edit offers “full service organizing” in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, NYC, Nashville, Orange County, Salt Lake City and San Francisco, as well as “travel and DIY services” globally. Shearer and Teplin are the authors of New York Times bestseller “The Home Edit Life” and the creators of multiple product lines, including a recently announced exclusive Walmart collection.Shearer and Teplin are also the stars of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated “Get Organized with the Home Edit,” which is produced by Hello Sunshine and will debut its second season this year.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Red vs. Blue,” Monday’s episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”Lisa Edelstein is exiting “9-1-1: Lone Star” after playing Gwyneth Morgan, the wife of Rob Lowe’s Chief Owen Strand and the mother of Ronen Rubinstein’s T.K. Strand, for two seasons on the Fox drama, Variety has learned exclusively.Edelstein’s departure was hinted at in the final moments of Monday’s episode of “Lone Star,” when T.K.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorIn a major move in the publishing world, Sony Music Publishing has announced the appointment of Walter Jones as executive vice president and head of A&R, effective February 22. In the role, he will oversee the company’s U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Dani Gorin, most recently SVP Television at Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res, has joined Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment as President of Television. This marks the first TV President hire for the company, founded by Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara, as LuckyChap is quickly building a television footprint with such shows as Netflix’s hugely popular limited series Maid, Hulu’s Dollface and the upcoming Iron Mike.

Ryan Michelle Bathe on her toes — and guessing along with everyone else where her character, no-nonsense FBI agent Val Turner, is headed next on the NBC drama, premiering Monday (Feb. 21) at 10 p.m.“I have to say that Val doesn’t have much of a character evolution,” Bathe, 45, told The Post. “We’re shooting the seventh episode now … and literally hours have ticked by since we met her.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterRebecca Franko and Kenny Tsai have been named senior vice presidents of current programming at Universal Studio Group’s Universal Content Productions (UCP).In these newly created roles, Franko and Tsai will manage day-to-day current series across cable and streaming platforms for the studio, per UCP. They will both work closely with development on series pick-ups, serve as a liaison between production and other studio departments, manage up-and-coming writers for the studio and build and maintain industry relationships.Franko will oversee the shows “Joe vs. Carole,” “Ted,” “Gaslit” and more.

Recently, it was reported that Luca Guadagnino is putting together a cast for his latest film, titled “Challengers.” At the time, we learned the film was set to star Zendaya (of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Euphoria,” and Edgar Wright’s Super Bowl ad fame). But now, we also know a couple of the other folks who will be joining her in the production.

Kate Aurthur editorNetflix has unveiled the trailer for Season 2 of “Bridgerton,” which became a phenomenon after its December 25, 2020 premiere. The trailer teases the much-anticipated romance between Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and newcomer Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), which will be the centerpiece of the season — while also leaning hard into the show’s Lady Whistledown aspect, the anonymous gossip chronicler who in the finale was revealed to be Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).The second season of “Bridgerton” will premiere on March 25.As broken-hearted “Bridgerton” fans know, Netflix announced last year that Season 1’s breakout star Regé-Jean Page, who played Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, was leaving the show.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterKelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg have been named the hosts of NBC’s upcoming singing competition “American Song Contest,” the U.S. adaptation of “Eurovision Song Contest.”Per NBC, “Based on the worldwide phenomenon ‘Eurovision Song Contest,’ organized for 65 years by the European Broadcasting Union and watched by 200 million viewers annually, this amazing musical spectacular combines the competitive spirit of rooting for your favorite sports team with the joy of watching a live performance of an original song.”“American Song Contest” will feature live new music performances – representing all 50 states, five U.S.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC briefly misidentified singer Mickey Guyton as Jhene Aiko during a preshow performance at Super Bowl LVI on Sunday.As seen in the video below, the broadcast network first panned over Guyton with a chyron that labeled her as “Jhene Aiko” during Aiko’s performance of “America the Beautiful.” A few seconds later, the incorrect name disappeared under Guyton and cameras shifted to Aiko, who was singing, and a new chyron correctly identified her as “Jhene Aiko.”When Aiko concluded her performance of “America the Beauitful,” Guyton sang the National Anthem ahead of the kickoff for the big game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals.Representatives for NBC Sports did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment on the error Sunday. More to come…@NBCNews #SuperBowlLVI ummm… who confused Jhene Aiko and Mickey Guyton? Its tone deaf….

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Los Espookys” co-creator Julio Torres has signed a two-year first-look deal with HBO and HBO Max.Torres has two new projects already in development under the pact, “Little Films” (working title) and “Lucky,” the former of which he’s set to star in and is produced by Emma Stone.In “Little Films,” which has a production commitment at HBO, the former “Saturday Night Live” writer stars as himself. The potential show follows this version of Torres as he tells the tale of when he lost a golden oyster.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC says it has “resolved” a “third-party error” that was inhibiting Leslie Jones’ social media commentary on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.“This was the result of a third-party error, and the situation has been resolved,” an NBC spokesperson told Variety on Tuesday. “She is free to do her social media posts as she has done in the past. She is a super fan of the Olympics, and we are super fans of her.”Some of the comedian’s posts were blocked because of restrictions on sharing recorded video on social media, with NBC’s rights to the Olympics — which cost them $7.75 billion through 2032 — being very strictly observed.Jones, an Olympics live-tweeter since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and a guest of NBC’s in Rio and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, said in a statement tweeted Monday that she is “starting to feel like this should be my last Olympics I live-tweet.” “I know I know, another celebrity bitching.

20th Century Television Studios drama exec Albert Page has become President of Clickbait and The Capture producer Heyday Television U.S.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC has placed drama pilot orders for “The Brave” creator Dean Georgaris’ “Blank Slate” and an adaptation of the novel “Predictably Irrational.”Written by Georgaris, “Blank Slate” follows Special Agent Alexander McCoy, a legend in law enforcement, the agent we all hope is out there, the agent we’d all like to be, per the project’s official logline. The only issue is … he doesn’t actually exist.