NBC News Taps Conservative Political Analyst Stephen Hayes as Contributor

The Amber Ruffin Show” will return with new episodes Feb. 25, Peacock announced Tuesday.The critically acclaimed late-night variety series is hosted by comedian Amber Ruffin, who made history as the first Black woman to write for a late-night network TV show when she joined the writer’s room of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in 2014. Ruffin’s own show premiered in 2020, as one of the first originals for the Peacock streaming platform.

Sasha Urban editorGrammy-winning artists Lizzo and Beck will be keynote speakers at this year’s South by Southwest Conference and Festivals, the organization announced Tuesday. Additional keynote speakers announced include author Neal Stephenson, director-producer Celine Tricart, in addition to featured speakers Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Chrissy Teigen and Jonathan Van Ness.“The 2022 Conference program is coming together in a spectacular fashion,” said chief programming officer Hugh Forrest.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC News has a lot of stories to tell during the Olympics and the Super Bowl. One of them is about itself.The large NBCUniversal news division is using both events to get the word out about its growing package of streaming news programming at a time when the battle for broadband info junkies appears to be reaching a new apex.NBC News will tout its streaming-news outlet NBC News Now with a 20 second promo in the first quarter during NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVI this Sunday, as well as with a 15-second promo during the pre-game.

EXCLUSIVE: Helen Shaver (Station Eleven, Maid) has been tapped to direct and executive produce NBC’s Quantum Leap pilot, a reboot of the beloved 1990s sci-fi series, which starred Scott Bakula and the late Dean Stockwell.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNBC News will show an interview between Lester Holt and President Joseph Biden during NBC’s Super Bowl pre-game show on Sunday February 13.NBC said the interview is slated to take place in Virginia, and will mark President Biden’s first sit-down interview with a news organization in 2022.The sit-down appears to be taped, which the White House the networks showing the Big Game have started doing during the Trump administration. President Obama often agreed to talk to journalists live.

EXCLUSIVE: ABC is looking to recruit another Rookie. The network is exploring a spinoff of its popular police procedural starring Nathan Fillon with another bonafide TV star, Niecy Nash, and a new setting, the FBI. The potential new series for next season will be introduced in a two-episode arc of the current fourth season of The Rookie. It will serve as a backdoor pilot for the yet-untitled project, which comes from The Rookie creator/executive producer Alexi Hawley, executive producer Mark Gordon and studios eOne and ABC Signature.

Alex Wagner is returning to MSNBC, where she will serve as senior political analyst and guest anchor.

Jonah Goldberg, the conservative columnist and editor in chief of The Dispatch, is joining CNN as a contributor.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJonah Goldberg, one of the two conservative political analysts who resigned from Fox News Channel in colorful fashion over its coverage, is joining CNN as a contributor, the WarnerMedia network confirmed Monday.Goldberg, a longtime editor at National Review and a founder of The Dispatch, will appear on CNN programs as news networks gear up for the 2022 midterm elections. He and another popular conservative commentator, Stephen Hayes, took to the “Media Equation” column of The New York Times in November to say they were cutting ties with Fox News Channel, where they had been contributors since 2009.

The filmmakers behind Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets, call the story behind the Reddit users’ revolt over the retailer GameStop a “perfect storm.”

FuboTV named longtime financial analyst John Janedis its new CFO, as Wall Street talent continues to decamp for industry roles.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorDavid Crosby and Stephen Stills have joined Neil Young and Graham Nash in asking their labels to remove their collective recordings from Spotify.According to the announcement, in support of stopping harmful misinformation about Covid-19 on Joe Rogan’s Spotify-hosted podcast, the musicians have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby-Nash, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.In a unified statement, the band members commented, “We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast. While we always value alternate points of view, knowingly spreading disinformation during this global pandemic has deadly consequences. Until real action is taken to show that a concern for humanity must be balanced with commerce, we don’t want our music – or the music we made together – to be on the same platform.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.Following a similar request by Joni Mitchell, the move reunites the five artists, who have been friends and collaborators since the 1960s, in a stance that they certainly could not have imagined 50 years ago.

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have issued a statement supporting former bandmate Neil Young in seeking the removal of their music from Spotify in protest of podcaster Joe Rogan.

Zack Sharf Graham Nash and India Arie are the latest music artists to announce they are following in the footsteps of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell by removing their music from Spotify. Nash said in a statement that he “completely agrees” with his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Neil Young after “having heard the COVID disinformation spread by Joe Rogan on Spotify.” Nash added, “I am requesting that my solo recordings be removed from the service.”While Young, Mitchell and Nash exited Spotify because of Joe Rogan’s podcast spreading COVID misinformation, India Arie noted on Instagram that she is leaving Spotify because of Rogan’s “language about race.”“Neil Young opened a door that I must walk through,” Arie wrote on Instagram.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorGayle King, who over ten years at CBS News has become one of that ViacomCBS division’s most recognizable personnel, has signed a deal to stay with CBS News.“I still feel that in many ways I’m just getting started,” King told listeners of her SiriusXM radio program on Friday.Speculation has risen in recent weeks whether CBS News would keep both King and her colleague Norah O’Donnell, both of whom had contracts that were set to lapse this year. King last signed an extension with CBS News in 2019, when Susan Zirinsky, the former CBS News president, rebuilt the network’s morning-news program, now known as “CBS Mornings,” with her at the center.

Stephen Hayes, the conservative political commentator and CEO of The Dispatch, is joining NBC News as contributor and political analyst.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Shaun Cassidy is stepping into the ranch family drama game with “Unbroken,” a drama pilot ordered by NBC. The show, which hails from Universal Television and Shaun Cassidy Productions, centers on three dynastic ranch families on the central coast of California, who make love and war in a passionate struggle to survive.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorIs one football game big enough for two different networks?NBC and Fox both intend to broadcast the (new) inaugural game from the USFL, the latest in a series of efforts to launch a spring football league that can soak up attention while the NFL is on its usual hiatus. Under an agreement unveiled Tuesday, NBC Sports will provide pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of a game between the New Jersey Generals and the Birmingham Stallions, while Fox Sports will produce coverage of the match-up itself.