NBC Reveals Mostly Strike-Proof Fall 2023 Schedule, Including Three New Series and Midseason ‘Deal or No Deal’ Spinoff

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Ch-ch-check it out: Hulu’s gotta fight… for the right… to part–ake in some Emmy FYC campaigning. The streamer hopes it has a sure shot at nominations for “Only Murders in the Building,” which is why it has partnered with Yeastie Boys to give out what’cha what’cha want (what’cha want): free food. “Only Murders in the Building”-themed bagel sandwiches will be passed out by Yeastie Boys this weekend and next, prior to the start of Emmy voting on June 15. Of course, it’s only while supplies last, so no sleep till Brooklyn. Here’s why Hulu says it went with bagels for this FYC stunt: “The series takes place in a typical New York apartment building and we wanted to celebrate New Yorkers’ favorite breakfast meal.”

practicing to be a mermaid since she was a kid) or belting the ballad “Part of Your World.” Instead, she lists her castmates’ musical numbers: “Jonah [Hauer-King, who plays Prince Eric, his] song is wonderful — ‘Wild Uncharted Waters’ — his performance of that is iconic. And then ‘The Scuttlebutt’ is amazing.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large These are indeed the waning days of the scripted basic cable juggernaut. That may be a strange thing to point out when once again, the most-watched entertainment show of the just-completed 2022-2023 TV season was “Yellowstone,” the modern western that airs on Paramount Network. But “Yellowstone” is wrapping up sometime in the next year, and the only other scripted series from a basic cabler to consistently be ranked among TV’s top shows, AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” has already ended its run. “The Walking Dead,” of course, dominated the season-ender charts for years — even beating football in the 2014-2015 TV season with a whopping 13.2 rating among adults 18-49. But as basic cable is almost completely out of the original scripted series business now (unscripted hits like “Vanderpump Rules” still abound, of course), those brief halcyon days are coming to an end.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Let’s travel back to the summer of 1989. I’m 15 years old and have just put two large movie posters on my wall: One for Tim Burton’s game-changing take on “Batman,” starring Michael Keaton, and the other for “UHF,” the theatrical comedy debut for the one and only “Weird Al” Yankovic. It’s now 2023. Keaton is back as Batman in next month’s “The Flash.” And Weird Al (always Weird Al, not just Al Yankovic!) is the front-runner for this year’s TV movie Emmy, thanks to the Roku Channel parody biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” “1989 is back again! It’s all cyclical,” Yankovic says in his signature cheery, upbeat tone. Tell my 15-year-old self that one day he’ll be recording a podcast with Weird Al, and first he’d say, “what’s a podcast?” But after explaining that it’s essentially a radio show, my 15-year-old self would lose his mind. And ask about 2023’s flying cars. Sorry kid.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Michelle Randolph and Jacob Lofland have joined Billy Bob Thornton in the upcoming Taylor Sheridan series “Land Man” at Paramount+, Variety has learned. In addition, Variety has learned exclusively that Ali Larter will star in the series as well. Per the official logline, the series “is set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and is a modern day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. The series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.” It is based on the podcast “Boomtown.” Randolph will star as Ainsley Norris, described as “the wild and strong-willed seventeen-year-old daughter of Tommy Norris (Thornton).” Lofland will play Cooper Norris, “Tommy’s son, who is new to the demanding work in the oil and gas fields of west Texas.” Larter will play Angela, Tommy’s ex-wife.

returns for its sophomore season on June 14, and ET is exclusively debuting the first look at a brand new season of the family's laughter, love, and the lessons they learn along the way.Season 2 of the Peabody Award-winning series returns on Wednesday, welcoming back stars Don Cheadle, who narrates the series as Adult Dean Williams, Elisha «EJ» Williams as the younger Dean Williams, Dulé Hill as Bill Williams, Saycon Sengbloh as Lillian Williams, Laura Kariuki as Kim Williams, Julian Lerner as Brad Hitman, Amari O'Neil as Cory Long and Milan Ray as Keisa Clemmons.Musical legend Patti LaBelle is set to guest star in two episodes in the upcoming season, portraying Bill Williams' mother, Shirley Williams. The network revealed in September that Shirley is also the church choir director.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Andrew Ross Sorkin is the co-creator of the Showtime series “Billions,” but he isn’t really known for drama in his professional life, just financial reporting. So it came as something of a surprise on Monday, when the CNBC and New York Times journalist got up on stage at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall to tout some of the dramatic fare that NBCUniversal was able to cobble together for the advertisers and media buyers assembled in the audience. It was all part of the industry’s annual “upfront,” when U.S. media companies try to sell the bulk of their advertising inventory before the release of their next cycle of programming.

The CW has put together a fall schedule full of international series and unscripted formats alongside scripted returner All American, while Walker is moving to midseason.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the Season 9, episode 14 season finale of “The Masked Singer,” which aired May 17 on Fox. Like a river, Bishop Briggs kept a steady flow throughout Season 9 of Fox’s “The Masked Singer” — and her perseverance was rewarded with the championship. Briggs, as Medusa, won this season’s top prize and was finally unmasked on Wednesday night’s finale, along with runner-up David Archuleta, revealed as the Macaw. Briggs, who performed the most of any contestant this season, sealed her victory with performances of “Elastic Heart,” by Sia, and “Welcome to the Black Parade,” by My Chemical Romance. Although Briggs said singing under the Medusa costume was a challenge, she pointed out that it was nothing compared to what she did last year.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Producers Guild of America will hold its next PGA Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 25, 2024, presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald DeLine announced on Wednesday. The 2024 installment will mark the 35th annual PGA Awards ceremony. Here is this year’s PGA Awards calendar: Eligibility Period for 2024 Producers Guild Awards Notice of Producing Credits Form Deadline

ABC has released a shocking new schedule for the Fall 2023 season and it lacks any original scripted content due to the ongoing writer’s strike.

The Traitors is going to be a “different game” when the psychological reality TV show returns to the BBC, according to its production company following the huge success of its first run.

William Earl UPDATED: The network upfronts are once again front-and-center for the television industry as major players gather in New York May 15-17 for the springtime ritual of presenting programming plans for the upcoming TV season. Upfronts are always a hectic time, but this year it’s even more so because of the writers strike that began May 2. Writers and many actors are sitting out the upfront presentations in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America. The promise of WGA pickets surrounding all major events spurred Netflix to make a hasty decision to switch to a virtual presentation rather than an in-person event at the company’s Paris Theater.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large From the moment an animated “Ted” opened the NBCUniversal upfront, voiced by Seth MacFarlane prior to the writers strike, it was clear this was going to be an abbreviated event. For starters, until a week ago, this was still going to be Linda Yaccarino’s Radio City Music Hall show. But with Yaccarino off running Twitter (“Ted” making a crack about the crazies now at Twitter earned the biggest inadvertent laugh of the morning), it was up to Mark Marshall, NBCU interim chairman, global advertising & partnerships, to make the pitch to advertisers. “In all of our conversations leading up today, regardless of client or category, there has been one constant…this is going to be a very important year for your businesses,” Marshall said, counting 32 pharma launches, 60 auto releases (including 46 electric vehicles) and over 100 movie releases (“which puts us back to pre-pandemic levels”) this year. “We know this is a competitive year. And here at NBCUniversal, we are built for these moments.”

NBC is opening up a new fall comedy block on Tuesday nights and has pushed a couple of its drama series to midseason.

Selome Hailu “Lopez vs. Lopez” has been renewed for its second season at NBC. Starring George Lopez opposite his real-life daughter Mayan, the multi-cam comedy follows a working-class old-school Latino (George) who moves in with his Gen Z daughter (Mayan) as they rebuild their dysfunctional relationship one argument at a time. Along with the Lopezes, stars include Matt Shively as Mayan’s live-in boyfriend Quinten Van Bryan, Brice Gonzalez as their son Chance Lopez-Van Bryan, Selenis Leyva as Mayan’s mother and Geroge’s ex Rosie and Al Madrigal as George’s employee Oscar. The series frequently features guest roles played by prominent Latino actors such as Constance Marie, Rita Moreno, Justina Machado, Marilyn Milian, Danny Trejo and Melissa Fumero.

CBS has unveiled their Fall 2023 schedule and there are some major caveats and changes that come along with the change.

In May 2020, CBS announced what then-CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl called “‘fall’ schedule with quotes,” featuring the shows they wanted without knowing when each would be ready amid the pandemic-related global production shutdown.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large CBS is supersizing two of its signature reality franchises: “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” will permanently expand to 90-minute episodes next season, the network announced Thursday morning as it unveiled its 2023-2024 TV lineup. The Eye network went first with its fall plans, but there’s a caveat to it all: The writers strike means it’s very likely that primetime won’t look at all like this come September. And indeed, CBS already has contingency plans in place, including several unscripted series waiting in the wings. But for now, CBS will head into fall with a primetime schedule that looks nearly identical to its current one. The Wednesday switch to just “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” for example, simply takes the night’s current 10 p.m. inhabitant, the canceled “True Lies,” out of the equation. Last fall, CBS opened the season with three reality shows on the night: “Survivor,” “The Real Love Boat” and “The Amazing Race,” so an all-reality Wednesday is not uncommon. (Nor are expanded 90-minute editions of “Survivor” or “The Amazing Race,” but until now those were reserved for special moments, like premieres and finales.)

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “Mrs. Davis” may be one of the most surprising and unconventional new series of the spring — and now it’s making a surprising and unconventional move in the Emmy race as well. As the Television Academy deadline for category submissions ends today, Peacock has decided to make a last-minute shift and move the series into the limited/anthology series categories. Betty Gilpin stars in “Mrs. Davis” as Simone, a sometimes nun who takes on her nemesis, the artificial intelligence being known only as “Mrs. Davis,” and strikes a deal with the algorithm — which promises to shut down if Simone finds and destroys the holy grail. This exploration of faith and technology comes from executive producers Tara Hernandez (“The Big Bang Theory”) and Damon Lindelof (“The Leftovers”).