PBS Chief Details Diversity Efforts, Promises Change In How It Recuits Filmmakers and ‘NewsHour’ Staff

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Pearson family will be hitting the bench for a few weeks as the final season of “This Is Us” is bumped from NBC’s primetime schedule — along with all of the network’s other regularly slated comedies and dramas —  to bring in the Beijing Winter Olympics.While many “This Is Us” fans may not want to part with new episodes of the show in favor of figure-skating, curling and bobsledding competitions from Feb. 2-20, those viewers should know they were going to lose the Pearsons for three weeks this season, with or without the 2022 Olympics.“We don’t love having it off for two weeks [during the Olympics], but those two weeks would have been repeats or preempts anyway, because there’s 18 episodes and 21 weeks,” Steve Kern, head of scheduling for NBC, told Variety. “And so it actually helps us.

London-based artist Obongjayar has confirmed details of his long-awaited debut album Some Nights I Dream Of Doors. The album features the previously released "Message In A Hammer" and new song "Try," a video for which you can see below.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterA+E Networks has promoted Sharon Scott to president of the company’s unscripted division, including Category 6 Media and Six West Media.In this newly created role, Scott, who most recently served as executive vice president of Category 6 Media, will have oversight of A+E Network’s expanding full-service nonfiction content creation unit. She will continue to report directly to Paul Buccieri, president and chairman of A+E Networks Group.Additionally, A+E Networks has upped Steve Ascher, who was previously executive vice president of Six West Media, to oversee development for the company’s entire unscripted division, including Category 6 Media.

A+E Networks has bolstered its unscripted production division: Sharon Scott has been promoted to President of the unit, which comprises Category 6 Media and Six West Media, while Steve Ascher has been upped to oversee development for the entire unscripted division.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis-featuring film This Much I Know To Be True has been released – you can watch the clip below.The Andrew Dominik-directed film is set for release later this year, and will be a companion piece to the 2016 music documentary One More Time With Feeling. It’ll premiere at the Berlin Film Festival later this month.This Much I Know To Be True will explore Cave and Ellis’ creative relationship and feature songs from their last two studio albums, 2019’s ‘Ghosteen’ (by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) and last year’s ‘Carnage’ (Nick Cave and Warren Ellis).The first clip from This Much I Know To Be True has been released today (February 3), and begins with Cave discussing his own definition of his artistry.The clip concludes with Ellis conducting a string quartet as Cave performs the track ‘Lavender Fields’ – you can watch the first teaser video for This Much I Know To Be True above.The film was shot on location in London and Brighton last year, and will “document the duo’s first performances of the albums and feature a special appearance by close friend and long-term collaborator, Marianne Faithfull“ (via Deadline).It’ll also visit the workshop where Cave is “creating a series of sculptures depicting the life of the Devil”.

Chris Willman Music WriterSheryl Crow, Nick Cave, King Crimson, Dio, XXXTentacion, Tanya Tucker, Chumbawamba, Courtney Barnett, Cesária Évora and Mojo Nixon — together again for the first time: These are some of the highly diverse subjects of a slate of music documentaries (or, in the case of Tierra Whack, a fictional film) set to unspool at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin March 11-20.The 16 movies represented in the “24 Beats Per Second” lineup are nearly all world premieres, in a film festival that skews toward SXSW’s original roots as a pure music festival by always carving out a special category for features that chronicle musicians or music scenes.The music doc coming into the festival with probably the highest level of fan anticipation is , which promises to have director Sabaah Folayan offering “a sensitive portrayal” of a precocious, highly controversial, Soundcloud-based rapper “whose acts of violence, raw musical talent and open struggles with mental health left an indelible mark on his generation before his death at the age of 20.” While many of the festival entries are looking for a sale from their exposure at SXSW, “Look at Me!” is already set to stream on Hulu this summer. Joining the artist profiles in the film lineup are documentaries about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story,” by co-directors Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern, and rubber bridge guitars, in “Really Good Rejects,” a film that will have producer Aaron Dessner talking about using them on Taylor Swift’s recent folkier albums.Some of the films promise to be complete life and career chronicles, like those devoted to Crow, Barnett and Dio.

Today, at the winter TCA event, Paramount+ revealed much about their new slate and a renewal for season two of Taylor Sheridan’s “Mayor Of Kingstown” series starring Jeremy Renner, among other updates. But that’s not all.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterParamount Plus revealed Tuesday it is moving forward on developing TV series remakes of classic ’80s movies “Urban Cowboy” and “Flashdance,” bringing on “Dear White People” creator Justin Simien to write and direct the latter project.Additionally, the ViacomCBS-owned streamer said during its virtual session at the Television Critics Association press tour it has put a docu-comedy series from “Mr. Show” duo Bob Odenkirk and David Cross in the works.The “Urban Cowboy” project comes after Paramount Television Studios first set up development on a TV series based on the film of the same name at Fox in 2015, which was later scrapped.

Martin Dale ContributorHiventy-Monal, one of France’s leading post-production companies, is seeing rising demand across its range of services, including film processing, dubbing and subtitling, post-production, film restoration and BluRay mastering. It has operations in France, Poland, Singapore, Vietnam, Kenya and Nigeria.Hiventy has one of the few film lab services in Europe.

including here at TheWrap), but has drawn fire on social media for the fact that the film calls the men “terrorists,” and because the filmmaker herself is not Muslim. One typical tweet by writer Jude Chehab of Turkish news website TRT World says: “When I, a practising Muslim woman say [the film’] is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying it’s not.”Smaker, who spent five years making the film, told TheWrap that the movie challenges assumptions about people Americans regard as terrorists, while also offering a never-before-seen perspective into the men who embraced the ideology of groups like al Qaeda.

“And Now Let’s Turn to Page…” Brent Cobb (Ol’ Buddy Records)Brent Cobb’s discography tells a story — and with his first gospel album “And Now Let’s Turn to Page…” the country singer’s narrative takes a turn toward the spiritual. It’s quite a lane-change from, say, the bar room hijinks of 2018’s “Providence Canyon,” but it packs all the heart of 2020’s more mellow “Keep ’Em On They Toes.”The latest project is a worthy one, with Cobb sounding right at home in the church pew.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched the premiere of “Promised Land” on ABC or Hulu. One could say that Matt Lopez was born to be the first to break ground at ABC as the creator of a multigenerational series about a wealthy, interwoven Latino family vying for power and prestige in Sonoma Valley.Armed with the lived experience of the Latino diaspora as the grandson of a Cuban immigrant — along with a keen knack for business affairs, and a background in corporate legalese from his days as an attorney for DreamWorks before he segued into writing via the Disney Writers Program — Lopez has spun a web of immigrant issues and telenovela intrigue in “Promised Land.” While injecting heart and authenticity into a narrative that teeters between “East of Eden” and “Days of Our Lives”-levels of family drama, the creator and executive producer challenges stereotypes made about Latinos in the United States, as well as assumptions about what themes Latino shows “should” tackle. Much of the strength of “Promised Land” lies in its casting, which is almost entirely 100% Latino — John Ortiz, Mariel Molino, Andres Velez, Christina Ochoa, Cecilia Suárez, star, along with Bellamy Young.

Ready, set, cook! Top Chef is set to premiere its 19th season on Thursday, March 3, as the Emmy-winning Bravo series takes on Houston, Texas.

The Wire was almost made using a different opening theme song, according to the show’s creator David Simon.Each of the five seasons of the acclaimed HBO crime drama opened with a different version of Tom Waits‘ 1987 track ‘Way Down In The Hole’, taken from his 10th studio album, ‘Franks Wild Years’.The five versions were sung by The Blind Boys Of Alabama (season one), Tom Waits (season two), The Neville Brothers (season three), DoMaJe (season four), and Steve Earle (season five).However, the show’s creator has now revealed that the opening theme could have been very different had it not been for some serious last minute chasing and help from Waits’ wife Kathleen Brennan.Simon, a longtime fan of Waits, first used music by the US singer-songwriter in a fifth season episode of Homicide: Life On The Street titled ‘Bad Medicine’. When it came time to make The Wire, he dipped back into Waits discography to find something suitable for his new show.“The first [song] I found was ‘Get Behind The Mule,'” Simon told Entertainment Weekly. “And it didn’t quite work, lyrically.