Jennifer Maas Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery is giving DC Studios a primary production hub at its U.K.-based TV and film studio Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the home of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” amid a sprawling plan to expand the location by more than 50% capacity and 10 sound stages.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “The Recruit” producer P3 Media has scored a seven-figure investment from Ready Entertainment, a company led by Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Bernice A. King, and Ashley Bell.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fox’s Tubi and Dan Abrams’ Law&Crime have teamed up on a true-crime series, “Behind the Crime.” The limited series will launch Sept. 20 with an episode about the 2019 murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Amazon is taking back to school shopping to a whole new level with a virtual experience to promote the Sept. 29 debut of “The Boys” college spinoff “Gen V.” On Tuesday, the e-commerce giant launched GodolkinUniversity.com, a “Gen V”-themed website that includes an online campus tour for the show’s fictional superhero college, Godolkin University, that gives users the chance to purchase 150 items from Amazon.com through the company’s first-ever “title-themed virtual store.” The “Gen V” tie-in website allows you to explore the campus, including the campus store, and gives you multiple opportunities to purchase Godolkin University merchandise through the Amazon website, as well as standard dorm room supplies already available on Amazon.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Duff Goldman is staying put at his longtime TV home Food Network. The Ace of Cakes has signed a new multiyear, multiproject pact with the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned brand, covering both currently airing series, like Goldman’s beloved “Baking Championship” franchise of seasonal competitions, and upcoming titles, including the upcoming holiday event series “The Elf on the Shelf: Sweet Showdown.” Among Goldman’s other recent Food Network series are “Ace of Taste,” “Cake Masters,” “Dessert Games,” “Buddy vs.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer CBS Studios has suspended term deals with talkshow star Phil “Dr. Phil” McGraw, BET+’s “Kingdom Business” producer DeVon Franklin and “Nancy Drew” executive producer Lis Rowinski due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. Representatives for CBS Studios declined to comment on the suspension of these deals Monday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Author Rebecca Yarros’s romance-fantasy series “Fourth Wing” has had a chokehold on TikTok’s reader community #BookTok this summer. That heat eventually was reflected on the The New York Times bestseller list — a place where many a viral hit goes after influencers and fans elevate its popularity beyond the virtual realm and into the mainstream. As of early September, “Fourth Wing” was riding high at No.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer NBCUniversal Entertainment has tapped Universal Television Alternative Studio exec Christine Cowan as its new senior vice president of casting and talent. In her new role, Cowan will head up casting and talent management for scripted and unscripted shows, with a particular focus on unscripted, across the NBCUniversal Entertainment brands NBC, Bravo, E!, Oxygen True Crime, SYFY, USA Network, Universal Kids and Peacock.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer On the heels of its splashy debut, the producers behind Netflix’s “One Piece” say scripts for a possible Season 2 are completed and that the next season could be “ready to air” in a year, once production is able to begin. “We’ve got scripts ready,” Marty Adelstein, CEO of Tomorrow Studios, which produces the live-action “One Piece” in partnership with manga creator Eiichiro Oda and publisher Shueisha, told Variety Thursday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount+ saw its first price increase this year with the launch of Paramount+ With Showtime, and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish says it won’t be the streamer’s last. The goal is to hike the cost of Paramount+ With Showtime once again at some point in the next two years. “Our plan is to raise price again, this isn’t our only price increase.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Comcast and Disney last week signed a modification agreement to bring forward the timing of their formal Hulu sale talks to Sept. 30 from its previous January 2024 timeline, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts says.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Amid an ongoing strike, the Writers Guild of America East begins voting today on its new council members, including the successor for longtime president Michael Winship. With the strike environment generating solidarity across the WGAE and its WGA West counterpart, it would seem that the election would be a straightforward affair with WGAE members on the same page about what they want from their guild.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery expects the ongoing Hollywood strikes to have a $300 million-$500 million negative impact on the company’s 2023 earnings.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of “One Piece,” now streaming on Netflix. Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s bestselling manga “One Piece” launched Friday, giving fans their long-awaited chance to compare the eight-episode first season to its print and anime versions. The manga takes place in a fantastical world where pirates and marines battle for control over the Blue Sea.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “How I Met Your Father” has been canceled after two seasons at Hulu, Variety has confirmed. The Hilary Duff-led “How I Met Your Mother” spinoff concluded its second (and now final) season July 11 without revealing who Duff’s character, Sophie, ended up having a child with.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of “One Piece,” now streaming on Netflix. “One Piece” lodged two cannonballs at its viewers in its first season, one coming halfway through the pirate manga TV adaptation, and the other at the very end. First up was both a big reveal and a deviation from “One Piece” creator Eiichiro Oda’s original story: aspiring pirate king Monkey D.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer New York City filming permits declined 53% year over year in August, which marked the first full month of the year during which both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) were on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Per the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MoME), 364 permits were issued to 157 projects from Aug. 1 to Aug.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers through Episode 2 of “One Piece,” now streaming on Netflix. When Marc Jobst came on as director and executive producer of “One Piece,” Netflix and Tomorrow Studios’ adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s iconic pirate manga, he had a clear connection to the gig early on, as he had directed multiple episodes of the high-seas drama “Black Sails.” That show, which ran for four season on Starz, features several of the ships that Netflix commandeered to refashion into the bright and colorful ones used in “One Piece.” While the series’ crew was handling that overhaul, Jobst (who has also directed episodes of “The Witcher,” and an episode of “Luke Cage” that was written by “One Piece” co-showrunner Matt Owens) was working to create an overall aesthetic for the “blue skies” adaptation of “One Piece” that also allowed for the natural incorporation of the manga’s darkest elements, including villain Buggy the Clown (Jeff Ward). Buggy is a nemesis that teenage aspiring pirate king Monkey D.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The breakout popularity of “Stranger Things” and “Wednesday” was a boon for Netflix execs, but also a lesson — both forced a scramble to line up marketing and licensing deals after launch. If the streamer’s upcoming fantasy-adventure series “One Piece” similarly turns into a phenom — as the early hype indicates — this time they’ll be ready. Of all the titles promoted out of Netflix’s June 17 Tudum fan event, “One Piece” — the live-action TV series adaptation of the bestselling manga — was the most talked about, outpacing everything else featured at the São Paulo affair four to one, according to Netflix.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Rarely seen “One Piece” creator Eiichiro Oda gave his blessing to Netflix’s live-action adaptation of his bestselling manga in a video shared by the streamer Tuesday ahead of the show’s Aug. 31 launch.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Chef and restauranteur Franco Noriega has landed his own cooking show at Food Network, “Hot Dish with Franco.” If you’re familiar with Noriega from his shirtless appearances on talk shows and clips shared on social media, you’ll get the double entendre reference here, as he’s widely known as the “naked Peruvian chef.” The half-hour daytime show will premiere Sept. 30 at 12 p.m. on Food Network.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Chip and Joanna Gaines are ready to roll. The home renovation titans behind Magnolia Network are developing a roller dancing competition series for Max.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Vice TV has set the premiere date and released the trailer for “Dark Side of Comedy” Season 2, its “Dark Side” spinoff series that explores the behind-the-scenes stories of iconic comedians. Season 2 subjects include Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, Joan Rivers, Carlos Mencia, Phil Hartman, Tracy Morgan, the sitcom “Family Matters,” Ellen DeGeneres, Norm MacDonald and Gilda Radner.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Food Network fires up the second season of “Bobby’s Triple Threat” Tuesday, treating fans to the return of host Bobby Flay and the three “titan” chefs he’s once again relying on to do the cooking competition for him: Tiffany Derry, Michael Voltaggio and Brooke Williamson. The trio will face off against chef Michael Symon as a team, going for three head-to-head rounds full of surprise ingredients and evaluated by a mystery judge on the Season 2 premiere Tuesday at 9 p.m.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Season 1 finale of “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars” on Fox. A (food) star was born on Fox Wednesday, when Gordon Ramsay picked the winner of his new food business-focused competition series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Layoffs have hit the streaming marketing team at HBO and Max. A source close to the situation told Variety Wednesday that the cuts are in the double digits, but no specific number was available at the time of publication. The insider says the content division is not impacted by these layoffs.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from the Season 2 finale of Fox’s “Crime Scene Kitchen.” While the final bake of Fox’s “Crime Scene Kitchen” Season 2 turned out to be a “Dark and Stormy” cake, inspired by the cocktail of the same name, it was a light and sunny treat for contestants Amber Croom and Yassmeen Haskins. The classically trained baking duo beat out the other two teams competing for the Joel McHale-hosted mystery baking competition’s second-season trophy in Monday’s finale episode, titled “I Need a Drink.” And they did it without even making the exact right recipe, as they had first decided to make a “Dark and Stormy” cake, they pivoted to a piña colada-flavored version when they started to doubt their detective work.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery is getting into the spooky spirit early, setting the Halloween-themed programming slate for its cable networks, which includes the linear debut of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” as well as new and returning specials and film marathons across Food Network, Discovery Channel, TNT, TBS, TCM, Travel Channel and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim. The leader in Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger addressed the ongoing writers and actors strikes during the Mouse House’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday, just as the WGA’s work stoppage hit the 100-day mark. “Nothing is more important to this company than its relationships with the creative community. That includes actors, writers, animators, directors and producers,” Iger said.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Gordon Ramsay’s “MasterChef” has been renewed for a 14th season at Fox ahead of airing its milestone 250th episode Wednesday at 8 p.m. “I cannot believe 250 episodes have flown by since we started this journey in 2010,” Ramsay told Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer In the summer of strikes and labor action, calls for reality TV personalities to form a union are gaining steam. Bethenny Frankel unleashed a storm last month with her unvarnished criticism of Bravo and other unscripted-focused platforms for the way that unscripted stars are treated behind the scenes. Frankel was not shy about detailing what she described as commonplace abuses, including producers manipulating contestants for the cameras.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nexstar reported its second-quarter 2023 earnings Tuesday, revealing the TV stations group giant had turned a profit of $153 million in Q2, while its CW broadcast network posted a loss of $78 million for the April-June quarter. For the CW, which was formally acquired by Nexstar in October 2022 from Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, a year-over-year comparison can’t be drawn based on the lack of financial results disclosed publicly by its former parent companies.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Paramount Global hosted its second-quarter earnings call Tuesday amid the ongoing writers and actors strikes in Hollywood. Just like every other major media company that has reported its Q2 results already, the CBS parent company’s execs addressed the work stoppages with hopes for a timely resolution and comments on how it will affect their business operations. “We anticipate continued delays in production for the duration of the strikes, and as such, we estimate free cash flow in the back half of the year will be significantly higher than previously expected,” Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra said.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Dennis Miller has extended his contract as president of the CW Network through 2027. Miller (pictured above left) joined the network as president in October 2022, following its acquisition by Nexstar Media Group from Paramount Global and Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Longtime “Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. spoke about the future of late-night TV at Variety and Rolling Stone’s Truth Seekers Summit, presented by Showtime, saying he believes studios don’t realize that the more they look to downsize shows, the more likely they will face stiff competition from TikTok creators and other social media stars who can retain the rights to their content.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery reported the Hollywood writers and actors’ ongoing work stoppage had brought the company savings in the “low$100 million range” during its Q2 earnings results call Thursday. “We’re in the business of storytelling.