‘Rick and Morty’ Co-Creator Dan Harmon on Deciphering Rick’s Past With Morty’s [SPOILER] for Season 6 Premiere

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Coming off a lot of Emmys love, ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary” went back in session Wednesday with a Season 2 premiere that kept pace with its freshman finale last spring. According to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data, Episode 1 of Season 2 averaged a 0.5 rating among adults ages 18-49 and 2.8 million total viewers, tying it with “The Conners” Season premiere for ABC’s highest-rated show during Wednesday primetime. That marks a solid start to the new school year for “Abbott Elementary,” which put up a 0.6 rating and 2.8 million total viewers in the comparable Nielsen metrics for its Season 1 finale in April.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Alex vs America” has been renewed for a third season at Food Network, Variety has learned exclusively. Production is set to begin this month on Season 3 of the primetime cable series, with new episodes to debut next year.  “Alex vs America” Season 2, which aired July 31-Sept. 11, averaged more than 9.1 million total viewers, up 44% from Season 1, and a 0.6 rating with adults ages 18 and up, an increase of 17%, according to Nielsen’s Live + 3 Day ratings. Per Food Network’s description for “Alex v. America”:

Fox Entertainment is re-entering the international distribution business by launching a sales unit ahead of Mipcom Cannes next month.

K.J. Yossman Fox Entertainment has launched Los Angeles-based Fox Entertainment Global, tapping Fernando Szew as its new CEO. Fox Entertainment Global will act as a centralized content sales division, Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier revealed today. It will oversee the international distribution of Fox Entertainment content as well as managing content sales on behalf of MarVista Entertainment and looking after global content partnerships. The company will make its debut at Cannes television market Mipcom next month, where it will unveil its slate of content to buyers. Among the shows on offer will be animated series “Krapopolis” (pictured above), created by Dan Harmon, and Jon Hamm’s “Grimsburg” (both produced by Fox Entertainment’s Bento Box Entertainment) and live-action comedy “Animal Control.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Let the Games Begin,” the “9-1-1” Season 6 premiere. “9-1-1” returned in all its zany glory Monday on Fox with the premiere of its sixth season. During the episode, Oliver Stark’s Evan “Buck” Buckley tackled a blimp emergency with his team at the 118 — and yet that somehow wasn’t the biggest hurdle he had to overcome in the Season 6 premiere. Here, Variety breaks down the episode, titled “Let the Games Begin,” with Stark and how it lays the groundwork for Buck’s journey throughout the rest of “9-1-1” Season 6.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer TLC’s “Sister Wives” returned Sunday, drawing the show’s highest-rated season premiere in six years with the first episode of Season 11. Per Nielsen data, the reality show’s 11th season premiere averaged 2.2 million total viewers and a 1.42 rating among women ages 18-49, the advertiser-coveted demographic for the cable channel. That demo rating was the highest for a “Sister Wives” premiere in six years. Additionally, Episode 1 of Season 11 drew a 1.91 rating among women ages 25-54, another key market for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned TLC. According to TLC, on the “Sister Wives” Season 11 premiere night Sunday, “tweet volume saw triple digit growth compared to the previous premiere,” growing 192%). It was also the top primetime cable reality program on Facebook, No. 3 on Instagram and No. 4 on Twitter for social interactions.

Quinta Brunson’s voice is hoarse. The days of pre-award festivities leading up to the Sept. 12 ceremony were frantic, starting with Variety’s Showrunners Dinner (where she swapped war stories with fellow TV creators like Dan Harmon, Danny Strong and Liz Meriwether). Then came the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles, the Governors Gala and Disney’s post-Emmy celebration, which spilled into the next day. Something had to give. Yet when the “Abbott Elementary” creator and star sits down for an in-depth interview with Variety, her creative voice is clear and strong.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Ina Garten is bringing four new companions over to chat and eat on “Be My Guest With Ina Garten” Season 2, including Faith Hill, Nathan Lane, Emily Blunt and chef Marcus Samuelsson, Variety has learned exclusively. The second season of the Barefoot Contessa’s Food Network and Discovery+ series will debut Oct. 9 at 12 p.m. ET. Per the “Be My Guest” second season description, “In the season premiere, Ina greets Faith Hill with frozen palomas and fresh guacamole and they become fast friends while talking about family, love and music. Faith’s daughter Gracie joins the party to help bake her family’s cola cake recipe and they then take a drive to Topping Rose House to celebrate their new friendship.  In the following episode, Ina serves Nathan Lane a taste of nostalgia with her Rum Raisin Rice Pudding recipe, and they discuss his childhood, personal life and show business career from the early years to his prolific roles on stage and screen.  She also gives cooking-novice Nathan a lesson in making Mussels with Saffron Cream. 

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The death of Queen Elizabeth II prompted the Claire Foy-led first season of “The Crown” to crack the Netflix Top 10 last week. Per Netflix, “HRH Queen Elizabeth II was in the hearts and minds of viewers” as Season 1 of the streamer’s Royal Family drama was watched for 17.6 million hours between Sept. 5-11. That put it in the No. 7 spot for English-language TV series. Meanwhile, the fifth season of “Cobra Kai” easily took the No. 1 slot on that list with 106 million hours viewed in the first three days post-Friday launch. In second place was limited series “Devil in Ohio,” which had 70.8 million hours viewed, followed by the first season of “The Imperfects” with 24.1 million.

Rick And Morty co-creator Dan Harmon has said that fans will “definitely” be seeing Evil Morty again.The writer addressed the villainous character last seen at the end of season five, as the start of season six had introduced a new villain to the series.“You will definitely be seeing him again,” Harmon said of Evil Morty after discussing the season six premiere with Variety.He added that fans might have to wait a while, saying: “I caution that we may not be seeing him soon. He’s an easy guy to forget about because he kind of took care of himself.”Discussing the return of Evil Morty in future seasons of the show, Harmon added: “He just wanted to get beyond the Central Finite Curve.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-Jae has been cast as the male lead in Disney+’s “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte,” Variety has confirmed. “Russian Doll” co-creator Leslye Headland is showrunning the series, with Amandla Stenberg (“The Hate U Give”) set to star in the leading woman role. Going farther back in time than any live-action “Star Wars” title before it, “The Acolyte” is set a century before the events of “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.” The series promises to depict the galaxy at the peak of the era of the High Republic, when the Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were believed to have been eradicated from the galaxy.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer CBS’ 24th season of “Big Brother” has been watched for more than 8 billion minutes just over two months into its run, with still one-third of the season to go. Since the July 6 Season 24 premiere on CBS, “viewers have already watched nearly 8.3 billion minutes of ‘Big Brother’ so far this summer on the CBS Television Network, Paramount+ and CBS.com/the CBS app,” per Nielsen linear ratings and Paramount+ internal data provided by Paramount Global Wednesday. That tally encompasses both full episodes of “Big Brother” Season 24 watched via broadcast and streaming, as well as the live feeds from the “Big Brother” house that are only available on Paramount+. This data marks the first time that Paramount Global has released specific viewership figures surrounding broadcast content available on Paramount+. (For reference, Paramount+ now has 43.3. million paid subscribers, as of August.)

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Amazon broke a long held precedent Saturday by revealing viewership data for a Prime Video series for the first time ever, making the exception on remaining tight-lipped about its internal TV ratings for its big-budget “The Lord of the Rings” TV series. According to the e-commerce giant, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was viewed by 25 million viewers globally over the initial 24 hours that the TV series’ first two episodes were available for streaming on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories. Amazon’s “The Rings of Power” debuted globally Sept. 1/Sept. 2, depending on what territory and time zone Prime customers were streaming from across the world when the first two episodes dropped at 6 p.m. PT/ 9 p.m. ET Thursday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the two-episode premiere of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” At the end of the first episode of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” one of two installments dropped by Amazon Prime Video on the show’s launch day, young Harfoot Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) follows a fiery object that’s come shooting down from the skies of Middle-earth to find a mysterious, barely clothed man unconscious at the center of a flaming crater that’s been hollowed out in the earth. By the end of the second episode, Nori and her best friend Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) are watching the large man, played by Daniel Weyman and credited only as “The Stranger,” throw fireflies into the sky to create what Nori thinks is a map of specific stars he’s trying to find — before those fireflies burn out and fall to the ground.

Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon has revealed plans to release a new season of the show every year.Ahead of the show’s sixth season, Harmon discussed the future of Rick and Morty in an interview with TheWrap.“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever said about the show and it still feels unreal to say it, but we’ll be doing a season a year now,” Harmon said.“I still don’t understand how that’s possible. But that’s why it never happened on my watch.

“Rick and Morty” fans were happy to learn in 2018 that the beloved animated series had been renewed for an additional 70 episodes, but now as creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon are about halfway through that mammoth order, how are they feeling about the longevity of the series? Optimistic would be an understatement.“I think the show could run forever,” Roiland told TheWrap during a recent interview about the upcoming sixth season. “The show could run as long as we want it to.”Harmon concurred in a separate interview, saying theoretically “Rick and Morty” could continue on for 1000 episodes — his ideal number for a good TV show.“As far as the longevity of the show, to me, it just feels infinite.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix has set a third installment of Joe Berlinger’s “Conversations With a Killer” docuseries, this one focused on serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, Variety has learned exclusively. Titled “Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes,” the three-part series will launch Oct. 7 on the streamer. Here is the official description for “Conversations With a Killer” season 3, per Netflix: When Milwaukee police entered the apartment of 31-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer in July of 1991, they uncovered the grisly personal museum of a serial killer: a freezer full of human heads, skulls, bones and other remains in various states of decomposition and display. Dahmer quickly confessed to 16 murders in Wisconsin over the previous four years, plus one more in Ohio in 1978, as well as unimaginable acts of necrophilia and cannibalism. The discovery shocked the nation and stunned the local community, who were incensed that such a depraved killer had been allowed to operate within their city for so long. Why was Dahmer, who had been convicted of sexual assault of a minor in 1988, able to avoid suspicion and detection from police as he stalked Milwaukee’s gay scene for victims, many of whom were people of color?

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Soldier Boy’s daddy is joining “The Boys” for its fourth season — kind of. In a move that is sure to bring joy to the “Supernatural” fandom, Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been added to the cast of the Amazon superhero series for Season 4, marking yet another reunion between an alum of the long-running CW series and its creator Eric Kripke, who is now showrunner of “The Boys.” “Walking Dead” star Morgan will be a recurring guest star on the fourth season of “The Boys,” with details about his character being kept under wraps for now. On The CW’s now-ended “Supernatural,” Morgan played John Winchester, the demon-hunting father of Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki), whom he taught the “family business” from a very early age following the death of their mother Mary (Samantha Smith) at the hands of a yellow-eyed demon in the series opening moments.

Aubrey Plaza as Laura, Lucy DeVito as Chrissy and Danny DeVito — Lucy’s real-life dad — as Satan.“Laura is a single mom and she’s a young mom and she’s kind of this rebel woman,” Plaza, 38, told The Post. “She doesn’t really fit into the norms of suburbia but she’s trying to do the best for her daughter — raising her and fighting off demons, literally, at the same time.“I remember saying early on that I was obsessed with modeling Laura after Jamie Lee Curtis in ‘Blue Steel,'” she said, alluding to the 1990 movie in which Curtis played a rookie NYPD officer who learns she’s dating a serial killer (Ron Silver). “Imagine if she had a kid? What kind of mother would she have been like?”“Little Demon” premieres Aug.

Dan Harmon gave his most concrete answers to date when asked by Newsweek about the long-aborning Community movie.