‘The Amazing Race’ Emotional Season 36 Trailer Kicks Things Off in Puerto Vallarta (EXCLUSIVE)

Ethan Shanfeld While “The Bear” is currently in production on Season 3, sources confirm to Variety that FX is already cooking up Season 4, which will film back to back with the third season. FX renewed the Chicago-set restaurant dramedy for Season 3 in November and has not announced a Season 4 renewal. A spokesperson for the network declined to comment.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 11, Episode 2 of “The Masked Singer,” “The Wizard of Oz Night,” which aired March 13 on Fox. Chrisley didn’t know best, at least on “The Masked Singer.” As her “Chrisley Knows Best” parents Julie and Todd Chrisley remain in prison for bank fraud, daughter Savannah Chrisley was unmasked on the hit Fox series this week as the “Afghan Hound.” For Chrisley, no one got it right. Robin Thicke guessed Bethenny Frankel. Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg said Brooke Hogan.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Fresh off her recent stint hosting “Saturday Night Live,” Sydney Sweeney made her way to Austin and SXSW for the world premiere of her new religious horror film “Immaculate” — and on Tuesday night, she had the crowd screaming (and laughing at their own reactions) at the Paramount Theatre. The jump scares, in particular, had the entire theater jumping — and then giggling at their own fear. “Immaculate” leans into horror but also has plenty of moments of dark humor.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Just minutes before the Oscars were set to begin, the show’s producers realized they had a problem: Some of the year’s key A-listers and nominees weren’t inside the Dolby Theatre just yet. The perfect storm of traffic delays, pro-Palestine protests, the first day of daylight saving time and an earlier start time had contributed to the last-minute crunch. “We were definitely stressed out, because we had to have certain celebrities in their seats,” Oscars producer Molly McNearney — also an EP on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” — tells Variety on Monday morning.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “Conan O’Brien Must Go” is finally going. The long-in-the-works project, announced last year during Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfronts presentation, has been given a premiere date: Thursday, April 18 on Max.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large From “Scandoval” to soccer ball. Reality TV uber producer Alex Baskin (“Vanderpump Rules,” “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”) and his 32 Flavors shingle have partnered with tech mogul Alexis Ohanian, soccer star Midge Purce and sports doc producers Box to Box Films (“Drive to Survive,” “Break Point”) to produce the sports docuseries “The Offseason.” National Women’s Soccer League player Purce, who is also a U.S.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the Season 11 season premiere of “The Masked Singer,” which aired March 6 on Fox. “The Masked Singer” kicked off its 11th season on Wednesday night — and in perhaps the show’s most unusual reveal ever, comedian Kevin Hart brought his prank war with host Nick Cannon to the show. Hart brought his one-night-only appearance to “The Masked Singer” as Book, singing the song “So Sick,” by Ne-Yo (who happened to be the Season 10 winner on the show). The performance… was a bit pitchy, dawg.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Tim Allen is one step closer to returning to ABC for a third time. The Alphabet net has given a pilot order to his latest sitcom, “Shifting Gears,” from 20th Television. Allen is on board to star and executive produce the multi-cam sitcom pilot — which is still a working title — which will also be written and executive produced by Mike Scully and Julie Thacker Scully.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large “The Masked Singer” didn’t have to look far to find a fill-in for panelist Nicole Scherzinger, who spent the fall starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard on London’s West End. Singer/songwriter Rita Ora has served as a panelist on “The Masked Singer UK” for several seasons — making it an easy trip across the pond to take Scherzinger’s chair alongside Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg and Robin Thicke. U.S.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large It’s become an Oscars tradition for Kelly Ripa: The “Live With Kelly & Mark” host is positioned back stage to grab the very first interview with a newly minted winner. Every year, those winners are so wrapped up in the moment that they excitedly invite Ripa to appear in their next project or join in on their next vacation. And then they don’t follow through.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Dessert is served: Fox has given a Season 3 order to its baking competition series “Crime Scene Kitchen,” hosted by Joel McHale. The pickup, announced by the network on Monday, also includes the return of chef Curtis Stone and cake artist Yolanda Gampp as celebrity judges.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Jamie Foxx is returning to once again host Fox’s musical game show “Beat Shazam,” after he took last season off in the wake of his hospitalization for a still-undisclosed medical emergency. Nick Cannon took over as host last season. Foxx’s daughter, Corinne Foxx, is also back as the show’s co-host DJ, after she was temporarily replaced last season by Kelly Osbourne.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large On a windy evening in Las Vegas, U2 were finally reunited in the same arena for the first time in five years — sort of. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. attended Friday night’s penultimate U2 show at the Sphere in Las Vegas, where he watched from a box seat in the audience.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large As part of their new deal with Amazon MGM Studios, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne are already at work on breaking stories for Season 3 of the Prime Video series. That comes as Prime Video preps a premiere later this year for Season 2 of the series. A Season 3 writers room isn’t yet open, but the showrunners are at work on the initial story outline.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large ABC has made it a priority this season to turn sophomore series “Will Trent” into an established hit — and so far the strategy seems to be working. The drama’s Season 2 premiere already posted one of the Alphabet net’s most-watched scripted drama episodes among live+same day total viewers in years, at 4.77 million. Now, after three days of viewing on ABC, Hulu and digital platforms, “Will Trent” (which returned on Tuesday, Feb.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Former Jax Media president Brooke Posch has opened her own shingle, Good&Done, aiming to focus on comedy projects from new and undiscovered voices. As part of the launch, Posch has hired former Broadway Video and Universal TV exec Hannah Kitziger to serve as head of development.

FX‘s The Bear cleaned up at the Screen Actors Guild Awards winning all three top comedy series awards including Best Ensemble, Best Actor for Jeremy Allen White and Best Actress for Ayo Edebiri.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Pro tip for Screen Actors Guild Awards viewers: Watch it live. That’s because even those Netflix subscribers on the cheaper advertising tier will still get a commercial-free experience when the telecast runs live on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 3, Episode 2 of “Ghosts,” titled “Man of Your Dreams,” which aired Feb. 22 on CBS. “Ghosts” just revealed a game changer of a storyline that could help give Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) more interaction with the show’s spirits. In the Season 3, Episode 2 installment “Man of Your Dreams,” viewers discovered the ghost power that Sasappis (Román Zaragoza) has been harboring: The ability to enter the dreams of the living.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Cheers to Paramount+‘s “Frasier” revival, which has just landed a Season 2 order at the streamer. The new “Frasier,” which stars Kelsey Grammer in the role he first made famous on “Cheers,” and then on the original “Frasier” (1993-2004), premiered in October with 10 episodes. Last November, Grammer expressed his desire to keep the new “Frasier” going for as long as possible.