‘The Girls On The Bus’ Adds CNN’s Abby Phillip As Consultant, Brandon Scott As Series Regular; Griffin Dunne Among 7 Set To Recur

EXCLUSIVE: Hazy Mill Productions, the production company behind Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner, is ramping up its podcast slate.

Saturday AM Update: TriStar/eOne’s The Woman King is coming in higher than expected with a $18M opening boosted by lively word of mouth with an A+ CinemaScore and a massive 95% positive on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak. Friday, including $1.7M previews, came in at $6.8M.

Chicago Fire is one of the most successful shows on NBC and it led to the inception of the Chicago franchise on the network.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor “Saturday Night Live” is trying to replenish its ranks after many of its best-known cast members have signaled they intend to leave the show. The venerable NBC late-night program has enlisted four new featured players for its 48th season, a move that will lend some ballast to the cast after mainstays like Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant decided to leave. In many years, “”Saturday Night Live”” taps two or three new players per season, so four is more than the show typically brings on board. The four new featured players include Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker. Hernandez, who bills himself as a writer, comedian and producer, is a Cuban-Dominican stand-up who has opened for Tim Dillon, Jim Breuer, Mark Viera, Gilbert Gottfried and others. Kearney is a Chicago-based comic. Longfellow, who hails from Arizona, has done stand up in Los Angeles. And Walker, who has made a few lists of up-and-coming comedians recently, hails from New York City.

EXCLUSIVE: Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola (South Side) has joined the cast of the Marvel Studios Disney+ series in an undisclosed role, Deadline has learned.

She said she was leaving and didn’t want to take any more of it on season one of FX’s hit summer Hulu streaming series The Bear. 

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large David E. Kelley has heard it for most of his career — that he has a knack for writing compelling female leads. Case in point: “Ally McBeal,” written at a time when there weren’t many strong leading women on television. “I usually duck for cover,” Kelley says about the mention of this part of his TV legacy. “More times than not I feign ignorance and just go, ‘Look, I just try to write characters as interestingly, and with as much dimension as possible.’ I’ve not ever felt that I’ve got an inside track on female characters or the feminine mystique in any way. I just try to write characters. I’m always a bit confused [when people say], ‘you write your females just as strong as the men.’ And I’m like, why wouldn’t I?”

The Dutton family is expanding with the addition of James Badge Dale (Hightown, 24), Darren Mann (Animal Kingdom, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Marley Shelton (Never Been Kissed, Rise) to the Paramount+ spinoff .

Kanye West has aimed a blistering rant at Kim Kardashian raging about a "porn addiction" which "destroyed" his family and comparing the men to "sperm donors". The rapper posted a series of messages online which appeared to be part of a disagreement with Kim over where to send their four children - North, nine, Chicago, four, Saint, six, and Psalm, three - to school with Kanye suggesting he wanted the kids to attend the institution he founded - the Donda Academy - instead of the private Sierra Canyon school in Los Angeles. In one of the notes posted online, Kanye wrote: "It’s not up to Calabasas or Hulu where my kids go to school I’m not the crazy one here It’s up.

Not holding back. Kanye West took to social media to speak out about the well-being of his children — seemingly accusing Kris Jenner and the porn industry of “destroying” his family.

Most of the 21 Broadway productions on the boards last week showed some signs of summer doldrums, with 17 shows reporting drops in box office over the previous week. Still, with The Music Man back on the roster after a week’s hiatus, the overall total box office take of $23,513,592 was up about 6%.

Jesse Lee Soffer has announced that he is leaving Chicago PD after the upcoming 10th season.

Jennifer Connelly is swapping Maverick for mind-bending realities after landing a starring role in Apple series Dark Matter.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Jennifer Connelly is set to star opposite Joel Edgerton in the Apple series adaptation of the Blake Crouch novel “Dark Matter,” Variety has learned. The nine-episode series was ordered at Apple in March. It will follow Jason Dessen (Edgerton), a physicist, professor, and family man who – one night while walking home on the streets of Chicago – is abducted into an alternate version of his life. Wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the multiverse of lives he could have lived. In this labyrinth of mind-bending realities, he embarks on a harrowing journey to get back to his true family and save them from the most terrifying, unbeatable foe imaginable: himself.

EXCLUSIVE: The long-awaited sequel to the classic comedy franchise is a go as sources tell Deadline that Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have joined series star Eddie Murphy in Netflix’s newly titled Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. Production on the sequel is under way with Mark Molloy directing. Murphy is back as Axel Foley and will produce along with Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer films. Will Beall penned the script.

A new musical written by Anna Deavere Smith and featuring music from the Ella Fitzgerald songbook is currently in development. Ella: An American Miracle will receive an Aug. 25-Sept. 21 work session, with Tony-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater and Charity Angél Dawson portraying the iconic singer at different points in her life.