Development

HBO announces the Clinton / Trump miniseries we all expected and kind of dreaded. The team behind ‘Game Change’ will produce with Jay Roach directing.

We knew it was coming. Jay Roach even talked to Megan McLachlan about it. We just didn’t expect that outcome. HBO announced today Jay Roach under Tom Hanks’s Playtone production company will bring the whole show to the small screen. The Clinton / Trump miniseries will be based on an unpublished book by Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. Roach’s 2012 film Game Change won five Emmys including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie.

Honestly, I’m not even sure I can stomach it.

HBO’s Press Release

NEW YORK, March 9, 2017 – HBO has announced plans for a miniseries that tells the story of Donald Trump’s dramatic, improbable victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and has enlisted Jay Roach to direct and executive produce and Playtone’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman as executive producers. The miniseries will be based on Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s upcoming third installment of the “Game Change” series, which will be published by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House (PRH), and cover the most stunning political upset of all time.

Based on the 2010 New York Times No. 1 bestseller by Halperin and Heilemann, HBO Films’ “Game Change” was executive produced by Goetzman and Hanks, directed and executive produced by Roach, and starred Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and Ed Harris. Debuting in 2012 on HBO, it went on to win five Emmy® Awards, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie, three Golden Globes, including Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, and a Peabody Award.

Halperin and Heilemann’s book “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime” was widely hailed as the definitive account of the historic 2008 presidential election, and was followed four years later by the New York Times bestselling sequel “Double Down: Game Change 2012.”

Len Amato, president, HBO Films, says, “We are thrilled to continue our relationship with Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, whose work on their bestselling book ‘Game Change’ set the bar for political reporting and storytelling inside a presidential campaign. Reuniting ‘Game Change’ director and executive producer Jay Roach and Playtone producers Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman with Mark and John for a project based on their upcoming book promises to vividly capture the most unique and impactful event in modern American politics.”

Feud Season 2

Ryan Murphy and FX announced today the subject matter for Feud Season 2. The legendary battle between Prince Charles and Lady Diana will take center stage.

With Feud: Bette and Joan on the horizon, many (including we at AwardsDaily TV) wondered what historic feuds would fill Feud Season 2. Would he revisit the Hatfields and the McCoys? The War of the Roses? Brittney versus Justin? Taylor Swift versus Katy Perry? Wait no longer, the news is out. Feud Season 2 will consist of the highly publicized royal divorce between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The new season will consist of 10 episodes with no official air date scheduled.

Let’s call it Feud: Charles and Diana for argument’s sake.

According to Variety, Murphy will work with Jon Robin Baitz to write their infamous story. However, that’s the tricky part for this new season. Feud: Bette and Joan covers material only known to the most invested in historic Hollywood gossip, so many will find it fresh. Finding a new angle with Feud: Charles and Diana will be tough, for sure, with many books, films, television movies, musicals, songs, etc., written about the legendary couple. Murphy took the similarly media saturated O.J. Simpson case and used it as an opportunity to rehabilitate the image of prosecutor Marcia Clark. But what new slant could he take with Charles and Diana?

Personally, I think the Fleetwood Mac story would make for a fascinating chapter of Feud. What famous feuds would you consider the right material? Sound off in the comments below!

Carol Burnett

Carol Burnett may be returning to television in an ABC-purchased pilot executive produced by Amy Poehler.

Carol Burnett. Emmy winner Carol Burnett. Carol. Fucking. Burnett.

Multiple outlets report tonight that the iconic television star will star in an ABC comedy called Household Name. Executive produced by Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation) and Michael Saltzman (Halt and Catch Fire), the comedy received a pilot order from the network. Burnett also serves as executive producer in addition to starring. The setup reads as such: a family wants to buy the house of their dreams, but they must live with the previous owner, a brassy actress played by Burnett.

Burnett received 22 Emmy nominations over her career, winning 6. She’s most famous for The Carol Burnett Show which ran 11 years. That show won best variety-comedy series Emmys three times. She excels for her tremendous take on Gone With the Wind. She also does a mean Gloria Swanson. Both skits are included below.

Went With the Wind

Nora Desmond: The Eulogy

Will & Grace

NBC is moving forward with the Will & Grace reboot. Rejoice all!

Now THIS is some good news to offset all that crappy inauguration crap!

It’s been reported that NBC has officially given the go to continue the beloved bestie comedy Will & Grace. It’s been rumored for months that the gang would be returning to television after they produced a 10-minute scene about the 2016 election. More fuel was added to the flame when Leslie Jordan unofficially confirmed the reunion, but then star Debra Messing denied anything was set in stone.

NBC released the following statement about the 10-episode revival:

“We’re thrilled that one of the smartest, funniest, and most defining comedies in NBC history is coming back. This groundbreaking series for everything from gay rights to social and political commentary — all disguised as a high-speed train of witty pop culture — is coming back where it belongs.”

The presidential episode felt very much in the same vein as the original show, so naysayers (Megan) shouldn’t be too worried. The show originally ran from 1998-2006, and it’s one of the only shows to earn Emmys for each of its leads. The series totaled 83 Emmy nominations over its career run, winning 16 trophies.

Game of Thrones return

Winter isn’t coming quite as soon as everyone thought. It’s looking more like summer for the seventh season of HBO’s epic drama Game of Thrones. HBO announced on Monday that Game of Thrones won’t return until the summer of 2017. Let’s hope that the news of 23 Emmy nominations will satiate fans for an entire calendar year. Not only with it take a while to get here, but the final 2 seasons will be broken up into two 7-episode sessions. Surely this is more devastating than The Red Wedding.

Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, explained that the release date shift (pushed back from the usual April) is because of the shooting schedule:

“Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing. Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

Game of Thrones usually wins Emmys by the boatload, but this new season will miss out on the eligibility window for next year. The current rules state that a show needs to have aired by May 31 in order to be in contention. Does this mean that something that’s been in the Thrones shadow will be able to celebrate for one year? Attention Better Call Saul lovers and The Americans fanatics! Your time is now!

Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men did something similar for its final few seasons. The final seventh season was broken up into two 7-episode blocks, but, unlike Thrones, Mad Men debuted both parts in April.

How does this change make you feel? Are you going to re-binge all the episodes in mourning of the pushed back premiere date? Does it give Thrones agnostics (like myself) finally a chance to catch up on a series on its way out?

American Horror Story season six

American Horror Story season six details are scarce. ADTV takes a look at the rumors and the facts for the upcoming season.

FX’s American Horror Story: Hotel heads into next month’s Emmy nominations fighting sister show American Crime Story for awards glory. Last year’s Freak Show received a series-record 20 nominations despite no one admitting to actually liking the season. It’s unlikely that Hotel will receive as many nominations given the extremely crowded Limited Series categories. So, after (in my view) a creative uptick in the opulent and typically bonkers Hotel, audiences are ready to welcome American Horror Story season six this fall. And, as per usual for Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series, details are very scarce.

We know nothing about season six theming. The recently released series logo perhaps hints at a devilish horn hooking upward, connected into the dangling question mark. Does the Devil have something to do with season six? Or the Antichrist? I could see that in the icon. Plus, the Devil’s number is 666. Hard to pass that one up. I could imagine a season set in Coven‘s closing Hellish scenes. It certainly left me with more of a terrified and empty vibe than anything else in the series. Would that reunite us with Kathy Bates’s Marie Delphine LaLaurie or Lily Rabe’s Misty Day? Only time will tell…

Here’s what we know for sure about the returning cast.

  • Cheyenne Jackson is confirmed to return after his Hotel stint.
  • Lady Gaga will return as well – something we’ve known since March. She’s apparently rumored to play the sidekick of a serial killer and will not loom as large as she did in Hotel.
  • Angela Bassett is also set to return and told Entertainment Weekly she thinks her character is an alcoholic. Either that’s a cover or she’s not returning as Coven‘s Marie Laveau.
  • Denis O’Hare will return. He’s an AHS staple after sitting out Asylum.
  • Evan Peters will return and recently sported a massive beard, which caused fans to speculate the new look is designed for season six.
  • Leslie Jordan (Quentin Fleming in Coven) will return. According to the actor, his scenes will heavily feature Lady Gaga.
  • Matt Bomer will also return.

American Horror Story queen Sarah Paulson isn’t confirmed yet, but it’s difficult to imagine a season without her.

Since we know nothing about the plot, let’s take a look at some of the more prevalent rumors on the internet. Because everything on the internet is right, ya know???

  • Multiple sites have reported the season will somehow deal with children based on this Ryan Murphy quote, “If you look at horror tropes, the innocence of children, that sort of wide-eyed entryway into some world is always very dramatic and satisfying.”
  • Given that, many people imagined the season would either introduce or tangentially involve the internet-started Slender Man concept. Murphy denied this theory, however.
  • Ryan Murphy did confirm the series would be darker and less opulent. I believe he’s said that every year of the series since Murder House. See how that turned out…
  • Filming started around mid-June in Los Angeles. One scene reportedly involved a nursing home or hospital setting. The series reportedly takes place in the present with “echoes of the past,” according to FX president John Landgraf. Murphy confirmed that the season will have multiple call-backs to previous seasons.

There are countless rumors spread across the internet that have the season set everywhere from a summer camp to a boarding school to a high school. Last August, Entertainment Weekly featured a massive cover story revealing Lady Gaga’s Countess character. If the big reveal doesn’t come in July’s ComicCon, then August should bring the official announcement if not a teaser.

Stay tuned to AwardsDaily TV for the latest updates!

Update: FX announced today season six will premiere September 14 at 10PM ET, nearly one month earlier than its typical October premiere.

American Crime season three

American Crime season three starts to take shape as cast and setting are announced

For a while, American Crime season three seemed like a shaky proposition. Show runner John Ridley would reportedly abandon the Emmy-winning ABC property for another series recently given the go. Fortunately for fans of Ridley and his hot-button anthology series, American Crime season three will move forward at ABC, and it will feature two of its biggest stars.

Multiple news outlets are confirming Felicity Huffman’s return to the series. She won an Emmy nomination for its first incarnation and will likely receive a second Emmy nomination on July 14. Huffman is officially joined by Emmy-winner Regina King. Co-star Timothy Hutton should also return, but an official announcement is still outstanding.

American Crime season three will take place in North Carolina and will reportedly deal with labor issues, economic inequality, and civil rights. The actual filming, however, will take place in Los Angeles thanks to new California tax credits. No word yet on whether or not the new season will incorporate the recently controversial North Carolina-based HB2 legislation. The bill, among other items, restricts bathroom entry to an individual’s gender at birth.

Felicity Huffman won an Emmy for ABC’s Desperate Housewives, and Regina King received an Emmy for season one of American Crime.

Supergirl

Supergirl moves to The CW and other big Fall moves

Update: Additional series cancellations and orders included below…

Let’s hope that Supergirl Kara Danvers can find some friends to help her move.

Even though many people vocalized that CBS’ Supergirl felt more like a show for The CW (I believe Megan mentioned that a few times on the podcast), I’m not sure how many people actually thought it would move there! Cancellation seemed a lot more possible for the struggling superhero drama (ratings dropped considerably after it debuted last fall), but Entertainment Weekly and other outlets are confirming Supergirl‘s move to a more tween-friendly network. Will this harm the show’s cred even further?

Even though Supergirl is hiring a U-Haul, the show is getting a second season! The highly-publicized crossover with The Flash probably solidified its move, and the show might be moving its production to Vancouver (where the other shows are filmed). This last bit has yet to be confirmed, however.

Will this change the number of episodes in the sophomore season? How will the visual effects look? What’s going to happen to Calista Flockhart?!?!

Aside from Supergirl, here are some other major developments announced today:

  • ABC’s Castle is finally cancelled after lead Stana Katic left the show at the end of season eight. Initial rumors had Nathan Fillion returning without his co-star. Honestly, this felt wrong to even casual fans of the series. Here’s hoping the two stars are moving to bigger and better things.
  • ABC cancelled Marvel’s Agent Carter starring Hayley Atwell. This is hardly a surprise given the struggling ratings for the period niche show. The good news is that Atwell’s new series, Conviction in which she stars as a lawyer and former First Daughter, has been greenlit.
  • ABC dumped two more struggling dramas and surprisingly renewed a few others. Nashville and The Family are headed for the trash heap while The Catch (Megan can rejoice and sharpen her hate-watching skills), the Emmy-winning American Crime, and comedy The Real O’Neals will all return. It will also produce another Shondaland project called Still Star-Crossed which marks Shonda Rhimes’s first foray into period drama. Update: Apparently Lionsgate is shopping Nashville around after the shocking ABC cancellation. Hulu and CMT are the most frequently mentioned options. Can we just start the “Free Connie Britton” campaign right now?
  • CSI: Cyber, the unfortunate source of a steady paycheck for brilliant Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette, has been cancelled. The cancellation also marks the end of the entire CSI series, a billion-dollar property for the Eye.
  • Fans of The Good Wife have some cheering to do. Emmy-winner Christine Baranski is in negotiation to return in a spin-off focusing on her character Diane Lockhart. Apparently, this new series will air on CBS All Access rather than the traditional network. If approved, it would join another Star Trek iteration previously announced.
  • FOX has cancelled two of its more promising comedies: The Grinder and GrandfatheredThe Grinder is especially surprising given some recent awards heat that stars Rob Lowe and Fred Savage garnered.
  • The ABC bloodbath continues with The Muppets, cancelled after a single season. The troubled series saw a change in show runner midseason, but that didn’t help. Cue Miss Piggy giving ABC brass a karate slap.
  • NBC has cancelled a slew of newer shows including Game of Silence, HeartbeatCrowded, and Eva Longoria’s Telenovela. It is, however, picking up two new comedies: Great News from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock and Marlon from Marlon Wayans. No doubt NBC is still smarting over turning down Fey/Carlock’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt a few years ago.
  • Netflix is apparently moving forward with a second season of its Will Arnett dramedy Flaked. That’s all I have to say about that.
  • CBS is moving forward with series orders for a host of new dramas and comedies. The new dramatic properties include a TV version of Training DayBull (inspired by Dr. Phil), Pure Genius, and a MacGyver reboot. The comedies include Matt LeBlanc’s Man with a Plan, the workplace comedy The Great Indoors, and Kevin Can Wait, a return to television for Kevin James.

Feud

Ryan Murphy increases his TV footprint with Feud

You know that horrifying moment in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? when Bette Davis serves Joan Crawford a dead rat? Crawford opens up the dinner tray (served by her sister) and immediately shoves the dinner cart back as she screams in terror…and her dear old sister starts maniacally laughing her head off? That’s how I feel every time I watch a Ryan Murphy show: he serves up something allegedly delicious and then it just ends up being a gaudy, dead animal.

After two very successful anthology series (American Horror Story refuses to die and American Crime Story is destined for Emmy glory), Murphy is starting his latest show. Feud will be an 8-episode anthology series that centers on screen legends Crawford and Davis coming together for the infamous filming of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

You hear that? It’s the sound of 2 billion older gay men collectively gasping and clutching their pearls! Imagine the costumes! Imagine the production design!

IMAGINE THE BITCHINESS!!!

Murphy has assembled a ridiculous cast already. Susan Sarandon (last seen angering Democrats everywhere) will play Davis and Jessica Lange will take on Crawford. Alfred Molina will play Baby Jane’s director, Robert Aldrich. Stanley Tucci is set to portray studio head Jack Warner. Judy Davis (!!!) will show Helen Mirren how to do a proper American dialect while she plays gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. I admit that Murphy has a real knack for giving juicy roles in an industry that is quick to forget women of a certain age.

With American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson, Murphy displayed a real directorial flair in the pilot–it’s probably the best first episode of a series all year. The limited series itself is marvelous display of restraint on Murphy’s part, and it’s probably because he was dealing with real characters and not an fictional subject. Will he be able to do the same for Davis and Crawford? No doubt he will amp up the drama and the cattiness, but who knows what’s going on Murphy’s noggin’. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire ensemble bursts into a rendition of a random Annie Lennox song because he feels it’s justified.

By the way, why can’t Feud just be a great mini series and not the jump start of another anthology? What’s going to be on slate for season two? Tiffany vs. Debbie Gibson?

So, Mr. Murphy. Give me something delicious. Something tart and glamorous. Don’t give me something worthy of rat poison.

Wet Hot American Summer

Netflix is prepping a Wet Hot American Summer sequel. Excited yet?

Everyone loves a reunion, right?

The cult classic Wet Hot American Summer came out in 2001, and it’s sort of becoming its own little franchise. Last summer, Netflix revived the movie with Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, a short series of episodes devoted to campers arriving at the bodacious camp in 1981. Well, pull up your tube socks or pull down your short shorts, because Wet Hot is coming back!

Creator David Wain and Michael Showalter are planning to make good on their promise of a reunion for Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later. Like First Day, Ten Years Later will be an 8 episode release on Netflix sometime in 2017 that shows us what happened to the counselors of our favorite camp. Will some of the campers be there as well?

The original cast came back for the television sequel, so hopefully this is enough notice to get everyone back for this sequel. May I make just one suggestion? Can we make sure there is more naked Bradley Cooper? And can we make sure his busy leading man schedule is clear to film a lot of stuff? If not…

Wet Hot American Summer

Sign In

Reset Your Password

Email Newsletter