This week in TV news: Netflix reups The O.A. and Love and — ICYMI — releases new Iron Fist trailer; Battlestar Galactica star Richard Hatch dies; Annette Bening, Sarah Paulson, and Edie Falco in castings; Super Bowl ratings win; The Insider to end 13-year run; Jane the Virgin kills major character; and Milo Ventimiglia surprises an unsuspecting fan.
Netflix Renews The OA and Love and More in Development News…
Love-it-or-hate-it drama The O.A. got a renewal from Netflix this week. The supernatural series will be back for round two, but no news yet on timing. Also in Netflix renewal news, the Judd Apatow-Paul Ruse-Lesley Arfin rom-com series Love will get a third season; season 2 premieres March 10 on the streaming service. (Stay up-to-date with all recent renewals and cancellations.) Plus:
The Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki scored a pilot pickup as executive producer on Living Biblically, a comedy about a man who decides to live his life by the good book. [THR]
Just in case we didn’t have enough legal dramas inspired by the classic Steven Bochco 1980’s series L.A. Law, there’s a reboot on the books. The new series is “said to revolve around new characters, young lawyers, while also featuring several characters from the original series as bosses in an Upstairs, Downstairs-type dynamic.” [Deadline]
Update: Will Ferrell and Adam McKay–produced political drama Succession has gotten a 10-episode order from HBO. Series stars Brian Cox as patriarch of a powerful American media family. Series also stars Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen, Hiam Abbas, Alan Ruck, Rob Yang, Parker Sawvers, and Peter Friedman. [Variety]
And Distefano makes two for How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. The Chris Distefano comedy marks the second CBS pick up written by the HIMYM pair this season. [THR]
The CW will revisit The Lost Boys and magical 1990’s hit Charmed with reboots from iZombie boss Rob Thomas and Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman. Thomas spoke to Rotten Tomatoes about his vision for the Lost Boys series, which would tackle a different decade in each season, starting with the 1960s.
Shonda Rhimes scooped up blogger Luvvie Ajayi’s novel I’m Judging You to develop into a cable series. [Deadline]
Fresh Off the Boat showrunner Nahnatchka Khan will helm ABC comedy pilot Jalen vs. Everybody. The joint production between ABC and sister company ESPN is a semi-autobiographical story about former NBA star Jalen Rose and also stars Anna Maria Horsford (The Bold and the Beautiful) and Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons). [Deadline, THR]
And Fast and the Furious director Justin Lin will head to TV to direct a reboot of the 1975 Aaron Spelling police drama S.W.A.T. for CBS. [THR]
Battlestar Galactica Star Richard Hatch Dies
Richard Hatch, star of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica film and subsequent TV series, died of cancer at age 71 on Tuesday. The actor starred in the soap opera All My Children before joining the ’70s sci-fi hit and later the early 2000s reboot on Syfy.
Casting News: Annette Bening, Edie Falco, Sarah Paulson, Michael C. Hall, and More
Annette Bening has been cast as former Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco in Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story take on Hurricane Katrina, due to air on FX in 2018. Bening joins actors Courtney B. Vance, Sarah Paulson, and Cuba Gooding Jr., all of whom appeared in the first season of the anthology series, 2016’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which scored nine Emmys. [THR]
Speaking of Paulson, the newly minted Emmy winner will star in serial killer drama Lost Girls at Amazon. [Variety]
Sopranos alum Edie Falco will play attorney Leslie Abramson in NBC’s Law & Order: True Crime about the Menendez brothers. [THR]
In Lifetime’s TV-movie version of the Menendez brothers crime story, Nico Tortorella (Younger) and Myko Olivier (Glee) have been cast as Lyle and Erik, respectively, and Benito Martinez (American Crime) will appear as their father Jose. It was previously announced that Courtney Love will play family matriarch Kitty. [THR]
UPDATE: After the previous week’s announced casting of the teen leads in Marvel’s Runaways for Hulu, Marvel Television this week announced who would play the parents — aka, The Pride: Ryan Sands (The Wire) as Geoffrey Wilder, Angel Parker (The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story) as Catherine Wilder, Brittany Ishibashi (This Is Us) as Tina Minoru, James Yaegashi (Madame Secretary) as Robert Minoru, Kevin Weisman (Hello Ladies) as Dale Yorkes, Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives) as Stacey Yorkes, Annie Wersching (Timeless) as Leslie Dean, Kip Pardue (Remember the Titans) as Frank Dean, James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Victor Stein, and Ever Carradine (The Handmaids Tale) as Janet Stein. [Marvel]
Coming off his run in the David Bowie musical Lazarus in London, Dexter star Michael C. Hall is joining the cast of Netflix’s The Crownas U.S. President John F. Kennedy. [THR]
Judy Greer heads to Hulu comedy Casual for a recurring role as Alex’s new coworker, a single mom who’s over worked and “in need of distraction.” [Deadline]
NYPDBlue alum Esai Morales will head west to Chicago P.D. in a recurring role. [THR]
Episodes star Kathleen Rose Perkins will lead the cast of NBC drama Good Girls, about three suburban moms who take matters into their own hands. She’ll star alongside Mike & Molly alum Reno Wilson. [THR, Deadline]
Be a drag and a queen is Lady Gaga’s new motto, as she’s booked to appear on an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s about time! [THR]
Lady Gaga Scores a Super Bowl Ratings Touchdown
And speaking of Lady Gaga, her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show scored Fox its second-highest ever ratings for the event. Meanwhile, always prescient The Simpsons had her acrobatic performance pegged five years ago in the 2012 episode “Lady Goes Gaga.” [Deadline]. The Super Bowl was also grounds for more than the game — check out the best commercials from Super Bowl LI and all the new movie and TV trailers.
Marvel’s Iron Fist Trailer Debuts
The new trailer for Netflix’s newcomer Marvel’s Iron Fist debuted this week. Check out the kung fu moves of billionaire Danny Rand (Game of Thrones’ Finn Jones) in the trailer. The series premieres March 17 on the streaming giant.
Spoiler Alert! Jane the Virgin Offs a Main Character
It was a huge week for Jane the Virginfans as — spoiler alert! — Michael (Brett Dier) was killed off on the CW dramedy. The episode showed Jane hearing about Michael’s death before putting in a time jump taking viewers three years into the future. Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman took to Facebook to give fans the inside scoop on the episode: “… this was a devastating episode for us to write. It was also a decision made very early on, when I thought about our story as a whole.”
The Insider to End 13-Year Run
Long-running syndicated entertainment news show The Insider will end its 13-year run after the current season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show, which THR says has been lagging behind sister show Entertainment Tonight and similar programs like Access Hollywood and Inside Edition, is hosted by Debbie Matenopoulos and Louis Aguirre.
This Is Us Star Milo Ventimiglia Surprises Fan
One unsuspecting neighbor was in for a treat as This Is Us star Milo Ventimiglia caught him in the act — the act of watching This Is Us, of course — while the show was filming on his block. Life imitating art?
