Entertainment Careering

Of the 14 films, DuVernay’s Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic Selma, starring David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo, scored a 100 percent accurate grade, with none of its scenes, ranging from reenactments of the 1965 Selma civil rights marches to Jimmie Lee Jackson’s (played by Keith Stanfield in the film) death at the hands of state trooper J.B. Fowler, earning anything below a “true-ish” score on the study’s scale, which gives scenes one of five ratings: true, true-ish, false-ish, false, or unknown if there is no source information upon which to make a judgment.

Spotlight got a 81.6% accuracy grade.

American Sniper was 56.9%

The Imitation Game was 41.4%

BEST FEATURE

Moonlight Barry Jenkins, director; Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, producers (A24)

BEST ACTOR

Casey Affleck Manchester by the Sea (Amazon Studios)

BEST ACTRESS

Isabelle Huppert Elle (Sony Pictures Classics)

SPECIAL GOTHAM JURY AWARD

Cast Of Moonlight (A24)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

O.J.: Made in America Ezra Edelman, director; Caroline Waterlow, Ezra Edelman, Tamara Rosenberg, Nina Krstic, Deirdre Fenton, Erin Leyden, producers (ESPN Films)

BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD

Trey Edward Shults Krisha (A24)

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR

Anya Taylor-Joy The Witch (A24)

BEST SCREENPLAY

Moonlight Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney; Screenplay by Barry Jenkins (A24)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONGFORM

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Rachel Bloom & Aline Brosh McKenna, creators; Marc Webb, Rachel Bloom, Aline Brosh McKenna, Erin Ehrlich, executive producers (The CW)

BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORTFORM

“The Big Bang Theory” star is executive producing “Lance 2.0,” a single-camera comedy from writer Alex McAulay, Variety has learned exclusively. The series centers around a young couple that deals with the aftermath when the boyfriend has an accident that changes his personality and causes him to lose his impulse control.

Statistically speaking, financiers often say that it’s the tentpoles that profit the most in the long run, however, producer Will Packer has a knack for yielding big returns off movies with conservative budgets, latest title being Almost Christmas which is on its way to a domestic take of $40M-plus off a production budget of $17M (before P&A). Directed and written by David E. Talbert, Almost Christmas is Packer’s second holiday movie after 2007’s This Christmas which reaped a combined domestic box office and DVD haul of $73.5M from a $13M budget.

While Packer has discovered the secret sauce to financial film success, he insists that when it comes to choosing a project, he tries to strike a balance. “I don’t go into a project looking at it solely from a budgetary standpoint. I think you have to be [budget conscientious] as a filmmaker,” he said. “If you’re not making a Marvel tentpole where the budget of the movie is inconsequential because it’s a billion dollars global (gross), I think you have to be responsible and really conscientious about your margins.”

While Packer has discovered the secret sauce to financial film success, he insists that when it comes to choosing a project, he tries to strike a balance. “I don’t go into a project looking at it solely from a budgetary standpoint. I think you have to be [budget conscientious] as a filmmaker,” he said. “If you’re not making a Marvel tentpole where the budget of the movie is inconsequential because it’s a billion dollars global (gross), I think you have to be responsible and really conscientious about your margins.”

Larry Wilmore has lined up a post-Nightly Show TV gig, signing a multi-year overall deal with ABC Studios. Wilmore was serving as executive producer/showrunner on ABC Studios’ then-newly picked-up ABC comedy series Black-ish when he landed the Comedy Central late-night show. Wilmore, who had joined Kenya Barris’ Black-ish at the pilot stage, stayed on for the first 13 episodes before departing for The Nightly Show, which he hosted for 20 months, until the show’s cancellation in August.

Under his ABC Studios deal, Wilmore will develop his own series and supervise other creators. There are no current plans for him to be involved in Black-ish, though that conceivably could change if Barris and Vijal Patel’s new high-profile comedy project starring Felicity Huffman and Courtney B. Vance goes to series.

Five months after she was upped to EVP and Head of Reality Programming for VH1, Nina L. Diaz is getting another promotion — to Head of Unscripted for MTV and VH1. Chris McCarthy, who elevated Diaz at VH1 shortly after becoming President of VH1 and Logo in June, is expanding her duties with MTV oversight in his first executive appointment since he was named President of MTV, VH1 and Logo last month.

Last season, ABC’s “Wicked City” was the first new broadcast show of the fall to be canceled, yanked after just three episodes. This season, no show looks likely to suffer that same disgrace. This fall’s disappointments instead appear destined to live out their initial episode orders as dead shows walking — not bad enough to cancel outright, not good enough to extend.

With ratings expectations evolving and hits harder to launch, broadcasters are practicing patience with underperformers. But that patience is creating a logjam. Many shows that were picked up to series ahead of upfronts are still waiting to be scheduled or have been pushed from winter to spring. The state of affairs reflects a new reality in broadcast.

Failure has been redefined. Of fall’s lowest-rated new shows — ABC’s “Conviction” (0.8 live-plus-same day average Nielsen rating among viewers 18-49) and “Notorious” (0.9); and Fox’s “Pitch” (0.9) and “The Exorcist” (0.7) — none have been canceled. But none are expected to have their seasons extended beyond the initial episode order, much less renewed. “Conviction” had its order shortened in October from 13 episodes to 10.

“When you look at the linear ratings, that’s just a piece of the story now,” says Jeff Bader, president of program planning, strategy, and research for NBC Entertainment. “There are so many other factors involved, shows will not be pulled as fast as they used to be pulled.”

Among those considerations: Does the network own the show through its studio division? How does the show play internationally? On digital platforms? If a show draws mediocre linear ratings but generates revenue in later windows, the argument for keeping it alive is strong.

Networks have largely turned December over to holiday programming, live events, and specials. That leaves 10 to 12 weeks from the start of the season in September until the unofficial midseason break — enough time to run out a show that has been paid for but isn’t working; not enough time to successfully launch a new one.

Fox has put in development Catalina, a single-camera comedy project from Max Winkler and Jake Johnson’s the Walcott Company and 20th Century Fox TV where the company is under an overall deal.

Written by Winkler, Johnson and Dr. Ken executive producer Mary Fitzgerald, Catalina centers on a carefree party-girl bartender who has never left her home town on the island of Catalina, and who is forced to finally take on the responsibilities of adulthood after the death of her mother. With the help of her estranged politician father, she discovers that perhaps her true calling is to run for mayor of her eclectic island community.

Winkler, who recently directed Rough House Pictures and Diablo Entertainment’s Flower, is set to direct the project, which had been referred to as “Weekend At Bernie’sset on Catalina.”

NBCUniversal Talent Infusion Programs has finalized the list for its 2016-17 Writers on the Verge, the annual program for TV writers of diverse backgrounds who are “on the verge” of breaking out but need a final polish of their writing and pitch presentation skills. Winners will receive coaching and mentoring from industry pros during an intensive 12-week program with the ultimate goal of preparing them to be staff writers. At the end, they will be considered for available writing assignments on NBC series.

This year’s winners are comedy writers Mnelik Belilgne, Melanie Boysaw and Jeremy Hsu and drama writers Lorelei Ignas, Allyssa Lee, Rayna McClendon, Mellori Velasquez and Jeane Wong.

ABC has bought Salamander, a thriller drama from writer-producers Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg (CBS’ Zoo) who work together under the Midnight Radio moniker.

Based on the 2012 Belgian series, Salamander centers on a brilliant but misanthropic engineer who recruits a skeptical female FBI therapist to help him track a mysterious bank robber whose theft of 66 specific safety deposit boxes, belonging to the rich and powerful, sets in motion a series of blackmails that may be linked to a greater conspiracy.

Nemec and Pinkner will write the adaptation and will executive produce with Appelbaum, Rosenberg as well as Keshet and Beta. ABC Studios is the studio.

Fox has put in development Amy Herman’s Visual Intelligence, based on Herman’s book, from Memphis Beat creators Liz Garcia and Josh Harto, Blindspot executive producer Mark Pellington and 20th Century Fox TV.

Garcia, Harto and Pellington will co-write and executive produce, and Pellington will direct. Herman also will executive produce.

Reese Witherspoon and Otter Media, the joint venture formed between The Chernin Group and AT&T, have started up a new company called Hello Sunshine which will focus on telling female-driven stories across all platforms. That will include not only film and TV but also daily social and short-form digital content. To that end, Hello Sunshine starts launching content in 2017 at Hello-Sunshine.com.

Leading the effort will be newly named CEO Kerry Tucker who joins the new venture directly from The Video Genome Project. While at VGP, she built and managed the strategy and operations as COO, and served as one of the principal architects of its sale to Hulu. Before that, she was executive VP/CMO of Victoria’s Secret, and earlier than that, she served as marketing head for all divisions of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

The announcement was made today by Witherspoon and Sarah Harden, President of Otter Media.

Hello Sunshine will operate under Otter Media’s umbrella and will leverage Otter’s expertise in content, distribution and monetization models, as well as its strong track record in investing, building and scaling content brands and OTT video services, they say. AT&T and The Chernin Group formed Otter Media in April 2014 to acquire, invest in and launch global over-the-top (OTT) video services.

Its portfolio includes Fullscreen Media (which owns Rooster Teeth); social marketing agency McBeard; Ellation (which manages Crunchyroll, a subscription and ad-supported video platform for Japanese anime); VRV, a multichannel video platform built for a community of fans who love anime, animation, gaming, comedy, fantasy and technology; and Gunpowder & Sky.

Ahead of the Season 1 finale on December 10, BBC America has ordered a 10-episode second season of original scripted series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for premiere in 2017. The order is up from the eight-episode first season.

Based on the cult Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency novels by Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams, the serialized comedic thriller follows the bizarre adventures of eccentric “holistic” detective Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) and his reluctant assistant Todd (Elijah Wood). The two wend their way through one big, seemingly insane mystery a season, crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and sometimes dangerous characters, each episode landing them a few random steps closer to uncovering the truth.

Amid strong ratings and just ahead of tonight’s third episode, VH1 has renewed Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party for a second season.

The premiere episode debuted as cable’s top new unscripted franchise, winning its time period with all key demos and scoring 3 million total viewers and a 1.5 18-49 rating in L3, according to VH1 and Nielsen. Episode two snagged a 1.06 Live+SD P18-49 rating making it the No. 1 non-sports cable program in its time period among W18-49, P18-34 and W18-34.

Late Late Show host James Corden will host the 59th Grammy Awards.

This will be Corden’s first time hosting the music trophy show, which will be broadcast live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 12 at 8 PM on CBS. He’ll take the reins from hip-hop artist and NCIS: Los Angeles star LL Cool J, who is exiting after a five-year hosting stint.

What a time to be alive. Things may have been pretty grim this year, but let’s not undersell the fact that we’re living in the midst of an Angela Bassett renaissance, and that, at least, is something worth smiling about. Riding off the success of her American Horror Story resurgence, Bassett has landed a key role in Marvel’s Black Panther as T’Challa’s mother, Romonda. If there’s ever been such a flawless movie cast, I’m not sure I’ve seen it.