The school comedy was one of several NBC shows with uncertain fates after last week's upfronts. "I'm intensely sad to announce that AP Bio will be ending after this season," tweeted creator Mike O'Brien. "This has been my favorite project of my life and that's because of the amazing writers, cast and crew. As most canceled shows probably feel, I think we were just hitting our stride and everyone was still loving the work, so this is very hard. We have 4 left to air and they're 4 of my favorites. Plus 22 others are on Hulu (for now) and http://nbc.com . Please check them out and tell a friend about the show and tell the people who worked on it that they did a good job!"

"Now that reality TV has become comedically scripted, The View remains one of the few places on TV where audiences can watch authentic human drama," says Amanda FitzSimons in a New York Times Magazine profile of the ABC daytime talk show. The key to The View's success as a political show that -- like Real Time with Bill Maher and Morning Joe -- "fuses entertainment with news and thrives off its ability to be unrehearsed" is the audience's fascination with each co-host, says FitzSimons, pointing out that viewers notice every time Meghan McCain rolls her eyes when Joy Behar speaks. FitzSimons adds: "The View has hosted politicians almost since its start, but until recently it was not taken seriously by them. When Barack Obama went on the show in 2010, making history as the first sitting president to appear on a daytime talk show, Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, blasted the decision by saying there 'should be a little bit of dignity to the presidency.' In the past few years, however, The View has become a place where Democrats and Republicans alike go to introduce themselves to a national audience, an essential campaign stop. Twelve of the 26 people who have announced that they are running for president in 2020 have already been on the show, with one more, Senator Elizabeth Warren, already scheduled. Although ratings for The View are up — last season’s were its highest in four years, and it now averages a respectable three million viewers an episode — the numbers aren’t high enough to explain why politicians consider the show an essential stop. The View has become an influential political talk show because it isn’t one. The panelists ... are invited into viewers’ homes every day for an hour, and in between interviewing candidates about the distinction between socialism and democratic socialism, they share intimate details of their lives: how many times a week they step on a scale, how long it was until they slept with someone else after their divorces. The show also has an off-the-cuff-ness that the panelists and producers take seriously — part of what they know viewers tune in to see."

Very unique shows like PEN15, Barry, Pose, Vida, Russian Doll, The Other Two, Tuca & Bertie and even The Good Fight are the result of the explosion of TV shows in the Peak TV era. "I’ve been so overwhelmed with the deluge of new TV shows that I’ve rarely been able to slow down and appreciate how many of the best simply would never have happened without the explosion of #content that Peak TV has made possible," says Caroline Framke. "All of these shows have Peak TV to thank for their existence one way or another," Framke adds. "There’s the undeniable streaming factor, which allows for more flexibility by erasing runtime concerns and kneecapping the established need for advertisers." The hunger for content, says Framke, means TV creators "can take bigger risks and not worry about having to bring in tens of millions of viewers, because as long as they can find a niche audience that lives for their particular visions, they’re set. For creators at this level, Peak TV is about as close to a carte blanche as they’re gonna get. All of that is well and good and encouraging. For as much as I love seeing smart people I’m already invested in flex their most ambitious muscles, though, I love hearing voices that traditionally haven’t had a chance to do the same even more. And while it would be nice to imagine that all these shows could exist in a parallel universe in which we’re not constantly drowning in TV, it’s highly unlikely that networks stuck in their ways would have made the room if the demand for distinct series hadn’t forced them to get more creative."

Last Call with Carson Daly debuted in 2002 when Daly was 28 and coming off of MTV's Total Request Live. "NBC wisely thought that the kid who was known for wearing black fingernail polish and talking Limp Bizkit every day was perfect late-night host material, and so they gave me a shot," Daly said of Last Call, which he described as his "home and personal playground." Daly added: "I am proud as hell of Last Call. The littlest, scrappiest show on late night, it's been my home and personal playground for almost two decades, and I'm eternally grateful for the opportunities, the friendships and all the lasting memories I've made along the way. YouTube star Lilly Singh will take over Daly's 1:35 a.m. timeslot this fall with A Little Late With Lilly Singh.

George R.R. Martin's book series and HBO drama found inspiration in history that happened centuries ago, like the Wars of the Roses. But the final season and, especially, the series finale contained allusions to Hitler and Stalin, dictators whose reigns are within living memory, says Parker Richards. "The audience didn’t need a fable about power to be wrapped in a bow and delivered in the form of 20th-century historical analogies," says Richards. "(Or maybe we did—maybe some of us have 'become inured to the shoddy writing and plotting.') In its first half, and perhaps even for a season or two after leaving Martin’s books behind, the show trusted its audience enough to avoid allegory and the simplistic morality that comes with it. It trusted that the audience knew right from wrong, and knew that both could coexist within a character. It asked viewers to find their own messages in a series about a faux-medieval world of dragons and ice zombies—and take them or leave them as they saw fit. It would have been better if the show had ended that way."

ALSO:

• The Middle Ages weren't as sexist as Game of Thrones would have you believe
• What Game of Thrones can teach us about human goodness
• How does Game of Thrones compare to other series finales?
• Game of Thrones' dragons get their sound using the noises from more than 30 animals
• Composer Ramin Djawadi breaks down the final season's most powerful musical moments
• How Game of Thrones generated $2.2 billion in profit for HBO
• Ranking the 50 major characters from worst to best: Jon Snow is No. 45

West is the highlight of Season 2 of Letterman's Netflix interview show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which drops on May 31. Their hour-long conversation "is not only one of the best interviews Letterman has ever conducted, it’s also one of the most coherent and engaging interviews Kanye has ever given, even if it does go off the rails at times," says Matt Wilstein. "Over the course of the episode, the two men cover many subjects including music, fashion and Kanye’s relationships with his mother, who passed more than a decade ago, and his father, who is still alive. Throughout the episode, Kim Kardashian West can be seen in the audience smiling or nodding thoughtfully depending on the topic." The interview also focuses on West's struggles with mental health and his support of President Trump. “Did you vote for Trump?” Letterman asks him. “I’ve never voted in my life,” Kanye answers. “Then you don’t have a say in this,” Letterman shoots back to cheers from the audience.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character's "sly, secretive, sometimes resentful tendency to break the fourth-wall of her own story is an escape hatch," says Kathryn VanArendonk, adding that, for the audience, it's "so flattering to be her confidant, and so sad. Her closest relationship is with a presence she can neither see nor hear." VanArendonk adds: "It’s tempting to think of Fleabag’s compulsive habit of looking to the viewer as a form of intimacy. It’s the only way I can adequately describe how emotional the device makes me, how overwhelmed I feel every time Fleabag flicks her eyebrows toward me, a rapt member of her audience. Fleabag spends each interaction with other characters as opportunities to seduce us, fully aware that every scene is a performance she’s manipulating for our shared amusement. The pain, shock, and disgust she feels during an excruciating family meal in the season’s first episode are legitimate emotions, but by instantly turning to us so she can explain how she feels, Fleabag packages the experience for our consumption. She presents it to us, swiftly twisting those awkward, bruising conversations with her family into stories she’s telling for our pleasure. Packaging them, turning them into a story, is also a way to control her feelings. Fleabag gives us Fleabag as a gift, so she doesn’t have to deal with it herself."

ALSO:

• Fleabag makes the audience a fictional character: "Finally, a TV show on the pressures of being a fictional character"
• Fleabag offers poignant insight about sisterhood
• Ranking the Top 10 breaks from reality in Season 2
• Fleabag delivered a brilliant series finale
• Sian Clifford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge "fantasized" about playing sisters for years
• Why are viewers so horny for the Hot Priest?
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge on creating Fleabag: "It’s such a vulnerable leap to write something that's fiction. But also that feeling of like, how dare I? Who am I to write a story? I certainly felt like that. That little moment of permission, who gives you permission to do it, is such a thing."

The syndicated version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire was canceled last Friday just three months shy of the ABC primetime version's 20th anniversary breaking ground with massive ratings in the summer of 1999. "There’s a decent case that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is the most consequential game show in television history," says Justin Peters. "Though Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have longevity on their side, and though O.G. quiz programs like Twenty-One conceived the language that 1,000 game shows speak, Millionaire changed the landscape unlike any other televised trivia contest before or since. The show’s glossy aesthetic and superhigh stakes attracted unprecedented audiences—at its peak Millionaire was more popular than Monday Night Football—and ignited a game show arms race. No Millionaire? No Greed, no Weakest Link, no Deal or No Deal. Jeopardy! likely wouldn’t have ditched the pre–Ken Jennings rule that limited contestants to five consecutive victories. There would have been nothing to inspire Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?—a harbinger of the reality TV boom."

"Whereas the first season focused on the implicit queer magnetism between the leads, the second season makes it obvious — even to the straights," says Natalie Adler. "Every secondary character intrudes on their attraction, prying, 'What is going on with you and Villanelle?' 'What is going on with you and Eve?' I have the same questions, but now that the show is so self-aware of its central tension, the quotation marks have been edited out, and the thrill of it all is gone."

Season 1's pilot episode and the Seasons 2 and 3 finales will serve as primers if you don't have 36 hours to watch the entire 2004-06 series before Deadwood: The Movie is released on May 31, says Alan Sepinwall. Do you need to rewatch the entire series before watching the movie? "It would be nice, but time is short and 36 hours of one show is a tough ask in Peak TV," says Sepinwall. "The movie — which takes place about a decade after the show ended — features periodic clips of important moments from the series, which may be enough by themselves to catch you up. Meanwhile, James Poniewozik adds: "If you haven’t already watched the series just watch it, however long it takes, and watch the movie later. It’s not like there are massive spoilers in the movie that will ruin it for you if you don’t watch it live. This isn’t that sort of deal. Also, no insult to the Deadwood movie, but it’s honestly not a film that someone is likely to love and appreciate independently of ever having seen the series. Just wait, it’ll still be there once you’re caught up!"

The next big thing on TV probably won't dominate the ratings and will likely not be on a streaming service, especially one that releases all of its episodes at once, says Todd VanDerWerff. He adds that the next big Peak TV series probably won't be a comedy or a show that has yet to premiere. So he proposes HBO's Succession. "For one thing, it’s already a show plenty of people are deeply obsessed with," he says. "For another, it has plenty in common with Game of Thrones (this is another battle for a different throne, with twisted family dynamics to rival those of Westeros), while not feeling too similar to it."

The NBC crime dramedy, which wraps its second season on Sunday, has a log line that wouldn't usually fit on network TV. "Complicated antiheroes, audacious plotting, and inventive camerawork don’t often live outside of cable and streaming, and yet Good Girls makes it work," says Shirley Li. She pints out that Season 2 was "not really gentle anymore—and much less network TV–friendly. The series is interested in showing not just the messy consequences of the women’s criminal actions, but also the difficulties they face trying to hold on to their moral center."

The eight-episode series, created by Mary Laws based on Nathan Ballingrud's collected work of short stories, will explore "how encounters with vampires, fallen angels and other monsters force Louisiana natives to re-examine their broken lives in what is being described as a contemporary horror anthology."

"As a creator, I know that absolutely nobody gets anything good done alone," says Leslye Headland. "One of the many positive effects of #MeToo and Time's Up is this sudden acknowledgment of creative women who were overshadowed by the stories of the men in their lives." Pointing to FX's Fosse/Verdon, she adds: "Women have always been major collaborators with men, yet we're often stuck with this story of a guy who came up with everything on his own, never ran it by anybody and didn't respect anybody's opinion. It's wild the stuff that we didn't put in the history books, but now we're taking a look at it."

Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis and Quinta Brunson are joining the sketch comedy show from Robin Thede and Issa Rae, starring Thede.

Watch the two late-night hosts get uncomfortably close in The Late Show's face-to-face "Personal Space" sketch.

As more and more people watch streaming services, how will the emergency alert system warn them about tornadoes and other emergencies?

The heirs to the two theme song writers, Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer, claim CBS is exploiting theme by selling DVDs of the series without a license.

The two-time Oscar nominee will play Peregrine, Earl of Brockenhurst in the six-episode period drama written by Julian Fellowes for ITV and Epix.

The cable news network has had shows starring comedians -- such as 2008-09's D. L. Hughley Breaks the News and the currently running W. Kamau Bell's United Shades of America -- but it has never hosted a standup comedy special before. Quinn will star in a TV version of his Off-Broadway show Red State Blue State on Monday “He’s definitely an equal opportunity offender,” says Jon Adler, senior director of development for CNN Original Series. “He makes observations about liberals, conservatives and everyone in between.”

Cheddar has released a video explaining how Holzhauer's gambling instincts factor into his Jeopardy! domination. ALSO: Holzhauer surpasses $2 million in winnings.

Adam Driver's "Career Day" sketch from the season premiere was the best live sketch of the season, according to Gothamist, followed by John Mulaney's "Bodega Bathroom" and Adam Sandler's "Romano Tours." Gothamist also ranked the four best guest monologues of the season: John Mulaney was No. 1, while the last three hosts of the season -- Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson and Paul Rudd -- were No. 2, 3 and 4, respectively.

ALSO:

• Here's another ranking of the Top 20 sketches that puts Adam Driver's "Career Day" as No. 1
• Seth Meyers picks his two favorite SNL sketches of the season: Emma Stone's "The Actress" and Adam Sandler's "Romano Tours"
• Check out all 151 SNL cast members as Pokémon

The PBS home-improvement show is now in its 40th season, with a look and feel that hasn't changed much since its launch in February 1979. "Every program on HGTV arguably owes its existence to This Old House, which first turned home renovation and real estate into television," says Margaret Tucker. "Without it, viewers might never have gotten Property Brothers, or Fixer Upper, or probably even House Hunters International. All the same, it can be difficult to locate the similarities between This Old House and its descendants. These newer programs often unfold like reality TV–esque hero’s journeys, with the hosts figuring as creative geniuses who marshal old or otherwise sad houses through a rapid-fire rehabilitation and beautification process. This Old House, meanwhile, has no single star and little concern for dramatic narrative arcs. Its chief goal is, as it always has been, to put skilled tradespeople and the work they do in front of the camera."

"Sometimes bad television happens to good actors," says Sophie Gilbert. "There’s no other way to rationalize what’s happening in What/If, a show in which Renée Zellweger is biting off chunks of scenery, shredding them with her dainty white teeth, and digesting them on camera while everyone else sits limply in her shadow. It’s not fair, really. There’s Zellweger—one Oscar, three Golden Globes, and three SAG Awards to her name—reaching the highest echelons of glorious diva-dom in her portrayal of Anne Montgomery, a superstar venture capitalist/amateur archer/revenge-plot architect. Then there’s the rest of the cast, drably saying their lines out loud with all the effervescence of powdered whey. What/If...is a perplexing thing to think about, or to try to synopsize. In its heart it’s an ABC drama from a decade ago, splashy and soapy and steeped in pathetic fallacy. (Mike Kelley, who created What/If, was last seen on TV spearheading the 2011 ABC show Revenge, a loose, Hamptons-set update of The Count of Monte Cristo.)...Here is where What/If really gets hoisted by its own petard. When you’ve had the opportunity to see Zellweger in full sexy speculator mode, speaking entirely in aphorisms, undulating across the room with all the hip-sway of Jessica Rabbit, and shooting literal arrows at her antagonists, everything else seems awfully dull.

ALSO:

• What/If's big problem is that it's just a bad network series that's on Netflix: The first two episodes are "larded with bad writing, dubious editing choices and the kind of weightless fluff that props up most network soap operas. You'll recognize it as the gooey ease of it saturates your body," says Tim Goodman, adding: "As much as we all might wish that Netflix would aspire to better shows, more original shows, shows that don't feel like they were poached off ABC's schedule, sometimes the streamer fails us."
• What/If is so bad, it's good: "Now, instead of just one element of the show being bad, imagine an entire series built from that same qualitative mentality," says Ben Travers. "Putting all those pieces together is difficult, let alone finding a story to support them, but What/If does exactly that. Mike Kelley’s soapy, silly, melodramatic, twist-driven thriller is at no times not entertaining. The 10-episode first season tosses one loony development in after another, piling up the drama as fast as it piles up the fun. Netflix’s anthology is so bad it’s laugh-out-loud funny, and yet still smart enough to induce gasps. It’s Michelin-star trash, and you won’t be able to stop binging."
• What/If does not jump the shark — it begins with the shark in its rearview mirror and it never looks back: "The thing is, this show seems to know it’s a mess," says Kristen Baldwin. "Soap opera is a genre that rewards excess — from oversized shoulder pads to gargantuan leaps of logic — and Kelley, along with director Phillip Noyce, presents everything to the viewer with a cheery, exaggerated wink."
• What/If is so bad, and not in a fun way: The problem is Zellwegger, "who doesn’t seem to be having any fun here," says Amy Amatangelo. "She's buying the utter nonsense the show is selling. I loved the first few seasons of (What/If creator Mike Kelley's) Revenge, until it went off the rails. What/If begins from a position of being off the rails."
• What/If is somehow three shows, and they're all boring
• What/If is a captivating bit of cheese, anchored by a star making the most of a very strange moment
• Is What/If a *deliberately* bad show?
• What/If has an interesting premise about ostensibly good people doing bad things -- if you can get past the thorny, sticky dialogue
• What/If is the logical conclusion to Netflix's trashy thriller trend
• Creator Mike Kelley is mashing up his ABC drama Revenge with Indecent Proposal
• Renée Zellweger says What/If is inspired by Indecent Proposal, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Fatal Attraction and The Graduate's Mrs. Robinson: "Mrs. Robinson was a really, really, pretty telling prototype. So, we went from there and of course (creator Mike Kelley) had suggested, well, we'll subvert the trajectory of that character. Let's just say you take all that power and self-loathing and instead of channeling it into alcoholism. What if she did something proactive? What if, say, she builds an empire?"
• Creator Mike Kelley says he has a "slightly unhealthy obsession with all things Mrs. Robinson": "That character is so powerful and witty and compelling, but also tragic. The Graduate was my first real movie obsession, and I always thought, ‘What if Mrs. Robinson didn’t soak herself in martinis every night and indulge in self-loathing? What if she put it all into self-enterprise and success and became a person of consequence?' As luck would have it, Renée felt the same way about (star) Anne Bancroft and Mrs. Robinson. I actually named the character after Anne Bancroft.”

Creator and showrunner David Hemingson tweeted that his action dramedy starring Scott Foley and Lauren Cohan is dead after ABC briefly considered reversing its cancelation decision. “I just got the sad news that @ABCNetwork has passed,” he tweeted Friday. "Thank you all so, so much for your efforts on our behalf. I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the outpouring of support. It’s incredibly painful to say goodbye to this show and our extraordinary cast, but knowing that we made something you enjoyed – and that I believe will stand the test of time – makes it all worthwhile. It’s incredibly painful to say goodbye to this show and our extraordinary cast, but knowing that we made something you enjoyed - and that I believe will stand the test of time - makes it all worthwhile."

According to TVLine's Michael Ausiello, Levine didn't want to attend a pre-taping of The Voice last Sunday so that the stars of the show could attend the upfronts the next day in New York City. He also reportedly didn't like the format chanes to the show. "Levine’s attitude might have stemmed from resentment of a Season 16 rule change that didn’t guarantee that each coach went to the Live Playoffs with the same number of team members," says Ausiello. But it was Levine's appearance at last Monday's upfronts that, as one executive put it, "was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back." Levine appeared to be checked out and didn't look like he wanted to be on stage. "Paul Telegdy was said to be particularly incensed," says Ausiello. "The co-chairman of NBC Entertainment witnessed Levine’s performance firsthand and, per multiple sources, was not happy with what he saw. One insider says the exec was 'embarrassed' and 'furious' that Levine exhibited such indifference in front of the very people (read: advertisers) who pay his $26-million annual salary." Telegdy even called for Levine's firing, according to a source, but quickly backed off. It's not clear, though, if Levine was pushed to quit the show. "But one thing is clear: Something changed between May 10, when NBC announced that Levine was returning for Season 17, and the morning of May 24, when his exit was announced by (Carson) Daly on the Today show," says Ausiello.

Little Black Mirror's three "mini-stories" made for Netflix's Latin America channel will be released on YouTube May 26, June 2 and June 6, featuring Latinx social media stars in short-form stories inspired by the tech-dystopian universe of Black Mirror. The Fosters star Maia Mitchell will be among the actors appearing on Little Black Mirror.

The Voice host Carson Daly announced the news of Levine's exit on Friday's Today show. Levine was one of two original Voice judges who has been on every season of the show, along with Blake Shelton. Earlier this month, NBC announced Levine would be back next season. "Of course many viewers will miss watching his frenemy relationship with Blake Shelton," Daly said. "He'll always be a cherished member of The Voice family, and of course we wish him nothing but the best." Gwen Stefani will return after two years off from The Voice. She last appeared in Season 12 in early 2017. In an opinion piece on Wednesday, TVLine's Charlie Mason wrote that Levine should take a break from The Voice because he "didn’t seem to be all that into it this season" and "he lost a lot of face with the audience when he championed Reagan Strange over DeAndre Nico during Season 15." UPDATE: Adam Levine said on Instagram "it was time to move on," and expressed appreciation for Blake "F*ckin' Shelton," writing: " I couldn’t hide my love for you if I tried. Seriously. I tried. Can’t do it. Our friendship is and always will be one for the books." Shelton responded: "I only found out about this yesterday and it hasn’t set in on me yet. Gonna miss working with that idiot."

The Tywin Lannister actor said of the finale today on Good Morning Britain: "I was confused. I’ve watched as much as I can because there are characters like Deanerys  – her character and my character never met – so I wanted to know what happened to these people. I got to the very end and I thought, 'hmm, ok.' There’s little Arya going off on a cruise somewhere; poor Jon’s gone back to the North and all the people left alive are sat around, 'shall we have a cup of tea?' I thought, 'Agh, I don’t know.'" ALSO: Watch Leslie Jones and Seth Meyers on the final "Game of Jones."

The disgraced TV chef was arraigned this morning in Boston Municipal Court for a charge that he allegedly forcibly kissed and groped a woman in a Boston restaurant in 2017.

Grammer was asked about paparazzi photos from last month showing him holding a folder labeled Frasier. “That little folder is filled with six different ideas that are all in contention for what may be the new Frasier," he tells Deadline. "A continuation of Frasier. They’re similar, it’s a new life, in a new city.”

Sky Atlantic has ordered a third season of the Irish television drama to begin filming later this year. Riviera airs on Ovation in the  U.S.

The Late Late Show host appeared in blue face to play the Genie. But Smith, who was joined by co-stars Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud, took over the role. "I'm the Genie, man, you can't do Aladdin without the Genie," Smith said. "James, listen I understand how you're feeling. I'mma keep it real, you are more like Abu."