"For years, struggling with how to think about this crazy presidency, people have compared the Donald Trump administration to reality TV," says Joanna Weiss. "The tropes showed up daily: the shameless overstatement, the manufactured conflict, the need for a winner and loser at the end of every news cycle. Trump was already a reality TV star, which meant he knew the tricks. And of course, this all was actually real life. It’s true that the Trump show has been a lot like television. But as an overall arc, these past five years were less like a reality show than a different genre entirely: a prestige cable drama, the kind built around a powerful antihero. The antihero show—of which HBO’s The Sopranos remains the shining example—has become its own kind of cliché over the past two decades. It revolves around a central figure, a singular agent of chaos: usually male, surprisingly charismatic, emotionally inaccessible, simmering with rage that sometimes bubbles to the surface, and all-too-willing to cross ethical boundaries. Think Walter White in AMC’s Breaking Bad, Don Draper in AMC’s Mad Men. (The list keeps growing: Kendall Roy in HBO’s Succession, Bobby Axelrod in Showtime’s Billions, Marty Byrde in Netflix’s Ozark.) The antihero embodies some blunt truths about humanity. He creates his own convenient code of ethics. He finds fissures in the system and sucks supporting characters into his maelstrom. He holds up a mirror to our frailties, while making us feel superior for being less venal than that. This was the real-life Trump who occupied the Oval Office. The lifelong political players who entered his orbit, with barely an exception, were marked and remade into Trumpians in the end. The Washington he blustered into wasn’t some utopia he sullied, but a flawed enterprise that he exposed for its many weaknesses. And watching him was, for many, an obsession. Over the past five years, Trump’s fiercest hate-watchers and biggest fans followed his moves and tweets the way addicted viewers do: incapable of looking away, driven to rehash and recount every sordid moment. The Trump drama played out over a few distinct seasons. Season One was a come-from-behind campaign story that ended with unlikely victory. Season Two showcased an accidental administration, with supporting roles for Sean Spicer, Steve Bannon and Anthony Scaramucci. Season Three centered on the Mueller Investigation. (Mid-series plots always tread water for a bit as the writers bide time ‘til the finale.) Season Four upped the dramatic ante with an election and a global pandemic. The comparisons are so eerily accurate that it’s tempting to look to TV for predictions about how this all ends." But how does it all end? Weiss thinks that Trump's post-presidency will end up playing out more like The Shield's acclaimed series finale. "He thought he’d beaten the system, but in fact, the system prevailed, chopping the flawed hero down into a bureaucratic also-ran," she says of Vic Mackey. The same can be said about Trump and the United States.

On President Trump's final morning in office, the White House released a list of 73 people receiving pardons. But the Tiger King star, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was not on the list. Joe Exotic's attorneys submitted a 257-page formal application to the White House and were so confident that he would be pardoned that they had a stretch limo standing by on Tuesday along with a beauty crew. It's still not clear, though, if Trump will pardon any more people in the final hours of his presidency. ALSO: CNN's Jim Acosta reads a quote referring to Joe Exotic as a "dipsh*t" live on air.

The Late Night host began his Inauguration Eve "A Closer Look" segment on the end of the Trump presidency by pointing to the president's “meaningless, lie-filled farewell message” on Tuesday. “F*ck off, you don’t get to do that,” he said, according to The Daily Beast. “You don’t want to do any of the hard parts of leaving like gracefully admitting you lost and attending your successor’s inauguration, but you want us to watch your lie-filled 20-minute farewell speech, which I am certain you are reading for the first time?” Meyers then looked back at the first "incredibly stupid lie" of the Trump presidency: the size of his inauguration crowd. That lie, he said, paved the way to the "poisonous" lies about coronavirus and the 2020 election. “It’s not just that Trump inhabits an unhinged fantasy world, which he does,” he said, “or that he and his aides lie as easily as they breathe, which they do, it’s that the entire federal bureaucracy was dragged into defending a narcissistic president’s delusion. And anyone who refused to support the lie was punished.” Closing out his segment, Meyers warned that while the Trump presidency is just about finally over, “the corruption, the authoritarianism and the moral rot Trump exposed within the GOP and our system will remain and we can’t just let it go. We’ve got to fix it. And we have to hold accountable the people responsible for it, from the top all the way down. Otherwise, this four-year-long nightmare we’ve all lived through could very well happen again.”

ALSO:

• Stephen Colbert looks back at the Trump era, and opts to celebrate the "heroes" worth "celebrating": “That’s you, the American people," Colbert said. "For all of his dangerous assaults on democracy, in the end democracy kicked his a** all the way back to Florida. You should be proud of yourselves.”
• Jimmy Kimmel wonders if becoming president was worth it for Trump: "Six years ago, we were all perfectly fine to let him keep bumbling around New York, pretending to be a billionaire," Kimmel said, according to The New York Times. "He could have been hosting golf tournaments, making TGI Fridays commercials, playing this role he created of the wealthy tycoon. He could have bought a couple of new helicopters, a couple new wives, and we would have all just rolled our eyes and been like, ‘Oh, that’s Donald Trump.’ Probably would’ve landed a sweet gig as the cranky TV judge on some hooded celebrity pie-eating competition. That’s where Donald Trump belonged. But now, most of the country despises him; most of the world despises him. We found out he pays no taxes; he has no money; he is likely to face criminal charges in New York. Nobody will do business with him. Can’t host a golf tournament; can’t even operate a carousel in his hometown anymore. His wife hates him; his kids are screwed. He’s got to hole up in that Cheesecake Factory with a golf course in Florida he lives in for the rest of his life. He won’t be able to invite centerfolds up to his office anymore, and he’ll be generally thought of as the worst president in the history of the United States. So was it worth it? For him, it probably was, but it’s over now.”
• Conan O'Brien presents the end credits for the Trump administration
• James Corden bids farewell Trump with a Les Misérables parody

"If there’s any question as to how the conservative news network became a legitimizer of Trump’s propaganda and deep-state fantasies, Fox News’ devolution has been televised," says Lorraine Ali. "The crown jewel of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, at least in the U.S., has propagated any number of the Trump administration’s most consequential and damaging falsehoods, many in the service of exonerating or supporting the president himself in a time of scandal or crisis. (Which, as we’ve all experienced firsthand, was essentially his entire term.) Staffer Seth Rich involved in DNC email leak! Immigrant caravans at the border riddled with MS-13 gang members! Hunter Biden’s laptop! COVID-19 is a hoax! Stop the steal!</i> But years of unquestioning support for the president, including sowing mistrust about anything that challenges the White House’s narrative, is beginning to have consequences. Fox News’ unholy alliance with Trump brought with it white supremacists, hateful militias and conspiracy theorists who believe the outgoing president is the only person standing between humanity and a nefarious ring of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles. The news organization’s ratings have been in decline since election day, a slide many attribute to competition from media sources even further to the right; on Tuesday, it laid off political director Chris Stirewalt and others. Now, as Trump leaves office, the cable news network that fueled his rise to power faces an ugly dilemma of its own making: continue to feed the monster it helped create or be destroyed by the monster’s wrath."

ALSO:

• Fox News' early Arizona call on election night looks to have done major damage: "The Arizona call became a flash point among Trump supporters, some of whom threatened to abandon the network," reports The Washington Post's Sarah Ellison. "Indeed, as the president continued his baseless attacks on the election results, smaller outlets such as Newsmax cornered the market on the story and saw big increases in their audience, Murdoch, Fox News’s co-founder, has told colleagues that the way Fox handled the Arizona call caused reputational damage and cemented the view among some Trump supporters that the network is aligned against him. Even though Fox’s projection ended up being accurate, Murdoch has fretted that it was handled poorly."
• Fox News fired political editor Chris Stirewalt's staunch defense of calling Arizona for Biden likely led to his firing: "Mr. Stirewalt appeared on Fox News several times on election night and the days afterward," reports The New York Times' Rachel Abrams and Michael M. Grynbaum. "He vigorously defended the network’s early call of Arizona, even as anchors like Martha MacCallum grilled him about the decision; other TV networks did not call Arizona for Mr. Biden until days later. On Nov. 4, asked on-air about the Trump campaign’s baseless claims of fraud, Mr. Stirewalt memorably replied, “Lawsuits, schmawsuits. We haven’t seen any evidence yet that there’s anything wrong. Mr. Stirewalt’s analysis bore out: Mr. Trump did not win Arizona and his team produced no credible findings of fraud. But Mr. Stirewalt’s defense of the Arizona call drew condemnation from Trump fans, and he soon disappeared from the network’s coverage; his last on-air appearance at Fox News was Nov. 16."
• Why a Fox News-style cable news network can't succeed in Britain: "Though the UK media scene is defined in part by a freewheeling and often partisan tabloid press with its own share of conspiracy theories, its TV news channels largely frame their coverage down the middle, with broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV maintaining high levels of public trust," reports CNN's Julia Horowitz. "Rupert Murdoch's Fox News is no longer on air in the country after failing to generate a significant viewer base. A big factor in this is media regulator Ofcom, which enforces rules on impartiality and accuracy for all news broadcasters. Those who breach the rules can be censured or fined — putting pressure on TV channels to play stories fairly straight."
• Greg Gutfeld is under consideration for his own Fox News late-night show

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for Julia Quinn, whose books inspired the Shonda Rhimes Netflix series that has inspires people to create TikTok musicals based on the show. The first Bridgerton book is No. 1 on The New York Times' e-book fiction bestseller list. “The New York Times list, at least, I’ve never had more than one book at a time on and right now there are three. Two of those books came out 21 years ago. And ‘The Duke and I’ actually is now two weeks at No. 1 — which is also new for me. I’ve hit No. 1 before once, but with romance, usually you you hit high and then you fade fast. So that’s also new,” Quinn tells IndieWire. “The USA Today list — right now I have 10 books on it, which is nuts. You know, I’m not a fast writer, so maybe some people who write really quickly can do that, but I sure can’t.”

Fans of shows who've watched shows like Riverdale and All American on Netflix are turning to The CW's app to watch episodes shortly after they air.

The Kidding alum has been cast as the best friend of Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters on the Marvel Disney+ series.

The new feature will allow Netflix to pick what browsing-averse viewers' watch based on their user preferences. “Our members can basically indicate to us that they want to skip browsing entirely, click one button, and we’ll pick a title for them just to instantly play. And that’s a great mechanism that’s worked quite for members in that situation,” Netflix COO and chief product officer Greg Peters said during an earnings Q&A. The new feature doesn't yet have a name.

The NBC drama's extended holiday production hiatus due to Los Angeles County's surging COVID-19 infection rate has resulted in the yanking of tonight's episode, which is now scheduled to air on Feb. 2. "No new episode of #ThisIsUs tonight - Covid-related production delays in LA have forced us to delay a few weeks," tweeted creator Dan Fogelman. "But the next few are big ones, and we are close, so we hope you'll hang in there with us.  Sorry!" No word yet on when the next original This Is Us episode will air. As Variety notes, This Is Us "appears to be the first scripted program to push an air date due to the extended break. It is highly possible the air dates of other shows will be impacted in the near future." Deadline adds that "the delay is believed to be about a week and a half."

After Us Weekly reported this afternoon that the couple are "working through" some issues, Page Six came out with a story that Crawley and Moss broke up last week. The couple were together for five months. UPDATE: Moss confirmed the split on Instagram, writing that "this is the healthiest decision for both of us at this time." Crawley has yet to address the breakup.

The pickup comes six days ahead of the TNT drama's Season 2 premiere on Monday.

Mulaney told Jimmy Kimmel last month the Secret Service investigated him over a joke he told on SNL monologue about President Trump. Buzzfeed News' Jason Leopold tweets that he filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Secret Service and "they just gave me 27 pgs. Agency stopped short of investigating him." Read the documents.

SAG-AFTRA’s Disciplinary Committee will now decide the outgoing president's future in the union after its national board of directors found "probably cause" Trump "violated the union's constitution" stemming for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. If found guilty by the committee, possible penalties include reprimand, censure, fines, suspension from the rights and privileges of membership, or expulsion.

The Feb. 10 episode will feature Arnett as a guest panelist with clues to the four dancers delivered in the form of Legos.

Production is expected to begin on Feb. 1 and end on March 6, reports Us Weekly. “All of the cast, writers and production have rented houses there,” a source tells Us. “All the houses are very close together. They should all be able to hang out and house-hop very easily! One of the main writers has a big house right on the beach.”

“This time tomorrow, we’re going to be celebrating,” says Eric Love, the imprisoned Tiger King star's lead attorney.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Buffy Summers was born on Jan. 19, 1980. "I just realized that today is Buffy Summers 40 bday," Gellar, who is four years older than her character, wrote on Instagram. "I can’t even believe that. She taught that the the hardest thing in the world is to live in it. So in her honor let’s all be brave. Live. This may not be the way we are used to living our lives, but let’s find the beauty. So we can all live long and safely."

The Bill Lawrence-produced comedy will feature his wife Miller in a recurring role as Principal Maris, an intimidating, tough love boss that always puts the students first. Other cast members include Jorge Diaz as a goofy English teacher, Dior Goodjohn as the defacto leader of the class, Brandon Severs as a year-round athlete and Adrian Matthew Escalona as a shy, introverted, overthinking coder.

On Monday, The Wrap was criticized by some for comparing Leslie's debut with Ruby Rose's debut, with a since-deleted tweet saying that Leslie's debut "can't hold a candle to Ruby Rose's" and pointing out that Batwoman ratings plunged 80%. As Princess Weekes notes, "Batwoman’s first season had the new shiny allure of being a new show, but it was never a critical darling, getting slapped in the first season for bad acting and other things. So, to have the show go through the effort to actually hire an actress with range, and then putting all the pressure on that actress is a bit slimy, because Javicia Leslie is the one coming aboard a rocky ship."

“If you feel like the Fox viewers were getting mis- or dis-information, I was there to make sure that they got it straight,” the CNBC anchor said in the interview with PBS News’ Christiane Amanpour. “There were a lot of others in there who I thought were trying to do the same thing. But I thought that to just abandon it, and to deprive those viewers of … to deny them that, with the thought that they might replace it with opinion instead, seemed a little selfish. So I stuck with it as long as I could.” He added of his former colleagues: “I don’t know how some people sleep at night, because I know that there are a lot of people who have propagated the lies, and have pushed them forward over and over again who are smart enough and educated enough to know better." ALSO: Fox News accused of getting rid of "real journalists" in a "purge" of 16 digital staffers.

Starting Jan. 25, Hulu subscribers will be able to experience the beloved NBC comedy as it originally aired, with music from The Moody Blues, The Who, Van Halen, Styx, XTC, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Rush and The Grateful Dead. Music rights have previously been issue in past Freaks and Geeks releases.

The 17-year-old High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star's hit song "Drivers License" debuted today at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. “It’s been the absolute craziest week of my life,” Rodrigo, who really did get her driver’s license last year, tells The New York Times. “My entire life just, like, shifted in an instant.” As The Times' Joe Coscarelli notes, "Drivers License's" ascension to No. 1 followed "a record-breaking first week across streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music. Along the way, the autobiographical song kicked up tabloid and social media speculation as listeners tried to piece together its real-life parallels as if it were a track by Rodrigo’s hero, Taylor Swift. TikTok videos led to blog posts, which led to streams, which led to news articles, and back around again. The feedback loop made it unbeatable."

"You’re no longer going to need a second screen or a seat in a sports bar to see all the action — just a really comfortable chair and a stocked fridge," Mike Decourcy says of the new format. "There will be, for this year, no more choosing between such simultaneous classics as LSU-Texas and UCLA-Gonzaga, which were played in the same window on a Thursday night in 2006, or Virginia Tech-Duke and Kentucky-Houston, which shared the same late Friday timeslot in the most recent NCAA Tournament we had, in 2019. A college basketball season like no other will end with an NCAA Tournament like no other."

The Charlie’s Angels and Terminator Salvation has experience directing pilots, including the debut episodes of Chuck and Lethal Weapon.

Like the first special, the second special will drop early on HBO Max, on Friday, before making its debut on HBO on Sunday. As EW notes, the trailer implies fans will get further insight into the Season 1 finale that ended with Jules getting on a train and leaving Rue behind.

The Peacock comedy will return for another 10-episode season. “I’m thrilled that Saved by the Bell has been renewed,” said executive producer Tracey Wigfield, who created the reboot, in a statement. “I’ve been blown away by all the love for the show and can’t wait to go back and make more episodes. Hopefully we stay on Peacock for many more seasons, and then in 30 years, somebody does a reboot of our reboot and invents the threeboot.” Saved by the Bell is the No. 1 show on Peacock and the second show to be renewed, following A.P. Bio.

Amy Sedaris' TruTV satirical cooking show won't be renewed for a fourth season. The news comes ahead of Season 3's debut on HBO Max on Wednesday. At Home With Amy Sedaris' final episode aired last July.

TCM has scheduled eight movies with "Joe" or "Joey" in the title on Wednesday, the day Biden assumes the presidency, starting with Ode to Billy Joe at 6 a.m. ET. TCM will also show Polo Joe, The Fabulous Joe, The Story of G.I. Joe, Joe Smith, American, A Guy Named Joe, Pal Joey and Mighty Joe Young. The scheduling looks like a nod to Biden's inauguration, though TCM hasn't made an official announcement.

Church and Sullivan will perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7, while H.E.R. will also be part of the pre-kickoff festivities singing "America the Beautiful."

All five seasons of Jim Henson's iconic 1976-1981 TV series will join Disney's streaming service on Feb. 19.

The Omar Sy-led Netflix French crime thriller that dropped all week has been No. 1 in numerous countries, not just France.

Donald Trump has been a member of the actors' union since 1989. The union's national board of directors is scheduled to meet this morning to decide whether to expel him with a two-thirds vote. According to TMZ, the vote would mean he could no longer star on The Apprentice.

The CW football drama topped 1 million viewers for the first time with its Season 3 premiere Monday night.

ViacomCBS also announced that the Paramount+ rebrand will also kick off in Canada on the same day.

The six-episode British/New Zealand drama based on Eleanor Catton’s book of the same name premieres Feb. 14. The Luminaries "follows defiant young adventurer Anna Wetherell (Hewson) who has sailed from Britain to New Zealand to begin a new life," per Deadline. "There she meets Emery Staines (Himesh Patel), an encounter that triggers a strange kind of magic that neither can explain. As they fall in love, driven together and apart by fateful coincidence, these star-crossed lovers begin to wonder: do we make our fortunes, or do our fortunes make us?" Watch the trailer.

The Night Of alum will develop shows for Amazon Prime. "Riz is a tremendous talent and his vision to amplify stories from fresh and bold perspectives and voices aligns with ours perfectly," says Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke.

The renewal of cable's No. 1 show among Black viewers in the key 18-49 demo comes ahead of its Season 2 midseason premiere on Jan. 27.

The 66-year-old Roker told viewers he qualified for the vaccine in New York state because he's over 65, not because he's a celebrity.

Six alum Welch is joining Season 3 of the HBO Max superhero series as Gotham City Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon.

Torres was happy to reunite with Firefly's Tim Minear on the Fox drama series. And after playing powerhouse lawyer Jessica Pearson on Suits and Pearson, she was happy to shoot outdoors. “As fabulous as it was playing Jessica Pearson, I feel safer climbing rigs and getting shot at than I did walking around in 5.5-inch stilettos for hours,” she tells TVLine.

Chinese media report that the alleged killer, a colleague of Lin's, rehearsed the poisoning that led to the billionaire Chinese film and TV producer's death last month.

"Twitter is like a party where everyone is screaming," he tweeted Monday. "Not much of a party. Goodbye for now."

Fox News Primetime officially launched Monday, with a six-person roster of highly opinionated hosts: Brian Kilmeade, Maria Bartiromo, Katie Pavlich, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Trey Gowdy and Mark Steyn. "By trading an hour of news for opinion, the network quietly shifted the balance of programming, from one that gave a slight majority of its time to news — 11 hours compared with nine for opinion — to an even split," explains The Washington Post's Jeremy Barr. (Fox considers its afternoon panel show Outnumbered part of its news division, even though it often focuses on culture-war topics, like Monday’s segment on “cancel culture,” because lead panelist Harris Faulkner is a news anchor.) The prime-time shift has rattled some staffers at the network — 'a message that they care about opinion more than news,' said one news-side employee who was not authorized to comment publicly and so spoke on the condition of anonymity. There was particular concern voiced Monday when Bartiromo’s name became public as a potential replacement, considering the criticism she has faced for comments she made questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election."

ALSO:

• Washington Post columnist calls on cable companies to shut down Fox News, Newsmax and OAN for inciting the U.S. Capitol siege: “Anyone who cherishes our democracy should be grateful to the management of Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for their newfound sense of social responsibility,” wrote conservative columnist Max Boot. “We should expect at least the same level of responsibility from broadcast media — and in particular from Fox News, which has the largest reach on the right.
• Fox & Friends' Ainsley Earnhardt praises President Trump's work ethic, citing that "he watches every show"

"I was not fired," Trautman reportedly wrote on social media, adding: "I decided to take a step back from filming because it became extremely toxic. I am unwilling to put my journey and my happiness of the line for fame and money. You all will have clarity when the show airs. Now please stop spreading lies."

“What was I supposed to do? It was just one lousy coup,” sang Benanti as the outgoing first lady. “What do you want from me? Another f*cking Christmas tree?”

Creator Steven Knight clarified what he meant when he said Peaky Blinders will continue "in another form" in announcing Season 6 will be the last for the BBC period crime drama. “Covid changed our plans," Knight told Deadline. "But I can say that my plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie. That is what is going to happen."

Bridgerton is facing the same problem that Hulu's Normal People faced last year when pirated sex scenes were uploaded to porn sites across the web. Co-stars Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor are said to be upset by the pirated uploads. "Bridgerton's sex scenes appearing alongside some of the most obscene material the web has to offer has sparked horror and anger," an insider told The Sun. "Raunchy set pieces have contributed to the buzz but it is a prestige drama based on best-selling novels. To peddle scenes as pure smut is beyond the pale.”

"On Jan. 15, 2021, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the United States and against Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe, Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park LLC, and Tiger King LLC based on claimed violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act," the Department of Justice said in a press release. "U.S. District Court Judge John F. Heil III ordered the Lowes to immediately surrender all Big Cat cubs under the age of one year and their mothers to the government for the pendency of the injunction.  The court also ordered the defendants to retain an attending veterinarian and to provide records accounting for all animals acquired and disposed of since June 2020.  The court further ordered the defendants and anyone acting on their behalf, including Eric Yano and Stephens Lane LLC, to cease exhibiting animals without a valid U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) license." ALSO: Whether Joe Exotic gets a pardon is one of the big mysteries of President Trump's final day in office.

The Canadian actor was debunking a rumor that he had "stormed the capital," retweeting footage a rioter smoking weed during the U.S. Capitol takeover. "Not true - though I would have been proud to share a smoke with this great Patriot!," he tweeted. After his tweet generated controversy among Gilmore Girls, Sutcliffe made it clear he was just kidding. As EW notes, however, Sutcliffe appears to be a Trump fan. "While he has not been as publicly vocal about politics as other celebrities, Sutcliffe has recently liked tweets proclaiming 'Men's politics is best for the world" and slamming 'the authoritarian left,'" reports EW's Rachel Yang. "He also tweeted on Jan. 10 that when Donald Trump dies, he will become 'a symbol of rebellion, and replaces Che Guevara on t-shirts.'"

The YA drama based on Iginio Straffi's Italian cartoon series Winx Club premieres on Netflix on Friday.

The BBC2 cooking show, featuring delightful cakes and heavenly breads, premieres Feb. 12.

The second season of Tiffany Haddish standup series featuring six of her favorite comedians drops on Netflix on Feb. 2.

Mark and Jay Duplass' docuseries tells the story of Elizabeth Carmichael, "who rose to prominence when she released a fuel-efficient three-wheeled vehicle during the 1970s gas crisis," says HBO. "As she wins over major carmakers and investors, a web of mystery unfolds regarding the car’s technology and Carmichael’s surprising past. A portrait of an extraordinary entrepreneur’s rise and eventual fall, the series explores a one-of-a-kind story of fraud, family, and identity." The Lady and the Dale premieres Jan. 31.

The hit BBC period crime drama, shown in the U.S. on Netflix, will end after its upcoming sixth season, but creator Steven Knight has promised the story will “continue in another form.” The BBC revealed the news today in announcing that production on Season 6 had had resumed under strict COVID guidelines in the United Kingdom. Knight had previously told Entertainment Weekly in 2019 that he expected Peaky Blinders to make it to Season 7. But the pandemic delay on shooting Season 6 likely played a role in the decision to end the series. "Peaky is back and with a bang," Knight said in a statement. "After the enforced production delay due to the Covid pandemic, we find the family in extreme jeopardy and the stakes have never been higher. We believe this will be the best series of all and are sure that our amazing fans will love it. While the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form.” It's unclear what the "another form" will entail, but Knight told EW in 2019 he was considering a movie. “Possibly,” Knight said at the time. “I’m ruling nothing out, and a film is certainly a strong possibility.”

The cable news network's settlement with the Rich family over its role in repeatedly hyping the false claim that the late Democratic National Committee staffer was responsible for leaking DNC emails during the 2016 presidential campaign was revealed on Nov. 24, but was agreed to on Oct. 12, reports The New York Times' Ben Smith. "Fox’s decision to settle with the Rich family came just before its marquee hosts, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, were set to be questioned under oath in the case, a potentially embarrassing moment," reports Smith. "And Fox paid so much that the network didn’t have to apologize for the May 2017 story on FoxNews.com. But there was one curious provision that Fox insisted on: The settlement had to be kept secret for a month — until after the Nov. 3 election. The exhausted plaintiffs agreed. Why did Fox care about keeping the Rich settlement secret for the final month of the Trump re-election campaign? Why was it important to the company, which calls itself a news organization, that one of the biggest lies of the Trump era remain unresolved for that period? Was Fox afraid that admitting it was wrong would incite the president’s wrath? Did network executives fear backlash from their increasingly radicalized audience, which has been gravitating to other conservative outlets? Fox News and its lawyer, Joe Terry, declined to answer that question when I asked last week. And two people close to the case, who shared details of the settlement with me, were puzzled by that provision, too. The unusual arrangement underscores how deeply entwined Fox has become in the Trump camp’s disinformation efforts and the dangerous paranoia they set off, culminating in the fatal attack on the Capitol 11 days ago. The network parroted lies from Trump and his more sinister allies for years, ultimately amplifying the president’s enormous deceptions about the election’s outcome, further radicalizing many of Mr. Trump’s supporters."

By Monday of last week, Fox News went from covering the U.S. Capitol siege to focusing its outrage on President Trump's deplatforming on social media. “This, to me, is a five-alarm fire for America," Brian Kilmeade said on Fox & Friends. "A five-alarm fire for America," writes Justin Peters of Kilmeade's words. "While the roughly concurrent deplatforming of the president of the United States and a microblogging app popular among right-wingers is an important news story under any circumstances, Kilmeade’s assertion seemed more than a little overheated considering the bloody, historic context in which the bans occurred. After all, it was mere days after a mob, convened and incited by Donald Trump, toted the Confederate flag into the U.S. Capitol and erected a gallows near the Capitol Reflecting Pool, while some in the mob chanted 'Hang Mike Pence!' This deadly riot was preceded by two months of lies about a “stolen” election, told by Trump and a cross-section of his enablers, as well as literally decades of scaremongering from Kilmeade’s employer about the character and intentions of the Democratic Party and the mainstream media. It’s true that other right-wing outlets have done more than Fox News to promote the stolen-election lie, but that hardly absolves the network; just because Fox hasn’t been the most dishonest network over the past two months doesn’t mean it still hasn’t been consistently dishonest for years and years. The actual five-alarm fire was one that Trump and Fox News had themselves built, stoked, and tended up until the day it nearly consumed the republic. Obviously, there can be multiple five-alarm fires raging at the same time—for more on this exciting prospect, please see my latest Chicago Fire spec script—but by any reasonable measure of newsworthiness, the siege of the federal legislature is clearly the fire that merits the most attention, especially from a flag-waving, law-and-order cable network such as Fox News. Right? Wrong! By Monday morning (last week), Fox News had all but moved on from the story of the Capitol riot, so eager was the network to get back to yelling about the suppressive left. Consigning the Capitol story to a series of passing references, for three hours Fox & Friends made a passionate case for the right of extremely online MAGA propagandists to be able to harass, incite, and misinform people free from any and all consequences." ALSO: Jake Tapper calls out Fox News hosts for promoting hte "Big Lie" of a stolen election.

"This is kind of how I get to serve this country," the country star said today about being invited by Jill Biden, adding: "I've played for every president there is, since Carter, with the exception of Reagan. This is an honor for me to get to serve... and it's one of the things that, if my family is around, no matter who the president-elect is, it's an honor to be asked." ALSO: Tony Goldwyn will host the inaugral's virtual parade, while Jon Stewart will make a cameo.

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under will stream exclusively on WOW Presents Plus in the U.S.

"Netflix left a controversial episode from one of MTV's most popular shows on the cutting room floor ... an episode infamous for some severe bullying," reports TMZ. "Here's the deal ... the streaming giant just added 2 seasons of MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge, but fans will instantly notice something's missing ... some behind-the-scenes clips featuring 3 female cast members going after another female contestant."

The six-issue spinoff The Boys: Herogasm was a takeoff on comic book crossovers, featuring sex and drugs.

In Ruffin's first Peacock show since the U.S. Capitol siege, Ruffin and her writer Tarik Davis, sang a song in response to the schadenfreude of watching the insurrectionists getting arrested and kicked off of planes. “I am filled with joy, and a little bit of shame—but mostly so much joy,” they sang.

"For me, it was like, ‘Let’s get in there and tell the right story and it will tell us how many episodes,'" Esmail tells Collider. "We may dump three episodes in a row because it’s a three-episode-long battle sequence that needs to be dropped in a row even though they’re three signifying chapters, and maybe each chapter is switching a point of view within that battle sequence. There may be a 20-minute episode that’s the backstory of one of the characters that gets dropped right after that." Esmail adds that before signing on for the reboot, he reached out to the original Battlestar Galactica reboot creator Ronald D. Moore, and they determined that Esmail's version won't be a reboot of Moore's version.

"People for some reason think I don't like Black women," he said on the Talking It Out with Mike & Bryan podcast. "The last women I've dated have all been Black women. I don't understand why that's so hard for people to understand. People should want you to be happy, regardless of if they're white, they're Black, they're Asian, whatever."

Reed tweeted it "an honor and dream come true" to work with the Star Wars star. To which Hamill replied: "I am so grateful to have been given the unexpected  opportunity to revisit my character when he was still a symbol of hope & optimism. Your assured direction & kindness was a crucial element in the experience & means more to me than I can say."

The SNL star's long-awaited NBC comedy co-starring Don Johnson premieres Feb. 16.

"I'm the one to call when you can't call 911," Latifah's Robyn McCall says in the trailer for the CBS crime drama premiering after the Super Bowl.

"Every hero has an origin story but not a full mustache at 15," NBC says of the comedy premiering Feb. 16.