News

Every month, Netflix has to purge some of its catalog and make room for new arrivals. Still, the first week of April 2025 is rough. If you wanted to catch many of the films below, you have two days left.

There is no way to binge-watch everything that is leaving. That is true even if you line up several TVs and your computer(s) next to each other and play different things at once. Don't do that because that would be weird (or would it?).

Several franchises are leaving on day one of the month. The excellent Rush Hour films and early Karate Kid movies are gone, as are several animated movies that are worth watching. Here is everything that is leaving in the first week of the month, though.

The first week of April 2025 will find 52 movies and seven series leaving NetflixApril 1An Affair to Remember (1957)Baby Driver (2017)Boyz n the Hood...

Exclusive: Bunim/Murray Productions is best known for big reality shows such as The Real World, The Challenge and The Family Stallone.

But the company also has a successful sideline in the documentary space and is looking to grow this even further with the streamers.

As such, it has promoted Jesse Daniels to SVP, Development and Current. Daniels created, developed and executive produced the first installment of Bunim/Murray’s Emmy-nominated Surviving R Kelly. He also exec produced parts two and three of the Lifetime series and was behind The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, also for Lifetime.

He has been charged with leading the company’s expanded efforts in the genre.

Daniels, who reports to Julie Pizzi, President & CEO, Bunim/Murray Productions, has been with the company since 2017 and is also an exec producer on Confessions of Octomom. He previously developed international documentary series Take A Chance...

Saturday Night Live celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a star-studded special on Sunday night. One segment spoofed the "In Memoriam" videos featured at major awards shows which acknowledge the show's most "problematic guests" and sketches that have "aged horribly," according to guest star Tom Hanks at the SNL50 show.

In the faux "In Memoriam" segment, several characters are highlighted from controversial sketches, ranging from ethnic stereotypes to sexual harassment in the workplace. Several guests who are now seen as problematic given their subsequent controversies were also included in the video, including footage of accused murderers like O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake. Sean "Diddy" Combs, Jared Fogle, and R. Kelly were also highlighted together in the video, as viewers may feel differently about these appearances given the criminal charges against these celebrities in subsequent years. Per TMZ, Kelly's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, has slammed SNL for including Kelly in the segment.

Related'Don't...

Sean “Diddy” Combs is currently the most controversial figure in the industry, and recent revelations have just made his case worse. A new investigative documentary has brought forward some disturbing allegations and an unsettling comment that referenced R. Kelly.

Diddy in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia | FX

His ex-girlfriend Kat Pasion is the one who brought these details to light in the series finale. So, let’s look at all the claims that will further taint Diddy’s image and possibly add to the long list of his offenses.

Diddy’s ex-girlfriend reveals the chilling comment about R. Kelly Kat Pasion | @katpasion / Instagram

Kat Pasion is a model and former Miss World Canada contestant who dated Diddy between late 2018 and 2019. The first bonded over shared grief because they both had lost someone, so the connection felt sincere (via Cheatsheet). But according to what Pasion said in The Fall of Diddy documentary,...

The rise and fall of Sean “Diddy” Combs is dissected by over 15 of his alleged victims and former employees in a new docuseries from “Quiet on Set” outlet Investigation Discovery. “The Fall of Diddy,” a four-part special, features lengthy interviews in nearly hour-long episodes that build up to the first recorded allegations against Combs from Kat Pasion, a model the mogul dated shortly after splitting with Cassie Ventura in 2019.

Ventura’s 2023 lawsuit opened the floodgates for dozens of legal filings accusing Combs of sexual abuse and threats of violence against his alleged victims. Danity Kane member D. Woods, former Vibe editor-in-chief Danyel Smith, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, and Diddy’s former driver and chef are among the several people interviewed.

Thalia Graves, who alleges that Diddy violently raped her in 2001 and then threatened her into silence, also speaks out in the docuseries, sharing her alleged encounter with Combs. An...

P Diddy might be biting his knuckles in jail, now that filmmaker dream hampton’s interview with Rolling Stone went viral. According to the 54-year-old executive producer of the 2019 documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, Diddy was apparently warned against making the same move of denying domestic abuse allegations as Johnny Depp.

P Diddy in a still from Closer to God music video | image: YouTube

Considering how renowned stars like Johnny Depp and Russell Simmons, prior to P Diddy were held accountable for domestic violence, where they denied the accusations—dream hampton had allegedly warned the rapper against taking the same step when Cassie Ventura sued him. But sadly, Diddy’s lawyers denied the allegations, and later on, he was accused in six more separate suits of s*xual assault.

dream hampton had warned P Diddy against denying assault allegations

Back when P Diddy was sued by his former artist and girlfriend,...

Exclusive: Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated executive producer Tamra Simmons and her production company, Live Always Productions, have signed with Gersh for representation.

Simmons is best known for her contributions as an EP of the groundbreaking Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, the three-season project that opened up the floor to discussion regarding allegations of sexual abuse in connection to singer and producer R. Kelly. Following the conclusion of the docuseries, Kelly was charged with 10 counts of criminal sexual assault and two years ago, was convicted and sent to prison for 30 years which he is currently serving.

In addition to Lifetime scoring record ratings for Season 1, Surviving R. Kelly received an Emmy Award nomination under the “Outstanding Information Series or Special” in 2019.

Most recently, Simmons served as the executive producer for the Peacock miniseries Casey Anthony: Where Truth Lies. Anthony was charged with the first-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse of...

A new study confirms what many women in TV production already suspect: males continue to outnumber females when it comes to how reality shows are made.

Men make up 58.4% of executive producers, supervising producers, and show creators, while women only make up 41.5%, according to a study commissioned by the Geena Davis Institute, Banijay Entertainment and Everywoman Studios.

Across the United States, U.K., Brazil and France, three in four reality TV creators are men (73.7% compared with 25.7% women). This gender difference among creators is most pronounced in the U.S. (80.6% men compared with 16.1% women), the study says.

The study was produced over three years (2021–2023) in those four countries. Shows in the study were limited to those that either have consistent stars or contestants throughout the season or series, or a consistent story told over the course of several episodes. This includes shows from the Real Housewives franchise and Below Deck, along...

During the #MeToo movement in 2017, Brie Miranda Bryant and her team at A+E Networks were tasked with making an hour-long roundtable documentary special about the awareness campaign.

As senior VP of Lifetime original programming, Bryant was told to make sure that the doc “echoed after the hour was done.”

“It was such a conundrum,” she says now. “I just thought… how?” So she called former Bunim-Murray Prods. CEO Gil Goldschein and asked him to pitch her a doc he thought she would never buy. That pitch turned out to be “Surviving R. Kelly.” The roundtable was canceled.

“Surviving R. Kelly,” which aired in January 2019, put Kelly’s victims on camera to detail the sexual abuse they claimed they endured at the hands of the singer. The original six-hour docuseries went on to win a Peabody and, ultimately, led to Kelly’s 30-year prison sentence.

The series, which snagged more than 26 million viewers,...

dream hampton has been holding hip-hop to task for the misogyny it perpetuates since she was a college student writing for seminal rap magazine The Source in the early 1990s. She is perhaps most widely known as an executive producer of the 2019 documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, which chronicled the former star’s long history of child sexual abuse that he was soon after federally pursued and imprisoned for.

Her latest documentary, It Was All a Dream, premiering at Tribeca Film Festival on June 9, captures her prodding rap stars and fans about their lives,...

Though Lifetime first announced the four-part docuseries, The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, on April 12 — one day after O.J. Simpson died from metastatic prostate cancer at the age of 76 — the project has actually been a decade coming, says one of its executive producers, Melissa Moore.

“It’s 10 years in the making,” Moore tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. “I connected with Denise Brown first over the topic of domestic violence. I’m a survivor of domestic violence myself, and we connected through going to speaking events and galas, raising money. Over this last decade, a friendship and trust started to be built, so much so that I got introduced to the other Brown sisters, Dominique and Tanya, and then in 2016, they introduced me to the Simpson children, and that trust then continued on with my relationship with Brie and Jesse,” Moore says of her co-executive producers,...

A+E Networks has promoted Kannie Yu Lapack to executive vp publicity, public affairs and social media, for Lifetime, Lmn and A+E Studios.

Yu Lapack oversees Lifetime and Lmn’s bicoastal team in all consumer and trade publicity, awards, public affairs initiatives and social media. In her newly expanded role, she will also direct publicity efforts for A+E Studios series currently in the pipeline.

In its announcement, A+E noted that her promotion comes on the heels of the studio’s success of The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix, which quickly rose to the streamer’s global top 10 in 81 countries.

Yu Lapack will continue to report to Michael Feeney, executive vp corporate communications at A+E Networks.

“Kannie is a thoughtful and inspiring leader who has led her team to consistently raise the visibility of Lifetime and Lmn across all platforms,” Feeney said. “As well, she has demonstrated incredible acumen in...

A+E Networks announced that Kannie Yu Lapack has been elevated to executive vice president, publicity, public affairs and social media for Lifetime, Lmn and A+E Studios.

Yu Lapack will continue to report to Michael Feeney, executive vice president, corporate communications, who made the announcement of her promotion.

Yu Lapack is in charge of Lifetime and Lmn’s bicoastal team focusing on consumer and trade publicity, awards, public affairs initiatives and social media. In her expanded position, she will additionally helm publicity efforts for A+E Studios’ extensive slate of series in development.

“Kannie is a thoughtful and inspiring leader who has led her team to consistently raise the visibility of Lifetime and Lmn across all platforms. As well, she has demonstrated incredible acumen in creating effective and meaningful public affairs campaigns throughout her career,” said Feeney. “As A+E Studios enters into a time of strong growth, I can think...

Longtime Lifetime PR executive Kannie Yu Lapack is expanding her oversight with a promotion to EVP, Publicity, Public Affairs and Social Media, for Lifetime, Lmn and A+E Studios.

In her previous role as SVP, Publicity, Public Affairs and Social Media for Lifetime and Lmn, she has been leading the networks’ bicoastal team in all consumer and trade publicity, awards, public affairs initiatives, and social media. She will now do the same for another division of A+E Networks, A+E Studios, producer of Netflix’s hit series The Lincoln Lawyer.

“Kannie is a thoughtful and inspiring leader who has led her team to consistently raise the visibility of Lifetime and Lmn across all platforms. As well, she has demonstrated incredible acumen in creating effective and meaningful public affairs campaigns throughout her career,” said Michael Feeney, EVP, Corporate Communications, A+E Networks, to whom Lapack will continue to report. “As A+E...

R. Kelly’s legal troubles continue.

Six women featured in the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly” have been awarded $10.5 million in a lawsuit against the singer over threats that shut down a screening.

Read More: R. Kelly’s Royalties To Go To Sex Abuse Victims, Judge Rules: Report

TMZ reported on the judgement, which was handed down in the lawsuit against Kelly and his former manager, Donnell Russell.

According to court documents, the women alleged that the defendants had campaigned to intimidate the women as far back as May 2018 in an effort to stop Lifetime from screening the series about the years of allegations against Kelly of sexual assault and other misconduct.

In their suit, the women claimed that after their legal threats against the series failed, someone from Kelly’s camp called in a threat against a New York screening saying someone was “going to shoot up the place.

Exclusive: Prime Video has been quietly ramping up its Nordic originals slate, and it’s now found its first documentary.

We can reveal the streamer’s Nordic arm has ordered Take a Chance, which will launch globally on May 19. You can watch a trailer for the program below.

The doc has “unique, unfiltered” access to Gert van der Graaf, an infamous stalker who reveals how a childhood crush on Abba superstar Agnetha Fältskog turned into an obsession that shaped the rest of his life. Experts, psychologists, friends and van der Graaf himself explore how compulsive fandom can become criminal obsession.

The 95-minute doc comes from Kreativ Inc., Sweden’s A Rabbit Hole and Banjiay Americas-owned U.S. producer Bunim-Murray Productions. Maria Thulin is the director and Banijay Rights has international distribution rights outside Europe.

The EPs are Swedish-born former Zodiak USA CEO Joel Karlsberg, who was an exec producer on...

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always movie, John Mulaney’s new stand-up special, the second season of Sweet Tooth and the final seasons of Better Call Saul, Working Moms and Firefly Lane are among the much-anticipated projects hitting Netflix this month.

The Power Rangers movie, streaming April 19, brings back series castmembers David Yost, Walter Jones, Steve Cardenas, Catherine Sutherland, Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch as they face off against the evil Rita Repulsa (Barbara Goodson) once more.

John Mulaney returns to Netflix for his latest stand-up special, Baby J, on April 25. Baby J, shot at Boston’s Symphony Hall, marks Mulaney’s third stand-up special at Netflix, which also streamed his variety special John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch in 2019. The special is also Mulaney’s first since his recent divorce, stint in rehab and welcoming a baby with Olivia Munn.

At the end of the month, Netflix...

R Kelly has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex crimes.

A federal judge ruled he will serve this sentence at the same time as the 30 years he is currently serving. As a result of the new sentencing, he will serve an extra year in prison.

On Thursday (23 February), the sentencing was announced after a jury in Chicago found the singer guilty of six of the 13 charges brought against him in September 2022.

These included three counts of coercing minors into illegal sexual activity as well as three counts of creating pornography that showed him abusing a minor.

R Kelly is currently serving 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

Prosecutors argued that R Kelly’s sentence should be added on top of the current sentence he is serving, with Jeannice Williams Appenteng stating in court: “The only way to ensure he will not reoffend is to...

Michael Jackson’s 26-year-old nephew, Jaafar Jackson, has been tapped to play his famous uncle in Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming biopic about the King of Pop, “Michael,” Lionsgate announced Monday.

“Jaafar embodies my son. It’s so wonderful to see him carry on the Jackson legacy of entertainers and performers,” Katherine Jackson said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Antoine Fuqua (@antoinefuqua)

“I met Jaafar over two years ago and was blown away by the way he organically personifies the spirit and personality of Michael,” the film’s producer Graham King said. “It was something so powerful that even after conducting a worldwide search, it was clear that he is the only person to take on this role. I am beyond thrilled that he has come on board to portray his uncle and cannot wait for the world to see him on the big screen as Michael Jackson.

Anna Delvey (real name: Anna Sorokin) is ready to make headlines again. The infamous scammer whose exploits inspired 2022's "Inventing Anna" is getting a reality TV show of her own, and it's not like anything you're expecting. The series, which has the working title "Delvey's Dinner Club," will chronicle Delvey's house arrest in her East Village apartment through dinner parties with actors, musicians, socialites, journalists, and thought leaders where they discuss topics like the criminal justice system and her plans for the future.

Production companies Wheelhouse and Butternut announced the series in a press release on Jan. 25, according to Deadline. Butternut was founded by former Food Network boss Courtney White, and Wheelhouse's many projects include Brooklyn Beckham's cooking show.

Each episode of the show will showcase Delvey's life under house arrest during the day, then her dinner parties at night. There is currently no streamer or channel attached to the project.

Country singer-songwriters Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck have joined the new Apple TV+ music competition series, “My Kind of Country,” as scouts and judges to search the globe to find talented artists and break the next big country star. The series is set to premiere globally March 24 on the streamer.

Scouts Allen, Guyton and Peck each hand-pick a roster of up-and-coming artists and invite them to the home of country music in Nashville, Tennessee, to showcase their sound. The competition winner will receive a grand prize from Apple Music, which will include support and exposure on the platform. Executive Producers Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves are also set to appear in the series.

Witherspoon and Musgraves executive produce alongside Hello Sunshine’s Sara Rea and Lauren Neustadter; Sandbox Entertainment’s Jason Owen; showrunner Izzie Pick Ibarra and Done + Dusted’s Katy Mullan. Adam Blackstone serves as music director.

R. Kelly at BMG’s celebration of the 46th Annual Grammy Awards. Pic credit: ©ImageCollect.com/Lee Roth/StarMaxWorldwide

Disgraced R&b legend R. Kelly has been found guilty of child sexual abuse in his second federal trial.

The infamous tape in which he abused a 14-year-old girl has returned to haunt the 55-year-old singer who stood trial in 2008 on child pornography charges, winning an acquittal.

He then continued his successful music career after being found not guilty, as rumors of sexual abuse followed him.

In 2017, a viral Buzzfeed article featured the parents of three young women accusing Kelly of holding their daughters captive in an abusive sex cult; however, they denied the allegations.

The beginning of his downfall culminated with the 2019 Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly which renewed public interest in the singer’s alleged relationships with minors and demands for justice.

He was consequently dropped by his...

On Wednesday (14 September), a federal jury in Chicago found R Kelly guilty of crimes including producing videos of child sexual abuse and child enticement.

Kelly is already serving a 30-year sentence in New York on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

The new verdict found the disgraced R&b artist guilty of six out of the 13 charges brought against him; he was acquitted of fixing his 2008 child sex abuse trial.

He was found guilty of coercing three minors into criminal sexual activity and producing three child sexual abuse videos.

Each child sex abuse conviction carries a mandatory-minimum 10-year prison sentence, according to the Chicago Tribune, with the possibility that they would have to be served consecutively.

The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer has faced consistent allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct throughout his career, which he has denied.

In 1994, then aged 27, Kelly married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah at a secret ceremony in Chicago.

A Chicago federal jury found singer R. Kelly guilty of three counts of child pornography for filming himself sexually abusing his then-14-year-old goddaughter.

According to the Chicago Tribune, of the indictment’s 13 charges, Kelly was also found guilty of three counts of child sex trafficking through coercion and enticement, reports ‘Variety’.

He was acquitted on charges that he conspired to obstruct justice in his 2002 Cook County case. Additionally, he was acquitted on two counts of receiving child pornography and one count of conspiring to receive child pornography.

The verdict delivered on Wednesday follows the testimony of Kelly’s goddaughter, who went by the pseudonym Jane. Three other women testified that Kelly had also recorded and kept tapes of himself sexually abusing them when they were underage.

There were two co-defendants in the proceedings, former employees Milton “June” Brown and Derrel McDavid.

Charges against them alleged a conspiracy to hide...

Grammy-winning singer R. Kelly was found guilty in Chicago today on six of 13 counts related to child pornography and luring underage girls to have sex with him, according to Reuters. Each child pornography conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in Chicago.

Previously, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison at a Brooklyn federal court on nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Today Kelly was found guilty of three child pornography counts and three counts of enticing minors for sex. He was acquitted of seven other charges, including obstruction of justice and conspiracy to receive child pornography. He had pled not guilty.

Of the felony counts of sexual assault, four of them are aggravated criminal sexual assault that carry a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

The charges were originally filed May 30, 2019 after Kelly previously pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four...

On Wednesday (14 September), a federal jury in Chicago found R Kelly guilty of sex crimes, including producing child pornography and coercing minors into sex.

Kelly is already serving a 30-year sentence in New York on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

The new verdict found the disgraced R&b artist guilty of six out of the 13 charges brought against him; he was acquitted of fixing his 2008 child pornography trial.

He was found guilty of coercing three minors into criminal sexual activity and producing three child sexual abuse videos.

Each child pornography conviction carries a mandatory-minimum 10-year prison sentence, according to the Chicago Tribune, with the possibility that they would have to be served consecutively.

The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer has faced consistent allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct throughout his career, which he has denied.

In 1994, then aged 27, Kelly married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah at a secret ceremony in Chicago.

Chicago, Il — R. Kelly’s alleged underage sexual assault victim, known under the pseudonym Jane and central to his child pornography federal trial in Chicago, was heard apologizing to her alleged abuser multiple times in more than one videotape clip submitted as evidence by the prosecution on Friday. The graphic videotapes were shown to jurors on Friday at Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where the tape — featuring clips from three different videos — was not seen by the public or media. Instead, audio was heard in the courthouse.

Kelly is facing multiple...

R Kelly is standing trial on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges.

The “Bump N’ Grind” singer’s child pornography trial began in Chicago on Wednesday (17 August). Kelly is already serving a 30-year sentence in New York on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

The singer – real name Robert Sylvester Kelly – found fame after he performed on the talent TV show Big Break as part of the group MGM in 1989. He went on to launch his solo career in 1993 and in 1998 won multiple Grammy awards for his song “I Believe I Can Fly”.

He has faced consistent allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct throughout his career, which he has denied.

In 1994, then aged 27, Kelly married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah at a secret ceremony in Chicago. The marriage was later annulled after the teenager was found to have lied about her age on the marriage certificate.

Kelly faced further accusations of...

“A Black Lady Sketch Show,” created by Robin Thede with fellow actors Gabrielle Dennis, Ashley Nicole Black and Skye Townsend is certainly an improvisational, production-heavy, comic masterpiece. But who knew that it was in the business of making history?

Last year for Season 2, editor Stephanie Filo made history as part of the first-ever, all women-of-color editing team to win an Emmy. Now, in 2022, for its third season, the editing team of “A Black Lady Sketch Show” — Filo, Taylor Mason, Bradinn French, Robyn Wilson — are the first all-Black editing team to be nominated for an Emmy.

Of this achievement, each editor is proud.

“For all of us, what’s important is representation,” says Filo. “’Black Lady Sketch Show’ proves what it means when you prioritize inclusion. Robin is efficient at finding diverse teams behind, and before, the camera.”

French, who worked with Filo in the editing room for Lifetime’s “Surviving R Kelly,...

Chicago — R. Kelly appeared in court Monday for the first day of his second trial in Chicago in 14 years. It began with jury selection in his federal trial where he faces child pornography and obstruction of justice charges.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber questioned nearly 60 potential jurors over six hours at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, with a focus on how much they knew about the disgraced R&B singer. The 55-year-old singer was already convicted on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York federal court; he was...

R. Kelly’s second trial got underway in a courthouse in Chicago on Monday, as his defense lost a bid to exclude potential jurors who have seen the Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”

Kelly was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison, after being convicted in New York last year on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.

Jury selection began Monday morning in federal court in Chicago, where Kelly is facing numerous charges of child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct an investigation. The government alleges that Kelly coerced underage girls to have sex with him, videotaped the sex acts, and then paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to reclaim copies of the videos in an effort to thwart the investigation.

The charges relate to Kelly’s 2008 trial, in which he was acquitted after the alleged victim refused to testify. Prosecutors allege that he supplied money and gifts to the girl...

W. Kamau Bell first knew there was something suspicious about Bill Cosby after his infamous Pound Cake Speech to the NAACP. “I was like, this is not America’s dad. This is not the guy who wants all of us to succeed and wants to reach out to us. He’s pushing some Black people away in that moment,” the director of “We Need to Talk About Cosby” tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). This was further highlighted for him when he saw Cosby do stand-up soon after. “I was really blown away by the fact that none of the NAACP Cosby was in the Cosby I saw do stand-up. He really separated these two personas.”

“We Need to Talk About Cosby,” which is available to stream through Showtime, is a comprehensive telling of Cosby’s career while also telling the stories of...

Lifetime’s Janet Jackson four-hour docuseries averaged 3.1 million viewers across Lifetime and A&e. The delivery on Lifetime was the cable channel’s best for a nonfiction program since “Surviving R. Kelly” in early 2019.

“Janet Jackson.” — the documentary series’ official, stylized title — got off to the best start for any nonfiction program on all of cable since “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, aired on ESPN and ESPN2 in Spring 2020.

Here’s how “Janet” broke down, per episode, according to Nielsen:

Hour 1: 2.8 million viewersHour 2: 3.2 million viewersHour 3: 3.0 million viewersHour 4: 3.2 million viewers

The Janet doc also accrued 3.7 million video views across Lifetime’s and A&e’s TV Everywhere platforms. Tallying up all of the airings on linear and all of the video views on digital, “Janet Jackson.” reached more than 15.7 million (unduplicated) total viewers.

That all-in sum includes numbers from Adobe Analytics,...

The love for Miss Janet was palpable on Friday and Saturday, as the Queen of Pop’s self-titled documentary reigned supreme on primetime, drawing over 15.7 million total viewers across Lifetime and A&e’s linear and digital platforms. It was No. 1 on both Jan. 28 and 29 with women in the 25-54 age range.

Among total viewers, “Janet Jackson” on Lifetime and A&e had a 48% stronger turnout than “Surviving R. Kelly Part 1” on Lifetime in the first weekend of January 2019, with 3.1 million versus 2.1 million P2+ Live+Same Day linear viewers. In addition, “Janet Jackson” was cable’s best non-fiction freshman debut since ESPN and ESPN2’s “The Last Dance” docuseries in 2020 with total viewers across the key, ages 18-49 demo and ages 25-54. On A&e, Part 4 of the “Janet Jackson” doc event was the network’s most-watched telecast since “Biography: WWE Legends” in the ages 25-54 range.

The documentary performed well on social,...

The two-part documentary Janet Jackson averaged 3.1 million total viewers for its premiere ratings last week on Lifetime and A&e, the networks said Tuesday, marking the best nonfiction debut in viewership and ratings on cable since ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries The Last Dance.

The networks said today that the doc also drew 3.7 million video views across Lifetime and A&e’s on-demand platforms, with linear and video views on digital combining to reach 15.7 million total viewers.

The two-part, four-hour documentary from Sky and A&e Networks and executive produced by Jackson charts the pop icon’s life she travels back to her hometown of Gary, Indiana to see where her incredible journey began, and discusses everything including her Super Bowl appearance with Justin Timberlake in 2004, the controversy surrounding her brother Michael Jackson, and becoming a mother later in life. Contributors include Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson, Rebbie Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton,...

Singer R. Kelly has been found guilty on all nine counts in his federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Brooklyn.

A jury of seven men and five women convicted Kelly (real name Robert Sylvester Kelly) this afternoon after nearly six weeks of sometimes lurid and graphic testimony. Sentencing has been set for May 4. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The verdict, which came quickly despite a complex felony case, is almost certain to be appealed.

He stood accused of being a serial sexual predator and leading a group that recruited women and young girls for sex during his years touring the world as a top R&b singer. He was arrested by New York police and federal authorities in Chicago in 2019 and transferred to New York in June. His Brooklyn trial began August 21.

Some of the charges of sexual assault and bribery dated back more than 20 years.

Premier League Doc Series Sells Globally

All3Media International has inked multiple signed deals for Fever Pitch! The Rise of the Premier League, the new documentary from Story Films and David Beckham’s new production company Studio 99. Commissioned by BBC Two, the 4 x 60’ doc will tell the story of the creation of the lucrative English Premier League through the stories of some of its most famous names, including Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Vinnie Jones and Alan Shearer. Amazon has acquired the series for Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, buyers include Rtl for Germany and German-speaking Europe, Telefonica for Spain and Dr Denmark, Nrk Norway, Svt Sweden and Yle Finland for Nordic regions. Discovery+ has acquired the series for India, while Watcha will be the exclusive home for the series in South Korea. The doc is set to debut on BBC Two in the UK later this year. C4...

Singer R. Kelly’s federal sex trafficking trial began today in Brooklyn, New York, his first time in front of a criminal court jury in 13 years.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents some accusers, joined family members of Joycelyn Savage, who has claimed she was Kelly’s prisoner.

Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges at a 2008 trial in Chicago. But he now faces a different situation, in that his music has been boycotted, his conduct scrutinized by journalists, and a spotlight on his activities was featured in a Lifetime documentary series, Surviving R. Kelly.

He has been in federal pretrial custody for the last two years and is facing pending cases in four different jurisdictions across the country.

Kelly’s lead attorney, Thomas Farinella, tweeted Tuesday night that “The public has only heard one side of the story,” adding that Kelly’s legal team would attack the case against him.

R. Kelly will finally go before a judge Wednesday after being arrested in 2019 for charges tied to child pornography, a case that has culminated after years of accusations that the R&b singer used his fame and influence to sexually abuse women and girls.

Kelly begins his criminal trial Wednesday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, starting after a long delay in part because of the Covid-19 pandemic but also because of scheduling issues for other charges he faces.

His case is one of the most high profile of the #MeToo era, spawning a damning documentary series called “Surviving R. Kelly” and being the subject of more reports that have accused him of overseeing an enterprise that for decades recruited women and girls to have sex with him. He’s also come under scrutiny for his annulled, 1994 marriage to the late singer Aaliyah when she was 15 years old, details of...

Federal prosecutors filed a detailed court document Friday, asking a New York judge to admit new allegations against R&b singer R. Kelly in his upcoming sex trafficking trial.

The new accusations include alleged acts which R. Kelly has not been charged with, but are “directly relevant to and inextricably intertwined with the evidence of the charged crimes,” prosecutors argued in the motion.

Among the charges are accusations of sexual assault and bribery, some dating back 30 years.

Kelly is accused of being the leader of a group that recruited women and young girls for sex during his years touring the world as a top R&b singer. He was arrested by the New York Police Dept. and federal authorities in Chicago in 2019, and transferred to New York in June. He faces two sets of federal charges in Chicago and New York.

The court filing alleges a 2006 incident wherein Kelly sexually abused a 17-year-old boy,...

Hulu released a trailer for the third and final season of “Shrill,” which premieres on May 7.

The third season finds Annie (played by Aidy Bryant) energized by new momentum at work and her breakup with dud boyfriend Ryan. In the trailer, Annie goes on dates and new adventures while finding her voice. The series stars Bryant, Lolly Adefope, Ian Owens, John Cameron Mitchell, E.R. Fightmaster and Patti Harrison.

“Shrill” is executive produced by Ali Rushfield, who also serves as showrunner, Aidy Bryant, Lindy West, Rob Klein, Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, Lorne Michaels and Andrew Singer. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television, Broadway Video, and Brownstone Productions. Warner Bros. Television serves as the international distributor.

Also in today’s TV news roundup:

Dates

Apple TV Plus announced that “Lisey’s Story,” the limited thriller series based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, will debut on June...

Hey Oscar fans! Have you caught the new promo for this year’s Academy Awards?

The Oscars show producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh have announced 14 key members of the production team for the 93rd Oscars®, which airs live on ABC on Sunday, April 25, 2021.

Rob Paine has been associated with the Oscars telecast for more than 20 years and returns as supervising producer. Paine has more than 200 television events to his name and has earned eight Primetime Emmy® Award nominations, a Daytime Emmy Award nomination and a Peabody Award. His credits include “Celebrating America,” “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote,” 12 Super Bowl Halftime Shows, “The Kennedy Center Honors” and the “Primetime Emmy Awards.”

Co-producer Jeannae Rouzan-Clay joins the Oscars production team for the first time. She is a writer and producer, and the Vice President of Specials for Jesse Collins Entertainment. For more than 15 years,...

With the 93rd Oscars forced to adapt and change with the coronavirus pandemic still a major factor, the production team for the April 25 ceremony announced Wednesday reflects those conditions.

Producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh unveiled 14 key members of their team for the show, which will air live on ABC from both the Oscars’ usual home at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles’ Union Station. Among the returning veterans are newcomers including The Roots drummer and filmmaker Questlove, who had previously performed on the telecast but is now musical director; Oscar-nominated screenwriter Richard Lagravenese, who also penned the Soderbergh-directed Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra, as a writer; and Dream Hampton, a writer and executive producer of Surviving R. Kelly, also as as writer.

All three are first-timers in the Oscar world. Other newcomers include Jesse Collins Entertainment veterans Jeannae Rouzan-Clay and Dionne Harmon as co-producers. They will be joined by veterans of the annual broadcast including supervising producer Rob Paine, who has been part of the Oscars team for 20 years; co-producer Raj Kapoor, back for a fifth consecutive year overseeing screen content and performances; and Taryn Hurd who returns for the eighth consecutive year as talent producer.

Head writer writer Jon Macks, the longtime Tonight Show With Jay Leno scribe who returns for his 24th Oscars telecast after recent gigs writing for the 2020 Democratic National Convention and the Celebrating America inauguration special, will lead a team that includes Amberia Allen (second Oscars), Rodney Barnes (Wu-Tang: An American Saga) and Mitchell Marchand (MTV Music Video Awards) along with Lagravenese and Hampton.

Other veterans returning include production designer David Rockwell, who served in that role for the 81st and 82nd Oscars and is a Tony winner with more than 60 theatrical productions including She Loves Me, Kinky Boots and Harispray (he also designs Nobu hotels and restaurants); and lighting designer Robert Dickinson, who returns for his 32nd Oscars show with 18 Primetime Emmy Awards to his credit — including three for Oscars telecasts.

As Deadline scooped this week, there is no single host planned for this year’s ceremony, with producers now out with offers to talent they hope will come in to present the categories on a rotating basis.

Glenn Weiss returns to direct the Oscars for a sixth straight year but little else is known about the makeup of the ceremony. Organizer the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has told nominees there will be a ban on Zooms, so popular with other Covid-era shows including Golden Globes, Critics Choice and the upcoming truncated SAG Awards.

“Our plan is that this year’s Oscars will look like a movie, not a television show, and Glenn has embraced this approach and come up with ideas of his own on how to achieve this,” Collins, Sher and Soderbergh said when Weiss came aboard last week.

Oscars producers have unveiled the production team for this year’s ceremony, including Questlove as the show’s musical director and Richard Lagravenese and Dream Hampton as writers.

Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh, the producers for this year’s Academy Awards, announced a total of 14 new members of the team on Wednesday. This follows the news that Glenn Weiss will be returning to direct the show with the intention of making it look more cinematic than past Oscars broadcasts.

The members added to this year’s show are supervising producer Rob Paine, co-producers Jeannae Rouzan-Clay, Dionne Harmon and Raj Kapoor, talent producer Taryn Hurd, writers Amberia Allen, Rodney Barnes, Dream Hampton, Mitchell Marchand and Richard Lagravenese and head writer Jon Macks, music director Questlove, production designer David Rockwell and lighting designer Robert Dickinson.

The Roots crew leader Questlove has previously been a musical director for artists like D’Angelo,...

In the third installment of “Allen v. Farrow,” former New York Times reporter Peter Marks — who covered the 1992 custody trial between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow — admits with some mixed emotions that he hasn’t watched another Woody Allen movie since.

“I didn’t buy it […] either,” Marks says somewhat sheepishly. “As a reporter it’s hard to admit this, in a way. I absolutely worshipped Woody Allen before this trial and I still, well the proof is I could never watch a Woody Allen film again after this. It still hurts, it still wrenches me to say that, it’s still not easy to say that.”

Now the chief theater critic of the Washington Post, Marks speaks for all culture connoisseurs in that moment. For years, cinephiles and New York aesthetes turned a blind eye to the horrific allegations of childhood sexual abuse made against Allen by Dylan Farrow,...

In the process of growing up, we’re reminded over and over again that life isn’t fair. It’s not an untrue admonishment; after all, sometimes your brother will get ice cream and you won’t, or you have to miss out on trick-or-treating because you have strep throat. It’s a little life lesson that works, insofar as teaching kids that life won’t always work out the way that you expect, and that balance can’t always be maintained.

But it falls far short in terms of teaching children just how unfair life will be. After all, while teaching children that life isn’t always fair, we’re also standing them in front of an American flag and encouraging them to recite a pledge of allegiance to the country, tiny hype men for a nation promising liberty and justice for all.

We shouldn’t stop at teaching...

Producer dream hampton says she’s happy flying the flag for Detroit but had to leave her hometown for New York City and Los Angeles to build a career documenting abuse of power and celebrity, as with her award-winning Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly.

“No one disses Toronto. No one is against you Toronto,” the Detroit-based producer, filmmaker and activist said during a virtual masterclass during the Toronto Film Festival on Monday. “The reason is we had ‘Detroit vs Everybody,’ what Trump would call an S-hole country, and we are disconnected from Michigan in almost every ...

Producer dream hampton says she’s happy flying the flag for Detroit but had to leave her hometown for New York City and Los Angeles to build a career documenting abuse of power and celebrity, as with her award-winning Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly.

“No one disses Toronto. No one is against you Toronto,” the Detroit-based producer, filmmaker and activist said during a virtual masterclass during the Toronto Film Festival on Monday. “The reason is we had ‘Detroit vs Everybody,’ what Trump would call an S-hole country, and we are disconnected from Michigan in almost every ...

In the sixth episode of Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer’s docuseries “The Vow,” Sarah Edmondson, a whistleblower who was once in the inner-circle of Nxivm and also a part of its master-slave subgroup Dos, is asked outright if she is a victim. Although she answers quickly in the affirmative, she also makes it clear that she made choices during her time working with the organization. Some of these choices simply kept her involved, while others were direct recruitment of other young women. To some, this may paint her in the colors of someone more culpable than coerced.

But the truth is much more complicated. And what Noujaim and Amer endeavor to do with their nine-part HBO docuseries is peel back the layers of the psychology of not only the women who found themselves in this organization that purported to be one of self-improvement, but also of its founder and high-ranking officials,...

R. Kelly's former manager, Donnell Russell, has been charged with calling in gun threats at the Surviving R. Kelly screening. The lifetime docuseries was holding a premiere at the NeueHouse Madison Square venue in New York City in late 2018, but it was later evacuated as a safety precaution after the threats were made. At the time, the theater did not think that the gun threats were credible, but felt that evacuating and canceling the event was the best course of action at the time.

Donnell Russell, who was R. Kelly's manager back in 2018, has been charged with two counts of "threatening physical harm by interstate communication, and conspiracy to do the same," which could land him 5 years in jail, along with fines of up to $75,000. Russell made the calls from Chicago and pretended to be in the building on the night of the screening. Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss...