SMALL SCREEN, BIG NEWS
All the TV news that you need to know… in just 10 minutes.
Stana Katic may have been fired from detective series Castle (2009-2016), but that hasn’t stopped her from doing what she does best on TV: solving crimes. Stana’s signed on as the lead in upcoming 10-episode crime thriller Absentia, playing an FBI agent who disappears while hunting a serial killer, only to be found six years later with no memory of what happened to her. The twist? She’s now a suspect in a series of murders and she must race to clear her name in time.
Other new TV shows coming our way include a Netflix adaptation of LM Montgomery’s classic novel Anne Of Green Gables, a TV reboot of the 1998 Will Smith and Gene Hackman spy thriller Enemy Of The State that will be set decades after the events of the movie, and a Candy Crush Saga-themed TV series. Yes, really! The popular smartphone game is being turned into a gameshow where teams must use their “wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards featuring next generation technology”. The gameshow’s host has yet to be announced.
Hit Netflix fantasy series Stranger Things (2016-current) has made the pivotal characters of Will (Noah Schnapp) and Steve (Joe Keery) full-time cast members for next year’s super-sized season 2, as well as adding two new characters: a tomboy schoolgirl with a complicated past and her charismatic but violent older step-brother.
Jackson Rathbone (best known as Jasper in the Twilight film series from 2008 to 2012) is returning to TV with a major recurring role in season 4 of action show The Last Ship (2014-current). He’ll play a wealthy, power-hungry, trouble-causing GreekAmerican playboy who stirs things up with his arrogance.
Carol Burnett and Amy Poehler working together on a new sitcom? It’s happening and it marks multiple-Emmy winner Carol’s return to a scripted TV comedy after her hit sketch comedy The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1878). The potential series (only a pilot is in the works so far) is about a difficult ageing actress (Carol) who is forced to live with a family in their dream home.
Poehler won’t star in the show as she’s executive producing it.
We’re going to be seeing a lot more of singers Adam Levine, Alicia Keys and Blake Shelton now that reality singing competition The Voice (2011-current) has been renewed for not one, but two more seasons, with Miley Cyrus and Gwen Stefani alternating the fourth judge role for seasons 12 and 13. Reality fans will also be getting more seasons of gay bachelor hunt Finding Prince Charming (2016current), Married At First Sight (2014-current), The Rap Game (2016-current) and special effects make-up competition Face Off (2011-current) that will kick off its first All-Stars season in January 2017. Also getting renewed
are horror series The Walking Dead (2010-current) and Scream (2015-current), crime drama Bosch (2014-current), gameshow Whose Line Is It Anyway? (2013-current) and sitcoms Young & Hungry (2014-current) and Difficult People (2015-current).
Former Mistresses (20132016) star Alyssa Milano has little time for hobbies these days. The actress is currently working on two series: she’ll play a top-secret role on Netflix sitcom Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp (2015-current) season 2 opposite Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks and new cast member Mark Feuerstein (Hank in medical drama Royal Pains, 2009-2016) and as well as adapting her own graphic novel Hacktivist for TV. The two-part graphic novel series is about two friends who own a massive global social networking company and then join forces with the CIA.
On The Walking Dead, Laurie Holden’s character Andrea dealt with hordes of undead zombie monsters, plus a few human baddies too. So Laurie should have little problem dealing with Russian spies and love games when she joins the upcoming fifth season of drama show The Americans (2013-current). Laurie will play the recurring role of Renee, a love interest for Noah Emmerich’s character Stan Beeman.