Television

The Hollywood Reporter reports: The first (and possibly only) presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew a substantially larger audience than a June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. Early Nielsen ratings figures for Tuesday’s telecast, produced by ABC News but simulcast on multiple broadcast and cable networks, show the debate drawing about …

CBS News reports: Stage and screen actor James Earl Jones, who won Tony Awards for “The Great White Hope” and “Fences,” and whose majestic basso profundo voice would become internationally recognized as the villainous Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” franchise, has died, his rep confirmed to CBS News. He was 93. An actor renowned for his theatrical presence in …

Columbia’s NBC affiliate reports: According to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, Matt Vereen, 28, was arrested on Wednesday and taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center. Vereen was charged with three charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor: two counts in the second degree and another count in the third degree. Arrest warrants state that child …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Chick-Fil-A is moving aggressively into the entertainment space with plans to launch a slate of originals for its own streaming platform. Deadline understands that the fast-food firm has been working with a number of major production companies, including some of the studios, to create family-friendly shows, particularly in the unscripted space. It is also in talks to …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Phil Donahue, the talk show innovator who changed the conversation and the course of daytime television with the weekday program he hosted for nearly three decades, has died. He was 88. Donahue died Sunday night surrounded by his family following a long illness, his family told the Today show. Survivors include his wife of 44 years, …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Peter Marshall, the velvety-voiced host who presided over NBC’s celebrity-filled game show The Hollywood Squares for 16 years, died Thursday. He was 98. Marshall, an accomplished singer who also was a leading man on Broadway and one-half of a popular comedy team before embarking on his game-show gig, died of kidney failure at his Encino home, …

Variety reports: Bob Newhart, the genteel but sharply satirical comic whose TV series “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were huge hits throughout the 1970s and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94. Newhart’s publicist Jerry Digney said he died after a series of short illnesses. Before his TV success, Newhart’s comedy albums were wildly popular for their …

Variety reports: Shannen Doherty, known for her roles in on the wildly popular series “Beverly Hills, 90210” and on the witchcraft fantasy “Charmed,” has died after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She was 53. Doherty rose to fame in 1990 as the fresh-faced brunette Brenda Walsh on Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in …

ABC News reports: Eccentric fitness guru Richard Simmons, known for his unrelenting positivity, has died, according to his representative. Simmons just celebrated his 76th birthday on Friday. The Los Angeles Police Department responded to his home after a 911 call from his housekeeper and found Simmons dead, according to police sources. He appears to have died of natural causes, and …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Donald Sutherland, the beloved actor who starred in scores of films from The Dirty Dozen, MASH and Klute to Animal House and Ordinary People to Pride & Prejudice and The Hunger Games franchise and won an Emmy for Citizen X, died Thursday in Miami after a long illness. He was 88. The 2017 Honorary Oscar recipient also …

The New York Times reports: Dabney Coleman, an award-winning television and movie actor best known for his over-the-top portrayals of garrulous, egomaniacal characters, died on Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 92. Mr. Coleman was equally adept at comedy and drama, but he received his greatest acclaim for his comic work — notably in the 1980 …

CBS News reports: Los Gatos man who starred in a real estate reality show was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay back nearly $10 million to his victims after being convicted of real estate fraud, prosecutors said Tuesday. According to Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s office, 58-year-old Charles “Todd” Hill received a four-year sentence. Hill starred in …

Variety reports: Louis Gossett Jr., who won a supporting actor Oscar for playing the hard-as-nails drill instructor in 1982’s “An Officer and a Gentleman” a few years after winning an Emmy for his role as the cunning Fiddler in “Roots,” has died, the AP reports. He was 87. In Taylor Hackford’s “An Officer and a Gentleman,” Gossett’s Sgt. Emil Foley …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Richard Lewis, one of America’s most beloved and revered stand-up comics who also played a fictionalized version of himself on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, died last night at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack. He was 76. Lewis had been living with Parkinson’s disease, a diagnosis he revealed in April, 2023. Lewis, who …

USA Today reports: The Kansas City Chiefs’ dramatic overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers was the most-watched television event in history, according to preliminary television ratings released Monday. The Chiefs and 49ers reached an estimated 123.4 million average viewers on CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl 58 on Sunday night. A total of 202.4 million watched all or part of …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Production on The Residence, which had been paused due to the writers strike, has resumed, with former U.S. Sen. Al Franken set to play one on TV: Aaron Filkins, the senior senator from Washington state. Also joining the cast of the series, headlined by Uzo Aduba, are Andrew Friedman (Better Call Saul) as Irv Samuelson, director of …

Ars Technica reports: Hulu and Disney+ subscribers have until March 14 to stop sharing their login information with people outside of their household. Disney-owned streaming services are the next to adopt the password-crackdown strategy that has helped Netflix add millions of subscribers. An email sent from “The Hulu Team” to subscribers yesterday and viewed by Ars Technica tells customers that …

The Associated Press reports: Comedian Jon Stewart is rewinding the clock, returning to “The Daily Show” as a weekly host and executive producing through the 2024 U.S. elections cycle. Comedy Central on Wednesday said Stewart will host the topical TV show, the perch he ruled for 16 years starting in 1999, every Monday starting Feb. 12. A rotating lineup of …

“We are so honored to have this award. Listen, you guys are just pure lovely for honoring our show and recognizing all these queens. We have released into the wild, hundreds of drag queens and they’re beautiful. On behalf of all of them, we thank you. If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen …

People Magazine reports: “I wanna thank all the evil gays,” Jennifer Coolidge, 62, joked in her acceptance speech — a shoutout to a viral moment from her character Tanya McQuoid — before being verbally nudged offstage. Mike White’s The White Lotus has quickly become a fan-favorite show since its HBO debut in 2021. Both the season 1 and 2 casts …