TV News Wrap-Up: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 3 Trailer, ‘Black-ish’ Prequel Ordered by ABC, ‘Suits’ Spin-Off ‘Pearson’ Gets Premiere Date
We’re full-steam ahead into summer TV season. As May sweeps continues we’ll be expecting a lot more renewal and cancellation news, series pick-ups, and more. But while we wait for the news, there are many months of new series and seasons premieres across network and streaming services this summer.
Take a look at some of the new series that will be airing, and some of the early renewal news that occurred this week, plus, the HBO Go snafu that occurred the Game of Thrones Battle of Winterfell episode.
Teasers
The Suits spinoff series, Pearson, has set a premiere date. This summer, on July 17th, the final season of Suits will premiere as a lead-in to the season premiere of the Gina Torres led drama, Pearson. Each series will run for ten episodes. TV Line reports, the Suits swan song will follow the aftermath of the Season 8 finale with Donna and Harvey navigating life as a romantic couple, while Pearson sets up disbarred lawyer Jessica Pearson to get embroiled in the world of Chicago politics as the mayor’s right-hand fixer.
The Handmaid’s Tale comes back on June 5th, and the Season 3 trailer has finally dropped. Following the teaser trailer that aired during the Superbowl, this is the first look we have at Offred’s life after she decided to stay in Gilead on The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 Episode 13 “The Word.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcTvQx1Wot0
Designated Survivor‘s third season premieres on Netflix, and with that premiere comes a spoiler-filled trailer. The trailer reveals Tom’s new VP pick, Hannah’s new mission, and more.
The Hulu revival of Veronica Mars also got a trailer this week. “When your best friend is murdered before your 17th birthday, you don’t develop a keen sense of mercy,” says Mars in the official trailer. The Hulu revival will take place five years after the 2014 Veronica Mars feature film and will follow Kristen Bell’s Mars investigating a series of bomb threats that threaten Neptune’s spring break.
Renewals & Cancellations
ABC has renewed black-ish for Season 6. According to TV Line, “Through April 16, black-ish Season 5 has averaged a 0.8 demo rating and nearly 3.4 million total viewers, down 32 and 21 percent from its previous season. Among ABC’s dozen sitcoms, it ranks ninth in both measures, besting Fresh Off the Boat, Speechless, and Splitting Up Together.”
ANTHONY ANDERSON, AUGUST GROSS/BERLIN GROSS, TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, KATHRYN TAYLOR-SMITH
Empire has been renewed for Season 6 but there are currently no plans for a Jussie Smollett return. In a statement from 20th Century Fox, the network said, “By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett’s option for Season 6, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire.” However, according to TV Line, the decision to extend Jussie Smollett’s contract means that there is some wiggle room if writers decide to weave Jamal back into the storyline at some point next season. Last week, Smollett’s cast members made an appeal to bring his character back after an exit.
Series Orders
A black-ish prequel series has been officially ordered to series by ABC. The spin-off, titled mixed-ish will be a 1980s-set offshoot centered on a young version of Tracee Ellis Ross’ Bow. According to TV Line, this story was supposed to run as a standalone “test run” episode of black-ish to air on May 7th, but in light of the series order, ABC decided to pull the episode until next season.
TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, ANTHONY ANDERSON
Miscellaneous
HBO Go learned the wrath of the fans this week when they experienced technical difficulties during the Game of Thrones airing last week. According to TV Line, many HBO Go subscribers in Latin America and Brazil, as well as across the US were hit with a loading screen during Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, “The Long Night.” HBO Go has not offered any explanations for the technical difficulties, but it’s safe to speculate that the overwhelming fanbase “safe to speculate that the service was overwhelmed as fans of the epic saga tuned in for the expectedly bloody Battle of Winterfell episode.” Especially since the episode brought in record viewership with 12.02 million viewers in just linear viewership on Sunday night.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.