TV News Wrap-Up: Shannen Doherty Cast in ‘Riverdale’ Tribute to Luke Perry, ‘Designated Survivor’ Canceled Again, Janelle Monáe to Lead ‘Homecoming’ Season 2
With San Diego Comic-Con in the can, we’re ramping up to fall TV with a force. There are lots of new trailers for long-awaited series, and there are a lot of casting announcements still being made.
Take a look at this week’s TV News Wrap-Up and see some of the exciting new shows that will be coming to our screens in 2020.
Teasers and Trailers
The first trailer for Star Trek: Picard was released at San Diego Comic-Con. The series, which will premiere in 2020 on CBS All Access is helmed by Sir Patrick Stewart, reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard. The trailer also featured two familiar Star Trek characters. Brent Spiner will reprise his role as the android Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Joining him will be Jeri Ryan who played a former Borg drone on Star Trek: Voyager.
CBS All Access also debuted the first trailer for their new series Why Women Kill. The series, created by Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, follows the lives of three women living in different decades as they deal with infidelity in their marriages. The cast includes Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time), Lucy Liu (Elementary), and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place).
The Man in High Castle gets a premiere date and a sneak peek at the opening scene. The final season of the Amazon Original will drop Friday, November 15th. To whet, viewers appetites they released a clip of the first scene from the final season at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend.
The official trailer for the Snowpiercer TV series. The TBS series is based on the 2014 film by the same name and takes place aboard a never-stopping train that carries Earth’s only survivors. The TBS series takes place seven years after Earth became uninhabitable and explores class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival.
Amazon also dropped The Expanse Season 4 trailer at San Diego Comic-Con. The fourth season of the sci-fi series will drop all its episodes on Friday, December 13th.
Fans of Westworld also got a look at Season 3 during San Diego Comic-Con. The third season will premiere in the first half of 2020.
Renewals & Cancellations
Designated Survivor has been canceled, again, this time by Netflix. The ABC cast-off found new life on the streaming giant last year, but TV Line reports Netflix has opted to cancel the series after its 10-episode trial run. Netflix said in a statement, “We are proud to have offered fans a third season of Designated Survivor, and will continue to carry all three seasons for years to come.”
TNT has renewed Animal Kingdom has been renewed for Season 5. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this renewal put Animal Kingdom among a few TNT shows that have run five seasons or more. The crime drama has continued to maintain it’s ratings with a solid 1.19 million viewers for initial airings and 5.5 million viewers per episode.
We won’t be saying goodbye to Liza and Kelsey anytime soon, because TV Land has renewed Younger for Season 7. According to TV Line, while Younger began as a comedy about a 40-something-year-old woman who lies about her age to get a job, the series has morphed into something more as all the main characters learned the truth about their coworker.
Hulu has renewed The Handmaid’s Tale has been renewed for Season 4. With three episodes left in it’s third season, the dystopian drama is getting a fourth outing in 2020. You can read more about the renewal here.
NBC announced that Will & Grace will end with Season 11. Entertainment Weekly reports that the revived series will end with its third season. The third season will be comprised of 18 episodes and air in 2020. In a statement, executive producers Max Mutchnick, David Kohan, and James Burrows said, “We think of the Will & Grace reboot episodes the way Karen Walker thinks of martinis – 51 is not enough, 53 is too many. That is why, after consulting with the cast, we all have decided this will be the final season.”
Casting News
Janelle Monáe will succeed Julia Roberts in Homecoming Season 2. According to TV Line, Monáe will play “a tenacious woman who finds herself floating in a canoe, with no memory of how she got there — or even who she is.” Roberts never intended to start on the show past its first season but will stay on as Executive Producer. Homecoming Season 2 is expected to be a wild deviation from the podcast on which it is based.
Shannen Doherty is going to appear in the Luke Perry Riverdale tribute episode. In a TV Line report, Doherty will appear on Riverdale Season 4 Episode 1, “Chapter Fifty-Eight: In Memoriam,” which will reflect on Perry’s character and his legacy. No details have been released on the exact nature of Doherty’s role, but Perry and executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had planned on having Doherty make a guest appearance for some time. Aguirre-Sacasa says that Doherty’s role in the tribute episode will be pivotal and super emotional.
New Series Orders
More information about the forthcoming Gossip Girl “reboot” from HBO Max. According to TV Line, Josh Schwartz says that there won’t be new actors playing Serena in Blair but that the series is more of a continuation of the original. He also stated that the door is open should Blake Lively and Leighton Meester like to be involved in the show.
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What is your favorite piece of TV news from this week? Are you excited for any of the new shows coming out next season? Let us know in the comments below.
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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.