TV News Wrap-Up: HBO Max Scores Streaming Rights to ‘Young Sheldon,’ Tom Ellis Closes Deal to Return to ‘Lucifer,’ ‘Hedy Lamarr’ Heads to Apple, and More

The pandemic hasn’t stopped development and casting. While the urge to reopen Hollywood remains strong, no date has been set to reopen production.

Yet, things seem optimistic as streaming services are acquiring rights, actors are getting cast in upcoming series, and new series are being developed.

Take a look at some of the highlights in this week’s TV news wrap-up. 

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HBO Max has launched and has already added another series to its lineup. Earlier this week, Deadline reported that the new WarnerMedia streaming service scored the streaming rights to Young Sheldon.

• This brings the entire The Big Bang Theory universe one service since the streamer previously scored the rights to the parent series earlier this year for $600 million. 
• Representatives could not disclose when the episodes would appear on the streamer or the financial details of the deal. 

HBO Max has ordered Homeschool Musical: Class of 2020. A TV Line report states that this scripted series will feature high school students whose spring musicals were canceled.

• They will perform original songs from their homes. The cast will consist of a diverse group of talented student actors with compelling backstories whose high school has been shut down a pandemic. 
• The project is being executive produced by Tony Award-winning actress Laura Benanti who in March encouraged students from canceled musicals to tweet their performances to her using the #SunshineSongs hashtag. The response was massive.

Virgin River Season 2 made two casting announcements this week. A Deadline exclusive reported the two casting updates. 

• Sarah Dugdale is joining the cast as Lizzie. Lizzie is described as “…a powder keg of cunning, beauty and unbridled impulsivity, who blows into the small town of Virgin River like a tornado after her parents ship her off in the wake of a shoplifting bust.”
• Grayson Gurnsey has been upped to a series regular. Gurnsey plays Rick and appeared in ten episodes of the first season. 

Hulu’s limited series Nine Perfect Strangers has added Manny Jacinto (The Good Place) to the cast. Deadline reports that Jacinto will play Yao, a bright-eyed young man with a hipster vibe who finds himself working as Masha’s right hand man after a life and death encounter. Jacinto joins Nicole Kidman and Melissa McCarthy in the series based on Big Little Lies author Laine Moriarty’s newest book. 

FX has announced it’s 2020-2021 programming slate. Deadline reports that the cabler has announced that the upcoming season will include the following. 

• A record-breaking fifteenth season renewal for It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia. This announcement will make it the longest-running live-action comedy series, taking the title from ABC’s The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
• FX has greenlit the American Horror Story spin-off American Horror Stories, which will consist of a horror story condensed into one-hour segments. 
• Renewal of critically acclaimed series Better Things for a fifth season. 
• American Horror Story Season 10 and American Crime Story: Impeachment remain in a holding pattern at the moment and have been pushed to 2021. 
• These announcements come on the heels of another wave of FX original series renewals including Dave, Breeders, and What We Do In the Shadows.

A new series based on Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is in the works at Amazon. According to Deadline, the series will take Steig Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander and place in in today’s world with a new setting, characters, and storyline.

The Good Fight is losing another original cast member. TV Line reports that Cush Jumbo who originated the role of Luca Quinn on The Good Wife, will be exiting the series ahead of the fifth season. Since the season wrapped prematurely due to COVID-19 shutdowns, Quinn’s storyline has not concluded fully. Jumbo hopes to return to wrap up her storyline at the start of the fifth season as her schedule allows.

Hedy Lamarr, a limited series starring Gal Gadot, has moved to Apple from Showtime with a straight to series order. Deadline reports that the series will follow the true life story of Hedy Lamarr over eight episodes and will span thirty years of the Hollywood glamour girl’s life.

Step Up: High Water has been saved by Starz. According to TV Line, the former YouTube series has been granted a third season by the network.

• The third season will consist of ten episodes and will bring back many characters from the first two seasons.
• Additionally, Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Lucifer) has joined the cast as a character named Erin.
• There is no time table for the Season 3 launch, but the two previous seasons will be available on Starz app and Starz On Demand prior to the new season’s debut. 

The sci-fi movie Upgrade is getting a tv series follow-up. A Deadline exclusive report says the series will pick up “…a few years after the events of the film and broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host – imagining a world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.”

• Blumhouse and UCP are collaborating on the adaptation.
• Leigh Whannell, who directed the film, is set to direct the series, and Tim Walsh (Treadstone) will serve as showrunner.
• The writers room has been set and will include Whannell and Walsh as well as writer-producers Krystal Ziv Houghton and James Roland (The Purge Season 2)

Lucifer star Tom Ellis has closed a deal to return, paving the way for Season 6. According to Deadline, this new deal is the final piece needed for Netflix to proceed with the pickup.

• Ideally, production on Season 6 would have started in September. However, coronavirus shutdowns halted production on Season 5 they need to wrap up production on that episode first. 
• Lucifer had only four shooting days left when production was suspended in March.

Hulu is testing a new Watch Party feature for ad-free social viewing. Deadline reports that Hulu’s first social feature will enable up to eight people to co-view a tv show or movie with a chat window for conversation during the show. Hulu uses can launch the feature via that Watch Party icon. They will then get a link to send to friends and family to join.

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What is your favorite bit of TV news from this week? Share your thoughts in the comments below. 

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