TV News Wrap-Up: COVID-19 Testing Dispute Halts Vancouver Productions, ‘Friends’ Reunion Delayed Again, Michelle Gomez Boards ‘The Flight Attendant’

It’s been an exciting week in TV news.

Series are starting to think about returning to production, streamers are announcing new plans for programming, and reboots are being considered for some classics. 

Check out our TV news wrap-up for more.

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Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actress, Michelle Gomez, joins The Flight Attendant in a recast role. 

• A Deadline exclusive reports that Gomez will be joining the HBO Max drama in a series regular role. 
• The series is described as “a story of how an entire life can change in one night.” 
• Kaley Cuoco will play Casey, the titular flight attendant who wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man and no idea what happened.
• Gomez will play Miranda, who is described as, “a hardened, savvy businesswoman with anger-management issues who Cassie meets in Bangkok.”
• Miranda was previously supposed to be played by Sonoya Mizuno, but the storyline was reworked and the character took a different direction, leading to Gomez’s casting. 
• The series was shooting prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, and Gomez was on set, but her addition to the cast wasn’t announced.
• Deadline also reported that the executive producers are eyeing a late August return to production and a fall launch date for the series. They outlined their return to production and teased the series (including the possibility of a Season 2) in an interview.
• The series also stars Michiel Huisman, Colin Woodell, Zosia Mamet, Merle Dandridge, and Griffin Matthews

Freeform has opted not to renew mermaid-drama Siren for Season 4.

• News of the cancellation comes two months after the Season 3 finale. 
• The series premiered in 2018 and was a breakout hit and the second season ranked the most-watched on the network.
• Siren Season 3 saw a double-digit dip in the ratings but remained the network’s most-watched series in limited viewing. 
• Read more about this cancellation right here. 

Selena Gomez to star in Hulu comedy Only Murderers in the Building with Steve Martin and Martin Short.

• Gomez will executive produce the project which has received a straight-to-series order.
• The series is based on an idea by Martin and will follow three strangers who share an obsession with true crime, and then find themselves wrapped up in one. 
• “I heard the pitch on Wednesday, and it was the best hour I had all week. It’s really special, surprisingly emotional. It’s really modern and self-referential about podcasts and murders, it’s got some great surprises. When they pull this off, it’s going to be really special,” Hulu’s head of originals Craig Erwich told Deadline. 
• This series will mark Gomez’s return to acting since the Disney comedy Wizards of Waverly Place.

HBO Max reports that the Friends reunion special has been delayed, again.

• TV Line reports that the ongoing shutdown has pushed production of the special into fall, at the earliest. 
• Last month, David Schwimmer said on The Tonight Show, that HBO Max was eyeing a mid-August return for the special, but that they’d have to wait and see for a few more weeks. 
• “But honestly, we’re going to wait and see [for] another week or two, if we all determine it’s really safe enough to do. And if not, then we’ll wait until it’s safe,” Schwimmer said to The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon.
• Schwimmer also previously described the special as “a really fun interview.”

Hulu has canceled Zoe Kravitz-led High Fidelity after one season. 

• Deadline reports that the decision was not an easy one with cast options extended an extra month to allow for deliberation. 
• Finding another home for the show is considered a long shot.

There’s a Who’s the Boss? sequel in the works at Sony Pictures Television starring Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano. 

• A Deadline exclusive reports that both Danza and Milano are on board to reprise their roles from the original series, which aired from 1984 to 1992, and was created by Norman Lear.
• In the 80s, Who’s the Boss? regularly pulled in 33 million live viewers per episode and went on to be a big hit in international syndication. It was also nominated for ten Emmys and five Golden Globes.
• Who’s the Boss? was also praised for its progressive view of the modern family and the reversal of gender roles. 
• The reboot will take place 30 years after the original series with Samantha being a single mother who now lives in the house the original series was set in.
• In line with Norman Lear’s other comedies, the reboot will explore generational differences, opposing world views, and parenting styles, all with the dynamic of the modern family of 2020.
• The rest of the cast remains close to this day. Original cast members Judith Light and Danny Pintauro, who played Angela and Johnathan on the original series are supportive to the reboot and hope to find creative ways to work their characters into the show.
• Katherine Helmond who played Mona sadly passed away on February 23, 2019.
• Deadline reports that this is the perfect time for this reboot as, “The deal comes at a time when some of the biggest streaming hits are classic half-hour comedies from past decades, comfort food and a reminder for some of a simpler time.”

A COVID-19 testing standoff has idled The Good Doctor and threatens to stall production in Vancouver.

• A Deadline report states, ” The cast flew in and started a mandatory two-week self-quarantine, and the series entered pre-production, targeting the week of Aug. 10 to begin filming. Then last Friday, July 31, the entire crew was laid off and pre-production was put on hold.”
• This is reportedly the culmination of an escalating standoff related to COVID-19 testing and safety procedures.
• The frequency of testing is a major concern with Hollywood unions pushing for more frequent testing than what studios consider feasible. In Vancouver, this debate is reversed, with unions pushing for limited testing and studios wanting more rigorous screenings. 
• The Vancouver production request stems from current guidelines in British Columbia, which has a population of over five million with 3,834 total cases and 195 deaths. Hospitalizations recently dropped to 5. 
• While local numbers are the point that unions are pointing to, SAG-AFTRA guidelines, which U.S. based productions are following, require actors to be tested three times a week and the crew to be tested once a week.
• More concerns including who will handle the testing and who will have access to the data are also of note in these talks. 
• Sources say that once the show resumes pre-production, the cast of The Good Doctor will be hired back. 

Hulu orders The Girl From Plainville, starring Elle Fanning, to series

• The series follows the Michelle Carter texting suicide case and has been picked up with a straight-to-series order by the streamer.
• Deadline reports, “The Girl From Plainville is considered the definitive account of the events that led Michelle Carter, a young woman from a small town in Massachusetts, to stand trial for her boyfriend Conrad Roy’s homicide, as prosecutors argued that her calls and texts fueled his suicide when they were both teens.”
• The case was also the subject of the HBO documentary I Love You, Now Die from Erin Lee Car.
• Liz Hannah (The Post) is set to write with Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death) executive producing. Jesse Barron writer of the 2017 Esquire true-crime novel of which the show is named will consult alongside Carr. 
• Fanning is also set to executive produce. 

Amazon has renewed Hunters for Season 2.

• The conspiracy drama from David Weil is followed a diverse band of Nazi hunters around 1977 New York City as they attempt to find hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials that have been hiding out in Manhattan.
• The conspiracy thriller drama stars Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, and Jerrika Hinton with Josh Radnor, Kate Mulvany, Tiffany Boone, Greg Austin, Louis Ozawa, Carol Kane, Saul Rubinek, Dylan Baker and Lena Olin
• Deadline’s report of the renewal mentions that Weil got the idea for Hunters from his grandmother who was also a Holocaust survivor.
• “She would tell us (my brothers and I) about her experiences during the war. They were stories of great good versus terrifying evil. But they were stories of hope and courage and survival. Growing up, I could see those stories through the prism of superheroes and comic books. That’s how I understood who she was, this superhero in my mind,” Weil said at Deadline’s Contender TV event in June. 

Love, Victor has been renewed for a second season by Hulu

• Co-showrunner Brian Tanen has stated that Season 2 will push the envelope now that the show is intentionally being produced for a Hulu audience.
• “For me, it’s a gigantic win that we are on Hulu moving forward. It opens our ability to tell more adult stories. We’d love to tell sexier stories. That’s going to be so much more exciting on a network like Hulu, which, since they’ve adopted us, have been so supportive of the show and incredible partners,” Tanen told TVLine. 

A League Of Their Own reboot gets series order at Amazon

• The reimagining of the 1992 Penny Marshall film is the creation of Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) and Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle).
• Deadline reports that the hour-long series is ” a fresh approach to Marshall’s classic about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, will follow new characters who embody the spirit of a generation of women who dreamed to play professional baseball.”
• It also says that this adaptation of Marshall’s classic film will take a broader look at race and sexuality through an ensemble of characters who carve their own paths towards the field. 
• “28 years ago, Penny Marshall told us a story about women playing professional baseball that up until then had been largely overlooked. We grew up obsessed with the film, like everyone else. Three years ago, we approached Sony with the idea of telling a new, still overlooked set of those stories. With the help of an enormously talented team of collaborators, an amazing cast, and the devoted support of Amazon to this project, we feel beyond lucky and excited to get to bring these characters to life. It took grit, fire, authenticity, wild imagination, and a crackling sense of humor for these players to achieve their dreams. We’re hoping to bring audiences a story with all of those qualities,” Jacobson and Graham said in a statement.
• The series will star Abbi Jacobson in addition to Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Roberta Colindrez, and Priscilla Delgado, with recurring guest stars Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant and Melanie Field.

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