TV News Wrap-Up: ‘The Equalizer’ Renewed, America Ferrera Back for ‘Superstore’ Finale, The CW Finds its ‘Powerpuff Girls’

Women’s History Month is in full swing, as some of our favorite actresses are making big TV moves.

Celebrate TV’s most amazing women in this week’s news!

CBS Grants ‘The Equalizer’ Early Season 2 Renewal

• All Hail The Queen! CBS has renewed The Equalizer for Season 2, per TVLine.
• The action series stars Queen Latifah as former CIA operative Robyn McCall. After leaving the agency, she now uses her special skills to help those who can’t turn to the police for help, while raising her teenage daughter.
• Chris Noth, Lorraine Toussaint, Tory Kittles, Laya DeLeon Hayes, Liza Lapira, and Adam Goldberg co-star.
• “The Equalizer has proven more than equal to the task of engaging viewers and racking up wins on Sunday night,” CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl said in a statement. “We’re extremely proud to see this outstanding broadcast drama, led by Queen Latifah, punch through the competitive landscape and return for a second season.”
• The Equalizer airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

Kaley Cuoco Producing, Starring in Doris Day Limited Series, ‘The Flight Attendant’ Ready for 2022 Return

• The Flight Attendant star Kaley Cuoco is not resting on the success of the comedy’s first season.
• Variety reports, Cuoco’s Yes, Norman Productions is developing a limited series about the life of the legendary Doris Day, with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
• The series is based on the 1976 book “Doris Day: Her Own Words” by A.E. Hotchner. The author did interviews with Day, and this is thought to be her biography.
• Per TVLine, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told investors that The Flight Attendant Season 2 could be ready to return in Spring 2022.
• Season 2 will see Cuoco’s Cassie involved in “a new adventure.”
• “She is going to be trying to live a sober life,” Cuoco told TVLine. “But as we know, she’s very impatient, so she thinks that things are going to be super-easy, that this is going to be no big deal, and she’s going to realize really fast that this is going to be a lifelong struggle for her.”
• The Flight Attendant Season 1 is streaming on HBO Max.

 Sarah Drew Set for ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Return

• Add Sarah Drew to the growing list of former stars checking back into Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital. The actress will reprise the role of Dr. April Kepner during Grey’s Anatomy Season 17.
• Drew portrayed April for nine seasons, exiting the show in Season 14.
• Though no details are known about the story that brings her back to Grey-Sloan, fans are hoping that she and ex-husband Jackson, played by Jesse Williams, find their way to a reunion. The pair do share custody of their daughter Harriet.
• Drew also has a recurring role on Freeform’s Cruel Summer, which premieres Tuesday, April 20. 
• Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, Yana Perrault are The CW’s ‘Powerpuff Girls’

• The CW’s live-action Powerpuff Girls pilot has cast the grown-up trio with two TV favorites and a musical theater vet.
• Variety reports Chloe Bennet will play Blossom, Dove Cameron is set as Bubbles, and Yana Perrault will take on Buttercup.
• The series, should it be picked up, follows “the pint-sized superheroes as disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime-fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?”
• Per the official descriptions: “Blossom — though she was a spunky, conscientious, Little-Miss-Perfect child who holds several advanced degrees — has repressed kiddie-superhero trauma has left her feeling anxious and reclusive, and she aims to become a leader again, this time on her own terms.”
• “Bubbles’ sweet-girl disposition won America’s hearts as a child. She still sparkles as an adult, but her charming exterior belies an unexpected toughness and wit. She’s initially more interested in recapturing her fame than saving the world, but she just might surprise us and herself.”
• “Buttercup was the rebellious badass of The Powerpuff Girls in its heyday. More sensitive than her tough exterior suggests, Buttercup has spent her adulthood trying to shed her Powerpuff Girl identity and live an anonymous life.”
• Bennet is known for her role as Daisy Johnson/Quake on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cameron also appeared on S.H.I.E.L.D., but is recognizable as Mal to any adult who’s had to sit through a Descendants marathon. Perrault performed in the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill, and if it’s ordered, Powerpuff Girls would be her first major TV role.

America Ferrera Returning for ‘Superstore’ Finale

• As the Cloud 9 gang prepares to say goodbye, original cast member America Ferrera will return for the Superstore series finale, per TVLine.
• Ferrera posted the announcement on Instagram saying, “Surprise! 🤗 Amy’s back! So glad I got to play with my @NBCSuperstore family for the big series finale. It was a joyful and bittersweet goodbye that we can’t wait to share with our amazing fans.”
• Ferrera left Superstore on the series’ 100th Episode when Amy decided she wasn’t ready to marry Jonah and moved to California.
• Superstore airs Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC, with the series finale airing Thursday, March 25 at 8/7c.

Season 5 to be Last for ‘Queen of the South’

• USA Network drama Queen of the South will end with its upcoming Season 5, per Variety.
• The show stars Alice Braga as Teresa Mendoza, a woman who finds herself on the run from a Mexican drug cartel, but after escaping to the U.S. works her way up to run her own empire.
• “We could not be prouder of our entire cast and crew that joined us on this magnificent journey,” said executive producers Dailyn Rodriguez, Ben Lobato and David Friendly. “Queen of the South began shooting in Mexico City, brought us to faraway places like Malta and Colombia and finally landed in New Orleans. We cannot wait to share the explosive final season with our devoted fans. And, of course, we could not have made this show without the talented and tireless Alice Braga, who brought our queen to life.”
• The ten-episode final season of Queen of the South premieres Wednesday, April 7 at 10/9c on USA Network.

Michelle Gomez Set for ‘Doom Patrol’ Season 3

• Michelle Gomez joins Doom Patrol Season 3 as a series regular, playing Madame Rouge, per Deadline.
•  The DC villain “arrives at Doom Manor with a very specific mission… if only she could remember it.”
• Gomez was recently seen as Madame Satan in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and is very familiar to Whovians as Doctor Who’s Missy.
• No premiere date has been announced for Doom Patrol Season 3, but the first two seasons are currently streaming on HBO Max.

Natalie Portman, Lupita Nyong’o in AppleTV+ ‘Lady of the Lake’ Series

• AppleTV+ continues to build its TV lineup, with Academy Award winners Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o starring in Lady in the Lake, per TVLine.
• “The limited series takes place in 1960s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (played by Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.”
• Director/co-writer Alma Har’el will executive produce alongside Portman and Nyong’o.
• Lady in the Lake joins other high-profile AppleTV+ projects Roar starring Nicole Kidman and Cynthia Erivo, Julia Roberts in The Last Thing He Told Me, and Brie Larson’s Lessons in Chemistry.

Katrina Law Joins ‘NCIS’ in Recurring Role

• Katrina Law is joining NCIS on a recurring basis, which could be a series regular role, per Deadline.
• Appearing in the final two episodes of Season 18, Law portrays NCIS REACT Special Agent Jessica Knight.
• “A formidable REACT Team agent who specializes in hostage negotiations and handles daily high-risk operations with skill and precision. Sharp, athletic and tough, she was raised by a single mother and had to fight for everything in life and is damn good at it. Fiercely tenacious and with a wry sense of humor, Jessica is married to a stay-at-home dad who is raising their infant son.”
• Assuming the show comes back for Season 19, Law could become a series regular.
• NCIS airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.

Paul Bettany, Clare Foy Star in ‘A Very British Scandal’

• Fresh off breaking our hearts in WandaVision, Paul Bettany is joining The Crown’s Clare Foy in A Very British Scandal.
• TVLine reports Amazon and BBC’s next chapter to A Very English Scandal will star the duo as the Duke and Duchess of Argyil as they’re involved in one of Britain’s most infamous divorces.
• The series’ official description reads: “Famed for her charisma, beauty and style, Margaret (Foy), Duchess of Argyll, dominated the front pages as a divorcee featuring accusations of forgery, theft, violence, drug-taking, secret recording, bribery and an explicit Polaroid picture all played out in the white-hot glare of the 1960s media.
• “I’m so excited to work with [director] Anne [Sewitsky], Sarah and Paul on this extraordinary project,” Foy said via statement. “And to explore through this story how often shame, judgment and controversy surrounds a woman’s sexuality.

What news item are you most excited about this week? Let us know in the comments below!

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