TV Bits: Renewals, Reunions, Sports Docs, and More

May 30, 2020

In this edition of TV Bits:

A whole bunch of shows recently got renewed.
Netflix announces the premiere date of The Politician season 2.
Watch the Orphan Black cast get together again (remotely, of course).
HBO Max’s underground ballroom community competition series Legendary gets a trailer.
ESPN wants to replicate the success of The Last Dance with a docuseries about Tom Brady.
Why did Skeet Ulrich leave Riverdale? Because he was bored, that’s why.

Let’s start with some positive news, shall we? Several shows have been renewed, and that’s good news for anyone who happens to like any of these shows. Congrats everyone, we did it! Here’s what’s coming back:

Good Girls has been renewed for season 4 by NBC.
Breeders just scored itself season 2 via FX.
And ABC just went ahead and renewed the following:
- American Housewife
- The Bachelor
- Black-ish
- The Conners
- Dancing with the Stars
- The Goldbergs
- A Million Little Things
- Mixed-ish
- The Rookie
- Shark Tank
- Stumptown
- 20/20
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Netflix has announced the return date for The Politician, the ambitious Ryan Murphy series that follows Payton Hobart (Benn Platt), with every season revolving “around a different political race his character is involved in.” The second season will arrive on June 19. In the second season, Payton Hobart “fights to unseat Dede Standish (Judith Light) in the New York State Senate race. As a long-time incumbent and greatly admired Senate Majority Leader with no-nonsense Chief of Staff, Hadassah Gold (Bette Midler) at her side, Dede’s re-election was supposed to be easy, but Payton – who sees this as the next step on his path to the Presidency – must decide what kind of politician he ultimately wants to be in order to succeed, even if that means exposing secrets, lies, and a throuple. Meanwhile, his mother, Georgina Hobart (Gwyneth Paltrow), makes a momentous decision that threatens to upstage him and everything he’s hoping to accomplish. But if Payton wants to rise above petty politics and succeed without compromising his character, he must find his voice and strengthen his political message to inspire and excite the voters.”

Orphan Black cast members Tatiana Maslany, Dylan Bruce, Jordan Gavaris, Kevin Hanchard, Michael Mando, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Évelyne Brochu, and Kristian Bruun reunited for a charity read recently, and you can watch it above. The two-episode table read and reunion benefited CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers and Sistering 24 Hour Drop In, and since so much of Orphan Black dealt with clones all played by Maslany, Maslany’s stand-in Kathryn Alexandre also got in on the action to help read some lines.

Legendary, a new competition series on HBO Max, now has a trailer you can check out above. The show is available to watch now, coinciding with the launch of the streaming service, and is described as “a new HBO Max competition series that pulls from the underground ballroom community, voguing teams (aka ‘houses’) must compete in unbelievable balls and showcase sickening fashion in order to achieve ‘legendary’ status. The cast includes MC Dashaun Wesley and DJ MikeQ as well as celebrity judges Law Roach, Jameela Jamil, Leiomy Maldonado, and Megan Thee Stallion.”

ESPN won big with The Last Dance, their fantastic docuseries about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Now they want to try it again with a new subject: Tom Brady. Per THR, the nine-episode series is called Man in the Arena, and ‘ will offer the quarterback’s first-hand accounts of pivotal moments in his career, including all nine of his Super Bowl appearances with the New England Patriots.” The big question is: will it get as much buzz as The Last Dance? We won’t know until 2021, which is when the series is set to debut.

Riverdale, the sexy Twin Peaks-inspired update of Archie Comics, lost Skeet Ulrich. The actor, who played the father of Jughead Jones, decided to depart the show, and now we know why. During an Instagram Live video (via Variety), Ulrich revealed that he left the series due to boredom. “I’m leaving Riverdale because I got bored creatively. How’s that? That’s the most honest answer.” Thank you for your honesty, Skeet.

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