TV News Roundup: ‘The Bachelor’ Sets Season 23 Premiere Date
By Nate Nickolai
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – In Today’s TV News Roundup, ABC announced the premiere date for the 23rd season of “The Bachelor” while “The Conners” hit a new low in the ratings.
DATES
The 23rd season of “” is set to premiere Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Former NFL player Colton Underwood is returning for the season following his first franchise appearance on “The Bachelorette” season 14. After professing his love for bachelorette Becca Kufrin, Underwood won over America with his discussion about virginity before ultimately being sent home in episode eight.
The podcast “This is Love” is returning Nov. 14 with a new episode about Martine Rothblatt, one of the highest paid women CEOs in the country who is working on a method to download peoples’ consciousness into an online file. “This is Love” was developed by the creators of the popular podcast “Criminal” and focuses on one of
life’s most persistent mysteries: love.
FIRST LOOKS
Variety has obtained an exclusive clip from Logo’s upcoming documentary “Transmilitary,” which follows the lives of four trans men and women as they grapple with military policies that ban their services. In this clip,
Captain Jennifer Peace becomes the first trans woman allowed to sleep in the female barracks. “Transmilitary” will premiere Nov. 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Logo. Watch the full clip below.
CASTING
Adrian Hough, Jibrail Nantambu, Deric McCabe and Joelle Carter have all joined the cast of the upcoming untitled Hilde Lysiak project for Apple. Inspired by the true story of 11-year-old Lysiak, the 10-episode mystery drama will follow a young girl who investigates a cold case after moving to a small lakeside town. Hough will play Jack Fife, the town mayor; Nantambu will play Donny, Hilde’s new friend; McCabe will play “Spoon,” Hilde’s new friend; and Carter will play Kim Collins, a school principal.
Gen-Z network Brat has signed boxer Ryan Garcia to headline a new original series. During the show’s eight episodes, Garcia will make his acting debut as Arturo, a hardworking high school student who becomes involved with the world of underground boxing. The series is set to go into production in January.
PROGRAMMING
Oxygen Media announced a new two-hour documentary “Dirty John, The Dirty Truth,” which will air as a companion to Bravo’s scripted anthology “Dirty John” starring Connie Britton and Eric Bana. Going beyond the articles and podcasts made famous by Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard, the documentary will delve into con-man John Meehan’s past with family interviews and other victim stories.
RATINGS
Nickelodeon raked in viewers Monday with the debut of its new series “Butterbean’s Cafe” and an hour-long special episode of “PAW Patrol.” “Butterbean’s Cafe” scored the network’s highest-rated preschool series debut since 2013 while the “PAW Patrol” special episode, the number one telecast of the day, nabbed the series its highest ratings with kids two to five in more than a year, averaging a 7.3/727,000 with kids two to five and 2 million total viewers.
ABC’s “The Conners” returned down in the ratings this week after being off last week due to midterm election coverage. The comedy series notched a 1.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 6.9 million viewers, a new low for the show in both measures.
