TV Roundup: ‘Desus & Mero’ Sets Showtime Premiere Date
By Margeaux Sippell
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) –
In today’s TV News Roundup, “Desus & Mero” gets a premiere date on Showtime and Jameela Jamil heads to TBS.
DATES
will debut “Desus & Mero,” the weekly half-hour late-night series starring Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, on Feb. 21 at 11 p.m. ET/PT. The first ever weekly late-night talk show on Showtime will feature popular TV and podcast personalities Desus and Mero speaking off the cuff and chatting with guests at the intersection of pop culture, sports, music, politics and more.
Sony Crackle has announced that season two of the drama series “The Oath,” from executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and his G-Unit Film and Television Inc. and creator/executive producer/writer Joe Halpin, will return on Feb. 21. The series explores a world of gangs made up of those sworn to protect and defend. Shedding light on corrupt and secret societies nearly impossible to join, only the chosen few make the cut—and once inside, members do what they must to shield each other from enemies who attack from both outside and within their own ranks.
CNN has announced that the upcoming one-hour special “Presidents Under Fire: The History of Impeachment” will premiere Dec. 2 at 9 p.m ET on CNN/U.S. and CNN International. Hosted by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the special will trace how impeachment made it into our constitution, and why historians are questioning the strength of America’s democracy.
CASTING
“The Good Place” star Jameela Jamil is set to host “The Misery Index
,” an upcoming game show from TBS. Inspired by the card game Sh– Happens, Jamil will deliver cringeworthy questions to each of two teams and make them decide which of two unfortunate real life occurrences is worse — for example, is getting a third degree burn worse than seeing your father naked?
,” an upcoming game show from TBS. Inspired by the card game Sh– Happens, Jamil will deliver cringeworthy questions to each of two teams and make them decide which of two unfortunate real life occurrences is worse — for example, is getting a third degree burn worse than seeing your father naked?
INITIATIVES
SeriesFest has announced a new partnership with Shondaland to launch the first-ever Women Directing Mentorship initiative. The project expands on SeriesFest’s “Featuring Women” platform to create a new mentorship initiative that gives an upcoming female director the opportunity to shadow a director for an episode of a Shondaland production. Submit here by March 4, 2019. The winner will be announced in June 2019.
RATINGS
The NBC special “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” drew a 1.3 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.4 million viewers in the Wednesday overnight ratings. That is down approximately 18% from the 1.7 the special drew last year.
SundanceTV’s new true crime documentary “Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle” delivered 527,000 total viewers in Nielsen L+3 ratings for the first installment and grew to 529,000 for the second installment. The two-part documentary aired in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre that claimed the lives of more than 900 people
