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Hulu is doing another purge. The streaming service is removing specific seasons or entire runs of several reality and scripted series. Many will leave the streaming service today, per Deadline.

These departures include seasons of older shows like Ally McBeal, The Practice, Hill Street Blues, and The Bob Newhart Show, as well as current shows like Beat Shazam, and Name That Tune. The removals are reportedly being made to help the streaming service cut costs.

The list of some of the shows being removed is below.

“Fox shows, most of them departing Sept. 25

I Can See Your Voice (Seasons 1-2)

Alter Ego (Season 1)

Cherries Wild (Season 1)

Beat Shazam (Seasons 4-5)

Masked Dancer (Season 1)

Cosmos Possible Worlds (Season 1)

Name That Tune (Seasons...

Dozens of TV shows — including Ally McBeal, The Practice, and four-time Outstanding Drama Emmy winner Hill Street Blues — are slated to leave Hulu in coming weeks. The content-culling on Hulu comes ahead of a “one app experience” that will combine the Disney-controlled platform with streaming sibling Disney+ later this year, according to Deadline, which reported the removals. The programs disappearing from Hulu include 18 titles from Disney’s 20th Television. Those titles, scheduled to be pulled from the platform on September 30, are: Ally McBeal Arrested Development Better Off Ted The Bob Newhart Show Breakout Kings Damien Dollhouse Don’t Trust the B—– in Apt 23 Hill Street Blues Legends Napoleon Dynamite Out There The Practice Second Chance Shots Fired Son of Zorn Speechless Touch Deadline also listed various Fox shows that will leave Hulu, with several disappearing on September 25: Alter Ego (Season 1) Beat Shazam (Seasons 4-5) Cherries Wild (Season 1) Cosmos: Possible Worlds...

Updated: In another sign that shows — even famous ones — can no longer “live forever” on streaming in the new era of media companies re-prioritizing profits, a slew of titles will be leaving Disney-controlled Hulu in the coming days as their license deals expire. For now, there are no plans to renew any of the pacts but that is always a possibility in the future.

‘Arrested Development’ and ‘Bob Newhart Show’

The list of departing series includes 18 series from Disney’s 20th Television, including the David E. Kelley Emmy-winning legal shows Ally McBeal, which the studio had been looking to remake, and The Practice, as well as fellow award-winners The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues and Arrested Development.

A slew of catalog titles from Fox and Paramount also are impacted, as well as a couple of properties each from Nat Geo and NBC News. Update: The license agreements for several...

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Doja Cat shows a softer side on the fifth single off her new album, Kylie Minogue delivers explosive dance-pop, and Blink-182 get existential on their first track with guitarist Tom DeLonge in over a decade. Plus, stellar collaborations from Shakira with Fuerza Régida, Jean Dawson with Sza, and Zach Bryan with Noah Kahan.

Doja Cat, “Agora Hills” (YouTube)

Kylie Minogue, “Hold On to Now” (YouTube)

Blink-182, “One More Time...

‘Girl’ and ’Close’ director Dhont will select five emerging filmmaking talents for The Future Five.

Flanders Image’s annual film and TV showcase Connext (October 9-10) will present new work from regional filmmakers including Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and see Lukas Dhont curate the first edition of new talent showcase The Future Five.

Girl and Close director Dhont will select five emerging filmmaking talents for The Future Five, who will be presented to international industry attending Connext in Antwerp on the event’s first day. The initiative is in association with Screen International.

Scroll down for line-ups

Among...

ControversyWhile the remastered version of the movie still drew crowds to theatres, some fans called out the creators for retaining a homophobic dialogue between the lead actor Kamal Haasan and the villain Daniel Balaji. YouTube ScreengrabKamal Haasan’s Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu was re-released in Chennai on June 23, 17 years after its original release but some fans were not happy. While the remastered version of the movie still drew crowds to theatres, some of them have rightfully called out a scene that did not age well. In the movie, Kamal Haasan plays a police officer who is on the hunt for a serial killer duo Amudhan (Daniel Balaji) and Ilamaran (Salim Baig). When he confronts Amudhan, a visibly disgusted Raghavan (Kamal) asks, “On his [Ilamaran] back, there is a tattoo of your name and there is a heart below that. Are you both homosexuals?”, to which Amudhan looks visibly angry. The aforementioned clip has...

Iconic comic book artist John Romita Sr, known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man and for co-creating such characters as Mary Jane Watson, Wolverine and the Punisher, has died. His son and fellow comic book artist, John Romita Jr, announced the news on social media saying his father passed away peacefully in his sleep June 12. He was 93.

Wrote Romita Jr: “He is a legend in the art world, and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps. … He was the greatest man I ever met.”

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A post shared by John Romita Jr (@johnromitajr)

Romita Sr was born in Brooklyn and began his comic book career in 1949 with Timely Comics (the precursor to Marvel Comics), meeting Stan Lee before being drafted into the army. In the 1950s he worked at rival DC Comics and in 1965 joined Marvel, initially drawing Daredevil comics. In 1966, he...

John Romita Sr., the groundbreaking comic book artist who co-created some of the most influential characters in Marvel Comics history and drew some of the company’s most celebrated stories, died Tuesday, his son announced. He was 93.

Romita was already an established comics artist in the late 1960s when he took over as lead artist on “The Amazing Spider-Man,” but soon he established a unique, era-defining style for the character and helped create the title’s most enduring love interest, Mary Jane Watson. He would later co-create the mutant Wolverine, the criminal overlord Kingpin, and the vigilante antihero The Punisher, creations that would become staples of a billion dollar entertainment franchise, immortalized for generations of fans even if his name never became as widely known as his frequent collaborator, Stan Lee.

“I say this with a heavy heart, My father, John Romita passed away peacefully in his sleep this Monday morning.

The notion of creators getting haunted or mentally oppressed by their creations was brilliantly explored in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. The legendary English poet William Blake, whom Eric Robert’s character, Detective Dibiasse, appropriately mentions in the movie, too was a victim of his own sensitive and vivid imagination and claimed to have witnessed visions of his creations throughout his lifetime. However, the mention of the visionary bard in director Ezio Messa’s “Alter Ego,” a psychological thriller that is less thrilling than it is hilarious, comes off as blasphemy. Except for Dylan Walsh and Eric Robert’s characters, who seem to be falling victim to bad project choices at the tail ends of their respective careers, the supporting characters come off more as caricatures. Adding to that atrocious screenplay and predictable plot, which make it a really tedious job to finish the movie in the first place, even on a barely one-hour runtime,...

As befitting its status as one of the world’s biggest companies, every now and then Amazon likes to take a big swing with its Prime Video originals. With its list of new releases for April 2023, the streamer is taking one of its biggest swings yet.

Though it’s not quite as vast or expensive as fellow Prime Video series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Citadel (premiering April 28) is a massive, massive undertaking. Starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, this spy series is described as “an expansive and groundbreaking global event comprising a mothership series and several local language satellite series.” This means that the Russo Brothers-produced project will eventually feature several spinoffs in multiple countries and languages around the world. Neat-o!

The only other major TV original of note this month is Dead Ringers, based on the 1988 David Cronenberg film of the same name,...

Prime Video is hoping to launch its own extended franchise universe in April with the premiere of international spy series “Citadel” from the minds of the Russo Brothers. The show stars Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra, and Stanley Tucci, and is intended to be the first block of an interconnected story with different spinoffs in countries and regions around the world. The first version will begin streaming on April 28. In the show, the world is in the grips of Manticore, a criminal organization, and several former spies are recruited to restore order despite having their memories erased.

Watch the trailer for “Citadel”:

Beloved young adult author Judy Blume opened the door to discussion about difficult subjects for generations of kids. Now, the writer is the subject of a new documentary, “Judy Blume Forever,” coming to Prime Video on April 21. The doc looks at her trajectory — from a scared kid to...

Fremantle Acquires Majority Stake In Belguim’s A Team Productions

Fremantle has acquired a majority stake in A Team Productions (Atp). Based in Belgium, A Team Productions was founded in 2009 and is led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé. The company is behind the 2011 short film Land of the Heroes, which won the International Jury Prize at Berlin in 2011. A Team also produced the short Baghdad Messi, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2014. Other credits from the outfit include Patser (Gangsta) by filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Later this year, A Team will release the feature-length film Baghdad Messi and the high-end fiction series Alter Ego. “I have long admired Kobe, Hendrik, and the whole Atp team’s work,” said Dave Heuten, CEO Fremantle Belgium. “I am excited to be going on this journey with them, finding synergies and developing new content together – I can...

Fremantle, the production unit of Bertelsmann-owned TV giant Rtl Group, has acquired a majority stake in A Team Productions, the Belgium-based producer of upcoming feature film Baghdad Messi and upcoming drama series Alter Ego.

Financial details weren’t disclosed.

The deal for the company, founded in 2009 and led by Kobe van Steenberghe and Hendrik Verthé, is the latest in Fremantle’s ongoing shopping spree. Over the past 18 months, its acquisitions have included U.K. producer Dancing Ledge (The Responder), Italian scripted outfit Lux Vide (Devils, Leonardo), Fabel (Bosch), Australian-American TV firm Eureka Productions (Parental Guidance, Finding Magic Mike), 12 Scandinavian labels from Nordic Entertainment Group, Ireland’s Element Pictures (Normal People, The Favourite), 72 Films (All or Nothing: Arsenal, 9/11: One Day in America) and Silvio Productions (Shadow of Truth, The Baby Daddy, Buried).

A Team Productions (Atp) had a success with the short film Land of the Heroes, which won...

Fox has named John Hesling its new head of Alternative Entertainment, the broadcast network’s in-house unscripted studio.

Responsible for overseeing the development and production of all unscripted series owned by Fox Entertainment (Fae), as well as programs Fae produces for third-party buyers in the U.S. and abroad, Hesling will be based in Los Angeles. Those titles include “The Masked Singer,” “Next Level Chef,” “I Can See Your Voice,” “Crime Scene Kitchen,” “Alter Ego,” “Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer,” “Domino Masters” and “Name that Tune,” among others.

Hesling will report to Allison Wallach, the recently named president of unscripted programming, who took over for Rob Wade following his promotion to Fox Entertainment CEO.

“I am so excited for John to join Fae and lead the incredible team we have assembled,” Wallach said. “His creative vision and vast experience as both a producer and an executive working on a...

Exclusive: Fox Alternative Entertainment, the studio arm of the broadcaster, has a new boss.

Former Maverick USA President John Hesling will run the studio; it comes after Deadline revealed that Allison Wallach, who previously ran the studio, was named President, Unscripted Programming at Fox after Rob Wade was promoted to CEO.

Hesling becomes Head of Fox Alternative Entertainment and EVP, and reports to Wallach.

Other changes among the unscripted staff include a new role for Spike Van Briesen, who is moving from the network to the studio side of the business. Van Briesen, who has exec produced Fox series including Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back and Kristin Davis-fronted sperm donor series Labor of Love, is now SVP, Current, Fox Alternative Entertainment.

Van Briesen will report to Hesling, as will LA-based execs Leela Pon, SVP, Content and Staci Sarkin, SVP, Production.

Hesling spent four years running...

Every year, the Fox television network airs new and continuing TV series. Many are cancelled and many are renewed by the season's end. Although everyone understands that Nielsen ratings usually play a big role in TV cancellations and renewals, most fans do not get to participate in that system. So, we are offering you the chance to rate Fox TV shows here, instead.

Fox TV series that have premiered (so far) during the 2021-22 television season: 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Alter Ego, Beat Shazam, The Big Leap, Bob's Burgers, Call Me Kat, The Cleaning Lady, Domino Masters, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, Duncanville, Family Guy, The Great North, I Can See Your Voice, Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer, The Masked Singer, MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, Name That Tune, Next Level Chef, Our Kind of People, Pivoting, The Real...

During the regular 2020-21 television season, due to the pandemic, the Fox network launched just five new scripted TV series and cancelled two of them.  The previous year, the network had introduced eight new scripted shows. How many TV shows will be cancelled or renewed during the 2021-22 season? Stay tuned.

How do the execs decide what to cancel or keep? They look at a lot of different factors but the ratings play a very large role. The higher the ratings, the better the chances a show has of surviving. These 2021-22 season charts will be updated daily, as new ratings data becomes available.

Fox shows this season (so far): 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Alter Ego, Beat Shazam, The Big Leap, Bob's Burgers, Call Me Kat, The Cleaning Lady, Domino Masters, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, Duncanville, Family Guy, The Great North,...