The long-running series Dancing With the Stars is leaving ABC for Disney+. Disney announced that at least two future seasons of the popular competitive dance show will debut on its streaming platform. The first season will debut fall of this year, around the same time that Disney is launching a cheaper, ad-supported tier in the US. Dancing will also be the first live broadcast show to move to a streaming platform, likely due to a broader shift in how the industry is treating live content.

For ABC, the departure of Dancing — a show that has aired on the network for 16 years — means there will be more room for football. “After over 30 seasons of the program on ABC, including two spin-offs, Dancing With the Stars will move off of ABC this fall in order for the Network to showcase several Monday Night Football games as well as develop and invest in new and future programming,” said the network in a statement.

Landing Dancing is a significant coup for Disney, which has been trying to boost its flailing audience numbers. Disney+ recently started catering to adults, even debuting parental controls for its R-rated content. The platform has invested heavily in programming for adults, including original Marvel series like Moon Knight and Daredevil. Dancing regularly lands in the most widely-watched network TV series among adults from the ages of 18 to 49, and already has a committed fanbase. Dancing is also likely to draw a more diverse audience than Marvel — the show is widely watched by women and older people.

“The show’s broad appeal, as well as the overwhelming popularity of its Disney-themed competition nights, make Disney+ the perfect home for Dancing with the Stars while continuing to expand our demographic reach,” said Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution in a statement.

The entire* principal cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation will appear on the third and final season of Picard. Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner, who have already featured in the series, will be joined by LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden and Michael Dorn. In a statement, executive producer Terry Matalas said that “it’s most fitting that the story of Jean-Luc Picard ends honoring the beginning, with his dearest and most loyal friends from the USS Enterprise.”

Matalas added that the final season will offer a “final, high-stakes, starship-bound adventure,” which, at a guess, nods at the predominantly planet-bound series so far. Of course, long-time fans might be nervous at what the show’s writers will have cooked up for our beloved crew, especially after giving Riker and Troi a minor-key postscript to their Star Trek tenure. Maybe Dr. Crusher is now pushing medical misinformation over subspace while Geordie spends his retirement as a crypto evangelist.

* Sadly, no in-series return for Ready Room host Wil Wheaton, despite the fact he was in almost half the episodes, or Diana Muldaur.

The tone is almost apologetic. "I have some important news," says Ewan McGregor, star of the upcoming Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. "Our premiere date is moving just a couple of days." His hands are raised, as if to say "don't be mad!" Indeed, Disney is pushing the show's launch back by two days, from Wednesday, May 25th to Friday, May 27th. 

That's a shame mostly because the 25th would have been exactly 45 years since the original Star Wars opened. But, as McGregor's body language suggests: don't be mad. As penance for the grave inconvenience, Disney will now be releasing the first two episodes that day instead of just one. 

For fans of the franchise, this newest series starring McGregor has been a long time coming. The series was first announced in summer 2019, and Disney has since revealed that other big names are attached, including Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen reprising his trilogy role as Darth Vader.

The world never run out of bad 'B' movies to mock, apparently, because Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is back for a 13th season, Variety has reported. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign last year that raised $6.52 million, a full 13-episode season of the series will arrive on a dedicated streaming platform called Gizmoplex starting on May 6th.

As usual, some ordinary humans have been kidnapped by mad scientists (played by Felicia Day, Patton Oswalt and Mary Jo Pehl) and are forced to watch some terrible B-movies. To survive the process, they create companion robots to help provide a continuous stream of taunting and jokes throughout the entire running length of the films. 

This year there will be three hosts: Jonah Heston, Emily Connor, and original host Joel Robinson. They'll "be forced to endure some of the cheesiest movies ever to appear on MST3K, including our first-ever Halloween special, our first-ever 3D movie, and a holiday special finale so big it’ll take all three hosts to riff it," according to the team. The B-movies on the slate include Robot Wars, Santo in the Treasure of Dracula and The Million Eyes of Sumuru. 

The show was created by Joel Hodgson and debuted in 1988. It ran for 10 seasons on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel until 1999, and was later revived by Netflix in 2017 for two seasons, following another Kickstarter campaign. However, Netflix declined to pick it up for a third season. 

The latest revival will thus air independently on a dedicated MST3K platform called Gizmoplex, which offers a website and apps (iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon FireTV). It'll premiere on May 6th with three episodes released daily from Friday to Sunday. After that, new episodes and one of 12 shorts will arrive every two weeks. The platform will also offer classic MST3K episodes from season 1-10, and for a limited time, they'll be free and ad-free.

If you want the new episodes, though, you'll have to sign up (unless you pledged support on Kickstarter). Individual episodes will cost $10, a three-month pass is $50, and a full season from May 22 to February 23 is $135. The latter includes a digital download of season 13. 

The following contains minor spoilers for season four, episode 14 of 'Star Trek: Discovery.'

Season four has been an interesting one for Star Trek: Discovery. The show finally embraced a more episodic format, only to slide back into an ongoing storyline in the back half of the season. But today’s finale once again promises a return to the things that make Star Trek, well, Star Trek. And, while Discovery also made those promises at the end of last season, there’s more reason to believe that this time the changes will stick.

It starts with the fact that while the major threat this season began as a spatial anomaly (known as the Dark Matter Anomaly, or “DMA”), it was discovered to be merely a harvesting tool used by a previously unknown species, one the Federation calls the 10C. It may have seemed harmless to the 10C in its role as farmers, but the Federation found itself in the role of a rabbit in front of a plow. The DMA destroyed Kwejian; both Ni’Var (née Vulcan) and Earth were next.

CBS

In previous seasons this would have shifted Starfleet into action hero mode, and some characters did advocate for a more assertive and violent approach. But instead of merely jumping into the fray we got lots of… arguing. This may not sound exciting, but it’s always been one of the things Star Trek does best: people discussing conflicting ideas. Some advocated for a peaceful solution and that was ultimately the course decided upon, since it was closest to the Federation ethos of peace and exploration. In other series this might seem like a terrible idea, but Trek is supposed to be, in theory, a utopia. This kind of thinking is one of the cornerstones of the franchise.

There are those who disagree, spearheaded by Cleveland Booker and Ruon Tarka. But while their actions turn them into antagonists, they don’t become villains. We’ve seen this in previous shows like The Next Generation and Voyager, where terrorists like the Maquis were treated with empathy. In Discovery it’s even more at the forefront given Book’s status as a main character, but also the series’ ethos as the Star Trek show that’s all about feelings. While the show sometimes takes flak for all the crying, here the emotional elements feel well balanced, with everyone’s motives clearly articulated both to each other and to the audience. It’s easy to understand each character even if you disagree.

And understanding is the lynchpin of the plot here; the 10C are not carbon-based lifeforms and they don’t communicate like humanoids do. It’s a classic Star Trek problem, as seen in episodes like “Darmok” or “Amok Time.” So last week’s episode was dedicated to the crew and assorted ambassadors methodically working through mathematical and chemical solutions to build a working bridge language. They managed to establish to the 10C that there were problems with the DMA, opening up the door to further negotiation in this week’s episode.

“Coming Home” has a lot of meanings in the context of the actual episode. There’s the threat of the DMA heading toward Earth, there’s a number of scenes set in our solar system involving returning character Sylvia Tilly, and reconciliation between Michael Burnham and her lover Cleveland Booker, the person who grounds her in the 32nd century.

CBS

But there’s also meaning in that the episode is where Discovery finally reconciles itself as a Star Trek show, making its highest point of drama not the struggle to evacuate a doomed planet, or the attempts to stop Tarka’s plan, but the actual face-to-face (so to speak) discussion with the 10C. It’s nothing like the action-based approach of the Abrams films or even earlier seasons that dealt with war and time travel and evil sentient computers. It’s diplomacy. It’s a lot of talking, and sitting around and talking about feelings.

And some of those feelings are what you’d call… environmentally minded. It isn’t enough that the 10C merely stops destroying planets that house sentient life. The fact is, the DMA also creates pollution and that needs to be stopped as well. With Earth in immediate danger it seems like an unreasonable ask at the moment, but it’s also very much in the ethos of Star Trek to consider one’s general societal and galactic impact as well. The core of Star Trek is humanism and social justice, and so many classic episodes deal with issues of identity, civil rights, and environmental issues. Discovery has spent so much time dealing with one huge violent crisis after another that it hasn’t had time to do simpler humanist metaphors, and bringing that in at the end here seems to indicate a desire to deal with those issues more in upcoming seasons.

The entire denouement makes that promise: The Federation is growing in strength, the Discovery crew is taking some time off for themselves, and a very special guest toward the end seems to be the show making its politics clear to those segments of the audience who love to decry “woke Trek.” Star Trek has always been woke, but Discovery has only dipped its toe into the water in previous seasons. With its fifth season on the horizon, it’s ready to plunge fully in.

The fish-out-of-water sitcom Ted Lasso took home four major awards Sunday at the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards, a night that was dominated by the streaming platforms. The Apple TV+ original nabbed best comedy series, beating out other critically-acclaimed favorites like HBO Max’s Hacks and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. Jason Sudeikis, who plays the show’s namesake character, won Best Actor in a comedy series for his performance in the show’s second season. It’s the second time Sudeikis has taken home that particular trophy for his role on the show, and he won it over the comedy legends Martin Short and Steve Martin, who were both nominated for Only Murders in the Building.

Brett Goldstein, the British actor who plays Roy Kent, the gruff but kindhearted former team captain, won best supporting actor in a comedy series. We’re about to see a lot more from him. Goldstein, who also serves as one of the show’s writers, recently signed a multiyear development deal with Warner Bros. TV, where he’ll develop, create and produce new projects for WBTV, including HBO Max. Finally, Hannah Waddingham, the British actress and West End veteran who plays Lasso’s boss, Rebecca Walton, won best supporting actress in a comedy series. Walton has also won an Emmy Award for her role in the series.

The night was a major victory for Apple TV+, which also scored nominations for CODA (Troy Kotsur won the best supporting actor in a film.) Ted Lasso scored the most awards this year of any nominated TV show. Thanks to the pandemic’s impact on the movie business, virtually every category included works from streaming platforms or premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime. The night was also a major victory for Netflix, which nabbed Best Picture for Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.

The Critic Choice Awards have traditionally been overshadowed by the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. But thanks to some lucky timing and rescheduling, this year’s show makes it one of the last awards shows before both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys, thus escalating its importance since it’ll be a likely forecast of future winners.

CNN has revealed exactly when its dedicated streaming service will debut. CNN+, which costs $6 per month or $60 per year, will arrive on March 29th. Those who sign up in the first four weeks and maintain their subscription will get 50 percent off the monthly plan for life (that works out to $36 per year for the foreseeable future).

The service will deliver live, on-demand and interactive news-driven programming. Subscribers of CNN's linear service can watch cable broadcasts and on-demand content through the app too.

CNN hired away Chris Wallace from Fox News to host a CNN+ show. Other daily launch programming includes shows anchored by Wolf Blitzer, Kate Bolduan, Sara Sidner and Bianca Nobilo, as well as a weekday edition of Reliable Sources. Viewers can also expect Anderson Cooper Full Circle to be available on CNN+, as well as a book-focused show with Jake Tapper, a show from Christiane Amanpour and much more.

As of September, new episodes of some NBCUniversal shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Voice and American Auto will no longer hit Hulu the day after they air. NBCUniversal has ended a content deal between the two sides, meaning those series will stream exclusively on Peacock. It's not clear which other shows will be affected by the move, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

The decision to sever ties with Hulu comes as NBCU tries to drive more subscribers to Peacock. At the end of last year, it had 9 million paying subscribers (most of whom opt for the $5 ad-supported tier) and 24.5 million monthly active accounts. It's unclear how many of those are using the free tier. Comcast subscribers can access an ad-supported version of Peacock Premium at no extra cost.

“Much of our strong NBC content premieres on Hulu. Over time we’d like to bring that back to Peacock,” NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said during Comcast's January earnings call. Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh said the company planned to spend $3 billion on Peacock content this year.

Keeping popular shows like SNL and The Voice as streaming exclusives could help NBCU boost Peacock user numbers. NBCU has invested in other types of content to bring in subscribers, including live sports rights, local news channels and making WWE Network exclusive to the platform. Peacock also has a slate of originals, including Bel-Air and an upcoming Twisted Metal series.

Having many broadcast and cable shows available to stream the day after they air has long been a selling point for Hulu. It'll be a blow for the service to lose some notable NBC series.

Although Disney has been fully in charge of Hulu since 2019, Comcast still owns 33 percent of the service. Comcast can require Disney to buy out its stake, but not until 2024. At the end of 2021, Hulu had 45.3 million subscribers.

Sony’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Twisted Metal has found a home. NBCUniversal announced on Monday it will stream the series on Peacock. News that Sony’s PlayStation Productions unit was developing an adaptation of the Twisted Metal franchise came at the start of last year.

In September, we learned Altered Carbon and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie would play the role of series protagonist John Doe, a smart-talking milkman with no memory of his past but a penchant for driving as fast as he talks. PlayStation Productions is billing the show as an action-comedy, with Cobra Kai scribe Michael Jonathan Smith serving as showrunner, writer and executive producer on the show.

NBCUniversal didn’t say when Twisted Metal would premiere on Peacock. However, the show is just one of several properties Sony is in the process of adapting for television and film. It’s also working on a Ghost of Tsushima movie that John Wick’s Chad Stahelski will direct, and then there’s The Last of Us. HBO Programming President Casey Bloys recently told The Hollywood Reporter the series wouldn’t premiere in 2022.

Production on Amazon's Fallout series is set to start later this year, and the cast is taking shape. Walton Goggins is taking on one of the lead roles, according to Deadline.

Amazon Studios hasn't revealed which character Goggins is portraying, but reports suggest he's playing a ghoul. A ghoul, in Fallout parlance, is someone who was mutated due to radiation exposure as a result of a nuclear war.

Goggins is perhaps best known for his work on Justified. He's currently appearing in HBO's The Righteous Gemstones and he'll soon feature in Apple TV+ series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.

Amazon announced the Fallout series in 2020, so although development has taken a while, things are coming together. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy of Westworld fame created the show, and Nolan will direct the pilot episode. The executive producers include Bethesda's Todd Howard, the game director of Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.