In today’s roundup, Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong star in a new Netflix animated comedy, “Tuca & Bertie,” debuting on May 3.
DATES
MTV‘s newest dating show “Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D and Vinny” will premiere with back-to-back episodes on April 11. “Jersey Shore” alums Vinny Guadagnino and DJ Pauly D will both compete at the same time for the love of 20 women, giving “The Bachelor” franchise a run for its money.
NBC has announced the summer series “Songland” will premiere on Tuesday, May 28, at 10 p.m. ET/PT before moving to its regular slot on Wednesday, Aug. 14, at 9 p.m. Each episode will give up-and-coming songwriters a chance to be mentored by veteran writers and producers Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean and Shane McAnally. Comedy competition series “Bring The Funny” will launch on Tuesday, July 9, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with Kenan Thompson, Chrissy Teigen and Jeff Foxworthy as judges. Contestants will show off their skills while battling for laughs and the $250,000 prize.
From creator Ava DuVernay, the fourth season of “Queen Sugar” will premiere on OWN on June 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Continuing the creative initiative established at the outset of the series, the newest season will have an all-female directing team. Cheryl Dunye, Carmen Marrón, Numa Perrier, Heidi Saman, Bola Ogun and Tchaiko Omawale will all make their TV directorial debut with the show.
Season two of the thriller “Absentia,” created by and starring Stana Katic from “Castle,” will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on June 14. The series follows FBI agent Emily Byrne after she was presumed dead for six years, but miraculously turned up with no memory of her years missing. The 10-episode sophomore season will see her continue to rebuild her life and work with a Boston police detective (Angel Bonanni) to uncover secrets of her past.
CASTING
FIRST LOOKS
Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong star in “Tuca & Bertie,” a new animated comedy on Netflix from Lisa Hanawalt and the team behind “Bojack Horseman.” The pair of comedians play the titular 30-year-old bird women besties, a toucan and songbird, in the 10-episode season launching on May 3. Steven Yeun, Richard E. Grant, Tessa Thompson, Tig Notaro, Reggie Watts, Nicole Byer and Jermaine Fowler also lend their voices to the show.
GREENLIGHTS
MGM Television and iconic designer Rachel Zoe have partnered to create an international fashion competition where contestants’ creations are made available online immediately following each episode. Competitors from around the world will be challenged in each episode to design new and unique looks for the runway.
AWARDS
YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steven Shih will receive an Emmy for lifetime achievement at the 70th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards held on April 7 in Las Vegas. Former PayPal employees, the men created the website in February 2005, and now 300 hours of video are uploaded to the site very minute and nearly 5 billion videos are viewed per day.
