Monday, February 10, 2020

Audible Gets Comedy Series with Big Stars; Fox Gets Another Guessing Music Series

Escape from Virtual Island

Audible Inc., the world's largest producer and provider of original spoken-word entertainment and audiobooks, announced a new scripted Audible Original comedy series, Escape from Virtual Island, written by John Lutz, best known for his work on Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers and 30 Rock and produced by Broadway Video Enterprises. Golden Globe-nominated actor Paul Rudd leads an all-star ensemble cast of comedic talent including Jack McBrayer, Paula Pell, Amber Ruffin, Scott Adsit, Jane Krakowski, Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson, Olivia Wilde and Henry Winkler. The audio series will debut April 2, 2020 exclusively on Audible. Escape from Virtual Island is executive produced by Broadway Video’s Britta von Schoeler and produced by Austin Breslow. Will Rogers and Ian Stearns are executive producers for Audible.

Derek Ambrose (Rudd) runs an island resort in 2038 where the wealthy come to live out their wildest fantasies in virtual reality. With the help of his assistant Beasley (McBrayer), lead computer scientist Faith (Ruffin), and head of security Ramona (Pell), the island has been running smoothly since Derek inherited it from his mother. When a high-profile guest suddenly goes missing inside a computer simulation, Derek, Faith, Beasley, and Ramona form a search party to retrieve him. Bouncing between VR environments, the team soon realizes that the computer has become self-aware and is preventing them from escaping back to the real world. Absurd adventures, including virtual visits to a British Royal Navy ship, a Wild West saloon, and a Central Park rom-com, come to life for listeners through a captivating narrative and high-caliber sound design that evokes TV for your ears.

Following the success of Heads Will Roll starring Kate McKinnon and Emily Lynne, featuring Tim Gunn, Meryl Streep and Peter Dinklage, 64th Man, starring John Cena and Anna Chlumsky, and Ana Gasteyer and Maya Rudolph's Holiday Greetings from Sugar and Booze, Escape from Virtual Island is the fourth audio-only scripted original comedy series to come from the Audible and Broadway Video collaboration. The series joins a robust slate of Audible Originals, exclusive audio entertainment created by celebrated storytellers from the worlds of theater, journalism, comedy, literature and more. Audible Originals offer powerful performances created for listeners by award-winning actors, writers and comedians, spanning every genre and length.


Ken Jeong

Fox Entertainment has ordered the all-new music guessing game unscripted series I Can See Your Voice, hosted and executive-produced by comedian, actor and The Masked Singer panelist Ken Jeong. Based on the South Korean format from CJ ENM, the series will be produced by Fox Alternative Entertainment (FAE) and will premiere later this year on Fox.

Each week on the show, one contestant will have the chance to win a cash prize if he or she can tell the difference between the good and bad singers, without ever hearing them sing a note. Helping the contestant navigate through rounds of lip sync challenges, hilarious hidden clues and true-or-false evidence will be a panel of celebrity comedians/experts and a musical superstar. In the end, the singer whom the contestant picks will reveal if they are good or bad in a duet performance with the musical superstar, resulting in an amazing musical collaboration or a totally hilarious train wreck.


Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Friday, May 15

Happy's Place - "Social Discontent" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Steve and Isabella begin shooting marketing content for the tavern, they quickly realize Bobbie has a case of camera madness, causing them to recast her with a local influencer.

Happy's Place - "The Name Game" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Bobbie doesn't want Gabby to get her hopes up too soon about her potential pregnancy, but accidentally rains on her parade in the process; Isabella hires Takoda's band to play at the tavern unaware he's in a death metal band.

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 11)

Friday, May 15

  • Goldie Hawn (Good Morning World) - Watch Goldie on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Asif Ali (Deli Boys/Wrecked/Mr. Robinson) and Saagar Shaikh (Deli Boys) - Asif and Ali are guests on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Stanley Tucci (Central Park) - Stanley appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Brenda Song (Running Point/Dollface/Dads/The Suite Life on Deck/The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) - Brenda is a guest on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Nathan Lane (Mid-Century Modern/Only Murders in the Building/Modern Family/Charlie Lawrence/Encore! Encore!/One of the Boys) - Nathan appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • John Krasinski (The Office) - John talks about Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
  • Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary/Emeril) - Lisa talks about Abbott Elementary and Lisa Ann Walter: It Was an Accident with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT and on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
  • Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/Cafe Americain/Sydney/One Day at a Time) - Drew and Ross are covering the headlines with pals Valerie and Nate Berkus on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Belmont Cameli (Saved by the Bell (2020-2021) - Belmont and Ella Bright talk about Off Campus on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
  • Patton Oswalt (A.P. Bio/The Goldbergs/The King of Queens) - Patton co-hosts NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
  • Jackie Tohn (Nobody Wants This/GLOW) - NBC's Today catches up with Jackie in the 10am hour.
  • Y'lan Noel (Insecure) - Y'lan talks about Netflix's Nemesis on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.


New on DVD and Blu-ray

Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD) I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD) The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)

11/04/25 - Happy's Place - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/11/25 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fifteenth Season (DVD)
11/11/25 - Two and a Half Men - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/02/25 - Tom and Jerry - The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
12/16/25 - Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/16/25 - Wally Gator - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
01/20/26 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27/26 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11/26 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
04/11/26 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
04/21/26 - Famous Studios Champion Collection (Blu-ray) (DVD)
05/19/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
07/14/26 - The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)

More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive


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