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Freeform's upcoming limited comedy series Love in the Time of Corona will premiere as a special two-night limited event, beginning Saturday, Aug. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT and continuing Sunday, Aug. 23, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, the network announced in the first teaser trailer for the series. The episodes will also be available on Hulu the following day. Filmed using remote technologies and shot in the cast's actual homes, this four-part, limited series follows four interwoven stories about the hopeful search for love and connection during this time of quarantine, from the early days of the stay-at-home order through the events that ignited the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.

James and Sade, a married couple who have been living somewhat separate lives, are forced back under the same roof after the pandemic puts James' work travel to a halt. With headlines mounting, they begin to reevaluate their family's priorities. Roommates Oscar and Elle's mostly platonic friendship becomes increasingly complicated with the uncertainty of the pandemic as they wonder if they can find love under one roof. Paul and Sarah put up a "happy couple" facade for their daughter Sophie's sake when the pandemic sends her home from college, although unbeknownst to her, they have separated. Nanda, a headstrong woman whose husband is unable to return home from his rehab facility, is determined to celebrate her fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Love in the Time of Corona stars Tony® and GRAMMY® Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) as James, Nicolette Robinson (The Affair) as Sade, Tommy Dorfman (13 Reasons Why) as Oscar, Rainey Qualley (Mad Men) as Elle, Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal) as Paul, Rya Kihlstedt (One Mississippi) as Sarah, Ava Bellows (This Too Shall Pass) as Sophie and L. Scott Caldwell (Lost) as Nanda. The series is executive produced by Joanna Johnson, Chris Sacani, Robyn Meisinger, Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson.

ABC News announced a prime-time special on television pioneer Regis Philbin, his life and his legacy as the legendary host of the Live morning franchise for 28 years - following his passing last Friday. The special edition of 20/20 features an exclusive interview with Live with Kelly and Ryan host Kelly Ripa, Philbin's former co-host for a decade. The program will also include Philbin's final television interview with Jimmy Kimmel in March 2020, as well as interviews with his co-hosts through the years including Kathie Lee Gifford and Mary Hart; interviews with his childhood friends; a tour of the Bronx where he grew up; an emotional surprise visit with students at his high school; and a trip down memory lane with Philbin screening some of his favorite clips of Live. Regis Philbin: The Morning Maestro - A Special Edition of 20/20 airs Tuesday, July 28 from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. EDT on ABC.  

Regis had some very famous appearances on sitcom such as Hope & Faith, Seinfeld, Spin City, Mad About You, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and How I Met Your Mother (clip below) over the years. His last acting appearance came earlier this year on ABC's Single Parents where he played himself, see a clip below.





The DECADES TV Network invites viewers to "cross over into the Twilight Zone" this 4th of July when the annual marathon holiday presentation of "Rod, White & Blue: A Twilight Zone Celebration" returns, starting Saturday, July 4 at 12pm ET and continuing thru Monday, July 6 at 7am ET. All weekend long, fans of the landmark anthology TV series can binge 78 iconic episodes back-to-back, including fan favorites Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, The Masks, The Living Doll, The Eye of the Beholder, Time Enough At Last and The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.

Created and hosted by the legendary Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone originally aired on CBS from 1959-1964, and forever changed the television landscape with its trademark blend of science fiction, horror and fantasy narratives. Each episode featured a moral or unexpected plot twist, and many aimed to inform viewers on the social causes and issues that dominated the 1960s. Since the series ended more than 50 years ago, its signature brand of storytelling continues to resonate with television audiences today. 2020 marks the third year that DECADES will feature "Rod, White & Blue: A Twilight Zone Celebration" as a 4th of July marathon event, having debuted in 2018 to positive audience response and excitement.

DECADES is available across the country, including on the Fox Television digital subchannels in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Austin and Gainesville. Fox recently added DECADES to cable homes on Comcast systems in New York/New Jersey, San Francisco, Houston, Detroit, Atlanta and Minneapolis- St. Paul.

Freeform announced the cast of the limited comedy series event, Love in the Time of Corona, including Tony® and GRAMMY® Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Nicolette Robinson (The Affair), Tommy Dorfman (13 Reasons Why), Rainey Qualley (Mad Men), Gil Bellows (Patriot), Rya Kihlstedt (One Mississippi), Ava Bellows (This Too Shall Pass) and L. Scott Caldwell (Lost). The series, from executive producers Joanna Johnson, Christine Sacani, Anonymous Content's Robyn Meisinger, began production in Los Angeles yesterday.

Filmed using remote technologies and shot in the talents' actual homes, this four-part limited series follows four interwoven stories about the hopeful search for love and connection during this time of quarantine. Real-life couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson, who also serve as executive producers on the project, portray James and Sade, a couple who have been living somewhat separate lives: He has a busy career that keeps him on the road, and she is at home raising their daughter. Once the pandemic puts them under one roof, their time together leads them to reevaluate their relationship and their priorities. Tommy Dorfman stars as Oscar, a successful nonbinary stylist, and Rainey Qualley stars as Elle, an aspiring singer-songwriter. With the uncertainty of the pandemic, Oscar and Elle’s mostly platonic friendship becomes increasingly complicated as Oscar's latest online date progresses toward relationship territory just as Elle’s neighborly crush starts to blossom.

Gil Bellows plays Paul, Bellows' real-life wife Rya Kihlstedt will portray Sarah, and their daughter Ava Bellows plays Sophie. After quietly separating months earlier, Paul and Sarah reluctantly decide to quarantine together when their sweet yet intense daughter, Sophie, returns home from college. But when Sophie's high school sweetheart suddenly breaks up with her, Paul and Sarah struggle to continue their "happy couple" ruse for their daughter's sake. L. Scott Caldwell plays Nanda, a headstrong woman determined to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary with her husband, Charles. Played by guest star Charlie Robinson (Night Court), Charles is unable to come home from a rehab facility when COVID-19 causes them to go into lockdown. Love in the Time of Corona will premiere in August. 

In advance of the Disney Advertising Sales Virtual Roadshow presentation, Freeform highlighted its commitment to bold and boundary-pushing young adult content with the pickups of both Everything's Gonna be Okay and Motherland: Fort Salem, as well as the recently announced scripted romantic-comedy series Love in the Time of Corona, which begins production this summer. Freeform has picked up critically acclaimed comedy Everything's Gonna Be Okay” for a second season. The series, which is created, executive produced and stars Josh Thomas, follows Nicholas, a neurotic twenty-something-year-old who is forced to raise his two teenage half-sisters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, after the untimely death of their father. The series stars Josh Thomas, Kayla Cromer, Adam Faison and Maeve Press.

Freeform's number one comedy series grown-ish, which had its midseason finale in March, will return to the network next year to finish up season three. Starring Yara Shahidi, Trevor Jackson, Francia Raisa, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, Luka Sabbat and Diggy Simmons, grown-ish is produced by ABC Signature Studios, a part of Disney Television Studios, and executive produced by Kenya Barris, Julie Bean, Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry, Craig Doyle, Anthony Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland and E. Brian Dobbins. From executive producers Bert V. Royal and Jessica Biel, Freeform's highly anticipated psychological thriller Cruel Summer will now debut in 2021. Olivia Holt (Marvel's Cloak & Dagger”) returns to the network to co-star in the series. The unconventional drama takes place over three summers in the '90s when a beautiful and popular teen goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town, eventually becoming the most despised person in America. Each episode is told from alternating POVs. The series stars Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee and Brooklyn Sudano.

Freeform's fan-favorite series Good Trouble, which had its season two finale in March, will return to the network next year for season three. Starring Maia Mitchell, Cierra Ramirez, Sherry Cola, Tommy Martinez, Zuri Adele, Emma Hunton, Josh Pence and Beau Mirchoff, the series follows residents of Downtown Los Angeles' The Coterie as they deal with the consequences of their personal and professional decisions and realize that sometimes standing up for what you believe in comes at a price. And Freeform's limited scripted series Love in the Time of Corona, from Good Trouble's Joanna Johnson, will go into production this summer and premiere in August. This four-part romantic comedy series is a funny and hopeful look at the search for love, sex and connection during this time of social distancing. Also this summer, fan-favorite series The Bold Type returns on Thursday, June 11, at 10:00 p.m. EDT/PDT, continuing its fourth season.

Fox has renewed family comedy Last Man Standing and medical drama The Resident for the 2020-2021 season. Last Man Standing, starring Tim Allen, will enter its third season on Fox, and ninth in total. The Resident will enter its fourth season. And in late breaking news, Fox has also picked-up current freshman drama Prodigal Son starring Tom Payne for a second season in the 2020-2021 season. All three series will air sometime in 2021 as they were not announced for the Fall 2020 schedule, as most scripted series cannot resume production yet. 

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

Normally, this time of year is a big one for TV. It's Upfronts season, the time of the year when TV networks are deciding their line-ups for next year, and renewing and cancelling shows en masse to prepare those line-ups. In recent years, the shine of Upfronts had worn off slightly as networks slowly inch towards a new world with online media and year-round programming. Still, Upfronts remained a centerpiece of television. This year, though, is obviously different. Networks will not be trotting out their line-ups to rooms packed full of advertisers as usual. And renewal and cancellation might be on the back burner. There are lingering questions, mainly, what does TV look like for the foreseeable future? At this point, no one really knows, but here are some options I'm thinking about.

Status quo schedules - Signs are indicating networks are going to keep their schedules mostly status quo since there is so much uncertainly about the next TV season. As of now, there have been many renewals but generally few cancellations. CBS did just cancel a handful of marginal comedy performers such as Man With a Plan, Carol's Second Act and Broke as well as the drama series Tommy. But NBC, Fox, and ABC all have many shows still on the bubble, and it seems possible that more of those bubble or marginal shows will make it to an additional season than usual, since there's no guarantee any new pilots will be ready for series by the fall if production doesn't resume.

Thinking out of the box - Some TV shows are still finding creative ways to continue production amongst the pandemic. Talk shows are still airing, but remotely and without a studio audience. Saturday Night Live has been doing "SNL at Home" using remote sketches. Live performance shows American Idol and The Voice are also doing remote episodes. Parks and Recreation had a special remote reunion episode, and there is talk of other shows doing the same. Some shows are even getting more creative, with both Pop TV sitcom One Day at a Time and NBC drama The Blacklist announcing they will remotely be producing an animated episode of their shows. It's possible we will see an increase in "creative" episodes such as remote episodes centered around video chatting platforms (Modern Family actually did a FaceTime episode back in 2015) or animated specials before production can safely resume. Still, it's hard to imagine too many scripted shows being able to pull off such a drastic format change for more than a handful of one-off specials. I can't imagine too many people would be interested in entire seasons structured this way. But it could be a fun way to keep fans engaged while TV shows are away.

Scaled-back production - There has been talk of, after it is safe to resume production, scaling back production so it can safely begin a bit earlier. It's hard to know when it will be safe for prestige drama series to travel internationally again, or when you can have hundreds of actors and extras packed together in a room again. One video call with Warner employees discussed limiting scenes where actors are close together for a while (so no love scenes). It's hard to imagine many shows existing within these constraints (how can you do Superstore without having the store full of customers? etc.) but it may be a reality some have to face.

Plotlines about Coronavirus - It's inevitable that some shows will want to tackle one of the biggest international crises in history. Coronavirus is arguably the biggest world crisis since World War II, so that makes it the first in television's history. We will probably see storylines about this virus for years to come, some good and some maybe not so good. Brooklyn Nine-Nine creator Dan Goor discussed having his show tackle it when it returns, since its characters would be frontline essential workers. A show like Grey's Anatomy or Superstore seems poised to tackle it, too.

No matter what happens, this is a very interesting time for TV, and it will certainly stand out when people go back and marathon through shows of today and discover strange remote specials or entire seasons where the actors were socially distanced. We'll see if that's reality, but for now, at least we have TV shows of the past.

Speaking of the Coronavirus, Freeform has ordered the limited scripted series Love in the Time of Corona, from executive producers Joanna Johnson (Good Trouble, The Fosters, Hope & Faith), Christine Sacani (Good Trouble, The Fosters) and Anonymous Content's Robyn Meisinger. This four-part romantic comedy series is a funny and hopeful look at the search for love, sex and connection during this time of social distancing. The series will follow several interwoven stories with an ensemble of characters who are sheltering in their homes, some of whom are wondering if a hookup with a roommate can ever be casual, while another is kicking herself for deciding to isolate with an ex. It is a show that takes a fresh look at love that knows no bounds. The series will be filmed using remote technologies while utilizing talents' real living spaces as the backdrop to the stories. Love in the Time of Corona will premiere in August.