ICYMI: The Good Doctor and Days of Our Lives get renewed, The Librarians gets canceled, and more!

To catch up on past news, check out the last issue of Drama After Dark here.

History’s The Curse of Civil War Gold made its mark this past Tuesday. For the season, it was the biggest launch for a cable series and History’s best since 2014.

In the world of renewals, The Good Doctor has been given the green light for a second season. The medical drama stars Bates Motel’s Freddie Highmore and is ABC’s most-watched new series in 13 years.

Post-Olympics, ratings have been at a lull for networks across the board for viewers watching live. Shows such as MasterChef Jr., MacGyver, and Jane The Virgin showed decreased viewership over the last week.

After four seasons, TNT’s The Librarians has been canceled. Executive producer Dean Devlin took to Twitter to announce that he will be shopping the series around for a new home.

In the era of constant TV show cancellations, soap operas weather the storm. This stands true for Days of Our Lives, which was just renewed for its 54th season on NBC.

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Hot Topic: Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew to leave Grey’s Anatomy, This Is Us showrunner talks about season two finale, The Sopranos to get a prequel film, and more!

Grey’s Anatomy broke hearts all over the world this week with a shocking announcement. The beloved Sarah Drew (Dr. April Kepner) and Jessica Capshaw (Dr. Arizona Robbins) will be bidding farewell after the current 14th season due to creative differences.

Say it ain’t so! This Is Us is all set to air its season two finale in just a few days–and fans are not ready. Co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker shared seven things fans should know about the season finale.

Jay Ellis (HBO’s Insecure) has signed with UTA, Hansen Jacobson, and Rise Management. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan recently announced she has signed on with CAA. Network Entertainment, Derik Murray’s production company, has also signed with UTA.

Remember prosecutor Marcia Clark from the days of O.J. Simpson’s trial? Well, she has signed a multi-year deal with ITV America to develop multiple products. In addition, her A&E series, Marcia Clark Investigates the First 48, will air on the network on March 29th.

The Americans actress Ruthie Ann Miles was involved in a tragic car crash in Park Slope, Brooklyn where she and a group of people were hit by a car while crossing an intersection. While she remains in stable condition, the accident took the life of her four-year-old daughter and her friend’s one-year-old son.

The Sopranos creator, David Chase, is set to make a prequel film of the critically-acclaimed HBO series. The movie has been given a working title of The Many Saints of Newark and will be set in 1960s Newark amidst the Italian and African-American gang riots.

South Korean actor Jo Min-Ki was found dead in his home. Authorities currently believe it to be suicide. Lisa Bonet (The Cosby Show) opens up about the Bill Cosby sexual allegations and shares that she was not surprised about the allegations against him.

The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King will be heading to the ATX Television Festival this June in Austin. Also in attendance will be Shameless star Emmy Rossum and The Affair creator Sarah Treem. Screenings of IFC’s Brockmire and OWN’s Queen Sugar will also take place at the festival.

The Produced By Conference is bringing the creative team of The Handmaid’s Tale as speakers for its tenth annual event. Others in attendance for this year’s conference include The Chi creator Lena Waithe and Mudbound producer Charles D. King.

Fox’s 9-1-1, which follows the lives of first responders, went global after it was sold in over 100 countries worldwide.

Guess Who: Pretty Little Liars’ Ian Harding to star in Fox drama pilot, E.R.’s Noah Wyle to play lead in CBS drama Red Line, Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney to reunite for Amazon series, and more!

Ian Harding, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Christian Camargo have been cast opposite Katie Holmes in Fox’s unnamed FBI drama pilot.

Alex Karpovsky has been cast in Amazon’s Homecoming. Karpovsky will star opposite Julia Roberts, Bobby Cannavale, and Stephan James.

This week ushers in a lot of casting news for ABC’s pilots, so let’s dive right into it, shall we? Frances Turner will play the lead role in ABC’s untitled Holmes sisters pilot alongside Aubin Wise and Michael Beach. Catalina Sandino Moreno has been cast as a lead in Salvage and will star opposite Toby Kebbell. Anne Winters and Bryan Craig have landed series regular roles on Grand Hotel alongside Denyse Tontz who has been cast in a lead role. Scott Cohen will be playing the lead role in The Fix.

Justin Johnson Cortez will be a series regular on ABC’s Staties. Khandi Alexander will co-star in ABC’s reboot of Get Christie Love. Stephanie Szostak and Allison Miller were cast as the last female leads for A Million Little Things. Marla Gibbs is all set for a multi-episode role on Station 19. Lex Scott Davis will join the cast of For Love as a central character alongside Rachel Skarsten. Wood Harris will star in cop drama The Mission. Joelle Carter and Evan Parke will star in Salvage.

Yusuf Gatewood will be playing one of the male lead roles for NBC’s clairvoyance drama pilot, In Between Lives, opposite Harriet Dyer. Jeri Ryan has been cast in a lead role for Suspicion alongside Raul Esparza. Zach Cherry is taking on a series regular role in an untitled comedy.

Noah Wyle has been cast as the lead of CBS pilot Red Line alongside Vinny Chhibber. Connie Nielsen will reunite with Dick Wolf as a co-star in F.B.I. John Carroll Lynch and Leslie Odom Jr. join the cast of $1. L.A. Confidential adds Mark Webber, Shea Whigham, and Alana Arenas to its cast. Jorja Fox will star in Chiefs in a lead role.

Lil Rel Howery, Mekhi Phifer, and Laz Alonso have been cast in the upcoming BET two-part series The Bobby Brown Story. Making his US TV debut is Yann Demange who will direct Jordan Peele and J.J. Abram’s HBO series Lovecraft Country. Clara Lago and Luke Youngblood have been cast in the CW’s Playing Dead. The CW’s supernatural pilot, Dead Inside, has added Christine Ko to its cast as a series regular.

Amazon will reunite Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney in their new TV series, Homecoming. The Pretty Little Liars spin-off, The Perfectionists, completes its casting with Sydney Park, Kelly Rutherford, newcomer Eli Brown, and Hayley Erin. Freeform’s The Bold Type adds to its season two cast with newcomer Luca James and Siobhan Murphy.

Christopher Abbott will star in George Clooney’s Hulu series, Catch-22. Director Tom Hooper and Dafne Keen will be taking on the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, also to star Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Social Frenzy: The cast of Glee came together for a reunion–and fans loved it!

Fans everywhere rejoiced over the “Glee-union” that took place earlier this week reuniting the beloved cast over dinner in LA. Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, amongst many others got together and shared their excitement over social media.

TVAD Writers Room: Our writers room was buzzing with activity this week! Be sure to check out our roundtables and reviews of The Resident, Victoria, This Is Us, and more!

Now that the Olympics hiatus has come to an end, our TV After Dark Writers room was buzzing with lots of new articles!

Are you a fan of medical dramas? Be sure to check out our review of the first four episodes of The Resident and this week’s roundtable! PBS’ Victoria may have ended for the season but don’t forget to check out our season two review along with our scene stealer article highlighting Jenna’s Coleman portrayal of Queen Victoria. This Is Us is nearing the end of season two so be sure to check out our roundtable discussions to stay updated before next week’s season two finale!   

Do you love J.K. Simmons? Check out our roundtables and reviews of Starz drama, Counterpart, starring Simmons as Howard Prime. CBS’ SEAL Team continues to be as dramatic ever. See what our roundtable guests had to say about last week’s episode!

Interviews: Hard Sun creator talks about season one’s violence, creator of This Is Us talks about Deja-centric episode, Timeless co-creator discusses the upcoming second season, and more!

Viola Davis (How To Get Away With Murder) and her husband, Julius Tennon’s production company, JuVee Productions, has partnered with 44 Blue Productions to create a Dandy Lion docuseries. The series is inspired by the book and will follow the history of the Black Dandy fashion movement. Davis and Tennon shared what the project will look like and talk about.

In 2017, the number of mergers and acquisitions have doubled for television content producer. In an interview with Variety, the director of research and analysis for IHS Markit, Tim Wescott shared his insight into the cause of this growth.

Creator of Hulu’s Hard Sun, Neil Cross, talks about the depiction of violence in his new pre-apocalyptic crime thriller.

This Is Us will introduce Toby’s parents and Beth’s extended family in the season two finale next Tuesday. Co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker talks about what to expect for the season finale episode. Dan Fogelman, creator of This Is Us, talked about the Deja-centric episode this past week and thanks NBC for letting him make this season’s second-to-last episode focus on one character’s journey. This Is Us stars shared what character (apart from their own) within the show they would like to play. Here is what Mandy Moore had to say about wanting to play Beth:

“I love how layered and dimensional Beth is: all at once loyal, compassionate, protective, open, funny, ambitious, she’s a caretaker, a fantastic wife and mother, but she also doesn’t hold back or sugarcoat things. She’s the real hero of the show, in a way.”

After an abrupt cancellation followed up by a season two renewal (way to go, fans!), Eric Kripke, the series co-creator of Timeless, talks about the stories of the upcoming season.

“History belongs to everybody, not just a bunch of white dudes. I think the stories we’re telling are stories that are both underrepresented and deserve to be told.”

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Coming Soon: A Series of Unfortunate Events gets season two trailer, SXSW channels Westworld and Ready Player One, House of Cards releases a teaser trailer for final season, and more!

Netflix released the season two trailer for A Series of Unfortunate Events set to premiere March 30th. Check out the trailer below!

Netflix’s political drama House of Cards released its first trailer (sans Spacey, of course) for the upcoming sixth and final season. Take a look at the first sneak peek below!

It’s official! The Suits spin-off starring Gina Torres has received a series order from USA and will focus on Torres’ character, Jessica Pearson’s life in Chicago politics. Suits’ seventh season finale will be a backdoor pilot for the spin-off.

From Fleabag creator comes BBC’s next thriller drama, Killing Eve starring Grey’s Anatomy alum, Sandra Oh. The eight-part series will air later this year and follow Oh’s character who is an MI5 security officer.

Fox released a sneak peek for its O.J. Simpson special, O.J. Simpson: The Last Confession which will feature footage from his 2006 interview with Judith Regan. The special will air Sunday, March 11th on Fox at 8 PM ET. Check out the first look below!

The Disney Channel will be creating a live-action limited series, Fast Layne, starring Sophie Pollono (The Young and the Restless). It is set to air sometime in 2018. The series will follow Pollono’s 12-year-old character as she discovers a talking car.

Looks like SXSW just got a whole lot more exciting! Warner Brothers’ Ready Player One and HBO’s Westworld provided attendees with an immersive experience for their upcoming movie and season. HBO created the Sweetwater town of Westworld where attendees were adorned in costume and transported to the village. Warner Brothers took over two blocks with the world of Ready Player One where guests entered the futuristic world via VR. Check out videos of both experiences below!

History announces the season two premiere date for its Navy SEAL drama series, Six. The premiere will air Memorial Day, May 30th at 10 PM.

Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale releases the first look at the upcoming second season set to air April 25th with two episodes. Check out the trailer below!

That’s a wrap on this week’s issue of Drama After Dark!