#TV Bits: Olivia Munn Returning to New G4, ‘The Witcher’ Season 2, ‘Batwoman’, ‘The Daily Show’ & More

In this edition of TV Bits:

• Olivia Munn is returning to be part of the new G4
• The Witcher season 2 begins production
• Ruby Rose talks more about why she left Batwoman
• The Daily Show expands to five days a week for convention coverage
• And more!

First up, not too long ago we heard that G4 was making a comeback after going off the air at the end of 2014. Now we have word that X-Men: Apocalypse and The Newsroom star Olivia Munn, who started her career as a host on the gaming network, will be returning to G4.

Olivia Munn became famous as an anchor on Attack of the Show, and now The Wrap reports she’s signing a new multi-year deal with G4 that will include a development deal and has both on-air and off-air components. The deal is expected to be announced officially any day now.

It’s our fourth show together, and the farthest we’ve ever sat apart, but @SSurjik and I are ready to do this. https://t.co/9Qh4xaDvMY

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) August 6, 2020

Next, The Witcher is one of a handful of shows that are returning to production in the age of coronavirus. Showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich and series director Stephen Surjik confirmed getting back to work for the show’s second season in the Twitter post seen above.

The Witcher had to stop production due to the worldwide halt placed on movies and TV shows back in March after the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, series star Kristofer Hivju even tested positive for COVID-19, so it’s a good thing the show stopped their work on season 2 so soon.

It’s presumed that production is underway in London, which is where the show was meant to be shooting. We know it’s probably not in the United States since the return of large scale movies and TV shows here has been extremely slow, and for good reason. But at least overseas there are countries and governments how know how to handle a crisis and can get back to work safely.

Ruby Rose made the shocking decision to leave The CW’s Batwoman series after just one season as the Scarlet Knight. She’s since been replaced by Javicia Leslie, who will play an entirely new character taking on the superhero mantle. Rose has not only thrown her full support behind the new star, but she’s also opened up a bit more about her decision to leave the series.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Rose finally explained the main reason she walked away from Batwoman:

“Being the lead of a superhero show is tough. [Laughs] Being the lead in anything is tough. But I think, in that particular instance, it was a lot more difficult because I was still recovering from my surgery. I had my surgery and then 10 days later I went to work, which maybe wasn’t the best idea. Most people take about a month or three off before they return to work, so it was definitely made more difficult by that. But as far as being a lead of a show or a film —  regardless if it’s action or if it’s emotional — in whichever ways it’s taxing.”

It sounds moreso like the injury gave her a reason to reconsider whether or not she wanted the responsibility of leading a major TV show like this, which required a lot of her time and dedication, not to mention physical pain after her injury. Rose seemed to affirm that when she added:

“It wasn’t so much [the injury], especially because after we wrapped up we didn’t get to finish the real finale because of COVID. You know, you have time in quarantine and sort of isolation to just think about a lot of different things and what you want to achieve in life and what you want to do. I think for both [me and the producers], it was a great opportunity to have a dialogue about a lot of things. I respect them so much and they’ve been so respectful to me.”

It’s probably the best decision for both Ruby Rose and Batwoman.

The election is heating up now that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. With the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention coming next week, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will be expanding their schedule to five nights for the two weeks that the conventions are being held. It will begin on August 17 through August 21 for the Democratic side, and from August 24 through August 28 for the Republicans.

Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan, Jaboukie Young-White and Roy Wood Jr. will all be participating in the coverage, along with special reporting from Jordan Klepper. Each night, they’ll be delivering one of their extended 45-minute episodes starting at 11:00 P.M. EST each weeknight. That’s a lot of political satire, but there’s so much news and nonsense coming out of the current administration that every minute is needed.

Finally, there’s a tragic mystery that has remained unsolved for nearly two years. Discovery’s Gold Rush producer Terrence Woods went missing while filming in the abandoned mines of Idaho County, ID. There has been no evidence discovered about the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, and his family is demanding more action and answers from the perplex sheriff’s department in charge of the case.

The 27-year old producer went missing on October 5, 2018. On the morning of his disappearance, Woods texted his father to let him know that he was cutting his time on the Gold Rush shoot by a few weeks. He didn’t explain why to his father, but e-mails indicated it was so he could see his mother Valerie Woods in Maryland, where she was dealing with some health issues.

Then, during an evening shoot in Orogrande, Woods suddenly dropped his radio in the dirt and bolted down the side of a steep cliff and into a forest. He’s not been seen since, and a seven-day search of the area with helicopters and dogs yielded no significant help in determining where he went.

You can get a fuller picture of the events and what’s going on with the strange case over at Deadline. We hope that wherever Terrence Woods went that he’s safe.

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