#TV Bits: ‘The Great British Bake Off’, The Return of G4, ‘Empire’ Spinoff, ‘NCIS’, and More

In today’s edition of TV Bits:

• The Great British Bake Off is already filming again
• Video game-centric television network G4 is rising from the grave
• The great Stanley Tucci has just locked down a new TV gig
• Amy Schumer Learns to Cook season 2 has a trailer
• Seven popular classic Black sitcoms are coming to Netflix
• Oprah Winfrey continues her collaboration with AppleTV with a new show
• And more!

Time to pop bottles??

The following classic shows are coming to @Netflix (US)

Moesha – Aug 1

The Game S1-3 – Aug 15

Sister Sister – Sept 1

Girlfriends – Sept 11

The Parkers – Oct 1

Half & Half – Oct 15

One on One – Oct 15

To celebrate, here’s a message from your faves: pic.twitter.com/zohNPEo0rz

— Strong Black Lead (@strongblacklead) July 29, 2020

Here’s a cool video message from the people behind Moesha, The Game, Sister Sister, Girlfriends, The Parkers, Half & Half, and One on One, all celebrating the news that their shows are soon going to be available on Netflix. It’s unclear if they’re just being nice when they say that the number of fan requests actually contributed to this deal getting done or if that’s actually how this went down, but if one of your favorite shows isn’t available on the service, I guess it can’t hurt to tweet at Netflix every once in a while and ask about them acquiring it.

The acclaimed cooking series Amy Schumer Learns to Cook, which sees the talented comedian and her famous chef husband team up on screen, is coming back to Food Network on August 17 for its second season. Seems like the type of show that you can relax and throw on as a nice way to take the edge off after a long day.

The Great British Bake Off (A.K.A. The Great British Baking Show) had to take a filming break due to the global pandemic, but the series has been back in production for weeks now, and there’s even better news: one of the executives at Sky Studios revealed that the next season will be released at some point this year.

Say goodbye to Jacqueline “Jack” Sloane. According to TVLine, actress Maria Bello is leaving NCIS after a three-year stint on the popular procedural series. She’ll appear for the first eight episodes of the upcoming eighteenth season and then bounce, so be sure to give your parents a heads up that one of their new favorite characters will be leaving soon.

We haven’t seen the last of Cookie Lyon. Taraji P. Henson is returning to reprise her role in an Empire spinoff series centered on Cookie as she moves to Los Angeles – and a few of her family members could end up coming back as well. Empire co-creator Danny Strong will serve as one of three showrunners alongside fellow Empire veterans Yolanda Lawrence and Stacy A. Littlejohn. The project isn’t a done deal quite yet, but it’s in development at Fox and seems like as close to a sure thing as it comes these days.

Arguably one of the biggest announcements to come out of Comic-Con 2020 was the return of G4, the nerd-friendly network that was famous for series like X-Play and Attack of the Show! When exactly will it come back, and in what form? We don’t know – all we know is that it’ll happen sometime in 2021.

The Oprah Conversation, a new interview show which will be filmed remotely and incorporate audience engagement, will feature the longtime talk show host exploring impactful and relevant topics with “fascinating thought leaders from all over the world.” Oprah is one of the most famous TV personalities in the world for a reason, so I guess if the formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The show premieres on July 30, 2020 on AppleTV .

Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games) is set to star in Oscar-winner Alejandro Amenábar‘s first TV series, a graphic novel adaptation called La Fortuna. “The story centers on young diplomat Alex Ventura who teams with a combative public official and a brilliant American lawyer to recover treasure stolen by Frank Wild, who travels the world plundering historic items from the ocean,” and you bet your ass Tucci is playing the plundering scavenger. The show will premiere on AMC in 2021.

Netflix has canceled plans to make a prank series with comedians Chris D’Elia and Bryan Callen in the wake of several sexual misconduct allegations that have been made against D’Elia. The comedian has been dropped by his representation teams since the accusations came to light, and if this is the first you’re hearing about it, you can get more details about that situation here.

Cool Posts From Around the Web: