At Least Six TV Shows Killed Off Female Characters Last Week

TV Tattle

At least six TV shows killed off female characters last week

The last seven days have been a rough one for television’s female characters. By Daniel Fienberg’s count, six shows had female characters put to death. But there could’ve been more, as that number only counts the shows he watches. “That’s six shows,” he says, “killing non-villain, non-victim-of-the-week female characters, which becomes dramatically more interesting when I make this observation: Last week, the number of shows that had female characters who left storylines either via natural, non-violent death or any of the myriad ways which, in normal life, people depart jobs, cities, or fantastical realms without dying equaled zero.” PLUS: Why institutional sexism probably explains last week’s female character bloodbath.


Has TV already reached its true-crime tipping point?

The news that the Menendez brothers and JonBenet Ramsey would follow the true-crime path of The People v. O.J. Simpson and Making a Murderer begs the question of how much is too much. “It’s hard to ignore the public’s hunger for homicide,” says Jenn Wood, “but there are only so many Jeffrey Dahmers and Ted Bundys in this world. That’s a good thing for society at large. But for TV’s latest, hottest trend, it may predict a short, but violently entertaining, life.”


A tech web site “fixed” the new Game of Thrones trailer so it wouldn’t be so “poorly lit”

The Verge’s Loren Gush thought trailer released today looked too dark. “How can you figure out what the hell is going on when you can’t see anything?” Gush wondered. “Sure, I understand that Game of Thrones is dark and grim, but that doesn’t have to be a literal interpretation. Give the people what they want — exposure.” PLUS: 7 things you might have missed from the new trailer, and Sophie Turner tells Conan about the time she licked a Tyrion mask.


Ex-Gilmore Girls executive producer sues Warner Bros. TV over Netflix revival

Gavin Polone, who’s also known for executive producing Curb Your Enthusiasm and serving as Conan O’Brien’s manager, alleges that his original Gilmore Girls contract calls for him to be paid for all original episodes that air. He’s seeking more than $195,000 in damages.


Zoey 101 star arrested for domestic violence

Chris Massey allegedly shoved his girlfriend, but TMZ says she’s not planning to press charges because it was all a misunderstanding.


Teen Wolf star Arden Cho releases a video announcing her exit from the show

Cho, who plays kitsune Kira Yukimura, said in the video: “Unfortunately, it looks like we are wrapped up with Kira’s storyline and she won’t be coming back for season six.”


Louis CK could sell Horace and Pete to any outlet, not just FX

According to Variety, the comedian’s self-produced web show isn’t part of his first-look deal with FX. Louis CK is also planning to sell all 10 episodes in a bundle. Currently, episodes can only be purchased on his website individually.


Jason Jones has yet to watch Trevor Noah’s Daily Show

“To tell you the truth, I just haven’t watched it,” he says. “I just don’t know. I divorced myself from that world.” He adds that since leaving The Daily Show, he stopped watching Fox News. “So my soul started un-blackening and I started feeling really good,” he says, “I could breathe fresh air again, and then Sam’s (Samantha Bee’s) show (Full Frontal) started up and I fell right back into it. So I honestly haven’t had much of a chance to check it out.”

Kevin Spacey: The real election made me realize House of Cards hasn’t gone far enough

“There are many times,” he says, “when we will finish a sequence, there will be a storyline that we will be attacking and I will leave the set and I will go to my hotel room and I will wonder: ‘Have we gone too far? Have we crossed the Rubicon? Is there something we have done that feels unreal  and unbelievable and crazy?’ And then I turn on the television and I watch the news and I think we haven’t gone far enough.”


Drew Barrymore to visit Bravo’s Odd Mom Out

The comedy happens to be created by Barrymore’s sister-in-law, Jill Kargman.


As expected, Episodes is ending with Season 5

Matt LeBlanc, who already several other TV projects in the works, will begin working on the final season of the Showtime series on Tuesday.


Saved by the Bell’s “Screech” is a free man

Cleaning floors in jail got Dustin Diamond one month knocked off his four-month jail sentence. Now he’s free after serving three months for stabbing a man during a bar fight.


Dora the Explorer actress got suspended for vaping at school, court papers reveal

Fatima Ptacek, 15, was suspended for three days after being caught vaping caramel flavored water while her friend was expelled from school. Now the vaping case is part of a lawsuit against the school.


Alex Trebek: “I could play Turd Ferguson”

The Jeopardy! host would like to return to SNL in a different cameo role.


Kunal Nayyar can see The Big Bang Theory going through 2020

“We could all have walking sticks doing The Big Bang Theory Season 20,” he says. “I think realistically there’s less time left now than there was on the show before. Maybe it will go to 11, 12 or 13. I will do it as long as I can. But I think it is somewhere in that range.”


Billions turned out to be a good show — if you stuck around for the 2nd half of the season

The Showtime series showed some of the problems of serialized TV plotting. PLUS: Showrunners talk about that final scene.


Wendell Pierce and 3 of his The Wire co-stars have invested in a $20M Baltimore apartment complex

Pierce has teamed with Sonja Sohn, Felicia Pearson and Jamie Hector on the project, which will provide Baltimore residents jobs, as well as housing for Baltimore artists.

Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt’s HBO documentary is part of a trend of journalists using their parents as subjects

“Do you want to make a film about your mother?” joked Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentary Films, when asked about Nothing Left Unsaid, which premieres tonight. “There’s so much biography on television now, that anything that twists it into something slightly different [is good].” PLUS: The doc omits Vanderbilt’s estranged son.


See the original sketch of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s underground apocalyptic bunker

Production designer Teresa Mastropierro says of coming up with the design: “We did a lot of research on survivalists… There are lots of shelters people have built, and they’re proud to show you.”


Is The Simpsons trying to correct its “messy legacy” with Smithers and Apu?

The gay and Indian stereotypes aren’t acceptable like they were in the ‘90s, so it appears The Simpsons has been trying to adjust for the modern day.


Syfy’s Hunters tries to mix geopolitics with an alien show

The show featuring human-looking aliens also has a hunter leader described as “the Bin Laden of little green men.”


TBS’ The Detour is like National Lampoon’s Vacation remade as an indie film

The road trip comedy from Samantha Bee and husband Jason Jones, starring Jones and Natalie Zea, “contains some of the best-crafted vomit shots you are ever going to see,” says Robert Lloyd. It succeeds with its “intelligent dopiness.” PLUS: Bee and Jones are proving to be a formidable one-two punch of comedy, and it’s intrinsically honest, convulsively hilarious and oddly endearing.