The longest-running comedy currently on network TV comes to an end in the week of April 6, the same week a new streaming platform aimed at mobile users launches. Two cable shows that count Phoebe Waller-Bridge as an executive producer also debut.
Here is The Hollywood Reporter's rundown of some of the coming week's highlights. It would be next to impossible to watch everything, but let THR point the way to worthy options each week. All times are ET/PT unless noted.
The Big Little Show
Short-form streaming service Quibi comes to life Monday. The mobile-oriented platform will launch with a lineup of about 50 shows: a handful of scripted series — or "movies in chapters," as the company calls them — unscripted shows and daily news and talk programs. It's offering a three-month free trial, after which it will cost $5 monthly with ads or $8 without.
The service has a host of big names involved (including Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner; watch the trailer for her show Survive below), a lot of capital and some cool technology that will allow users to switch seamlessly between landscape and portrait mode. The question is: Will people watch?
On broadcast …
Series finale: After 11 seasons, five best comedy Emmys and a legacy of helping re-establish ABC's comedy brand, Modern Family says goodbye at 9 p.m. Wednesday. The hour-long finale will be preceded by a series retrospective at 8 p.m.
More finales: Manifest closes its second season on NBC at 10 p.m. Monday; Grey's Anatomy airs its "finale" — i.e., the last completed episode before production shut down — at 9 p.m. Thursday on ABC.
Revival: Twenty years after the initial phenomenon, ABC brings back Who Wants to Be a Millionaire for an eight-episode, celebrity-filled run starting at 10 p.m. Wednesday. Jimmy Kimmel hosts.
New: PBS debuts Baptiste (10 p.m. April 12), a spinoff of British series The Missing (which aired on Starz in the U.S.) that focuses on Tcheky Karyo's French detective.
On cable …
Returning: Killing Eve (9 p.m. April 12, BBC America and AMC) gets an earlier-than-planned debut, moving up to fill in for The Walking Dead after that show's finale remains unfinished due to coronavirus quarantines. Season three finds Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) separated at first, but of course their paths will cross again eventually.
Also returning: New seasons of The Last O.G. (10:30 p.m. Tuesday, TBS), Liar (11 p.m. Wednesday, Sundance) and Insecure (10 p.m. April 12, HBO).
New: Fleabag and Killing Eve creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an executive producer of HBO's Run (10:30 p.m. April 12). The series, created by Fleabag veteran Vicky Jones, the comedic thriller stars Merrit Wever as a woman who leaves her mundane life behind after getting a text from a former college flame (Domhnall Gleeson).
Also new: Shaquille O'Neal is the center of unscripted show Shaq Life (9 p.m. Thursday, TNT). Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes adapts his novel Belgravia for Epix (9 p.m. April 12);
On streaming …
Returning: The fourth season of The Good Fight (Thursday, CBS All Access) will explore, among other things, how wealthy and powerful people bend the law to their advantage. It will also, as briefly seen in the trailer below, offer occasion for Christine Baranski's Diane Lockhart to don a catsuit.
New: WWE star Paul Wight, aka The Big Show, stars in Netflix family sitcom The Big Show Show (Monday). CBS All Access debuts animated parody Tooning Out the News Tuesday, with short segments daily leading to a full half-hour episode on Friday. Brews Brothers (Friday, Netflix) follows two estranged brothers who team up to run a brewery.
In case you missed it …
Amazon's Tales from the Loop is based on a series of science fiction-influenced paintings by Simon Stålenhag, and those images form a backdrop for a series that more often focuses on the human-sized problems of people living near a mysterious underground research facility. Writes THR chief critic Daniel Fienberg, " stories about missing parents, death and loneliness predominate, setting up Tales as either a perfect, or perfectly unpleasant, show for viewers who are in quarantine or some form of isolation and turning to our audiovisual technology to fill a void." All eight episodes are streaming now.
