Netflix Nabs Cartoon Network, Adult Swim Programs in Deal With Warner Bros.TV

Netflix's library of television titles continues to grow after reaching another exclusive licensing deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group.

Starting this spring, a variety of titles from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim will become available to subscribers, while a deal with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will bring seasons one and two of TNT's "Dallas" reboot to the streaming service in January 2014.

"We are delighted that Netflix will become the exclusive over-the-top streaming subscription destination for past seasons of favorite Cartoon Network and Adult Swim titles," Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, said in a statement. "We're also thrilled to be able to offer the latest seasons of 'Dallas,' one of the greatest all-time guilty pleasures."

The latest deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. Television comes just a week after the two parties reached agreement to make programs like "The West Wing," "Chuck," "Fringe," "Political Animals" and eventually, "The Following" exclusively available on the streaming service.

Complete past seasons of Cartoon Network shows such as "Adventure Time," "Ben 10," "Regular Show" and "Johnny Bravo" will join Warner Bros. Animation's "Green Lantern" in the "Just for Kids" section of Netflix Instant on March 30. Adult Swim's "Robot Chicken," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," "The Boondocks" and "Children's Hospital" will also become available at that time.

"We are thrilled to continue our great relationship with Netflix giving their subscribers access to more and more of our programming," Ken Werner, president of Warner Bros. domestic television distribution, added. "This represents another evolutionary step in the TV ecosystem working with Netflix, on the SVOD platform, to improve the consumer experience while being respectful of existing business models."

Robyn's 'Dancing' Sales Soar After 'Girls' Golden Globe Wins

The song was heard twice during Sunday’s show, where the HBO series won best comedy and best actress for Lena Dunham.

It looks like Robyn will be "dancing" up the sales charts this week, thanks to the Golden Globe Awards.

The pop singer/songwriter's "Dancing On My Own" was heard twice during the Sunday evening show, broadcast on NBC. The song soundtracked the two wins for the HBO TV series Girls. The show won a Globe for best TV series - comedy, as well as a trophy for its star and creator, Lena Dunham (best performance by an actress in a TV series - comedy or musical).
             
Label sources indicate that the song's daily sales tripled on Sunday from its normal daily average. And, for the tracking week ending Sunday night, Jan. 13, the song sold an estimated 7,000 copies -- its best sales frame since May of 2012. That was when the cut was basking in the glow of its first "Girls" usage -- in the show's April 29 episode. In the two weeks that followed the episode, "Dancing" sold 23,000 (week ending May 6) and 9,000 (May 13), according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The "Girls" soundtrack album, which was released last Tuesday (Jan. 8), is on track to bow with around 7,000 on this week's Billboard 200 chart (so suggest sources). "Dancing On My Own" is the lead cut on the set, which also features selections by fun., Santigold and Grouplove.

Final, official SoundScan sales figures for both "Dancing On My Own" and the "Girls" soundtrack will be released on Wednesday, Jan. 16.

CBS' 'Under the Dome' Casts 'Jake and the Never Land Pirates' Star

Colin Ford will play Joe, a smart teenager whose parents are on the other side of the mysterious dome.

Jake and the Never Land Pirates star Colin Ford has been tapped to play Joe, a teenager in Chester's Mill, the small New England town that is suddenly and mysteriously sealed off by an enormous transparent dome.
Based on the 2009 Stephen King novel, the series follows residents in the community as they deal with the postapocalyptic conditions while searching for answers as to what the barrier is, where it came from and when -- and if -- it will go away. Joe is described as being a smart kid who is freaked out when he discovers that both of his parents are on the other side of the dome.

CBS Television Studios will produce the drama, which was picked up straight to series, in association with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. Neal Baer (A Gifted Man, Law & Order: SVU), King, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Stacey Snider and comic scribe Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Lost) -- who penned the Under the Dome television adaptation -- will serve as executive producers. Director Niels Arden Oplev (Unforgettable, Sweden's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) will direct the first episode.

Ford voices the title role in Disney Junior Annie Award-winning musical Jake and the Never Land Pirates, with the show's third season scheduled to premiere in February. Repped by UTA, Management 360 and Ziffren Brittenham, his feature credits include features We Bought a Zoo, Push and Eye of the Hurricane. His small-screen roles include playing a young Sam Winchester on the CW's Supernatural, voice roles on Fox's Family Guy and an episode of The Mob Doctor.

Britain's Got Talent 2013 auditions: Last chance to try out this Saturday!

This weekend is your final chance to apply for Britain’s Got Talent 2013, with a last day of open auditions in London.

David Walliams, Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and Amanda Holden will all be back together on the panel for the second series, and Saturday is the last chance to audition to stand a chance of putting your act in front of them.

The show will be holding an Open Auditions Day at The Oval (The Kia Oval is at Kennington, London, SE11 5SS) in London on Saturday, 19 January 2013.

Last year over 6,000 people turned up to audition at The Oval’s Open Day so the doors open at 9.00am and will not close until the last act is seen. Two of 2012’s amazing live semi-finalists auditioned at The Oval last year – singer Hope Murphy and circus performer, Billy George.

Matt Banks, Series Producer, Britain’s Got Talent, says: “We’ve already seen thousands of acts but we want to make sure we find the best talent around and this Open Day allows even more people to audition.

“After such a huge year for Great Britain in 2012 we want to keep Britain proud for 2013 by bringing a series packed with talent to ITV1.”

Celebrity Big Brother 2013 housemates go all X Factor for latest task

The Celebrity Big Brother 2013 housemates have been set a new task which has seen them go all X Factor.

The house’s Big Vendor machine has been sitting quietly in the living area since launch night, but came alive tonight.

The machine revealed Big Brother’s latest task: Definition of Celebrity.

Cheeky Big Vendor told the group he didn’t know who they were or what they were famous for.

Setting a special task for the house, the stars have been split into teams led by Rylan Clark and Claire Richards.

Rylan’s team is formed of Gillian, Tricia, Razor and Heidi and Claire’s is made up of Spencer, Lacey, Frankie and Ryan.

Yes, it took Big Vendor to split Speidi up.

The two teams have been given two hours to prepare their own performance piece for a talent show tonight where they’ll have to demonstrate to Big Vendor the ‘talents’ that have made them famous.

Big Vendor will take the role of judge and decide which of the teams is the most talented and will win.

The winners will be rewarded with a selection of products from Big Vendor’s shelves.

In other words, they’ll just get some booze, but it’ll provide some laughs.

Philip Roth Names the Best of His Own Books

Philip Roth says that since retiring from writing, he wakes up each morning and has a glass of orange juice. Then he goes back to bed and reads.

"I'm doing fine without writing," he said Monday. "Someone should have told me about this earlier."

Roth's contentment will disappoint legions of readers who hoped that Roth wouldn't be able to stay retired long. The winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, among many other awards, wrote 31 books, and was as productive near the end of his career as he was at any other time.

But Roth -- whose retirement made the front page of the New York Times in November -- said he hopes he won't find the inspiration to write another novel.

"I found it 31 times," he said. "I don't want to find it anymore. I'm tired."

Roth spoke at a Television Critics Association panel for the PBS American Masters special "Philip Roth: Unmasked," which looks back on a half-century of books that began with the publication of "Goodbye, Columbus" in 1959.

Roth has said that after completing his last book, 2010's "Nemesis," he reread all of his work. TheWrap asked him which of his books he believed were the best written, and he chose two from the 1990s.

"You write differently in each book," Roth said. "It may appear to be similar to readers but you're a different writer in each book, because you haven't approached that subject before. And every subject brings out a different prose strain in you. Fundamentally, yes, you're contained as one writer. But you have various voices. Like a good actor."

"I'm particularly partial to a book called 'Sabbath's Theater,' which a lot of people hate. Now, that's not the reason I like it," he said.

"But I think it's got a lot of freedom in it. That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader."

He wryly added: "So I liked 'Sabbath's Theater,' I advise you all to read it."

"The other book I like very much is the book that follows 'Sabbath's Theater,'" Roth continued. "'Sabbath's Theater' is about a kind of giant of disobedience, Mickey Sabbath. He's death haunted and yet has great gaiety about his own death. He's an interesting guy, but he wouldn't be thought of as a conventionally virtuous man."

"In 'American Pastoral,' the next book, I wanted to write about a conventionally virtuous man. I was sick of Mickey Sabbath and I wanted to go to the other end of the spectrum. I think the book worked, enabled me to write about the most powerful decade of my life, the '60s, and the domestic turbulence of the '60s, and I think I got a lot of that into the book."

"There are other books I like too," he said, but those two stand out in "recent decades."

Roth also talked about the breakthrough success of his 1969 novel "Portnoy's Complaint." He said that when it became apparent that the book would get lots of attention -- in part because of its blunt sexual humor -- he took his parents to lunch to warn them.

Roth said he spent two hours telling his parents how to prepare themselves for reporters.

"I told them that it was not against the law to hang up on a journalist," he said.

After his mother died, Roth said, he asked his father what his parents talked about as they went home from that lunch.

"She said, 'He has delusions of grandeur,'" he remembered his father saying. "He was never that type of boy. He's going to have his heart broken because this is not going to happen."

HBO's Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey Drama Casts 'Eagle Eye' Star Michelle Monaghan

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey's upcoming HBO crime series "True Detective" has added Michelle Monaghan to its cast, multiple sources told TheWrap on Monday.

Monaghan, whose credits include starring roles in the thrillers "Eagle Eye" and "Source Code," will play Maggie Hart, the wife of Harrelson's Martin Hart character. Her character is described as "a woman who makes a hard decision that has long-reaching and devastating consequences."

The anthology series, which stars McConaughey and Harrelson as a pair of detectives whose paths cross while they're trying to solve a 17-year-old murder in Louisiana, will start with the 1995 murder and pick up with the case being reopened, with the first season wrapping when the case is solved. Subsequent seasons of the series will center on new characters and stories, much like FX's "American Horror Story."

"True Detective" is written by Nic Pizzolatto, whose credits include the AMC drama "The Killing," and directed by Cary Fukunaga, who directed "Jane Eyre."

Deadline first reported the news of Monaghan's "True Detective" casting.