Here is a wrap-up of all the news you need to know from Wednesday, October 18, 2023.
MGM+ has unveiled the official trailer for its highly-anticipated series, Beacon 23.
The sci-fi drama will debut on Sunday, November 12, on MGM+ at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT with the first two of eight episodes.
Zak Penn (Ready Player One, Free Guy) created the series and executive produced along with Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead, The Shield).
It is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by High Powey.
“Beacon 23 takes place in the farthest reaches of the Milky Way and follows Aster (Lena Headey), a government agent, and Halan (Stephan James), a stoic ex-military man, whose fates become entangled after they find themselves trapped together inside one of many Beacons that serve as a lighthouse for intergalactic travelers,” according to the logline.
“Every Beacon is run by one highly trained human and a specialized Artificial Intelligence. Aster mysteriously finds her way to the lonely Beacon-keeper Halan, and a tense battle of wills unfolds.”
“Halan begins to question whether Aster is friend or foe, as her ability to disguise her agenda and motives could make her a formidable opponent.”
Check out the promo below.
Meanwhile, CBS has announced premiere dates for its holiday programming, which includes plenty of returning favorites.
Check out the list of premieres below.
Thursday, November 23, 2023
The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS – 9 a.m. ET.
Friday, November 24, 2023
The Greatest @HomeVideos: Hosted by Cedric The Entertainer – 8 p.m.
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – 9 p.m.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Reindeer In Here – 8 p.m.
Robbie The Reindeer – 9 p.m.
Monday, December 4, 2023
The Price Is Right At Night Christmas Week: Office Holiday Party – 8 p.m.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
The Price Is Right At Night Christmas Week: College Students Home For The Holidays – 9 p.m.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
The Price Is Right At Night Christmas Week: Blind Holidate – 8 p.m.
Related: SEAL Team Season 7: Everything We Know
Friday, December 8, 2023
The Price Is Right At Night Christmas Week Holiday Heroes – 8 p.m.
Saturday, December 9, 2023
Byron Allen Presents A Merry Soulful Christmas – 8 p.m.
Friday, December 15, 2023
National Christmas Tree Lighting – 8 p.m.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Frosty The Snowman – 9 p.m.
Frosty Returns – 9:30 p.m.
Monday, December 18, 2023
The Price Is Right At Night Christmas Week: Holidays With The Family – 8 p.m.
Friday, December 22, 2023
The 25th Annual A Home For The Holidays – 8 p.m.
Fit For Christmas – 9 p.m.
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Sunday, December 24, 2023
When Christmas Was Young – 9 p.m.
Monday, December 25, 2023
Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas To All! – 9 p.m.
Friday, December 29, 2023
Must Love Christmas – 9 p.m.
Saturday, December 31, 2023
New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash – 7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, Amazon Freevee has unveiled the trailer and key art for the third and final season of Pretty Hard Cases.
In Season Three, female detectives Samantha Wazowski (Meredith MacNeill, Baroness Von Sketch Show) and Kelly Duff (Adrienne C. Moore, Orange Is the New Black) come back with even more explosive cases that push both their personal and professional lives like never before.
All 10 episodes of the new season will be available to stream exclusively on Amazon Freevee in the U.S. on Wednesday, November 29.
“The new season finds detectives Wazowski and Duff finally reuniting as partners in Guns and Gangs after eight long months apart,” the logline from Freevee teases.
“Although their personal and professional relationships have never been stronger, they will need to work as hard as they can to prove to their new and exacting unit commander that they are worthy of their department’s top cases.
Wazowski and Duff find themselves navigating big changes in their personal lives: Wazowski revisits a past romance, while Duff is taking the next step in her relationship.
But when a deadly new synthetic drug appears all over Toronto, they must risk their lives, as they fight to take down a dangerous gang and stop the drug at its source.”
Check out the TV clip below.
Over on Lifetime, the cabler has dropped trailers for two more Ripped From the Headlines movies.
Bad Romance: The Vicky White Story – October 23
Based on a true story, the movie follows Vicky White (Wendi McLendon-Covey), a lonely corrections officer who falls for a prisoner (Rossif Sutherland), but before she can ensure their happily ever after, she must firstbreak him out of prison.
Related: Lifetime Ripped From the Headlines Fall Slate
Every day for divorced prison corrections officer Vicky White (McLendon-Covey) is like the movie Groundhog Day – mundane and every day just like the previous.
But when new prisoner Casey White (Sutherland) is brought to her facility, the two develop a secret infatuation. Vicky gives Casey special attention, believing he’s the only man to see her the way she wants to be seen.
But when Casey’s inevitable transfer to a lengthy prison sentence approaches, Vicky decides to take desperate action. Risking everything, Vicky manages to break Casey out of jail and takes him on the run, eluding authorities on an eleven-day dash for freedom.
For Vicky, even the probable tragedy ahead of them is worth the chance to live life fully once more.
Bad Romance: The Vicky White Story is executive produced for Lifetime by Wendi McLendon-Covey, Tom Patricia, Gladys Gonzalez of John Carrabino Management, and Howard Braunstein, with Stan Brooks directing from a script by Gregory Small and Richard Blaney with Juliette Hagoplan producing the movie.
Wendi is repped by UTA manager Gladys Gonzalez and attorney David Krintzman.
Check out the trailer.
Would You Kill For Me: The Mary Bailey Story – Premieres October 28
Told through three different perspectives, Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story follows the volatile relationship between three generations of women – Ella (Melissa Joan Hart), her daughter Veronica (Olivia Scriven), and her granddaughter Mary (Presley Allard), whom she raises for Veronica.
After Veronica becomes deeply entangled with Willard (Connor McMahon) and later marries him, the lives of all three women take a turn for the worse when Willard becomes increasingly abusive.
Veronica suffers a deep betrayal when her best friend, Susan (Celina “Spookyboo” Myers), becomes pregnant with Willard’s child, further complicating their toxic relationship, leaving Ella, Mary, and her half-brother Sammy at the mercy of Willard’s alcoholic rampages.
Related: It’s a Wonderful Lifetime Fall Slate
The family fears for their lives, culminating in one horrific night when Willard is shot dead…but the identity of who pulled the trigger is not revealed until the end.
The Mary Bailey Story, based on the real-life experiences of Mary Elizabeth Bailey, author of “My Mother’s Soldier,” who, at 11 years old, was forced to do the unthinkable.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.
