Scouting Hollywood: Nov. 30-Dec.6

A roundup of news, gossip and history of the entertainment business brought to you from Hollywood, Calif.

Sequels still pay. Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes grossed worldwide over $100 million in in its opening weekend, with $44.6 million domestically. Meanwhile, Five Nights At Freddy’s has taken the laurels as the top horror film of 2023 with an estimated $271.8 million in receipts worldwide.  

For fans of F1 auto racing (as well as Netflix’ Formula 1: Drive To Survive series) the announcement from CBS that they are in early development of a single camera comedy based on Haas Racing principal Guenther Steiner sets off chuckles. While no writer is yet attached, Steiner is on board as a non-writing executive producer and the show is described as a world of sports with a “Guenther” style boss running the show.

BBC has parked the long running auto show Top Gear in the garage. The Beeb made the announcement nearly a year after an on-set accident that injured presenter Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff. Since the accident, in which he was severely injured, Flintoff elected to leave the show. While recent ratings were up slightly, the program never really recovered from the loss of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond who debuted on the show in 2002 and turned it into a mega hit for the BBC. In 2015 when the British Network declined to renew Clarkson’s contract, his co-hosts jumped also and the three went onto a successful run on Amazon Prime.

CBS has announced that Tom Selleck’s long running series, Blue Bloods, will end with the upcoming season 14. Just about to start production, these last 18 episodes will begin airing in February, and after taking a summer hiatus will end its run next fall. “For the past 13 years it has been an honor and a privilege to work on a show that not only celebrates the men and women who protect and serve in New York City, but also displayed the importance of family,” noted Selleck.