Apple TV+

Jon Stewart’s return is set to be filmed in front of a live audience. Episodes of the Apple TV+ series will be recorded in New York on July 14 and 16, Deadline reported.

It is the latest “late-night” show to shoot in front of an audience after the likes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live! brought back audiences. The Apple TV+ series will require attendees to be fully vaccinated, provide an official vaccination card and complete a wellness screening prior to entering. Audiences and crew members will be required to wear masks at all times. The show, which launches this fall, is a one-hour current affairs format with a single issue topic explored in each episode.

Misha Green, creator of Lovecraft Country signed an overall deal with Apple last week. She will develop projects for TV+, reported Variety.

Green is also known for co-creating and executive producing the WGN America series “Underground,” on which she was also co-showrunner. The critically-acclaimed series followed men and women in pre-Civil War America who fought for their freedom on the Underground Railroad. Jurnee Smollett-Bell collaborated with Green on both “Underground” and “Lovecraft Country.” The deal with Apple reunites her with Apple’s heads of worldwide video Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, who previously ran “Underground” producer Sony Pictures Television, as well as Apple’s head of programming Matt Cherniss, who was president and general manager of WGN America and Tribune Studios.

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Glenn Close is joining the cast of Apple TV+ Israeli thriller Tehran. She will be a regular in the forthcoming second season, Variety reported

Close, who has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards, will be a series regular in the upcoming second season of the show, which aired on Apple TV Plus last summer and has become a global hit for the platform. The show originally premiered on Israel’s KAN public broadcaster last June. Variety understands that Apple TV Plus picked up the title from distributor Cineflix Rights as an acquisition, but following its success for the streamer, boarded the show as a co-producer. Close is slated to play the role of Marjan Montazeri, a British woman living in Tehran, according to Apple. The first season of the series told the story of Tamar Rabinyan (Niv Sultan), a young Mossad agent undercover on a top secret mission in the heart of Tehran.

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Latest Nielsen figures show that streaming overtook broadcast in TV usage in May. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the figures also revealed that Netflix occupied just two percent yes of that usage than a number of rivals, including Apple TV+, combined.

Netflix also has reason to tout the Nielsen findings, as they show that the company accounted for 6 percent of all TV usage in May. That’s tied with YouTube (including the YouTube TV bundle) for first among streamers; each makes up more than a fifth of all streaming time on TV. Hulu (including its live TV service) took up 3 percent of TV time, Amazon’s Prime Video 2 percent and Disney+ 1 percent. All other streaming combined — including Apple TV+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock and Discovery+ — made up 8 percent of of total usage.