Latest in Venus Williams

EXCLUSIVE: Jon Bernthal is in negotiations to star as coach Rick Macci in King Richard, the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed Warner Bros drama about how Richard Williams guided his prodigal tennis playing daughters Venus and Serena from the Compton courts to preeminence in the sport. Will Smith plays Richard Williams…

CBS has tapped Friends From College actor Keegan-Michael Key to the host the remake of James Corden’s BAFTA-winning Sky game show A League Of Their Own. In Game On!, Key will sit in the seat Corden occupies on the UK version of the format, presiding over two teams navigating rounds of sporting questions and physical…

Warner Bros is looking like the favorite to capture King Richard, a spec script by Zach Baylin that has Will Smith poised to play Richard Williams,  the father of Venus and Serena Williams. This deal will fall in the $60 million budget range, making it as big an auction as we’ve heard of this year, this side of the…

EXCLUSIVE: Even though there were no major tennis tournaments last weekend, the minds of industry leaders were courtside anyway. They were reading King Richard, a spec script by Zach Baylin that has Will Smith poised to play Richard Williams. He is the father of Venus and Serena Williams. Despite having no tennis…

The last day of August and the start of the Labor Day weekend produced the kind of calm in the ratings wars that you might expect. Friday night’s primetime ratings saw  a five-way tie for the no. 1 spot in ratings/share on the night for adults 18-49. The big five included NBC's American Ninja Warrior rerun and Dateline…

Saturday's Wimbledon Ladies' Championship on ESPN was the network’s highest-rated match since 2015, earning a 2.1 overnight rating from Nielsen, up 27% from a 1.7 in 2017 (Garbine Muguruza vs. Venus Williams). The 2015 match garnered a 2.2 for Serena Williams vs. Muguruza. The rating for Saturday’s 75-minute match…

Venus Williams is teaming with Bar Rescue producer 3 Ball Entertainment on a new unscripted female-focused business series Deals in Heels (working title). The tennis icon, entrepreneur and Olympic gold medalist will appear in and executive produce the series, alongside 3 Ball executive producers Todd A. Nelson, Ross…

Less than a month after pink-slipping tennis analyst Doug Adler for a seemingly racist remark about Venus Williams, ESPN was hit today with a wrongful-termination lawsuit by the veteran commentator. Adler insists he did nothing wrong, did not call the Grand Slam champ a "gorilla" and that the sports media giant knows…

A single sporting event featured two GOATs winning championships over the weekend, and ESPN reaped the benefits. The Worldwide Leader said today that its overnight coverage of tennis’ Australian Open saw ratings increases and set a network record for the men’s final. The Open featured a pair of retro dream matchups…

Last night’s US Open quarterfinal on ESPN featuring the much-anticipated face-off between top-seeded Serena Williams and No. 23 Venus Williams earned a 4.8 rating, peaking at a 5.6 from 10-10:15 PM ET. The entire 5:15 telecast (including a second match, Novak Djokovic over Feliciano Lopez) scored a 2.7 from Nielsen's…

Here’s an exclusive early first look at a clip from Venus And Serena, the documentary on the tennis playing Williams sisters that will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 11. The film was helmed by Michelle Major and Maiken Baird, and the sisters allow the filmmakers a lot of access to create an…