NBA renews Bally Sports deal / "Outer Banks" Season 4 / "Sex Education" cast shake-ups / "M3gan" unrated cut

Plus today's calendar, iQiyi VR experience, "Big Shot" and "Mighty Ducks" canceled, "Frasier" revival update, and more

Inside.com Part of   Network February 20, 2023

According to Sports Business Journal, the NBA quietly renewed its streaming deal with Diamond Sports, keeping local games on the company's Bally Sports+ service. Diamond Sports has a significant debt issue and could face bankruptcy proceedings soon. More: The NBA renewed the deal for just one year; if Diamond meets a number of pre-conditions, the league will consider renewing the deal for an additional year. The conditions included launching and continuing to finance the Bally Sports+ platform, along with full rights fees paid by the company's regional sports cable networks. Should Diamond file for bankruptcy in mid-March, as expected, this would breach one of the deal's conditions; the league could then opt to take back the rights. The Diamond deal expires at the end of the 2024-2025 season, the same time that the NBA's overall deals with ESPN and Turner Sports conclude. SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Netflix renewed the teen adventure drama series "Outer Banks" for a fourth season. Season 3 premieres later this week, on February 23. More: The streamer made the announcement during an immersive fan experience promoting the arrival of Season 3. Creators Jonas Pate, Josh Pate, and Shannon Burke will return as showrunners for Season 4. The series centers on a group of misfit teens who live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and embark on a hunt for a legendary treasure. Chase Stokes, Charles Esten, Madelyn Cline, Jonathan Daviss, and Madison Bailey co-star. TV LINE

DAILY CALENDAR MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20 AMERICAN IDOL: The ABC singing competition series returned to TV on Sunday night for its 21st season; new episodes hit Hulu on Mondays. This year's judges include Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie; Ryan Seacrest hosts. [Hulu] THE COMPANY YOU KEEP: Debut ABC drama series, based on the Korean series "My Fellow Citizens!" Milo Ventimiglia and Catherine Haena Kim co-star as a con man and an undercover CIA officer, respectively, who fall in love just as their careers come into direct conflict. Sarah Wayne Callies, Tim Chiou, James Saito, Polly Draper, and William Fichtner co-star. [Hulu] BALLMASTRZ: RUBICON: Animated Adult Swim special, spun off from the series "Ballmastrz: 9009" and set after the events of Season 2. (It's about a violent dystopian future roller derby-esque sport known as "The Game.") Christy Karacas created the series and stars as Crayzar; the voice cast also includes Natasha Lyonne, Dana Snyder, and Dave Willis. [HBO Max] CYRANO: 2022 romantic musical drama feature, based on the 2018 stage musical by Erica Schmidt, which was in turn inspired by the classic 1897 play by Edmond Rostand. Peter Dinklage stars as Cyrano, who helps a soldier (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) to seduce Roxanne (Haley Bennett), the beautiful orphan he secretly loves from afar. Joe Wright ("Atonement") directed. [Paramount+] MARC MARQUEZ: ALL IN: Five-part Spanish-language documentary profiling the motorcycle racer and eight-time World Champion, following along as he returns to the sport while recovering from a string of injuries and surgeries. [Amazon]

Emma Mackey Emma Mackey told RadioTimes she plans to exit the cast of Netflix's "Sex Education" after four seasons. Meanwhile, "Anne Boleyn" vet Jodie Turner-Smith revealed she'll join the coming-of-age comedy-drama's cast in Season 4. More: Mackey already takes a step back in Season 4, which remains in production; now she says she's ready to permanently say goodbye to her character, Maeve. Ncuti Gatwa will also exit "Sex Education" after Season 4, to take over as the 15th incarnation of The Doctor on "Doctor Who." Turner-Smith says she was personally invited to join the series by Gatwa, and filmed all of her Season 4 scenes with the actor. "Schitt's Creek" vet Dan Levy will also join "Sex Education" for its fourth season. DEADLINE

@Peacock on Twitter An unrated cut of the comedy-horror film "M3gan" hits Peacock on February 24. In a tweet from Peacock, killer robot M3gan vowed to leak the new cut herself, as the version the "corporate suits don't want you to see." More: The theatrical version of "M3gan" was rated PG-13 for "violent content and terror, some strong language and a suggestive reference." The new cut includes more "distressing violence and profanity" along with "never-before-seen bonus content." Screenwriter Akela Cooper told The Los Angeles Times back in January that her original vision for the flim was "way gorier." It's likely the studio decided to trim some of the violence in order to secure a PG-13 rating, once the character became a viral hit on youth-focused platforms like TikTok. GAMESPOT

Chinese video streamer iQiyi launched an immersive virtual reality experience in Shanghai based on one of its shows. The 50-minute "VR-powered journey" is inspired by the period mystery-drama series "Luoyang," which is set in the titular city in the 7th Century. More: The virtual reality experience resembles a theme park ride, but in a facility that takes up just 300 square meters of real estate in Downtown Shanghai. Tickets cost around $29 each; time slots are sold by the hour, from 10:30 am to 11:30 pm on weekdays; the experience runs through May. iQiyi vice president Zhang Hang told the press he expects around 40,000 visitors will check out the installation this year. CNBC

Disney+ canceled the sports comedy-drama series "Big Shot" and "Mighty Ducks: Game Changers" after two seasons each. "Big Shot" was created by David E. Kelley, and starred John Stamos as a disgraced college basketball coach who gets a shot at redemption after taking a new job at a private all-girls school. More: Season 2 of "Big Shot" hit Disney+ around four months ago. "Mighty Ducks: Game Changers" continued the story about youth hockey players from the hit films, and starred Lauren Graham and Josh Duhamel. Emilio Estevez -- who starred in the "Mighty Ducks" film series -- also appeared in the first season of the Disney+ series, but exited the show ahead of Season 2. Though there were rumors that Estevez declined to reprise his role due to the production's COVID safety protocols, the actor insists this wasn't true, and it resulted from a "good old fashioned contract dispute." DEADLINE

QUICK HITS These tech-backed dress socks are for all walks of life, whether you WFH or are in the office, Bombas can help. Use code INSIDE for 20% off.* During an appearance on "Live with Kelly and Ryan," Kelsey Grammer revealed that his former "Frasier" co-stars Jane Leeves, David Hyde Pierce, and Peri Gilpin were "sort of on the fence" about appearing in the upcoming Paramount+ revival, but rebooting the series with a new ensemble "turned out to be a great thing." Actor and comedian Richard Belzer -- who played police detective John Munch on "Homicide," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," and a number of other TV shows -- died on Sunday at his home in France at age 78. The Paramount+ adventure drama series "Blood & Treasure" has been canceled after two seasons; the show's first season aired on CBS before it became a streaming exclusive in Season 2. Zach Galifianakis signed on for an undisclosed role in the Disney+ live-action "Lilo & Stitch" remake; "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" filmmaker Dean Fleischer Camp has been tapped to direct. Season 2 of the YA fantasy drama series "Shadow and Bone" hits Netflix on March 16; the streamer posted a trailer for the new episodes. Amazon grabbed international rights to the film "The Order," starring Jude Law and Nicolas Hoult as the founders of a white supremacist group in the 1980s; the film, from "Assassins Creed" and "Nitram" helmer Justin Kurzel, will stream on Prime Video outside of the US. During a Q&A panel in Hollywood on Friday, "Ozark" showrunner Chris Mundy divulged what he believes happens in the final moments of the crime drama's series finale. You could be starting therapy with an accredited professional in just 48 hours. Join today and take 25% off your first month.* *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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