AP Photo/Gus RuelasMaybe it's time for Black Sabbath devotees to renounce their fanhood: Ozzy Osbourne is moving into Osmond territory.
According to Variety, Fox has given a six-episode pickup to an hour-long variety show hosted by the 59-year-old erstwhile Prince of F--king Darkness, 55-year-old wife Sharon, 23-year-old son Jack and 22-year-old daughter Kelly, that's said to be a throwback to such programs of yore as—gulp—ABC's Donny and Marie and CBS' The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
The untitled Osbourne project is being overseen by James Sunderland, the executive producer of NBC's America's Got Talent, on which the family matriarch serves as a judge.
Unlike their heady days on The Osbournes, the reality show that ran from 2002 to 2005 on MTV and earned the family Emmys, the new format will attempt to mix musical guests, comedy skits and game-show segments with in-studio audience participation and man-on-the-street-style bits.
One idea being bandied about, per the trade, is a segment titled "The Osbournes Meet the Osbournes," in which the heavy metal clan hang out with another Osbourne family.
The show will be shot in Los Angeles and Fox aims to kick things off with a Christmas special.
Speaking of variety, Spike Lee—who's tackled all sorts of genres on the screen—is reportedly headed for the Great White Way.
The Oscar-nominated helmer plans to film three performances of the Broadway musical Passing Strange for a future broadcast on a cable network.
Lee will record two of the black-themed production's shows in front of audiences and a third without. No word when shooting will get under way, but Passing Strange, about a young black musician on a spiritual journey to Amsterdam and Berlin, could use the added television exposure.
Even though it won a Tony for Best Book last month, the musical has played to half-empty houses and seen its ticket sales slip from $300,000 a week to $245,000 for the week ended June 29.
Meanwhile, in other casting news:
- Per the Hollywood Reporter, Robert Duvall will direct and star in The Line, a four-hour Showtime miniseries about life on the American-Mexican border. The Oscar winner will play a Department of Agriculture "tick rider" who patrols the border for pests and accidentally becomes a target for Mexican drug lords, Mexican police, the FBI and Texas Rangers.
- Meghan Markle and Kellan Lutz have been added to the cast of the CW's upcoming Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff, simply titled 90210. The former will play Wendy, a sexy student who uses her looks to get what she wants, while the latter will fill the role of George Evans, a star lacrosse player who hails from a wealthy family.
- The Shield's Jay Karnes has been tapped for a recurring role on FX's new dramatic series Sons of Anarchy, about a vigilante outlaw motorcycle gang's attempts to protect a small California town from predatory corporate developers and drug pushers. Karnes will essay the part of an ATF agent.