ATX TV Fest Adds John Legend and Sherman's Showcase

Talk about programming changes: This morning, ATX Television Festival announced it was pulling several events from this weekend's streaming iteration to respond to the current wave of national protest. Now they've already filled those scheduling gaps, including the addition of John Legend as part of a panel for Sherman's Showcase.

The festival, which runs June 5-7 and is streaming for free, just made the extra programming announcements, headlined by the return of the hysterical IFC Comedy sketch show homage to classics like Soul Train and American Bandstand. The show previewed at ATX 2019, and the panelists for this virtual return, moderated by TV Guide Magazine's Malcolm Venable, include executive producers Legend and Mike Jackson, and series creators, writers, and star Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin, and will be a preview of the eagerly-awaited Black History Month Spectacular.

That's just the first of today's additions. Also competing for your viewing pleasure are:

• A Look Back at Season 8, highlighting some favorite moments from ATX 2019. The selections are:

- A conversation with 2019 Award in Television eXcellence recipient Phylicia Rashad moderated by Susan Kelechi Watson (Friday, 2:15pm).
- David Makes Man Q&A (Sunday, 3:45pm).

• That first look and Q&A for Sherman’s Showcase “Black History Month Spectacular" (Saturday, 11:45am).

• A special trip into the writers room for Little Fires Everywhere, as the team explore themes of race and class, and how their own personal experiences shaped the show (Sunday, 11:45am).

• Repeats screenings and panels for I May Destroy You (Saturday, 4:15pm and Sunday, 1pm), Legendary (Friday, 6:30pm and Sunday, 4:10pm) and P-Valley (Saturday, 4:50pm and Sunday, 6pm).

And that's on top of the already-announced schedule, including previews of HBO's Perry Mason and Showtime's Outcry, plus a directors' reunion for The Mandalorian from Disney+ (check our list of five unmissable streaming events right here)

You can catch all of the fest for free this weekend. Just register at via www.eventbrite.com.

While the festival is free, the organizers are hoping that online attendees will make contributions to Color of Change (www.colorofchange.org), Direct Relief (www.directrelief.org) and/or the Actors Fund (www.actorsfund.org).

You can also catch all our coverage at www.austinchronicle.com/atx-television-festival.