Actor and director Ben Stiller will return to television in The Band. The hour-long dramedy will be developed and housed at HBO.
Per Deadline, The Band will focus on Stiller’s character, Oscar, a pop music promoter and talent tycoon who is plagued by scandal and takes on the task of forming a new act to save his career, and maybe even his own soul. The series is being produced by Media Res and Stiller’s Red Hour Films, which also produce The Morning Show and Severance for Apple TV+. The new series is created by Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, who co-created Search Party, which ran for five seasons and starred Alia Shawkat.
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Bliss and Rogers will also serve as showrunners on The Band and will executive produce with Red Hour’s Stiller and John Lesher, Savan Kotecha and Media Res’ Michael Ellenberg and Lindsey Springer. Media Res will act as co-studio along with HBO. Stiller’s character, who is tasked with putting together a boy band, is already being compared to former American Idol judge Simon Cowell, who created the super successful five-member pop group One Direction.
If the series is officially given the green light, The Band would be Stiller’s second television role, since the actor has mostly focused on his film career with movies like Zoolander and 2024’s Nutcrackers. Stiller previously starred in the 1990s sketch comedy show The Ben Stiller Show, for which he won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1993. Stiller has also appeared in guest roles in Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Will Severance Get a Third Season?
Stiller’s Red Hour Films, along with Fifth Season, produces the Emmy and Peabody-winning dystopian sci-fi series, Severance, which is now in its second season on Apple TV+. Stiller serves as executive producer on Severance, which stars Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, and John Turturro. Stiller has also directed several episodes of the series. He recently gave a positive update about a possible third season, explaining that the writers are working on new scripts, although the show has not officially been renewed.
Stiller also stressed that fans should not worry about the quality of the show, even though Apple has expressed intentions of cutting costs related to its original programming. “Everything changed a lot after the strike,” Stiller said. “To Apple’s credit, they stayed on track with what the show was, and they’ve supported it.” Bloomberg previously reported that Severance cost $20 million per episode in Season 2.
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Severance has been topping streaming charts since its second season premiered on AppleTV+ in January 2025. According to Reelgood, Severance is in third place in the top 10 movies and TV shows that are currently streaming. Variety also has the series in its top 10 most-streamed TV shows. It’s also the most popular show on Apple TV+ currently, besting Prime Target and Silo.
Severance is streaming on Apple TV+ with the next new episode dropping on Feb. 14. The Band does not have a release date at this time.
