The Panama Papers, a documentary about hundreds of journalists around the globe working in secret to break the story of the data leak involving the dodgy Panamanian law firm, airs on Epix Nov. 26. Alex Winter directs the story of law firm Mossack Fonseca having its secrets leaked in 2015, with oodles of prominent figures, including Vladimir Putin and Lionel Messi, exposed for their questionable investments.

It’s a two-pronged tale, according to Winter: the story of income inequality around the globe, and the journalists working incognito to maximize the impact of their work. “I knew there was a great human story to tell,” he said, “which is what makes documentaries worth making.”

A whistle-blower spilled the Panama Papers to an investigative reporter at a German newspaper, who in turn shared the trove of leaks with a vast web of journalists. Winter noted the “incredible care taken by the journalists” to not reveal the identity of their John Doe. The reporters, he added, are the heroes in this story.

Same goes for executive producer Laura Poitras, whose documentary work includes the Edward Snowden film Citizenfour. “I’m incredibly admiring of her work,” said Winter. “She’s been hugely influential on me.”

The rich folks tied up with Mossack Fonseca weren’t just inflating their bank accounts, said Winter. “It’s literally money taken out of your pocket,” he noted.

On Nov. 27, the new season of Adam Ruins Everything starts up on truTV. Adam Conover breaks down common misconceptions on the show. Topics include gun control, sleep and technology.

The show’s braintrust had thought they’d never take on a supercharged issue such as guns. “Our goal is to change minds,” Conover said. “There could not be an issue that’s harder to change minds about.”

The gun episode is the season premiere. Conover explains why an assault weapons ban will never work, and breaks down how the Second Amendment has been twisted to fit the NRA’s agenda. He also looks at how people of color have been victimized by gun policies from both the left and the right.

“It’s a stab at making a genuine and positive addition to the discussion,” said Conover.

The sleep episode is less controversial, but similarly eye opening. The mattress industry is full of scams, Conover argues, and school schedules seriously harm sleepy teens.

In this fake-news era, Adam Ruins Everything is timely. “People are searching for stability and for trusted sources,” he said. Adam offers that.

Does Conover ever fear he’ll run out of topics to break down? “Never, never, never, never,” he said. “Our topics are anything people can think more deeply about.”

Adam ruins everything is trying something new on tru, as the series’ midseason start offers a half-dozen animated episodes starting March 20. Under the title Adam Ruins Everything Presents Reanimated History, the show continues to tackle historical topics, as host Adam Conover debunks universally accepted narratives.

Conover spoke with Multichannel News about the new episodes, which see him take on the American Revolution, Native Americans and the Cold War, among other hot topics. An edited transcript follows.

MCN:Why animated episodes?
Adam Conover: We really have a “kitchen sink” approach to making the show. We do digital effects, we do animation, we do puppets, we’ve done Claymation. I come from a sketch comedy background, so I love to parody every single format under the sun. Last year, we did an all-animated episode for the first time, a Magic School Bus parody. We had a ton of fun doing it.

It’s fun and rewarding to think about how to make a whole show with animation. I was a huge fan of animation growing up, and I still watch cartoons. We and the network decided it would be a cool way to extend what we’re doing.

Part of it was just practical. Adam Ruins Everything is such a production-intensive shoot — it takes four full days to shoot an episode, not including the editing time. We realized, if we animate some episodes, we could have a little miniseries to fill up part of the year and get our comedy and content out there at the same time we’re making a live action show.

MCN:Which animated shows do you watch?
AC: I’m a huge, huge fan of Steven Universe on Cartoon Network. For those who haven’t seen it, you’ve got to go watch it right way. It’s so gorgeous; the animation is the best I’ve seen on television. The message and themes of that show are so heartwarming, it makes me c`ry almost every single episode.

Rick and Morty does such incredible things I’ve never seen done on an animated series.

Animation is one of the most vibrant, experimental, innovative spaces on TV right now. I was really excited to get to do something in that space.

MCN:You tackle George Washington in the premiere episode. What will viewers learn about the father of our country?
AC: We have this very rosy, romantic view of the American Revolution that we get from the sort of afterschool special version and what we’ve seen in other cartoons. On this show, it’s like watching a 1960s-era cartoon where a smug narrator tells us about the great revolutionaries overcoming tyranny. I pop in and tell them the real version over the narrator’s protest.

And George Washington is where all of our biggest myths reside. With the Revolutionary Army, the story we tell ourselves is that it’s brave patriots who said, “No, we want to throw off British oppression,” and they pick up arms. The reality was, and any history book will tell you, these people were farmers and working people and a lot of them just wanted to be left alone. They saw it as a rich man’s war. It was wealthy landowners who were upset about British taxation.

The soldiers had to be bribed and cajoled and sometimes even forced to fight. There was very low morale. Mutiny was a constant problem. George Washington had to take some pretty drastic and unfortunately violent measures to keep his troops in fighting formation. That’s the fact of the matter, but it’s not a story we tell because it doesn’t align with our national myth.

MCN:Ever fear you’ll run out of topics to tackle on the show?
AC: [Laughs] No. Never, never, never, never, never. Anything that people are incorrect about that you can look into more deeply is a topic for our show, and there are an infinite number of topics. Every day in the news, there’s a topic that people misunderstand and we’re ready to talk about. People are talking about how video games cause violence. That’s a myth we need to tackle.

I don’t think we’ll ever run out. We did do the easiest ones to tackle first. Some of the low-hanging fruit is off the tree. But new fruits of ignorance blossom on that tree faster than we can possibly pull them down. I think our supply is inexhaustible. Luckily so, because we have a great time doing it and people love to see it happen.

Shakespeare and Craig Pearce, creator of Will, which debuts on TNT July 10, go way back. Pearce wrote the screenplay for Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, and as a boy, helped his mother, an amateur actress, learn her lines when she played Juliet.

Will tells the story of Shakespeare arriving in London with hopes of being a playwright. There’s a punk-rock spirit to the series. Theater at the time, said Pearce, “was like rock ‘n’ roll, very passionate and very visceral.”

Pearce did a “huge” amount of research to craft his portrait of a twentysomething Shakespeare. While everyone knows the Bard’s name, and much of his work, Pearce said people know little about the man. He had “an incredible ability to see into the souls of human beings,” said Pearce.

One could also say that about Jill Kargman, creator of Odd Mom Out, which has season three starting up on Bravo July 12. Kargman expertly satirizes the Manhattan mom elite on the show, which borrows from real-life headlines, too. Season two closed with a Ponzi scheme rocking the Upper East Side, and the new season offers a close-up of its effects.

Kargman said Bernie Madoff lived a block away from her before he relocated to a Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina. She’s friendly with some of his victims. “I was very much immersed in the fallout,” Kargman said.

Each new season of Odd Mom Out reveals a little bit more of its creator. Kargman said season three is “the balsamic reduction of me.” The new batch of episodes leans into her darker side a bit more. “It’s the purist version of me this year,” she added.

Asked how long she sees the series going, Kargman quipped that 30 seasons would be nice. “There’s so much material,” she said. “I’m living it — I get more and more ideas every day.”

And Adam Conover has plenty of ideas for the new season of his myth-busting series Adam Ruins Everything, which starts on truTV July 11. The premiere sees Adam ruin having a baby. “There’s a huge amount of misinformation about that life stage that people go through,” Conover said.

Conover said his inquisitive ways go back to childhood. “I was the kid in class questioning why we were being taught this way, and what the truth was. It got me into trouble.”

Conover consumed science shows insatiably as a boy on Long Island; he called the ’90s the “unappreciated golden age of science TV.” Those shows, such as Beakman’s World and Bill Nye the Science Guy, have left their mark on Adam Ruins Everything, such as when Conover tells the viewer why they should care about a given topic.

“I did not realize how much our show resembles those science shows,” he said.

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PASADENA, Calif. – TruTV has greenlit a new season of its reality series Billy on the Street, the network said Thursday at its Television Critics Association press tour event.

Billy on the Street will return for its fifth season, according to network president Chris Linn. The series stars comedian Billy Eichner, who surprises everyday people on New York City's with quick-witted, rapid-fire questions about pop-culture.

In addition, the network announced that it has ordered additional 14 episodes of freshman investigative comedy Adam Ruins Everything hosted by series creator and comedian Adam Conover.

truTV said it ordered a pilot for Adam Ruins Everything (working title), a half-hour investigative comedy starring comedian Adam Conover, from Los Angeles-based production company Big Breakfast.

In the show, Conover explores topics and ideas many people take for granted and dispels widespread misconceptions through a combination of comedy, history, and science, the Turner Broadcasting-owned network said. "Adam is like that friend who knows a little bit too much about everything and is going to tell you about it whether you like it or not. By employing sharp humor, mock experiments and on-the-spot comedy reporting, Adam Ruins Everything isn't just fun to watch, but addictively informative -- it's everything you didn't want to need to know."

The show was born out of a popular CollegeHumor Original series which has generated more than 20 million views since premiering online with the sketch "Why Engagement Rings Are a Scam," in February 2014. Adam Ruins Everything is produced by Big Breakfast, which is led by Sam Reich.