PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
FX’s Better Things, directed by, produced by and starring Pamela Adlon, was renewed for a fourth season to air in 2020. “With every season, Better Things becomes more vital, engaging and revelatory, cementing Pamela Adlon’s status as one of the most accomplished creative forces in television today,” said John Landgraf, Chairman of FX Networks and FX Productions.
Back Roads Entertainment partnered with former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf to produce Busts, a documentary series examining some of the sports world’s biggest disappointments. NFL bust Leaf is set to host the series, which will feature one-on-one interviews with former athletes and reveal the trials they faced trying to rise from the ashes.
MTV ordered 90 additional episodes of Nick Cannon Presents Wild ‘N Out ahead of its Season 13 premiere, this summer, reports Deadline. The move takes the comedy improv competition series through Season 16.
Director-producer Jake Kasdan and his producing partner Melvin Mark inked a new four-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television. The pair, who have been with the studio since 2012, will continue to develop and produce, while Kasdan will continue to direct projects for network, cable and streaming platforms with their company The Detective Agency.
Tiffany Haddish landed a series of curated stand-up specials at Netflix. The Girl Trip’s star will host Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready, which features six comedians handpicked by Haddish. Wanda Sykes, Page Hurwitz and Haddish are executive producing each half-hour episode.
Karla Souza (How to Get Away with Murder) is set to star in Amazon drama El Presidente. The eight-part series, produced by Pablo Larrain’s production company Fabula (A Fantastic Woman), Narcos producer Gaumont and Argentine producer Kapow, also stars Andres Parra (Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal) and Paulina Gaitan (Diablo Guardian). The project is inspired by the real-life characters and events behind the 2015 “FIFA Gate” corruption scandal.
TFI, France’s top commercial network, is teaming with Netflix to co-finance Le Bazar de la Charite, according to Variety. Co-produced by Quad Television and TFI, and written by Catherine Ramberg (The Source) and Karine Spreuzkouski, the eight-part period series takes place in Paris in November 1987. The story centers on the consequences of a devastating fire at the Bazar de la Charite, resulting in over 130 deaths.
A new season of Odd Squad, the live-action series from Fred Rogers Productions and Sinking Ship Entertainment, is back in production and set to roll out on PBS Kids in winter 2020. The show will take a t urn as new agents join the squad and travel to locations around the globe to tackle oddness as a mobile unit.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
CBS set premiere dates for a trio of series. New action-adventure Blood and Treasure debuts with a two-hour premiere on Tuesday, May 21 at 9p; the final season of Elementary kicks off on Thursday, May 24 at 10p; and season 2 of Instinct bows Sunday, June 16 at 9p.
Discovery Channel unravels mystery and myth in Mummies Unwrapped. Host Ramy Romany guides viewers around the world as he investigates secrets of the most fascinating burial sites, mass graves and ancient tombs on earth. The series bows Wednesday, April 10 at 10p, following the premiere of Expedition Unknown at 9p.
Jordan Klepper heads to the frontlines of American activism in Comedy Central’s new documentary series, Klepper. The premiere episode, airing Thursday, May 9 at 10:30p, spotlights veterans using wrestling to cope with PTSD.
Animal Planet premieres Fish or Die on Sunday, April 21 at 10p. Series follows extreme fishermen and friends Chris Owens, Brian Jill, Thad Robison and Jay Johnson as they journey through remote regions, meeting locals and trailing some of the most elusive fish in the world.
COMING UP
TV One airs the 50th NAACP Image Awards: Tribute Special on Saturday, March 30 at 8p, immediately preceding the live telecast of the 50th NAACP Image Awards at 9p. Hosted by Urban One founder and chairperson Cathy Hughes and sponsored by Toyota, the special honors this year’s nominees, past winners and significant moments and features interviews with Salli Richardson-Whitfield, John Legend and more.
AXS TV presents two classic concert premieres from The Eagles, beginning with The Eagles: Farewell I Tour – Live from Melbourne on Sunday, March 31 at 9p. The 1994 cable special The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over bows Sunday, May 5 at 9p.
Oprah Winfrey presents her new book, The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose on a special edition of SuperSoul Sunday, debuting Sunday, March 31 at 11a.
Great Performances at the Met: La Traviata premieres nationwide Friday, April 5 at 9p on PBS (check local listings).
Oxygen Media presents The Piketon Family Murders on Sunday, March 31 at 7p. Hosted by Beth Karas, two-hour special delves into the 2016 massacre that stunned the small town of Piketon, OH, when seven members of the Rhoden family and Hannah Gilley, the fiancée of one of the victims, were found murdered.
Dish is offering a free preview of Smithsonian Channel to all of their subscribers from Thursday, March 28 to Tuesday, April 30.
CASTING
Hugh Dancy (Hannibal) will guest star on a multi-episode arc of Season 8 of Showtime’s Homeland…On the pilot front, Michaela Watkins (Casual) nabbed a lead in CBS’ comedy The Unicorn… Zane Holtz (Hunter Killer, From Dusk Till Dawn TV series) and Katherine LaNasa (Imposters, Satisfaction) joined The CW’s Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene… Omar Benson Miller (Ballers) and Maya Lynne Robinson (The Conners) were set as series regulars on CBS’ The Unicorn.
DIGITAL DATA
Oxygen Media released The Dark Web Exposed. The six-part multi-platform digital series explores new, bizarre and viral crime trends, amplified by social media networks, which have taken on a second life outside the traditional police narrative.
Discovery en Espanol and Discovery Familia GO Apps are now available on Roku devices, offering series including Discovery en Espanol’s Alaska: La ultima frontera, Mexicanicos and El duo mecanico and Discovery Familia’s Todo en 90 dias, Una gran familia and Hermanos a la obra.
Pluto TV launched new channel Pluto TV Travel on its platform on Tuesday, giving viewers a ticket to the world’s most exotic destinations.
iHeartMedia struck a multi-year agreement with digital media company LiveXLive. The partnership gives LiveXLive exclusive global livestreaming rights to 17 iHeartRadio events this year, as well as licensing and streaming rights for select iHeartRado Theater shows. The deal also features new co-produced and co-promoted video content for fans, including a co-created iHeartRadio channel on LiveXLive.
TECH TALK
Spotify announced plans to acquire scripted-entertainment podcast studio Parcast. It’s the streamer’s third podcast pickup of 2019, following its acquisitions of producer Gimlet Media and services provider Anchor FM Inc., last month. Spotify expects its latest deal to close in the second quarter of 2019. The streamer told investors it expects to invest between $400 million and $500 million in podcasting this year.
Mozilla’s free password manager, Firebox Lockbox, landed on Android. The standalone app offers a simple – and did we say free? – way for users to access from their mobile device their logins in their Firefox browser, and can be locked with facial recognition or a fingerprint.
The Federal Trade Commission sent letters to Comcast, Google, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T ordering them to share details of their data collection practices. “The FTC is initiating this study to better understand Internet service providers’ privacy practices in light of the evolution of telecommunications companies into vertically integrated platforms that also provide advertising-supported content,” said the agency.
Microsoft and Adobe announced a data-sharing integration, called Account Based Experience, that involves sharing Marketo data. “With these new account-based capabilities, marketing and sales teams will have increased alignment around the people and accounts they are engaging, and new ways to measure that business impact,” said Steve Lucas, SVP and head of the Marketo team at Adobe.
ADVERTISING
The Video Advertising Bureau released Address For Success, a guide for marketers that analyzes aspects of addressable TV including investment projections and real-world case studies provided by companies like Xandr, Comcast Spotlight, Verizon Fios, Spectrum Reach and others. Among the findings: U.S. addressable TV ad spending is projected to grow to $3.3 billion by the end of 2020, a 343% increase from 2016-2020. The U.S. footprint for addressable TV has increased 30% since 2017, eclipsing streaming/OTT services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Roku and others. The U.S. addressable TV audience P2+ has grown 27% to over 162 million over the past two years – a larger audience than Twitter, Instagram Snapchat, MSN and many other digital platforms.
GOING GLOBAL
The Jim Henson Company finalized deals for its preschool content. Spain’s TV 3 and Ireland’s TG4 acquired season 5 of Dinosaur Train, while Australia’s ABC, France’s Piwi+, Spain’s TV3 and Ireland’s TG4 acquires season 2 of and DOT.
Red Arrow Studios International is heading to MIPTV with a slate of new programming including Vienna Blood, Departure, Renovate Don’t Relocate and New York Times current affair series The Weekly.
APC, Danish production company Sweet Chili Entertainment and French production company Make It Happen Studio secured a deal with Orange Studio for Unpunished. The series explores the phenomena of Artificial Intelligence and cyber warfare.
Channel 4 is developing a UK version of NBC’s songwriting competition reality series Songland. The British broadcaster is remaking the format with NBC-backed producer Monkey Kingdom, whose hits include Made In Chelsea.
