PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
ABC ordered a pilot for Man of the House, a family comedy starring Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother), from The Jackal Group, ABC Studios and Kerry Washington’s Simpson Street.
Lionsgate signed Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, The Office) to a first-look deal that calls for Fieg and his producing partner Jessie Henderson to create scripted and unscripted series and formats via his Feigco Entertainment banner.
Thunderbird Entertainment animation studio Atomic Cartoons has begun production on The Last Kids on Earth, a serialized adventure-comedy based on Max Brallier’s New York Times bestselling book series. The show will be available to Netflix members around the world in 2019.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Cooking Channel ordered 2 new series and renewed 7 more. Along with new seasons of Beach Bites with Katie Lee, Carnival Eats, Cheap Eats, Man Fire Food, Food: Fact or Fiction, Holiday Cookie Builds and Extreme Cake Makers are newcomers Seaside Snacks & Shacks, and culinary competition Carnival Kings.
HGTV’s Fixer Upper: Behind the Design, starring Chip and Joanna Gaines, premieres Tuesday, April 10 at 8p. 15-episode series offers design secrets featured on Fixer Upper.
A group of lawyers whose greatest trials may be their personal lives are the focus of Por Amar Sin Ley (Love Without Law), premiering on Univision Monday, March 5 at 10p.
Girls Incarcerated launches on Netflix today. Exec producer Nick Rigg, president of Loud TV, an ITV America company, says one of the things Loud does is search for new avenues in genres. “This was an opportunity to show a side of incarceration we haven’t seen in other prison-based series,” he tells Cynopsis. “The stakes are unbelievably high for the girls at this facility, and the show offers an extremely in-depth and unfiltered look at teenage incarceration – how the girls cope with life on the inside, how teen drama exists within this environment and what authorities are doing to help them reform before they become adults.”
Adult Swim ordered Ballmastrz 9009, premiering at midnight on April 8 with back-to-back episodes. Animated series is focused on a washed up superstar voiced by Natasha Lyonne.
In new Lifetime series Love at First Flight, couples meet for the first time in New York, test their compatibility in a criss-crossing journey across America, then have a chance to get married in the airport when their final flight lands in LA. Reality drama begins Tuesday, March 20 at 10p.
A+E Networks’ short form series Biography Presents: History, Herstory launched yesterday, honoring Women’s History Month with Julianna Margulies, Kristin Davis, Laverne Cox, Bernice King telling powerful stories of prominent women throughout history from Maya Angelou to Joan of Arc. Episodes will air throughout the month on History, Lifetime and A&E.
COMING UP
O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession? airs on Fox Sunday, March 11 at 8p with limited commercial interruptions. Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, the special features a 2006 interview in which Simpson offers a shocking hypothetical version of how his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, were murdered.
Filmmaker Martin Scorsese will receive the inaugural Robert Osborne Award on opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival, running April 26-29 in Hollywood. TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will serve as host of the festival.
Fuse and The National Hispanic Media Coalition are teaming for a counter-programming effort that sheds light on the lack of diversity and representation in Hollywood. On Oscar night, Fuse will broadcast its commercial-free premiere of Dear White People at 8p; throughout the broadcast, redubbed interstitials throughout featuring footage from the 1950 classic film, Cyrano de Bergerac, starring Jose Ferrer, the only Latino to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Fuse will also roll out short form content centered around the importance of representation in media.
Reba McEntire returns as host of the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, April 15 on CBS. Chris Stapleton leads the field with 8 nominations, followed by 6 for Thomas Rhett, 5 each for Keith Urban and songwriter Shane McAnally and 4 each for Miranda Lambert and Maren Morris.
Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live descends on LA for a week of shows beginning Sunday, April 8 at 11p. Eclectic guest lineup includes Kim Kardashian West, Hilary Swank, Kate Mara, Conan O’Brien, Iggy Azalea and more.
The first guests on syndicated talk show The Raw Word, launching Monday, March 5, include David Arquette and director Matthew Cooke. New York Times author Dr. Michael Eric Dyson hosts.
Showtime doc Beyond the Opposite of Sex, a follow-up to 2004’s The Opposite Sex, showing people going through fender affirmation surgeries, premieres Friday, March 16 at 9p.
CASTING
John Magaro (The Big Short) landed a series regular role in Netflix’s upcoming series The Umbrella Academy, based on the graphic novels following a dysfunctional family of superheroes….Zeeko Zaki (Valor) has been cast as the male lead in CBS’s upcoming Dick Wolf drama, F.B.I.… Carrie-Anne Moss (Jessica Jones) has joined the cast of Norwegian crime drama Wisting, commissioned by MTG for Nordic streaming service Viaplay, channel TV3 and Germany’s ARD.
Sarah Wayne Callies (Colony), Shawn Doyle (Bellevue), Michael Shanks (Saving Hope) and Camille Sullivan (The Man in High Castle) will lead the cast of CBC and SundanceTV’s 8-part mini-series Unspeakable.
James Belushi has boarded ABC drama pilot Salvage, as a town’s larger-than-life patriarch.
Casting Notice: Sean De Simone Casting & QVC are casting F/T Host. Relocation to PA Req. Should have exp in hosting TV, digital, radio or live events. Intelligent, enthusiastic, commanding & love for products a must. Candidates should be quick on their feet w/ability to improv & engage. Hosts should be friendly, credible, entertaining, sincere & sophisticated with an elevated sense of style & fashion contact [email protected].
DIGITAL DATA
Procter & Gamble slashed digital ad spending by $200 million in 2017. “Transparency shined a spotlight on reality and we learned valuable lessons which are driving profound change,” said Marc Pritchard, P&G’s chief brand officer at the Association of National Advertisers’ conference on Thursday. “With transparent viewability data we learned that the average view time for an ad on a mobile newsfeed is 1.7 seconds – little more than a glance – pushing us to innovate.” P&G did not cut overall media spending, but reinvested in places like TV to increase media reach, a spokesperson told Reuters.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey turned to the Twitterverse for help devising metrics to measure the “collective health of public conversation” on the app, promoting openness and civility. “We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers,” said Dorsey on Thursday. “We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough.”
Season 3 of Amazon docu-series All or Nothing will focus on the Dallas Cowboys during their 2017 season. Jon Hamm (Mad Men) narrates. Season 1 followed the Arizona Cardinals and season 2 featured the LA Rams.
The Daily Show’s Hasan Minhaj landed a weekly talk show on Netflix, exploring the modern cultural and political landscape. “I’m thrilled to be joining the Netflix family as the country braces for another election season,” said Minhaj. “And like you, I cannot wait to see who Putin picks this time.” Minhaj, last year’s host of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, will remain with The Daily Show through July.
Netflix will be available along with Sky content via the Sky Q platform, rolling out this year first in the UK and Ireland, and later in Germany, Austria and Italy. Existing Netflix customers will be able to migrate their account to the new Sky bundle.
The Women’s Broadcast Television Network announces its new name, Women On TV, along with the launch of its redesigned website and logo. WBTVN went live in the fall of 2016 and is available on ROKU, AppleTV, Chromecast, Google Play, Apps, Amazon FIRE and more, with an audience outreach of 30+ million.
Users of Amazon’s Alexa voice service on Amazon Echo Show & Echo Spot devices can now access BET Breaks video content, highlighting what’s trending in Black and pop culture. BET Breaks produces daily digital original videos featuring breaking news and updates on music, celebrity, sports, and style.
Hallmark Movies Now is adding new movies this month, including A Wish Come True, Away Back Home, Avalon, and The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, among others.
The Artists, a 5-part digital series from director Peter Mishara, will explore the boundaries between art and technology in the early years of video games. It’s set to debut on Topic.com in early March.
The Madison Square Garden Company and Hulu announced a marketing partnership that includes naming rights to The Theater at Madison Square Garden, now known as The Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden. Hulu branding and content will be integrated across the venue, as well as MSG’s digital and promotional platforms. Theater patrons will also be able to enjoy Hulu content in the venue’s lobby, as well as targeted activations around specific events.
GOING GLOBAL
Banijay Group launched a new production company in Germany, Banijay Productions Germany. Arno Schneppenheim, founder of Endemol Shine-owned German production company Florida TV, will run Banijay Productions Germany from its headquarters in Cologne.
