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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
MTV has ordered a reboot of 2006-10 reality show “The Hills.” Unlike the show’s first revival, “The Hills: New Beginnings,” which was canceled in January after two seasons, this iteration will feature a new cast of twentysomethings.
Disney Original Documentary and Disney+ announced that feature documentary “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances and The Years That Made His Legend,” from R.J. Cutler and filmmaker David Furnish, will be available on Disney+ after a festival run and limited theatrical release. The film will feature unseen concert footage of John over the past 50 years, along with hand-written journals and present-day footage of him and his family.
Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat “) has teamed with Greg Daniels and Mike Judge (“King of the Hill”), of Bandera Entertainment, as well as Michael Koman (“Nathan for You”) for family-oriented animated special, “Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth.” “This pitch was so hilarious; we just knew the HBO Max audience needed to get a dose of this original brand of storytelling,” said Amy Friedman, Head of Kids & Family Programming, Warner Bros. “This unique project will breathe new, hysterical life into the nonsensical Chelmic wisdom that originated from this imaginary city of folks who aren’t quite the sharpest tools in the shed.”
Moonbug Entertainment announced an agreement with Disney Branded Television to create a new CG original series, “Morphle”, based on the short-form “My Magic Pet Morphle.” The comedy adventure series will debut in 2024 on Disney+ and Disney Junior globally, excluding China. The partnership is the first creation and distribution agreement of its kind between the kids’ entertainment companies.
Facebook Watch has greenlit hybrid docuseries-format “JoJo Goes” starring JoJo Siwa, who will be joined by her celebrity friends to partake in adventures. The new series is executive produced by B17 Entertainment. “JoJo Goes” will premiere on Facebook Watch this summer and made available to watch with friends on Watch Together via Messenger and Instagram video calls.
Lifetime has partnered with Fresh Films on a new strategic alliance to provide young women who trained in Fresh Films’s yearly training program, the opportunity for a paid apprentice on the set of Lifetime movies filming this summer. Fresh Films is a national non-profit that provides diverse youth across the country with the skills to become the next generation of media-makers. “As a film production company and training ground for youth working in the entertainment industry, Fresh Films recruits a diverse, underserved population that includes all ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds,” said Kelli Feigley, Founder and Managing Director. “Research shows us that many youth of color and young women do not think they are capable of working in media or entertainment, so we are very excited to partner with Lifetime.”
truTV has greenlit ten half-hour episodes of “Semi Pro,” from “Jersey Shore” creator SallyAnn Salsano. The reality sitcom shines a light on semi-pro football. Description: “It’s a brotherhood and sometimes a beautiful disaster.”
Genius Brands has signed a 20-year deal with Marvel Studios to license the name and likeness of Stan Lee for future feature films and television productions, as well as use in Disney theme parks and experiences. “There is no better place than Marvel and Disney where Stan should be for his movies and theme park experiences,” said Andy Heyward, Chairman & CEO of Genius Brands. “As we enter the centennial year of Stan’s birthday, December 28, 2022, we are thrilled to see his memory and legacy will continue to delight fans through this new long-term agreement with Marvel.”
COMING UP
“Road to the Bee,” documenting preparation for the Scripps National Spelling Bee, premieres Thursday, May 26 at 8p on ION and Bounce, with encores on Newsy on May 29, June 3 and June 5.
Martha Stewart parts with pieces from her collection of housewares – and offers advice to viewers on how to unload theirs – in ABC special “The Great American Tag Sale with Martha Stewart,” premiering Wednesday, May 25 at 8p.
FOX Nation will honor Memorial Day with new veteran-themed programming beginning on Sunday, May 22. In addition, the platform will continue its Grateful Nation initiative, which offers all active military members and veterans a free one-year subscription to FOX Nation.
Two-part documentary “The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks” premieres Friday, May 20 on Prime Video.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Paramount+ drama “Tulsa King,” created by Taylor Sheridan and starring Sylvester Stallone, will premiere with two episodes on Sunday, November 13. Paramount Network will air a linear sneak peek of the show’s debut episode on as a special simulcast event immediately following the season 5 premiere of “Yellowstone.”
Season three of Showtime’s “City on a Hill” will now premiere Sunday, July 31 at 10p. The drama was originally slated to return July 10.’’
“Downey’s Dream Cars” (wt) will follow Robert Downey Jr. and a team of experts as they restore six classic cars from Downey’s own collection to make them more eco-friendly. The series – the second out of Team Downey for discovery+ – debuts later this year.
UPFRONT UPDATES
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav admitted he was “a little nervous” as he kicked off a presentation for his newly-merged company, whose message is: “Our Story Starts With You.” Jennifer Hudson, host of the forthcoming Warner Bros. Unscripted TV daytime talk show, “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” threw a spotlight on the importance of telling powerful stories, establishing fresh perspectives and amplifying dynamic voices, and concluded the show with a sing-along rendition of “Respect.”
Among programming highlights are an HBO/HBO Max untitled documentary following singer/songwriter Lizzo… Travel Channel and discovery+ will offer a full slate of new series, specials and seasons of focused on the paranormal, including a new show starring pop superstar Kesha…Chris Wallace’s interview show, “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?”, which started on quickly-shuttered CNN+, has been revived for HBO Max and CNN…and Adult Swim ordered two anime series, “Rick and Morty: The Anime” and “Ninja Kamui,” to name just a few announcements.
On the advertising front, “We are home to the industry’s most trusted brands, and our viewers come to us for inspiration, giving us the distinctive ability to follow the consumer journey from awareness to activation and use that knowledge to curate tailored advertising solutions,” said Jon Steinlauf, Chief U.S. Advertising Sales Officer. Shoppable messages, custom partnerships, and a new multi-currency marketplace were among the takeaways for marketers.
Three new dramas (“East New York,” “Fire Country,” “So Help Me Todd,”) and unscripted series “The Real Love Boat”) join CBS’s 2022-23 fall lineup, which features a new all-reality night on Wednesdays, and a “Comedy Power Hour” on Thursdays. New drama “True Lies,” inspired by the 1994 James Cameron film, will debut later in the season.
“CBS had another incredible season. In addition to repeating as America’s most-watched network, we launched several breakout hits, not to mention winning and improving many time periods across our schedule,” said Kelly Kahl, president of CBS Entertainment. “For the new season, we once again looked for ways to strengthen our position with new, compelling series, scheduling them strategically to guarantee sampling and maximize consistency and flow.”
MTV Entertainment Studios announced a slate of more than 90 greenlights and renewals across Paramount Media Networks and Paramount+ including MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, Smithsonian Channel and Paramount Network. “Our robust slate filled with powerhouse franchises and exciting new projects leans into MTVE’s legacy of storytelling that celebrates authentic voices from icons to up and comers, drives culture and makes it pop with audiences around the world,” said Nina L. Diaz, President of Content/Chief Creative Officer, MTV Entertainment Studios & Unscripted Entertainment/Adult Animation at Paramount+. Among the highlights: MTV’s “Jersey Shore 2.0,” which sees a new crew of roommates moving into a Shore house; VH1 dating experiment “Hall of Love: The Ultimate Dating Experience,” and Comedy Central adult animated comedy “Digman!”, produced by Andy Samberg.
On the move: Limited series “Bass Reeves,” from Taylor Sheridan, is now titled “1883: The Bass Reeves Story.” A spinoff of “1883,” the series starring David Oyelowo will air on Paramount+….“Yellowstone” spinoff “6666” is moving from Paramount+ to Paramount Network…And “Tooning Out the News,” produced by Stephen Colbert, is being transferred from streaming to Comedy Central.
Last but not least: The CW has its Upfront presentation at New York City Center Theater today, May 19 at 10:30.
STREAMING
The upcoming ad-supported tier of Disney+ will “start slow,” with 15-second and 30-second commercials, said Rita Ferro, head of ad sales for Disney, during a conference hosted by MoffettNathanson. The ad load will be lighter than corporate cousin Hulu’s. “Movies are the reason people come to the platform, and movies have a different ad load,” she explained.
Imagicomm Entertainment has lassoed INSP, cable home of Western-themed programming, to launch a new FAST channel featuring content that celebrates the cowboy way of life. Cowboy Way, named after the INSP series “The Cowboy Way: Alabama,” will highlight INSP’s original content as well as other films and series. “We are enthusiastic about putting our content in the FAST channel space, and believe the modern day, Western lifestyle content on the Cowboy Way channel will be truly unique,” said Dale Ardizzone, COO of INSP. “This launch is another example of our broad corporate strategy to expand our content distribution across multiple entertainment platforms.”
TECH TALK
Viant Technology has partnered with data platform IRIS.TV to bring a solution integrating IRIS-enabled insights into the Viant Household ID. The goal: empowering marketers to leverage contextual, cookieless TV data to more effectively target and measure activations.
TVision has unveiled Ad Scoreboard, a low-cost SaaS platform that allows marketers to measure and benchmark viewer attention to TV ads for their own brands as well as their competitors. “It’s simple – ads that capture attention are more likely to have a meaningful impact.,” said Yan Liu, CEO of TVision. “Ad Scoreboard is an important step toward making value-based Attention insights accessible for every TV advertiser.”
Exeest, the marketplace for entertainment content, and Gracenote, provider of entertainment metadata, content IDs and related offerings, are introducing an enhancement to the Exeest platform enabling DE&I data on TV titles to be surfaced, making it easier for the industry to uncover and access inclusive content. The Exeest platform now uses Gracenote Inclusion Analytics to provide visibility into the gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation of cast appearing in content and the audiences watching it.
GOING GLOBAL
Pluto TV has expanded to the Nordics, launching in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The service unveiled a programming line-up that features more than 70 unique and locally curated channels now live in each country.
Starzplay has partnered with France Televisions and Fremantle for “Ouija,” a French-language drama from Co-Creators Thomas Bourguignon and Jörg Winger. Principal photography is underway.
Silvergate Media announced that Warner Bros. Discovery’s preschool channel Cartoonito and streaming platform HBO Max have secured the rights to animated series “Octonauts” in Latin America.
Flame Distribution has struck deals for nature documentary “Life in Colour with David Attenborough” with France TV (who also took wildlife doc series “Work on the Wild Side”), RTBF (Belgium), Geo Wild (Germany), and HRT (Croatia). HRT additionally picked up docs “In Search of Sir Walter Scott,” and “Antarctica from Above.”
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