PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Comedy series Black Monday has been ordered to series by Showtime. The series, starring and executive produced by Don Cheadle, will also star Andrew Rannells and Regina Hall. The first episode will be directed by executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The series takes viewers back to “Black Monday” – October 19, 1987, the date of the worst stock market crash on Wall Street. The series, a co-production between Showtime and Sony Pictures Television Studios, will premiere in 2019.
Pulitzer prize-winning novel Fordlandia, which focuses on the life of Henry Ford in the 1920s, is being adapted for a possible television series, with filmmaker Werner Herzog on board to direct. The project is being overseen by Hyde Park Entertainment Group and will be executive produced/written by Christopher Wilkinson.
Nicole Kidman has signed a first-look deal with Amazon Studios for features, television and digital content; her Blossom Films will develop original series to air on Amazon Prime Video and movies for theatrical release.
Fine Brothers Entertainment is partnering with Nick Cannon‘s Ncredible Entertainment, Kinetic Content, and Sonar Entertainment to develop and co-produce deals for multiple television projects.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Barbra Streisand‘s 1976 film A Star is Born and all of her TV concert specials will be available to stream on Netflix as of Friday, June 15. A press release from the network revealed that there will be a “special edition” of the film, including unseen footage of her performing the Oscar-winning song “Evergreen” for the first time.
American Experience documentary The Circus will premiere on PBS Monday and Tuesday, October 8-9 on PBS at 9pm ET. The series will cover one-ring shows from their start in the 18th century to the moment when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top came down for the final time.
Season 2 of Hell Below, Smithsonian’s submarine-based war series, returns on Sunday, July 1 at 9pm EDT on the Smithsonian Channel. The premiere, In Enemy Waters, will focus on the story of the USS Silversides during WWII.
Rev Run comedy All About the Washingtons now has a premiere date on Netflix of August 10; the autobiographical scripted family sitcom follows Run (aka Joseph Simmons) and his wife playing fictionalized versions of themselves.
COMING UP
Discovery has selected its new global headquarters, and will relocate from Silver Spring, MD to 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. The company is looking at a move-in date of 2019 and will consolidate several of its existing New York office locations into the new space.
Dr. Pimple Popper will return to TLC on July 11 at 10pm ET. Following a high-rated special earlier in 2018, she now has her own season of popping to share with audiences.
ADVERTISING
Sony Crackle has chosen Nielsen Marketing Cloud to power its addressable advertising capabilities across all devices and platforms. The goal is to use Nielsen’s unique data, AI-powered segmentation and real-time integrations with major video ad serving platforms.
Technology companies Mediaocean and ITN Holdings have partnered to integrate and synchronize ITN’s ProVantage X and Mediaocean’s Spectra platforms to further buy-sell automation for local broadcast television advertisements.” Real advances in television advertising technologies that will actually work won’t come from the outside,” said Stephen Poulin EVP Platform Development, ITN Holdings in a statement.
CASTING
Jean Smart has joined the cast of Bravo Media‘s Dirty John, a scripted anthology series set to begin production this summer. Dirty John is the true story of con man John Meehan (Eric Bana) whose romance with Debra (Connie Britton) spirals into disaster; Smart will play Britton’s mother. The series first aired as a true-crime podcast/article series in the Los Angeles Times.
Zoo actor Peter Outerbridge will co-star with Ian Somerhalder and Adrian Holmes in Netflix‘s vampire drama V-Wars.
Teen Wolf alum Tyler Posey will recur in Starz‘ upcoming comedy series Now Apocalypse as Gabriel, a charismatic and mysterious young man.
DIGITAL DATA
Z Living, a cable network and health entertainment destination, has launched on Roku players.
News site The Hill launched a new digital news channel Hill.tv with the debut of Rising, a national morning show based in the nation’s capital, broadcasting live and starring former MSNBC anchor Krystal Ball and syndicated radio host Buck Sexton. Each episode will air at 8am weekly but will be on demand in short cutdowns.
Raycom Media has launched the OTT app Investigative TV, which will showcase longform reporting from Raycom and partners including ProPublica, News21 and NerdWallet.
GLOBAL GOINGS ON
OUTtv and Air Canada announced a partnership to bring OUTtv content to the airline’s enRoute in-flight entertainment system for a summer of pride-themed programming. Shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars and Hey Qween will be available for travelers who select the in-flight entertainment system.
Pasiones has acquired Latin American rights to the Turkish show La Estación del Amor (“Cherry Season”), which will debut on the network’s Latin American feed on Monday, June 18.
Fox Networks Group Asia has partnered with Endeavor China to produce and develop content in the region and will remake the Chinese comedy Go Princess Go first up.
