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PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Danish podcast Equinox 1985 is being adapted for an original Netflix series. Six-part supernatural thriller will be created by Tea Lindeburg and executive produced by Piv Bernth (The Killing, The Bridge) and her company Apple Tree Productions. Story follows a young woman affected by the disappearance of a school class in 1999.
Showtime issued a pilot order to survival drama Yellowjackets from writers Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (Narcos), Entertainment One and studio-based producer Drew Comins. Karyn Kusama (Destroyer) will direct and executive produce the project. Yellowjackets follows a team of talented high school girl soccer players who survive a plane crash deep in the Ontario wilderness, tracking the lives they’ve tried to piece back together nearly 25 years later.
Netflix renewed Family Reunion for a second, 16-episode season. Series follows the McKellan clan, who move from Seattle to Georgia to be closer to extended family.
Fox gave a script commitment with penalty to Everyday Insanity, a drama from writer Laura Bensick; Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) and his Indian Meadows Productions; executive producer Ken Olin; and 20th Century Fox TV, where Brown and Indian Meadows and Olin are under deals. The project, inspired by Bensick’s life, is an uplifting drama about three very different families who form a “created family” to support each other after their loved ones are diagnosed with mental illnesses.
Travel Channel greenlit Storming Area 51, a special that will document alien enthusiasts The UFO Bros, aka Joe and Emmett Hayes, as they head to Nevada to explore the top-secret military installation rumored to hold alien secrets. Special is set to air Sunday, September 29 at 10p. The net will also produce on the ground live digital coverage from the event on Facebook Live hosted by James McDaniel.
NBC renewed The Titan Games. The athletic competition series scored a 1.7 rating in A19-49 with 6.0 million viewers overall in Live+7 Nielsens. The Titan Games is produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Seven Bucks Productions. Dwayne Johnson, Arthur Smith, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz and Anthony Storm executive produce.
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Rural Media Group inked a multi-year agreement which will see the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo move to The Cowboy Channel and RFD-TV beginning in 2020. Also included in the deal is a variety of other PRCA programming, including expanded live coverage of the ProRodeo Tour and Xtreme Bulls Tour events.
There’s another classic sitcom reboot heading back to the small screen, according to Deadline. Hogan’s Heroes is being revived by original series co-creator Al Ruddy, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group and Rough Pictures. The new version will be an action adventure comedy set in present day, centered on the descendants of the original heroes who team up for a global treasure hunt.
Fabrik Entertainment is developing Invisible Monsters into a series, some 20 years after the book was published. Jennifer Yale (Legion, Outlander) is adapting the property, centered on a fashion model who had everything, until a freeway accident leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech.
J.K. Rowling’s crime drama Strike is set to return to Cinemax. Robert Glenister (Live By Night) and Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders) are joining the series, which is based on Rowling’s Cormoran Strike crime novels.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Pop TV released the sixth and final season premiere date for Schitt’s Creek. The comedy will return with 14 new episodes on Tuesday, January 7 at 9p.
Univision’s Reina de la Cancion premieres Sunday, September 22 at 8p. The female-only music development competition series will serve to identify, motivate and empower contestants to become a complete performer and the next Latina Music superstar.
Season 3 of Elena of Avalor premieres Monday, October 7 at 12:30p. The Disney Channel show followss Princess Elena’s journey to become queen.
Nickelodeon preschool series Bubble Guppies returns Friday, September 27 at 12p. Season 5 introduces Zooli, a spunky and smart student and animal expert.
The Big Interview moves to Wednesdays at 8p when it returns to AXS TV on October 2 for the second half of its seventh season. Hosted by Dan Rather, series features hour-long interviews; AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson is featured in the returning episode.
Finding Escobar’s Millions premieres Tuesday, October 1 at 10p on Discovery Channel, as the search for Pablo Escobar’s buried fortune continues.
COMING UP
HDNET Movies announced its “13 Nights of Halloween” lineup. Things kick off on Saturday, October 19 with a “Living Dead Marathon” at 7:30p, featuring a five-film lineup. Other highlights include Keanu Reeves two-pack, The Devil’s Advocate and The Watcher on Sunday, October 20; Ghoulies and Ghoulies II on Tuesday, October 22; and a trio of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price in The Fall of the House of Usher, Tales of Terror and The Raven on Tuesday, October 29.
TLC’s Taken at Birth premieres Wednesday, October 9 at 9p. The three-night event shares the story of the “Hicks Babies,” more than 200 newborn infants illegally sold or given away from the back steps of a small-town Georgia clinic run by Dr. Thomas J. Hicks during the 1950s and 1960s.
CASTING
Tim Matheson joined the Season 4 cast of NBC’s This Is Us as Mandy Moore’s father… Timothy Olyphant will recur on FX’s upcoming season of Fargo… Jasmine Guy (A Different World, Harlem Nights) is set to return to ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy in a key recurring role… Marilyn Mason is joining the third season of Starz’s American Gods.
PODCAST POST
PolicyLink, a national research and action institute, is launching its first podcast, Radical Imagination, hosted by founder and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell on Tuesday, September 24. Episodes will focus on solutions fueling change and include conversations with thinkers across today’s pressing political issues.
STREAMING
Dating app Tinder is getting ready to release an original series in early October, marking its foray as a content financier and distributor, reports Variety. The series is reportedly set against an impending apocalypse and asks the question, Who would you spend your last night alive with? The show will upload directly to the Tinder app and allow users to swipe right or left to advance plot as they see fit. The six-episode project is untitled and has just wrapped production in Mexico City.
HBO Max, the upcoming streaming platform from WarnerMedia, secured the first-ever U.S. streaming rights to all 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory. All 279 episodes will be available at launch in the spring of 2020. In addition, TBS extended its agreement to continue airing the comedy hit through 2028.
Pluto TV released the third wave of Viacom genre channels that are currently live. As of Tuesday, the slate of new channels streaming 24/7 include VH1 Unscripted, VH1 Hip Hop Family, BET Her, BET Homecoming, VH1 Love & Hip Hop, VH1 Black Ink Crew and VH1 RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Red Table Talk returns to Facebook Watch with new episodes on Monday, September 23 at 9a. In upcoming episodes Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield Norris will continue to have conversations from a multi-generational perspective and be joined by special guests like Chelsea Handler, Will Smith, Alicia Keys and Robyn Crawford.
TECH TALK
Google launched a new way to find key moments in YouTube videos through its search engine. Search results will now provide links to the moments if YouTube content creators have provided the necessary timestamp information to Google. The links will appear in search results in English. Google is working with video publishers including CBS Sports and India’s NDTV to mark up their videos to make them more searchable.
KID STUFF
Video on Demand 365 inked a content deal with kids IP giant Moonbug for their premium YouTube programming brands to appear on its kids’ entertainment channel, Ketchup TV. The agreement will see titles including Gecko’s Garage, Morphie and Go Buster appear on the AVoD channel. Ketchup has been airing Moonbug’s Little Baby Bum since 2016.
GOING GLOBAL
Dutch FilmWorks launched international sales division DRW International as a part of the company’s commitment to investing in local film and TV productions. The division will focus exclusively on the worldwide sales of TV drama series, feature films, documentaries and kids programming, creating a window to showcase productions emanating from the Benelux region.
Drive announced multiple international sales for The Good Nazi, a documentary film that looks back at the exploits of a Nazi officer who risked his life to save thousands of Jews, to UKTV in the UK, ZDF Info in Germany, Planete+ in France, RTI – Mediaset in Italy, LRT in Lithuania, Foxtel in Australia and international broadcaster Viasat World for CEE and Scandinavia. In addition, factual series Warship: Life at Sea and World’s Worst Flights were also sold.
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