PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
HBO ordered a pilot for Watchmen, from Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers). Studio is Warner Bros. Television….C.I.A. drama Classified, from Marc Guggenheim (Arrow) and Howard Gordon (Homeland) scored a put pilot commitment from Fox… Showtime picked up a comedy series project from Jessica Williams (The Daily Show) and filmmaker Jim Strouse, reports Deadline. The duo will write and exec produce; Williams will star and Strause will direct.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
A fourth season of Travels with Darley premieres on PBS starting Friday, September 29 at 9p (check local listings). The series, which offers viewers an insider’s look at diverse locations, started as digital shorts on AOL and MSN in 2014, moving to broadcast last year.
ABC’s The Great American Baking Show will be back for season 3 in December. Cookbook author Ayesha Curry and former NFLer Anthony “Spice” Adams will host the competition series based on Love Productions’ global hit The Great British Bake Off.
Z Living docu-soap Yoga Girls, following an elite group of yoga instructors, debuts Sunday at 8p. Network EVP and head of programming Tim Krubsack tells Cynopsis the show is going to the mat to offer “a new and unexpected side of the yoga world” as seen through the lives of 9 clever, competitive entrepreneurs, “harnessing their talents and the lucrative wellness industry to build their own unique brands.”
Monday, October 2 gets the ball rolling for Bounce. The net has set that as its debut for 1993-1998 Fox comedy Living Single, which will air weekdays from 7p-9p. That’s followed by the season 5 debut of Family Time at 9p, then the launch of new comedy Grown Folks at 9:30p. A new episode of Ed Gordon airs at 10p.
Season 5 of AXS TV’s The Big Interview with Dan Rather kicks off Tuesday, October 10 at 9p with the legendary newsman sitting down with The Talk’s Sharon Osbourne.
COMING UP
Six-part documentary series AMC Visionaries: Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics premieres Sunday, November 12 at 11p, followed by a second episode on Monday, November 13 at 10p in its regular time slot. Focused on the people and events that have transformed the world of comic books, the series features interviews with the likes of Stan Lee, Patty Jenkins, Lynda Carter, Kevin Smith, Famke Janssen, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Rodriguez, and Todd McFarlane, among others.
Highlights of the 13th annual New York Television Festival include the opening night screening for truTV’s At Home With Amy Sedaris; a fan event with the stars and creator of IFC’s Stan Against Evil; a screening for SundanceTV’s Rosehaven; a showcase of 52 pilots, and more. Festival takes place October 23-28.
World Fishing Network offers a “Fish and Trips” programming block on Sundays beginning at 8p, kicking off with Wild Fish Wild Places.
Boomerang is celebrating “Scoobtober” next month, with a slew of Scooby-Doo shows including the movie Scooby-Doo! Shaggy’s Showdown and Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire.
TV One will mark the 30th anniversary of The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World with a 14-hour marathon on Sunday, September 24 at 10p.
CBS special Michael Jackson’s Halloween is set for Friday, October 27 at 8p. The animated hour features the voices of Christine Baranski, Kiersey Clemons, Alan Cumming, George Eads, Brad Garrett, Lucy Liu, Jim Parsons and Lucas Till, with a story set to a soundtrack of Jackson’s music.
Fox Television Stations EVP and CFO Joe Dorrego will offer a business perspective on the economic influences driving the evolution of media on the “TV on Wall Street” panel at NAB Show New York, October 18-19.
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot will host the October 7 episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, along with musical guest Sam Smith. The following week Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley) will man the mic, with musical guest P!nk. As previously announced, Ryan Gosling starts off season 43 on September 30, with Jay-Z.
CASTING
Matthew Broderick will play adult Ralphie, narrator of Fox live event A Christmas Story. The 3-hour musical, based on the 1983 film you might have caught on TBS a time or twenty, is slated to air Sunday, December 17.
David Lim (Quantico) has been upped to series regular on new CBS drama S.W.A.T. “Seeing his great work in the pilot, as well as in subsequent early episodes, convinced us to promote him,” said series EP Shawn Ryan.…Michael Maize (Mr. Robot) landed a recurring role on season 4 of Fox’s Gotham, as part of Merton’s gang….Daniel Cosgrove (Billions) will recur on Lifetime thriller You….Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and David Bradley (Doctor Who) will recur in the season 2 voice cast for Netflix’s Dreamworks Trollhunters.
DIGITAL DATA
Mumbai-based OTT production company Golden Karavan has been launched by entertainment execs from the U.S. and India eager to put a stake in the ground in underserved Southeast Asia. Jeff Sagansky, Florence Sloan and Aaron Kaplan, and Apoorva Bakshi, Pooja Kohli and Sanjay Bachani are involved in the Indian-focused TV production company, serving local language audiences with original programming. “Given the access to broadband that is transforming the Indian media landscape, the timing is ideal to launch Golden Karavan, a studio that will provide provocative and high-end, Indian-themed content,” said Sagansky.
ADVERTISING
A report from the ANA Educational Foundation warns of a “looming marketing and advertising talent crisis.” Blame goes to college programs for not keeping up with the rapid advances in the industry; competition from technology companies; and a generation groomed by a start-up culture to expect purpose and fun in their work. A new initiative includes visits by marketing and advertising executives to campuses, a “Visiting Professors” program and the creation of formal guidelines and best practices for internships. “This pioneering new study has revealed that the system to create our next generation of marketing and advertising talent is strained to the breaking point,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice.
Nielsen is collaborating with audience-based sales platform clypd to offer a fully integrated, linear TV targeting solution beyond the traditional age and gender demos. “Being able to seamlessly define and execute buys against advanced audiences, as well as validate the delivery of these audiences segments with the same rigor we demand for age and gender across all linear TV programming today, is a crucial advancement for the industry,” said Kelly Abcarian, SVP, product leadership, Nielsen.
More on Nielsen: CBS has signed on for the measurement company’s National Out-of-Home Reporting Service – and it’s not just about gaining ground with football. “Nielsen’s Out-of-Home service has been discussed primarily with regards to sports, but we are pleased this agreement covers all of the Network’s programming and that Nielsen is moving in the right direction as it pertains to measuring the total audience,” said David F. Poltrack, chief research officer. Still, CBS noted that its Final Four game viewing rose 18.9% when out-of-home viewing was included.
What will be the hot topics during Adverting Week next week? Jane Clarke, CEO, Managing Director, CIMM (Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement), who will be speaking on the panel, “Attention Is the New Currency for Advertisers,” tells Cynopsis, “Beyond all the sales pitches and entertainment, I think we’ll see that advertisers are leveraging their ability to ask for improvements in data and measurement quality and transparency, and finding success.”
Among the topics PwC’s Strategy& Kristina Bennin expects to hear buzz about is the experience economy. “Expect leading brands to talk about how they are constructing great user experience to turn casual users of their products into fans,” says Bennin, who will be on the “Brand as Experience” panel. “Expect publishers to discuss how they can develop content that is increasingly community focused, curated, multi-platform, and direct-to-consumer.”
GOING GLOBAL
Kids’ content producer and distributor Portfolio Entertainment has signed its first deal with China’s iQiYi Kids video-on-demand platform. 86 half hours of Portfolio’s highest profile, animated preschool series CITH and DOKI, will run on the service in Mandarin.
