A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

Cynopsis Media Presents: Upfront Wrap Up – Part 2
04/22/13

by Roberta Caploe

It’s still Monday, April 22, and welcome to the second of Cynopsis’ Upfront Wrap-Up Special Reports. Each Monday, for the next five weeks, we will share our compendium of the latest news and happenings at these critical events. This year, each network has outdone itself in making presentations to the ad community (as well as the press and production folks) that fizz and entice. It’s looking to be an exciting season. Enjoy these highlights from AMC Networks, Hallmark, mun2, Spike, and TRuTV.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

AMC‘s Upfront took place at New York’s 69th Regiment Armory, with a maze of rooms featuring interactive interpretations of all the big AMC shows such as The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men, among others. We’re talking bloody freaks, drunk secretaries, and very tall men (Freakshow). “One of my clients at McCann said, Why didn’t you tell me there were going to be zombies here?'” said Scott Collins, Executive VP, National Advertising Sales of AMC and WE TV, with a chuckle. But on the serious side, Collins expressed a lot of excitement about AMC’s new slate, especially Low Winter Sun, which he described as “totally stylized, a perfect sandwich between Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. There will be no reason to change the channel.”  Other programming highlights included:

Talking Bad, a special weekly, half-hour live after show, will analyze Breaking Bad‘s final eight episodes beginning Sunday, August 11 at 11p. The show will be produced by Michael Davies’ Embassy Row with Sony Pictures Television serving as the studio partner.

The network announced an overall deal with Rolin Jones (Boardwalk Empire, Smash, United States of Tara), where Jones will be writing and executive producing projects specifically for the network.

Scripted development (all show titles are working titles)

• Futuristic drama Ballistic City tells the story of a former cop thrust into the criminal underworld of a city housed in a generational space ship destined for a an unknown world.
• King takes viewers back to the 1960s, when Floridian King Carmichael sells his soul to a corrupt, racist political machine to win a seat in the Senate. Having run as a segregationist, he is then tapped by Lyndon B. Johnson to champion civil rights in the South
• Set in 1950, Ashland focuses on the tiny mining town in Kentucky, where the Evans family has just relocated and the matriarch, Del, must hide her family’s secrets and find a way to support her three children at the height of the Red Scare.
• White City follows western diplomats and journalists living in Afghanistan.
• An untitled Dahvi Waller project is set against the New York automobile industry of the 1920s, with two brothers struggling to keep their family-run company afloat.
• An untitled Tim Lea/Anonymous Content Project centers on a family nearly torn apart in the conflict between a repressive government and the emerging movement for a second American Revolution.
• An American businessman becomes embroiled in a web of East-West espionage in The Wall, set in 1960s Berlin.

Unscripted Development(all show titles are working titles)

• Majority Rules (produced by ALL3 Media America), a docu-style series that celebrates the American democratic process
• All-Star Celebrity Bowling (produced by High Noon Productions), a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek format that features celebrity teams competing to win big money for charity
• Cancelled (produced by Lion Television), a social experiment that attempts to determine how far people will really go for fame.

New spring and summer premieres were announced. Small Town Security returns for a second season on Thursday, May 9 at 10p, while Breaking Bad kicks off its final eight episodes on Sunday, August 11 at 9p.

In addition, Showville (produced by Storyvision Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Television), a series about a small town talent show featuring local acts, debuts Thursday, May 23 at 9p. Low Winter Sun (co-production from Endemol Studios and AMC Studios),  a contemporary story of murder, deception and corruption in a world where the line between cops and criminals is blurred, debuts Sunday, August 11 at 10p. Owner’s Manual (produced by Asylum Entertainment), which tests the most common divide among man who read the owner’s manual and those who do not, debuts on Thursday, August 15 at 9p. The Pitch (produced by All3Media America), which focuses on creative advertising  campaigns, debuts Thursday, August 15 at 10p.

Series renewals were announced for Talking Dead (a third season), Comic Book Men (a third season) and Freakshow (a second season).

At Crown Media’s upfront presentation at New York City’s elegant Eleven Madison Park restaurant, the Hallmark Channelannounced that it’s doubling down its efforts to develop original programming by adding a new scripted series to its schedule and two pilots to its development slate. “The recognition factor for our network is not what it should be, considering how strong Hallmark is,” said Bill Abbott, President and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks. “We expect this Upfront to be groundbreaking for us  and be up 20% in terms of volume.” Here are some highlights of what the network has coming up:

• The network’s first original scripted series, Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove, stars Andie MacDowell as a small-town family court judge whose work life directly impacts her day-to-day life. It premieres July 20 as a two-hour movie. New, one-hour episodes will follow on Saturdays beginning July 27.
• When Calls the Heart has been greenlit for 10 episodes. Based on the book by Janette Oke, it tells the story of Elizabeth Thatcher, a young teacher accustomed to her high society life, who receives her first classroom post in a prairie town in the Western Frontier. The movie pilot debuts on October 5, while the series premieres in January 2014.
• Pilot-to-series projects include My Gal Sunday, based on a book of short stories by Mary Higgins Clark, and Dead Letters, developed by Touched by An Angel creator Martha Williamson. My Gal Sunday follows the husband and wife crime solving duo of Sunday and Henry Parker. Henry is an ex-Vice President of the United States, and Sunday is a legal aid lawyer. Dead Letters follows a quirky quartet of civil servants in the Dead Letter Office of the US Postal System who transform themselves into an elite team of lost-mail detectives. 
• The daytime lifestyle show Home & Family has been renewed for a second season. Mark Steines and Christina Ferrare will return to co-host.
• Hallmark has acquired off-network rights to Home Improvement from Disney-ABC. It will begin airing the series in September. It joins the recently acquired The Good Wife, which will air in January 2014, and The Middle, which will air in March 2014.
• Plus, 13 original movies are set to premiere in 2013.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

More than 200 hours of original programming were announced at mun2‘s upfront presentation in New York, as the network revealed a line-up tailored for its influential young, Hispanic millennial audience. Here’s a look at what’s coming up.

New series

• Viva Los Vargas, which premieres 2014, follows two-time world boxing champion Fernando Vargas, who is facing what is apparently the greatest challenge of his life: raising a family.
• Stylish business partners Jackie Mateos and Liz Perez take the Los Angeles Latino real estate market by storm in Reinas de Realty, which debuts in 2014.

• Horoscopos centers on Vicky and Marisol Terrazas, the lead singers of Horoscopos de Durango, following their lives on and off stage. The show premieres in 2014.

Music

• Al Tiro con la Bronca features mun2 personality La Bronca adding her commentary to topics from love to fashion to conquering the opposite sex in the weekly show that debuts this month.
• Premiering summer 2013, mun2Pop! features Guad and Emeraude in a one-hour, weekly original music show centering on the trends in celebrity, music, movies and television.

• Special event the Premios Billboard de la Musica Latina, airs April 27.

Returning series include Larrymania (to debut in 2013), which will delve deeper into the life of Regional Mexican music superstar Larry Hernandez, and Dub Latino (to debut in 2013), a weekly magazine series revealing the car culture passions and celebrity lifestyles of the hottest names in Latino entertainment.

High stakes and charismatic TV personalities are the theme moving forward, as Spike TV unveiled its new slate of upcoming programming, including 11 unscripted pilots. Here’s a look at its 2013 projects.

Adam Carolla is a watchdog for homeowners or businesses who have been cheated by a contractor and left with an unfinished disaster on To Catch a Contractor, tracking down the builder and getting retribution for the owner. Eyeworks USA created the pilot for Spike TV.

In Covert Kitchens (from Shine America), Graham Elliot, award-winning chef and judge on MasterChef, gives viewers an exclusive invitation into the underground restaurant world. 

Jon Taffer (Bar Rescue) teams with two fellow restaurant industry experts in Hungry Investors. From Eyeworks USA, the show puts struggling restaurants to the test in a challenge-based competition for the chance to win a cash investment.

Biz Brokers (from the T Group) focuses on the smart middlemen behind high-pressure business deals. The show comes to Spike TV from The T Group.

Frankenfood (from Sharp Entertainment) features chef Eric Greenspan as he travels the country finding Americans with the most unique food creations.

Auto Body Avengers centers on a team of operatives who go undercover to spotlight garages suspected of fraud. Matador produced the presentation.

In Property Monstrosity (from Thinkfactory Media) neighbors join forces to confront the owner of the eyesore on the block, offering to fix the disastrous house as long as he or she  moves out and leaves the renovation in their hands.

Criminal defense attorney Adam Reposa takes on shady salesmen, nasty neighbors, lousy landlords and anyone else who stands in the way of Reposa Justice. The show comes to Spike TV from Left/Right and Watson Pond Productions.

Job applicants unwittingly compete for a full-time position as hidden cameras capture their reactions to being put through extreme on-the-job tests designed to find the perfect hire on Take This Job and Love It. The pilot is being produced for Spike by Scott Stone, Ross McCall and Stone & Company.

We’re the Boss is a workplace reality series in which everyday employees across America get to be in charge for one week. The Hochberg Ebersol Company (THE Co.) created and is producing the pilot.

Hard Money (from Matador) takes viewers inside the fast-paced, high-stakes world of hard money lending; essentially, legal loan-sharking.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

Targeting its growing “funseeker” audience, truTV is shifting half its lineup to comedic reality. The network revealed its new development slate at its Upfront presentation in New York. Here’s a look at what’s coming up.

New series

• In Panic Button, produced by Eleven Television, contestants must brave a haunted house without pushing a button that will allow them to escape.
• Cash Dome Pawn, from 51 Minds Entertainment LLC, an Endemol Company, focuses on one of the wildest and most outrageous pawn shops in the country, Cash Dome, run by Josh “White Boy” Gallander.
• Big Sam’s Kentucky Auction (wt), from ITV Studios America in association with Leepson Bounds Entertainment takes a look at the unpredictable world of a Southern auction house.

Pilots

An outrageous game show in the sky, Turbulence (from Howie Mandel’s Alevy Productions and FremantleMedia North America) follows contestants flying from one location to another, while completing a variety of challenges.

Payback with Trevor Moore (wt), which is being produced by Funny or Die, is a hidden camera prank show that gives people the chance to get light-hearted revenge on a friend/relative/significant other who has it coming.

Laugh Truck (wt), produced by NorthSouth Productions, features three friends competing against each other as they ride in the back of a moving truck.

In Cold Hard Catch (produced by Jupiter Entertainment and Brian Graden Media) ice-fishing resort owner Daron Stenvold and his team juggle the challenges of running almost an entire business on frozen water.

Barnstormers (wt), from Magilla Entertainment and Watson Pond Productions, follows experts who bid on and buy old barns hoping to make a fortune off the contents.

Development

The Big Poll with John Henson (wt), a breakthrough half-hour comedy project, will take multi-platform engagement to a new level by allowing viewers to directly affect the outcome of each episode.

Mind Games (wt) features hypnotist and host Will Miner as he takes total control of unsuspecting people and gets them to compete on a game show.

In addition, truTV is extending several current series with new episode orders, including Guinness World Records Gone Wild! and Upload with Shaquille O’Neal, which join previously announced extensions of Impractical Jokers and Hardcore Pawn: Chicago.

Keep Watching & Reading,
Roberta Caploe
Editor
04.22.13

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director
Denise O’Connor: Group Publisher, Cynopsis Media
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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