A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

Cynopsis Media Presents: Upfront Wrap up – Part 5
05/13/13

by Roberta Caploe

It’s Monday, May 13, and welcome to the latest installment of Cynopsis’ Upfront Wrap-Up Special Reports. Each Monday during Upfront season, we have been sharing 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 A+E Networks, FX, Ovation, Participant, and Telemundo.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

A+E networks held a dazzling upfront at Lincoln Center, packed with stars from all of its networks’ shows, including Duck Dynasty, Project Runway, and Vikings. We’re talking Chloe Sevigny (she was one of the few actresses we saw actually eating at the reception – yay!), Eva Longoria (the EP of Lifetime’s new Devious Maids, along with Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry), and A&E’s Bates Motel‘s Vera Farmiga, to name a few. The overriding theme of the evening was content, content, content, a drum banged repeatedly by newly elevated President and CEO Nancy Dubuc. She shared two things with us last night: that she wished she could be Katheryn Winnick, the willowy blonde from Vikings (really, she almost is), and that her promotion proved two things: how well the network is managed – ie, by promoting from within – and the fact that it’s she who was chosen illustrates a dedication to content.

During his segment of the presentation, Mel Berning, Executive Vice President, Ad Sales referred to broadcast networks as cable’s “ancestors,” but he stopped working and was having a great old time at the reception, posing with the Counting Cars guys and saying hello to everyone. He took a moment, though, to tell Cynopsis that the reason A+E announced a realignment of its sales force yesterday was “to go after the research piece. If we wait for Nielsen, we’ll be waiting forever,” he commented. “After this Upfront, we’ll be able to aggregate everything together.”
 
Here’s an edited excerpt of comments made at the Upfront by Nancy Dubuc, President & CEO:

Over the coming year, our goal is to grow H2, Bio and LMN into the powerful platforms that History, A&E and Lifetime have become  giving you six of the strongest brands across a media landscape that speaks directly to men, women and young adults. We have one of the strongest and most consistent schedules in all of cable.  We just came off our best quarter and our most watched year ever.

A&E

We’ve got a new take on Stay at Home Dads on our unscripted slate. And on the scripted side, we recently launched the critical darling Bates Motel, starring Academy Award-Nominated Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore. 

A&E’s next scripted series, brought to us by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, will be Those Who Kill, starring James D’Arcy and Academy Award-Nominated Actress Chloe Sevigny.  Chloe is flawless as Catherine Jensen, a freshly minted and incredibly smart police detective who tracks down serial killers.  It’s powerful, sophisticated and will further differentiate A&E in the scripted arena.

History

We are the #1 entertainment network for men in all of cable. On the heels of Hatfields & McCoys, which shattered all cable and television records, Dirk Hoogstra and his programming team launched The Bible and Vikings, both of which gave HISTORY the #1 mini and #1 new cable series respectively. Vikings was our first foray into scripted series and History has secured the #1 new drama entrant of the year and production of season two is already underway.

We have twelve highly-successful returning series: Pawn, Pickers, Swamp, Counting Cars, and Top Gear among them.  Our unscripted newbies include the real Hatfields & McCoys, who will try to bury the hatchet once and for all.

And we’ll meet a dying breed of American heroes, living life to the fullest in Daredevils. Plus, an iconic brand tent pole that brings us back to when we were on the verge of building a nation – A secret radical group of men lit a spark that would become a revolution in Sons of Liberty. And we hope to make magic with another huge play — Houdini — staring Oscar Winning actor Adrian Brody.

Lifetime

Today, Lifetime is in the midst of an amazing growth spurt. This brand is a rare gem in A+E’s crown and all of our muscle is behind her. In 2012, Lifetime finished ahead of 2011 in all demos. Something we’re particularly proud of in the unscripted space is our upcoming country music series, Hillbetties. And of course, Lifetime is known for its dramas. We’ve seen the return of The Client List as well as Army Wives, with Brooke Shields and Ashanti joining all the familiar faces. and season five of Drop Dead Diva will launch in June.

Here are two new upcoming series.

First, Witches of East End stars Emmy winner Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Madchen Amick, along with an all-star cast in a drama about a family of witches.

Devious Maids comes to Lifetime this June, the first new project from Executive Producer Marc Cherry and Eva Longoria since Desperate Housewives. We have an amazing cast of incredibly talented Latina actors who are destined to be household names. Our team was in high pursuit of this project last year and it’s a thrill to see it come to life — where it belongs – on Lifetime. 

We are taking on one of the most iconic American love stories: Bonnie and Clyde. An all star cast, including Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Emile Hirsch and introducing Holliday Granger. They give this legendary story a unique take on one of the most gripping tales in U.S. history. In fact, we feel so strongly about Bonnie and Clyde, which was developed by Lifetime that we’ve decided to simulcast it on History, Lifetime and A&E.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

At its upfront presentation at New York City’s Cipriani, FX Networks announced plans to become a suite of three networks: FX, FXM and the soon-to-be launched FXX, aimed at young adult viewers. “We’re embarking on an incredibly ambitious ramp-up of program development and production required to sustain these networks,” said John Landgraf, President and General Manager, who presented the program, assisted by “Lasagne” Lou LaTorre, Ad Sales President and “Matzoh Ball” Bruce Lefkowitz (their names, not ours). “Our three-network platform will enable us to achieve even greater goals and solidify our position as a leader in quality scripted original programming.”  Here are some highlights:

FX’s The Americans, which concluded its first season on May 1, has been renewed for a second season to debut in January of 2014.

Justified, which ended on April 2, has been renewed for a fifth season to debut in January of 2014.

Season 6 of Sons of Anarchy is set to return in September.

In addition, FX picked up the fifth season of Archer, and season four of Louie will debut on May of 2014.

The newest incarnation of the American Horror Story miniseries, American Horror Story: Coven, will be set in New Orleans and roll out in October and through January 2014. Academy Award winner Kathy Bates joins the cast opposite Jessica Lange.

FX has ordered its first limited series, Fargo. Inspired by the film, the series will follow a new case and new characters. The 10-episode series begins production this fall and is slated to premiere in spring of 2014.
 
The drama series The Bridge premieres in July. Starring Demian Bichir and Diane Kruger, it centers on two detectives, one from the United States and one from Mexico, who must work together to hunt down a killer operating on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.
 
FX Networks comedy pilot orders include How and Why from Charlie Kaufman, the story of a man who can explain how and why a nuclear reactor works, but is clueless about life; and Chozen from Grant Dekernion, an animated comedy about a white rapper, recently out of prison.

Pilot-to-series projects include Tyrant. From award-winning Homeland Producers Howard Gordon, Gideon Raff and Craig Wright, the pilot, which begins production this summer, will be directed by two-time Academy Award-winner Ang Lee. In addition, Strain, which centers on a terrifying vision bloodsucking vampires, begins production in August.

In addition to original series, FX will televise blockbuster movies and its schedule will also include the acquired series Anger Management, Two and a Half Men and, coming in 2014, Mike & Molly.

FXX’s schedule will consist of original series, movies and acquired series geared toward a target demo of Adults 18-34. The new channel will be anchored by season 10 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and seasons 5 and 6 of The League, which move over from FX along with season 2 of Legit.

Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell is also moving to FXX and will expand to a 5-night-per-week, half-hour strip.

FXM will feature prestige movies and grow to feature miniseries and movies.

Beginning this fall, FX Networks will launch the FXNOW app, creating its own version of TV Everywhere for subscribers of FX, FXX and FXM. The FXNOW platform will be available to authenticated subscribers of participating FX cable, satellite and telco providers.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM AMC

“We are literally taking our number of original programming hours and boosting them by over 400%,” announced Robert Weiss, Ovation‘s Chief Creative Officer, at the network’s New York upfront presentation. “With this seismic shift in our programming focus, we’re making the leap to become a full-service arts network — America’s only arts network.” Here’s a look at what’s coming up.

New series:

The Kuhnert Chronicles transports viewers on journeys across the globe and through the annals of art history via Harvard professor, international art expert and classical theater director Flynn Kuhnert’s art-filled Beverly Hills mansion. The show premieres summer 2013.

Each week, The Art of… profiles three people whose boundary-pushing work is elevated the level of art — from tattoo and street artists to mechanics and mixologists. The series premieres in July.

Culture Pop showcases the newest events and personalities in every creative field. It debuts in June.

Award-winning actors, directors, and screenwriters sit down with celebrated film critic Elvis Mitchell and offer insight into how creative teams were assembled, how projects found their footing, and the circumstances that kept each film from falling apart on Cinema Confidential. Hollywood heavyweights like Brad Pitt, Judd Apatow, George Clooney and Seth Rogen are among the personalities featured on the series, which premieres this summer.

Produced by the BBC, the scripted series A Young Doctor’s Notebook is a darkly humorous account of the experiences of a newly graduated young doctor who lands a post at a small hospital in a remote village during the Russian Revolution. The series, which stars Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe, premieres this summer.

Four more high-profile 2013 original programs will be announced in June.

Ovation also has 16 projects in fast-track development, including The Mentor, featuring successful artists in every medium paying tribute to the teachers, coaches, and directors who were instrumental in their formative years; Popstalgia, exploring passionate collectors showing off their prized items; and I Can’t Do That, where the artistically challenged are matched with experts to teach them to excel in activities they never thought they could — from ballroom dancing to sculpting a masterpiece.

Participant Media is launching a new cable network targeting millennials: pivot, which will premiere on August 1. pivot will be available through traditional pay TV packages, and a broadband-only subscription. The network’s first six greenlit series are: TakePart Live, a live talk show, five nights a week; HitRECord on TV!, a re-imagination of the variety show; Raising McCain, a docu-talk series from Meghan McCain; WILL, modern period drama; and reality series Jersey Strong. The network will also joint venture with Univision News and Latin World Entertainment to co-produce ten, one-hour documentaries that will air on pivot in English and Univision in Spanish.

Telemundo has unveiled Fluency, a new LA-based multiplatform production studio tasked with developing and producing bilingual original content for US Hispanics. Fluency’s development slate will include English and Spanish-language programming across a range of genres, from science fiction to romantic comedy. Series currently in development include La Buena Mala (The Good Bad One), a romantic comedy, and ISA, a sci-fi coming-of-age story. NBCUniversal will oversee distribution of Fluency programming across platforms, including television, subscription VOD, mobile, and electronic sell-through. Jose Marquez, Telemundo’s VP/Digital Video Production & Development, will be in charge of the studio, which will be overseen by Peter Blacker, EVP/Digital & Emerging Business at Telemundo. Fluency will offer an array of sponsorship opportunities for advertisers, including the creation of exclusive content, branded integrations, and interactive campaigns.

Peter Blacker says that all narrative projects developed by Fluency will be 90 minutes long, which will allow the studio to “cut up” the story differently, depending on the distribution platform. “If someone wants to run it on a tablet, we can separate the story into nine, 10-minute segments. If someone wants to air it on TV, we can package it as a made-for-TV movie,” says Blacker. Although this content/distribution strategy is employed by studios like Vuguru, Blacker says this will be the first time a media company does it for the multicultural market.
— In other words: Telemundo is trying to tap into the power of social media/YouTube stars in driving viewership and engagement online. This is an audience that’s already digitally savvy (per Nielsen data: US Hispanics spend 11% more time watching mobile video than the general population). “The success of Fluency depends heavily on bringing in viewership from both TV fanbases and digital fanbases,” says Blacker. “One of our upcoming productions will feature Eric Ochoa, whose SupereeeGO YouTube channel has close to 1 million subscribers. If we combine someone with that kind of digital power with some major, primetime TV talent, we believe there’s a real knockout potential.”

Keep Watching & Reading,
Roberta Caploe
Editor
05.13.13

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

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