PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Star Thrower Entertainment landed rights to Bill Minutaglio and Steven L Davis’ novel The Most Dangerous Man In America. The book, published in January and subtitled Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon And The Hunt For The Fugitive King Of LSD, will be developed as a limited series based on Leary’s prison escape and run from the law in 1970.
Telemundo Deportes, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, is partnering with David Villa, the all-time scoring leader in Spain’s history, and his newly launched production company Designated Player, to produce soccer content around the World Cup to air across all Telemundo network and digital platforms. As part of the partnership, Villa will narrate video series Como Llegaron (How Did They Get There), which will detail the ups and downs that 10 national teams endured in order to qualify, and conduct a series of in-depth interviews with international soccer stars who will be participating in the World Cup this summer.
MarVista Entertainment inked an exclusive production deal with Robyn Snyder, its former EVP of development and production, and her nascent Front Row Films banner. Snyder will develop movies and series; deal launches with a slate of 15 projects, including the series Deprivers.
GRB Entertainment entered a first look deal with Damon Epps (FriendZone) to develop and produce a range of formats and docuseries under his Goodtimes USA banner.
The Cynopsis Upfronts portal is a must-have resource for buyers and planners strategizing for the fall season. You’ll find programming details and more here: http://www.cynopsis.com/upfronts2018/.
NBC is launching the industry’s first directing initiative for alternative series, the Alternative Directors Program, intended for female and ethnically diverse talent with at least one directing credit. The annual program will help feed the pipeline for new talent behind the camera on alternative series both on NBC as well as shows produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Beginning last night, The CBS Evening News With Jeff Glor is bringing back Eye on America, the series featuring longform reporting examining issues affecting the country. The updated Eye on America will air regularly at 6:30p.
AIM Tell-A-Vision Group announced its internationally syndicated TV series Raw Travel will premiere episode 516, “South Korea,” on June 2 and 3 on TV stations in 167 cities in 94 percent of the US. It’s the first of a series of episodes shot last spring in South Korea that introduces a series that will air on Raw Travel’s network of affiliates throughout the US in 2018 and 2019. Raw Travel is in its fifth season of syndication on local US affiliates.
ID will premiere People Magazine Investigates: Cults, which explores how cults effect members and their families, on Monday, June 4 at 9p. Each of the 6 one-hour eps dives deep inside an American cult, building to that pivotal moment when blind worship turns violent and even deadly.
Season 7 of Million Dollar Listing New York debuts on Bravo on Tuesday, June 12 at 10p.
The Osbourne family is back for a new season of Ozzy & Jack's World Detour, beginning June 13 on A&E.
ABC will debut detective series Take Two on Thursday, June 21. Series follows the former star of a hit cop series whose epic breakdown is broadcast to the public and sends her to rehab. Desperate to restart her career, she talks her way into shadowing a lone-wolf private investigator.
COMING UP
Andrea Constand, whose testimony in the Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial was pivotal in his guilty verdict, will appear for her first TV interview on NBC’s Dateline this Friday, June 1 at 10. Special also will feature interviews with four other Cosby accusers - Janice Baker-Kinney, Lise-Lotte Lublin, Heidi Thomas and Chelan Lasha - who testified against him in the retrial.
HDTV channel hub Hollywood Suite will unveil new doc Ferris’s Room on June 5 at 8p on its 80s Movie channel (HS80), followed by an airing of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Joan Rivers: It Happened Here will air on Reelz on Wednesday, June 6 at 9p. Special looks at the early life of the legendary comedian, and the locations and people that shaped her life.
HBO Sports is teaming up with Bill Simmons Media Group for Courtside at the NBA Finals, an unscripted hourlong special chronicling the 2018 NBA championship series between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers that will premiere Tuesday, June 19 at 9p on HBO.
DIGITAL DATA
FCC commissioner Mike O’Rielly sent a letter late last week to the CEOs of Amazon and eBay, seeking their assistance in removing illegal products from their websites. The move is in response to outcry over illegal devices using pie-in-the-sky marketing to lure buyers.
Snapchat is getting sound effects. The platform just added its first sound-powered filters, the latest in a string of updates to its popular filters. Visually, the new lens adds neon pink ears to the user’s head, a heart to the nose, and whiskers on the cheeks. When it detects sound, the ears grow, depending on the noise levels.
A limited edition of PlayStation 4 and reduction of game prices is coming from Sony from June 8-18 as part of the company’s Days of Play promotion. PlayStation accessories including controllers and VR bundles also will be discounted.
The New York Times is developing a subscription product for parents, a departure from its recent digital launches including Cooking and Crossword apps, which comprise archives of content. New parenting content will be assessed based on focus groups, and may have advertising attached.
Tone Networks, an online resource and community for women that debuted last fall, is expanding its platform adding more experts, videos and offering a 30-day free trial. Founded by Gemma Toner, former SVP, business insights and strategy at Cablevision Systems, Tone has been amassing experts in a variety of topics and created more than 500 videos to date.
Residents of Papua New Guinea may have to go Facebook free, after the country’s communication minister Sam Basil says his government plans to shutter the social media site for a month to smoke out "fake users" and see how Facebook is affecting people's lives, reports The Guardian. Basil says he will “work closely” with police as well as more stridently enforce a cyber-crime act passed in 2016.
Active Shooter, a videogame published by Valve Inc. where players can elect to play as a school shooter, is being denounced among others by families of those murdered and who have survived mass shootings. The game is published by Moscow-based Acid Publishing and planned for debut on June 6 through Valve’s online gaming store Steam.
Walmart is on its second season of Outside the Box, the company’s podcast that this year will focus on the value of time in the digital era.
Global organization DPAA, which focuses on digital out-of-home, announced programmatic advertising platform Simpli.fi has joined its membership ranks. Simpli.fi is the third demand-side platform to join DPAA during the past month; Atedra and MediaMath recently signed on.
KIDS NEWS
DHX Television’s Family Channel, Universal Kids and Six Eleven Media are under way on production of live-action comedy Greenfields, which will air on Universal Kids in the States. Created by Derek Harvie, series follows 12-year-old Max and his eclectic group of friends as they navigate the highs and lows of running a start-up company. Greenfields is executive-produced by Derek Harvie and Charles Bishop, and is also produced with the participation of the Canadian Media Fund. International distribution will be handled by DHX Media.
Sesame Workshop launched a new Sesame Street streaming TV app for Vewd-enabled connected TV devices featuring content from the 48 seasons of the TV series and dedicated sections to Sesame Street characters. The app is available on connected TV devices from Sony, Samsung, HiSense, Tivo, Vestel and many more.
CASTING
Uma Thurman will star in role in Netflix supernatural drama series Chambers, from Stephen Gaghan and Super Deluxe. Series, created and written by Leah Rachel (who co-showruns with Akela Cooper), is about a young heart attack survivor who is consumed by the circumstances surrounding the heart that saved her life.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
ITV reportedly is considering joint venture with the BBC that would see it acquiring the 50 percent of British broadcaster UKTV currently owned by Discovery that BBC Studios has an option to purchase.
