PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
ABC and Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ Milojo Productions are developing comedy The Sanchez Way, about a Mexican-American family that lives by a strict working-class code whose lifestyle is disrupted by a yuppie. Writer Isaac Gonzalez (Legends of Chamberlain Heights), Ripa, Consuelos, and Albert Bianchini are executive producers.
Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios, struck an overall deal with creator and showrunner Chad Hodge (Good Behavior) and his company Storyland, Inc. Under the deal, Hodge will create new series for the studio, along with supervising development and executive producing series with other writers.
MacGyver stunt coordinator Justin Sundquist was injured late Monday on the set in Atlanta. CBS Studios said the production team is coordinating with authorities to investigate the accident, which reportedly resulted in a serious head injury. Last year, Sundquist sued CBS and CBS Studios for an accident on the set of Hawaii Five-o.
Banijay Rights announced a new development deal with factual specialist Touchdown Films, founded by John Osborne (Hillsborough Remembered). The first title to come from the deal is a special one-off documentary about the Apollo 8 space mission.
dick clark productions struck a multi-year partnership for its American Music Awards, and YouTube Music. “YouTube brings global reach, awareness and engagement to the American Music Awards unlike ever before,” said Mike Mahan, CEO, dcp. “We look forward to enhancing the AMAs in a unique, innovative and immersive way.” Awards show will broadcast live from LA on Tuesday, October 9, 2018 at 8p on ABC.
Gunpowder & Sky has partnered with director/producer Aengus James (I Am Jazz), producer Colin King Miller (I Am Jazz), producer Amy Rapp (Tower) and executive producer Meredith Vieira to produce and distribute crime documentary thriller Vigilante, the story of a man seeking justice for his father’s murder through any means necessary.
Netflix ordered docu-series Dancing Queen, starring RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Alyssa Edwards. Series from RuPaul Charles’ World of Wonder Productions is slated to make its entrance Friday, October 5.
Meanwhile, VH1 renewed RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars for a fourth season, featuring contestants from past seasons.
Paramount Network renewed Lip Sync Battle for season five. Twelve new eps will premiere in 2019.
Media company Ellation, home to Crunchyroll and VRV, announced the launch of Ellation Studios and the first Crunchyroll Originals series, High Guardian Spice. Ellation’s original content efforts will include production facilities in Burbank and Tokyo devoted to creating and developing new original shows for the Crunchyroll and VRV communities. Margaret Dean, former GM of Stoopid Buddy Stoodios and current president of Women in Animation, has been named head of studio for the new division.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Entrepreneurial brothers Scott and Tod Warmack acquired the exclusive rights to the Trans Am brand, and their journey in the competitive auto industry will be chronicled in Discovery’s Trans Am. Series premieres Tuesday, October 2 at 10p.
For the fifth consecutive year, AXS TV will air The X Factor UK, premiering season 15 on Sunday, September 2 at 8p. Episodes land on AXS TV 24 hours after the original UK broadcasts.
Season six of Bravo’s Below Deck sets sail Tuesday, October 2 at 9p. For the first time in franchise history, drama takes place in Tahiti.
HGTV’s David Bromstad helps newly-wealthy house hunters in the new season of My Lottery Dream Home, launching Friday, September 21 at 9p. Search starts with Florida family who struck it rich with a scratch-off ticket.
Mermaid thriller Siren will return to Freeform for season two in January 2019, announced the net via 6-second video on Wednesday.
Insight TV, home to inspirational, adrenaline-packed unscripted programming, filmed in 4K UHD HDR on a 24/7 linear channel, moved to the U.S. market in 2017. CEO Rian Bester talks about what took so long, and what lies ahead, in the new Cynsiders.
ID’s Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda is back for season eight Wednesday, August 29 at 10p, with Kenda recalling the painful lesson he learned working to solve his second homicide case.
Sony Crackle’s Snatch premieres with all ten episodes Thursday, September 13. For the impatient, the original drama will debut on Amazon devices through the Sony Crackle app starting Friday, August 31.
SHORT FORM VIDEO
Ava DuVernay’s short-form film, August 28: A Day in the Life of a People will make its national TV debut on OWN on Tuesday, August 28 at 7p. The 22-minute scripted film combines documentary and narrative techniques to take viewers through six moments that occurred on the same day in different years. DuVernay’s Queen Sugar, which had its season three finale last night, was recently renewed on OWN for a fourth season.
WWE Superstar John Cena has partnered with Loud TV and celebrity hypnotist Chris Jones for Facebook Watch prank series Double Take, launching Wednesday, September 5. In each 12-15 minute episode, Jones will conspire with a different celebrity to give a fan the surprise of meeting and interacting with their idol – except they’re hypnotized so don’t recognize their idol.
COMING UP
Travel Channel hosts a “Ghostober” October event starting Saturday, October 6 at 9p with the launch of four-week mini-series Ghost Adventures, taking the paranormal investigative team to the “Graveyard of the Pacific.”
Ovation has produced behind-the-scenes specials, catch-up shows and will offer marathons of seasons one and two aimed at getting new fans up to speed on Versailles. Content includes Real Versailles, available on VOD starting September 6. Season three launches Saturday, October 6 at 10p.
Sofia the First: Forever Royal, a special extended-length finale episode of Disney Junior's Sofia the First, premieres Saturday, September 8 at 11a on Disney Junior and the DisneyNOW app.
A special one-hour election episode of Our Cartoon President focuses on President Trump’s deepening concerns about a Democratic blue wave and the threat of impeachment. Animated Showtime special premieres Sunday, November 4 at 10:30p.
ID will give viewers a peek at upcoming programming during a Labor Day marathon on Monday, September 3 from 3p-11p. First up: season premiere of Deadly Women.
Lifetime kicks off it lineup of fall films with The Bad Seed, directed by and starring Rob Lowe as a father who discovers his daughter (McKenna Grace) could be hurting the people around her, on Sunday, September 9.
DEALS
Genius Brands has raised a $4.5 million funding round led by financier Robert Wolf of 32 Ventures. Funding is geared towards driving the success of preschool property Rainbow Rangers, set to launch Monday, November 5 on Nick Jr. and in late spring via a retail rollout.
The esports business is exploding – are you in the game? For news, updates, and insights, check out the Cynopsis Esports resource center here.
DIGITAL
Google is facing a new privacy lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California. "Despite users’ attempts to protect their location privacy, Google collects and stores users’ location data, thereby invading users’ reasonable expectations of privacy, counter to Google’s own representations about how users can configure Google’s products to prevent such egregious privacy violations," alleges Napoleon Patacsil.
The expansion of highly targeted vertical networks will continue as OTT viewing continues to grow, projects TDG in a new report, “The Future of Niche OTT Services,” with cord cutters and skinny bundle subscribers on the lookout for services that offer content they are passionate about. In the long term, however, TDG predicts aggregation or consolidation, citing a limit to the number of services consumers are willing to subscribe to.
Rated Red, a video brand intended to be “the voice of Heartland Millennials” with content including gun reviews, music and food shows, has been shuttered by Verizon and Hearst. Rated Red had over 2 million followers on Facebook and over 40,000 on Twitter.
Free movie and TV streaming service Tubi introduced Tubi Channels, a free, curated VOD offering with that provides content partners the opportunity to reach audiences via their own branded section on Tubi. Working with Tubi’s AI-powered Content Personalization Engine, Tubi Channels aid in personalized content discovery. At launch, initial content partners include Dramafever, Complex, Impact, Shout Factory, BabyFirst TV, among others; additional deals are in place with major TV networks and will be rolled out later this year.
Sports-first live TV streaming service fuboTV has added Turner’s portfolio of brands. Through a multi-year agreement, TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, truTV, TCM and HLN are being added to the base fubo package at no additional cost.
SVOD service DC Universe will have a daily news show, DC Daily, debuting August 29 at 1:30p with a livestream hosted by Kevin Smith. The filmmaker/actor/comic book author will introduce viewers to the show’s format and content, which offers a deep dive into DC topics.
In September, Shudder will offer 18 films from its curated list including two vampire classics by Dan Curtis, Dracula (1973) and Dead of Night (1977).
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook took down 652 pages, accounts and groups it identified as misleading Facebook users about their identities and goals. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attributed the social media giant’s ability to root out the bad actors to its shift from being “reactive to proactive.”
Facebook is also removing over 5000 ad-targeting options, limiting advertisers’ ability to exclude audiences that relate to attributes like race and religion. “We’re committed to protecting people fom discriminatory advertising on our platform,” said Facebook in a blog post. A pending 2016 lawsuit in California accuses the company of violating civil rights laws by enabling race-based targeting.
Thrillist just launched its first channel on Snapchat Discover, and will publish content five days per week (Wednesday-Sunday). With a dedicated Snapchat team, Thrillist will create interactive games, offer travel tips and deals and connect viewers to other cultures.
CASTING
Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5) is replacing Brent Spiner in the recurring role of Vice President Baker on CW’s Supergirl. Spiner was dealing with family issues that necessitated the switch, according to TVLine….Jane Levy (Suburgatory) will star opposite Renee Zellweger in Netflix anthology thriller What/If….Lauren Ambrose (The X-Files) and Nell Tiger Free (Game of Thrones) landed roles in M. Night Shyamalan’s untitled Apple series….Tyler Hoechlin will return as Superman for the CW’s annual crossover event, joined by yet-to-be-cast Lois Lane.
GOING GLOBAL
News from the Edinburgh TV Festival: UK’s Bob & Co has launched Anthology Group, made up of six television and film production companies. “Our focus is to develop and produce scripted and unscripted television, film, digital and theater content and the new infrastructure will allow us to do that on an international scale,” said Bob Benton.
Peaky Blinders is moving from UK’s BBC Two to BBC One. The drama drew 3.6 million viewers for the season four finale. “When a show really pops like that, it feels like a really good moment t put it on the biggest channel in the country,” said BBC Director of Content Charlotte Moore.
Luke Hyams, head of originals for YouTube EMEA, revealed in Edinburgh that YouTube Premium is set to launch 50 original series in 2019, with some airing as weekly episodes and others dropped for binge-watchers. “We’re looking for things that can only exist on YouTube,” said Hyamns, and that includes shows in development “with people of all shapes and sizes.”
