PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
ITV Studios America finalized a first-look, two-year deal with actor/director/producer Daniel Dae Kim and his production company 3AD. Kim’s 3AD brought the original Korean format to the US to become this season’s #1 rated new drama series, The Good Doctor; Kim serves as executive producer together with David Shore. Kim left his role on CBS’s Hawaii Five-0 after 7 years after failed salary negotiations.
Endemol Shine North America signed an exclusive deal with Ayesha Curry (Ayesha’s Home Kitchen). The production company will develop original unscripted content with Curry and Flutie Entertainment’s Yardie Girl Productions for Curry to both appear in and also executive produce.
Production has begun on Hallmark Channel’s Meet the Peetes, following the lives of actress/activist Holly Robinson Peete and her husband, former NFL star Rodney Peete. Hallmark Channel’s first reality series premieres in February 2018.
ABC handed a put pilot commitment to The Real Fairy Godmother, a comedy starring Kristin Chenoweth exec produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Universal Television is the studio. The net is also developing The Mighty Quinn, a comedy from writer and stand-up comedian Jen Kirkman.
Bastards, a comedy about a philandering game show host who leaves his mansion to his 3 children, none of whom knew about the others, got a put pilot commitment from Fox. Project comes from Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project), Independence Day: Resurgence writers Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods, Andrew Reich (Friends) and director James Griffiths (The Mayor). ABC Studios and 20th Century Fox Television are producing.
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
The journeys of 3 pregnant teen couples and their parents are documented in TLC’s 6-episode Unexpected, launching Sunday, November 12 at 10p.
Hard to believe it’s time to report this, but Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship premieres Monday, November 6 at 9p, followed at 10p Christmas Cookie Challenge.
The sixth and final season of Netflix’s Longmire starts streaming Friday, November 17. Western drama spent its first 3 seasons on A&E.
ID’s On the Case with Paula Zahn, the true crime net’s first original series, returns Sunday October 29 at 10p. Premiere focuses on a double homicide with a satanic message written in blood.
Maine Cabin Masters is back on DIY with 16 new episodes on Monday, November 27 at 10p. On tight budgets and timelines, master builder Chase Morrill and crew restore forgotten properties.
MTV franchise The Challenge returns with the debut of 8-week special event The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars, hosted by WWE superstar and former challenge competitor, Mike “The Miz” Mizanin. Alumni go head-to-head against 10 celebrity athletes and starting Tuesday, November 21 at 10p.
COMING UP
iHeartRadio annual Jingle Ball Tour, with Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Fall Out Boy and others confirmed to perform (but you knew that if you’re the parent of a tween), will air as a special on The CW on Thursday, December 14, at 8p.
Buzzr landed exclusive TV rights for Game Changers, a documentary exploring game shows and the personalities who shaped the genre. Airing Friday, October 20 on Buzzr affiliates, including airings on primary channels on the Fox O&O stations, the feature will be a game-changer itself, as the network’s first original content.
Velocity and Discovery Channel team up for three days of live action with Barrett-Jackson Live during the 10th annual Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas Auction. The gears are set in motion on Velocity, Thursday, October 19 and Friday, October 20 from 3p-10p. Discovery takes the wheel Saturday, October 21 from 3p-5p, with Velocity taking the final lap from 5p-10p.
Pasiones acquired U.S. rights to Brazilian comedy El Astro (The Illusionist), and both U.S. and Latin American rights to Korean drama El Rey de las Compras (Shopping King Louie). El Astro will premiere on Tuesday, October 10, at 6p; El Rey de las Compras will debut on the network’s Latin American feed on Wednesday, October 11 (times vary by country), and in the U.S. on Monday, October 16 at 5p.
Wednesdays are getting wild again on Smithsonian Channel. Starting with Baboon King on October 18 at 8p, the net’s Wild Wednesday lineup showcases battles animals face to prove their dominance and protect themselves. Lions Unleashed airs November 8, followed by Tiger on the Run on November 15.
Seven nights of deer hunts begin on Sportsman Channel and Outdoor Channel on Sunday, October 15 at 7p. Included in the programming will be a mini-marathon featuring the best deer hunts from Bone Collector, and Luke Bryan on Buck Commander.
No ticket needed - PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center will broadcast Broadway musical Falsettos as part of several weeks of shows from the Great White Way. Air date: Friday, October 27 (check local listings for times).
Cinelatino landed the exclusive U.S. rights to the immigration-themed series Relatos de un Sueño Americano (Stories of an American Dream), premiering Monday, October 16, at 10p.
CASTING
Maria Doyle Kennedy (Orphan Black) and Ed Speleers (Downton Abbey) have joined the season 4 cast of Starz’ Outlander….Miguel Sandoval (Medium) has been cast in ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy firefighters spin-off….Michael Irby (The Unit) landed a lead role in FX’s Sons of Anarchy spin-off pilot, Mayans MC….A nationwide casting call led Fox to 11-year-old Andy Walken, from Seattle, to play the lead in live musical A Christmas Story Live!.
DIGITAL DATA
Acorn TV’s U.S. premieres in November include new BBC One and Acorn TV original drama Love, Lies & Records (date TBD); season 5 of Australian period drama A Place to Call Home (Thursday, November 23); Nordic crime drama Rebecka Martinsson (Monday, November 6); and the season 8 finale of UK’s Doc Martin (Thursday, November 9).
Indie crime comedy Filth City, which reignited a nationwide debate in Canada over controversial Toronto mayor Rob Ford, will be available for streaming on YouTube in the Great White North on November 5. The digital series from LaRue Entertainment comes 4 years after the mayoral scandal exploded worldwide. “I wanted to make an authentically Canadian crime story, and at the time the real Mayor of Toronto was parading around town like a character out of Scarface,” said series director and writer Andy King. “There’s no denying the inspiration, but Filthy City is not the Rob Ford story. It’s a fictional satire about corruption, populism and abuse of power. It just happens to be equally absurd and R-rated.”
Walmart Canada is launching a scripted branded content series, Upstairs Amy, incorporating social media influencers. The dramedy will be produced by Shaftesbury in association with Canadian debit card company Interac. “The series was built on the Walmart and Interac brand values from the ground up,” Kaaren Whitney-Vernon, SVP of branded entertainment for Shaftesbury, told Adweek. Hamilton Beach will be featured in the episodes, which will be available on YouTube.
KIDS CORNER
Nickelodeon‘s Massive Monster Mayem “takes rivalry to a whole new dimension” starting Wednesday, October 25 at 8p. Sci-fi competition series features live-action gameplay by kids playing for prizes, not to mention trying to save the Earth from total destruction.
Pocket.watch has partnered with animator Butch Hartman (Fairly OddParents), who as a senior creative consultant will create and produce 3 new animated series alongside pocket.watch. The series includes one idea based on Hartman’s own creation, another developed directly from an original idea from pocket.watch’s existing development slate, and the third featuring the kids from YouTube family of channels HobbyKidsTV.
Season 4 of The Fred Rogers Company’s Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is coming to PBS Kids beginning summer 2018. The animated preschool show’s run includes 20 new episodes, as well as a one-hour special.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
A+E Networks Korea is expanding into South Korea with the launch of History and Lifetime. “A+E’s venture into the Korean market is particularly meaningful in that it is the first case in which a global media company not only operates channels in Korea, but also invests directly into the content production and distribution as well,” said Youngsun Soh, GM, A+E Networks Korea.
Viacom International Media Networks struck MTV format license deals across Europe, Canada and South America, including a multi-territory format deal for Ex on the Beach and Punk’d in Finland.
Canada’s Omnifilm Entertainment and Reality Distortion Field inked a memorandum of agreement to co-develop and partner on TV series projects, with the goal of accelerating the development of scripted primetime and kid’s projects which already have outside writers attached. Omnifilm/RDF will structure each project for international financing and global markets.
RedSeven Entertainment announced the formation of a multi-year, joint venture to co-produce and distribute local versions of MGM’s unscripted formats , including Steve Harvey’s FUNDERDOME; American Gladiators; Minor Renovations; and Signed.
Electus International is heading to MIPCOM with true crime, adventure and comedy formats, among them Who Shot Biggie and Tupac?; The Toy Box and Running Wild with Bear Grylls.
TV drama SVOD service Walter Presents acquired the streaming rights to Flemish sex squad crime series Code 37 from Attraction Distribution.
Armoza Formats’ reality competition, Curvy Supermodel, has been commissioned in the Netherlands. 8 episodes will air on RTL5 in spring 2018, produced by Tuvalu.
Hat Trick International concluded new deals for Reggie Yates: The Insider with ABC Australia, BBC Brit Africa & Poland, DR Denmark, TV3 Ireland and TVNZ New Zealand. The series launched on BBC Three this September.
UK’s BriteSpark Films, a joint venture with Argonon Group, announced its new arm, BriteSpark West, has its first commission, Bad Tenants, Rogue Landlords, for Channel 5.
Sutikki entered into a deal with kids’ entertainment company UYoung China for its first TV series, Moon and Me. UYoung will manage distribution of the series in Mainland China and a number of other local territories, as well as oversee content re-versioning. Series will premiere next year on the BBC’s CBeebies.
Among the Corus Studios sales for lifestyle series ahead of MIPCOM are Backyard Builds to Australia’s Nine Entertainment and One Africa’s The Home Channel in South Africa; Cheer Squad to Netflix; and Masters of Flip to Israel’s Talit Communications.
Globo is packing new telenovela Rock Story for MIPCOM. The series’ final episode in Brazil was watched by 48 million people.
