First off, congratulations to all writers, producers, actors and agents who landed new series this week. I know it wasn’t easy. Here is Deadline’s annual list of those who excelled at the upfronts. I tried to be inclusive, but if I’ve missed anyone who’s had a banner week, let me know. I’ve also compiled a list of pods and independent producers with multiple broadcast series.
Cougar Town co-creator Bill Lawrence and his Doozer banner had three new series unveiled at the upfronts this week: comedies Undateable on NBC, Surviving Jack on Fox and Ground Floor on TBS. Also, TBS recently renewed Cougar Town for a fifth season.
Related: 2013-14 Schedule Grid & Top Face-Offs
J.J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot claimed one of the top new drama series last season with NBC’s Revolution and one of the hottest sophomore shows with CBS’ Person Of Interest. The company is keeping the momentum with two new series orders for next season: Almost Human at Fox and Believe at NBC.
Independent producer Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment received two new series orders from the broadcast networks: Back In The Game at ABC and Friends With Better Lives at CBS. Additionally, his freshman ABC comedy The Neighbors was renewed and his ABC pilot Bad Management is in serious contention for a series pickup. Kaplan also received two cable series orders in the past month, for Chasing Life on ABC Family and Instant Mom on NickMom, and also has comedy series Wendell & Vinnie on Nick at Nite and pilot HR at Lifetime.
Writer-producer Julie Plec also landed two new series this week, both at the CW: She wrote/executive produces the planted Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals and executive produces The Tomorrow People. Additionally, she executive produces TVD, giving her three series on the air next season. (Fellow Tomorrow People executive producer Greg Berlanti has two, including returning CW hit Arrow.)
Another drama writer-producer, former ER showrunner David Zabel, saw both of his pilots picked up. He is the writer/exec producer on ABC’s Betrayal and co-writer/exec producer on ABC’s Lucky 7. Read More »
Three years after USA Network signaled a move into half-hour comedy with the off-network acquisition of Modern Family and three months before the ABC comedy is to launch on the cable network, USA has greenlighted its first original half-hour comedies in some 15 years: the single-camera Sirens from Denis Leary and Bob Fisher and Playing House, from Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham. Additionally, USA, which is holding its upfront today, has picked up single-camera half-hour comedy pilot Love Is Dead, from writer Zev Borow. USA’s other half-hour pilot, Paging Dr. Freed, is still alive. And USA is in conversations about picking up ABC comedy series Happy Endings.
Sirens and Playing House will premiere in the first quarter of 2014 as companions to Modern Family, which is set to bow on USA on September 24. “With Modern Family joining our lineup in the fall, we can leverage television’s most popular comedy to serve as a powerful launch pad for new originals in this genre,” said USA’s co-president Chris McCumber. Added co-president Jeff Wachtel, “Our new series come from some of the best comedic talent in the business, and reflect USA’s style — with great characters, strong execution and compelling storytelling.” USA ran several half-hour
comedies under the network’s old regime in the 1990s, including Weird Science, USA High and Campus Cops, before USA rebuilt its brand as a home of light, character-driven hourlong series over the past decade. Read More »
Eli Lehrer has been named to the newly created position of SVP and Head of Non-Fiction Development for Lifetime networks, effective July 8. Based in Los Angeles, Lehrer will oversee all non-scripted development for Lifetime, reporting to Rob Sharenow, Lifetime’s EVP of Programming. “Eli has an impeccable reputation as one of the very best development executives in the business,” said Sharenow. Lehrer comes to Lifetime from Bravo, where he was VP, Development and Production. There, he executive produced and developed such series as The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Flipping Out, The Millionaire Matchmaker and Tabatha’s Salon Takeover. Before that, Lehrer served as Manager, East Coast Development at VH1. Lifetime’s non-fiction current programming slate will be headed by SVP Gena McCarthy who continues to report to Sharenow.
America Video Films will screen romantic-comedy Middleton, starring Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga, at Cannes. Adam Rodgers directed from a script he co-wrote with Glenn German. Middleton centers on a once-in-a-lifetime relationship that develops between two strangers over the course of a single day. Edith (Farmiga) meets George (Garcia), while taking their children on a walking tour of a beautiful small college. Failing to connect with their children, George and Edith decide to play “tour hooky” together for the rest of the afternoon. The result is a surprising romance and the greatest half-day of their lives. America Video Films will be selling the pic at Cannes. German, Sig Libowitz and Andy Garcia produced under Garcia’s CineSon Productions banner. Ellen Wander of Film Bridge International and Sonya Lunsford (The Help) were exec producers. Anchor Bay brings the film to North America later this year.
ABC FALL 2013-2014 SCHEDULE
(New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET/PT)
MONDAY
8 PM – Dancing With The Stars
10 PM – Castle
TUESDAY
8 PM – MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
9 PM – THE GOLDBERGS
9:30 PM – TROPHY WIFE
10 PM – LUCKY 7
WEDNESDAY
8 PM – The Middle
8:30 PM – BACK IN THE GAME
9 PM – Modern Family
9:30 PM – SUPER FUN NIGHT
10 PM – Nashville
THURSDAY
8 PM – ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND
9 PM – Grey’s Anatomy
10 PM – Scandal
FRIDAY
8 PM – Last Man Standing
8:30 PM – The Neighbors
9 PM – Shark Tank
10 PM – 20/20
SATURDAY
8 PM – Saturday Night College Football
SUNDAY
7 PM – America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM – Once Upon A Time
9 PM – Revenge
10 PM – BETRAYAL
2013-2014 NEW SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Dramas
Betrayal — A chance meeting between photographer Sara Hadley (Hannah Ware) and Attorney Jack McAllister (Stuart Townsend) leads to an instant and undeniable attraction. Sarah’s husband, Drew (Chris Johnson), is a successful prosecutor with political aspirations, while Jack is married to Elaine (Wendy Moniz), the daughter of his boss, Thacher Karsten (James Cromwell). When Karsten’s brother-in-law Lou is murdered, all evidence points to Karsten’s son, T.J. (Henry Thomas). Jack, the company’s lead counsel, will have to defend him, but for Sara’s prosecutor husband, Drew, this is the kind of high-profile murder case that can secure his political future. Just as Sara and Jack’s affair is starting, the lovers find themselves in an impossible situation — on opposite sides of a murder investigation. “Betrayal” stars Hannah Ware (“Shame,” “Boss”) as Sara, Stuart Townsend (“The … Read More »
ABC is launching eight new series in the fall and taking some big swings, including a Tuesday lineup of all-new series, anchored by Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Rebel Wilson’s hot streak continues, with the rising star landing the post-Modern Family slot for her comedy Super Fun Night. ABC is looking to stem Dancing With The Stars‘ ratings decline by eliminating the Tuesday edition, with the Monday 8-10 PM show incorporating both performances and results. Dancing, as well as The Bachelor, Shark Tank and The Taste have been formally renewed for next season. Here is ABC’s fall schedule, analysis and descriptions of all 13 new series for next season, including newly picked up adventure reality series The Quest from The Amazing Race creators Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri:
Related: ABC To Air Some Dramas In Two Batches Of 12 Episodes
ABC FALL 2013-2014 SCHEDULE
(New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET/PT)
MONDAY
8 PM – Dancing With The Stars
10 PM – Castle
TUESDAY
8 PM – MARVEL’S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
9 PM – THE GOLDBERGS
9:30 PM – TROPHY WIFE
10 PM – LUCKY 7
WEDNESDAY
8 PM – The Middle
8:30 PM – BACK IN THE GAME
9 PM – Modern Family
9:30 PM – SUPER FUN NIGHT
10 PM – Nashville
THURSDAY
8 PM – ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND
9 PM – Grey’s Anatomy
10 PM – Scandal
FRIDAY
8 PM – Last Man Standing
8:30 PM – The Neighbors
9 PM – Shark Tank
10 PM – 20/20
SATURDAY
8 PM – Saturday Night College Football
SUNDAY
7 PM – America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM – Once Upon A Time
9 PM – Revenge
10 PM – BETRAYAL
From ABC’s returning series, left off the schedule are comedy Suburgatory and reality series The Bachelor, which comes on in midseason, and The Taste.
Read More »
The former top Hearst Corp entertainment exec left that gig in March after his involvement in a sexting scandal and now has been hired as Vice Chairman at El Rey Network, the English-language cable network geared toward young adult audiences from Robert Rodriguez and John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa’s FactoryMade Ventures. The Comcast channel will launch in December. Before his job as President of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, Scott Sassa was President, NBC West Coast, from 1999-2002, President of the Turner Entertainment Group, launching TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies during his tenure, and was was on the team that launched Fox Broadcasting Co. At Hearst, Sassa oversaw the company’s interests in ESPN, Lifetime and other networks including the History Channel. He brought Mark Burnett to the fold (Hearst owns 50% of Mark Burnett Prods) and was a producer on Burnett’s blockbuster History miniseries The Bible. El Rey’s first hire, Antoinette Alfonso Zel, is now Chief Marketing Officer.
4TH UPDATE 6 PM: Also getting a pass is nearly frontrunner and Disney-friendly drama Big Thunder, based on the Disney Parks ride, and dramas Reckless and Doubt. Venice aka Westside is not going forward either. It started off well but was eventually overshadowed by fellow soap Betrayal. Also dead is multi-camera comedy Divorce, so ABC ended up passing on both of its multi-cam pilots, including King John, which will make it harder for such pitches next year. Comedy pilot Bad Management is not going for fall but is alive.
3RD UPDATE FRIDAY 5:30 PM: Welcome to Part 2 of ABC’s “pass” calls. Not going forward are comedies Spy, Middle Age Rage and Pulling. I hear Pulling was well liked but ABC brass felt it was too cable in sensibility. I hear ABC Studios plans to shop it elsewhere.
2ND UPDATE 7 PM: Dramedy Murder In Manhattan, about a mother-daughter sleuthing duo, also is not going forward. However, I hear that ABC Studios, which produced the pilot starring Bridget Regan and Annie Potts, is high on it and plans to shop it to cable. With its premise, Murder In Manhattan appears suitable for Lifetime, where ABC Studios successfully migrated another dramedy pilot that narrowly missed at the cut at ABC last year, Devious Maids. ABC is expected to continue with the pass calls tomorrow when it also will pick … Read More »
UPDATE: According to Breaking Bad producer Sony TV, the studio has not closed a deal with Univision for a Spanish-language adaptation. The studio had shot and shopped a Spanish-language Breaking Bad pilot for the U.S. and Latin American markets but has not decided what network(s) it would go with or whether it would proceed with the series at all.
PREVIOUS, 1:31 PM: Spanish-language versions of Breaking Bad and Gossip Girl are among the new shows coming to Univision next season. Ahead of the network’s upfront Tuesday, Univision today unveiled its programming slate for next season. Along with a number of returning series, Univision itself will launch 21 new series plus eight new series on its youth-focused UniMás network and three on its sports-heavy Galavision outlet. The Univision shows include two new big telenovelas, La Tempestad (The Storm) and Mentir para Vivir (Lie So You Can Live). In addition to a lot of sports and 10 documentaries made with Participant Media, Univision will also for the first time adapt English-language series for the Hispanic market. UniMás, Univision’s second broadcast network, will be airing Metastasis, a U.S.-based series patterned on AMC’s Breaking Bad, and Gossip Girl Acapulco, a look at the scandalous lives of Acapulco’s elite based on the CW series. Both are set to debut in 2014, said Univision Communications president and CEO Randy Falco on a conference call today. Falco also said there were a few surprises left to be announced next week in NYC including some new awards shows and a musical reality series set to air in 2014 that Univision Studios is co-producing. Here are the details about the new shows: Read More »
While most folks are focused on next week’s Cannes Film Festival, that’s not stopping the Venice Film Festival from churning out the announcements. Last week, the fest said it would honor William Friedkin with a Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion and today it’s set Bernardo Bertolucci as jury president for the 70th anniversary run. This is the second time Bertolucci will head the panel; his first was back in 1983. Bertolucci has been to Venice several times with his own movies including 1962′s The Grim Reaper, 1968′s Partner, 1970′s The Spider’s Strategum, 1979′s Luna and 2003′s The Dreamers. His 2012 film, Me And You, screened out of competition in Cannes.
Following some controversy on awards night in Venice last year, the festival today outlined the rules for competition prizes. Last year Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix shared an acting Volpi Cup for The Master, which also took the directing Silver Lion, making for an unprecedented three prizes. At the time, it was understood that the jury originally wanted to give the top prize Golden Lion to The Master, but the panel was hampered Read More »
One of the grand doyennes of daytime television for no less than four decades, The Young And The Restless star Jeanne Cooper 
died today. She was 84. It was announced on Twitter by her son, actor Corbin Bernsen, who said she passed this morning “in peace and without fear”. At a time when soap operas are an endangered species on network schedules, the television industry should recall Cooper as an outstanding daytime serial actor whose portrayal of Katherine Chancellor’s complex but oh-so-entertaining small screen life became an integral part of loyal viewers’ extended family. Through bouts of alcoholism and amnesia, umpteen romances and wrecked marriages, incessant meddling mixed with sage advice, Cooper gave her popular character dignity, grace and authenticity. Little wonder that she received 10 Daytime Emmy nominations over her celebrated career, winning once in 2008 after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. She was also nommed for two primetime Emmys and appeared on such programs as Perry Mason, Cheyenne, and The Adventures Of Kit Carlson as well as a regularly recurring role as Bernsen’s mom on LA Law.
EXCLUSIVE: CORE Media Group, which co-produces American Idol, is expanding its unscripted portfolio by acquiring an ownership stake in Rhett Bachner and Brien Meagher’s B17 Entertainment. Under the agreement, signed in a competitive situation with multiple suitors pursuing Bachner and Meagher, CORE will join forces with the duo to develop and produce non-fiction programming and explore multi-platform content opportunities, including mobile games and web-based series. “B17 is a forward thinking production company and teaming up with them fits perfectly into CORE’s overall mission of producing and owning great content for all platforms,” said CORE president Marc Graboff, while the company’s head of U.S. Television Jen O’Connell called B17 ”part of the next generation of great prod companies.”"They’re prolific, and they have such great ideas that are inventive and fresh,” she said. At CORE, Bachner and Meagher join unscripted producer Rob Lee, who signed a deal there a year ago, Matt Sharp, whose company CORE acquired last summer, as well as Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner, whose Hazy Mills Prods. has a deal with CORE for scripted, unscripted and digital projects that fall outside of their deal at NBC. Additionally, CORE recently launched a scripted venture with Noreen Halpern and has Simon Shaps building its international base. Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Beatrice Springborn has joined Craig Zadan and Neil Meron’s Storyline Entertainment as President of television development and production. Springborn, who starts today and reports to Zadan and Meron, has been hired under Storyline’s first-look deal with Universal TV and NBCUniversal’s international TV production division to produce series and specials for both the U.S. and international markets. Springborn also has been tasked with expanding the company’s footprint into genre and book-based series. Additionally, she will shepherd Storyline’s current series, which currently include Drop Dead Diva on Lifetime and Smash on NBC.
For the past two and a half years, Springborn was SVP for Caryn Mandabach Prods. where she oversaw development genre- and book-based series for the worldwide marketplace. She previously was EVP of TV and film production and development at Gale Anne Hurd’s Valhalla Motion Pictures (The Walking Dead). Read More »
UPDATED: With little fanfare, Saturday’s hourlong season finale of Cops actually marked the venerable docu-reality series’ last original airing on Fox. The network signaled that the end was near when it cut back significantly the order for this season to accommodate sports coverage on Saturday. Cops‘ current 25th season did not premiere until December 15 after more than half a year off the air. Cops marked its 850th episode in February, and, with no plans for the show to return to Fox next season, the producer, Langley Prods., started looking for a new home. They’ve found it at Spike TV, where Season 26 of Cops will debut in September, airing in its long-time Saturday 8 PM time slot. As part of the deal, male-centric Spike TV also is acquiring a portion of the Cops library. (The news of the show’s move was first reported by TV Guide.)
This marks the end of an era as Cops was one of the programs that established the Fox brand and the longest-running Fox series currently on the air. Its cancellation comes two years after Fox ended Cops’ long-time companion, America’s Most Wanted, as a regular series. After a two-season stint on Lifetime, AMW again is looking for a new home after the cable network cancelled it a month ago. Cops ended its run on Fox respectably, drawing 2.9 million viewers and a 0.9/3 for its finale … Read More »
Drop Dead Diva begins its fifth season with the first of 13 new episodes on Sunday, June 23 at 9 PM. The fifth-season opener is aptly titled “Back From The Dead”
after the dramedy series was cancelled at the end of Season 4, but Lifetime and Sony Pictures TV made a deal to bring the show back. Brooke Elliott, Margaret Cho, Jackson Hurst, Kate Levering. April Bowlby and Lex Medlin star. The season opener picks ups from last season’s cliffhanger finale with Jane (Elliott) frantically searching for her missing fiancé Owen (Medlin), who disappeared after witnessing her kiss Grayson (Hurst) moments before their wedding. While both Jane and Owen nurse their broken hearts, Jane’s friends and co-workers also are confronted with their own life dilemmas. Newcomer Justin Deely (90210) joins Drop Dead Diva as Jane’s new heavenly guide Paul. Josh Berman is creator and executive producer. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Storyline Entertainment and Robert J. Wilson are exec producers. Lifetime’s new drama Devious Maids will debut immediately following Drop Dead Diva at 10 PM.
EXCLUSIVE: The sweater wearing children’s TV icon Fred Rogers is the subject of A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, an Alexis Jolly spec script that has sold to Justin Nappi and Kevin Turen’s Treehouse Pictures. Nappi and Turen will produce with Treehouse’s Juliet Berman co-producing. Specific details on the storyline are being kept under wraps. Jolly has been a staff writer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and pitched the idea to his APA agents, who helped it find a home at Treehouse.
Said Nappi: “Fred Rogers was such an inspirational man for so many people. His keen ability to find the good in anyone, or anything, will make for a truly inspiring cinematic experience. In literally shaping the world around him to fit into his own unique perspective, he created what is arguably the most influential American children’s television show of all time.”
Fred Rogers came to television after studying music and theology and being ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church. Unsatisfied with how television programming addressed children, Rogers decided to go into broadcasting to change it. He started as an errand boy at NBC, and rose to host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968. The show ran through 2001. It won four Emmys and Rogers got a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997. Jolly is repped by APA, and Melissa Rogal at Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler.
Veteran French Connection and Exorcist helmer William Friedkin will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival later this year. Friedkin has a history with the festival where his 1995 thriller Jade appeared in the Notti Veneziane section. More recently, the gritty Killer Joe ran in competition in 2011. At the 70th edition of Venice this year (August 28-September 7), he’ll present the world premiere of a Warner Bros restoration of the 1977 film Sorcerer, his take on Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Wages Of Fear that starred Roy Scheider. “I consider Sorcerer my most personal film and the most difficult to achieve. To realize that it’s going to have a new life in cinema is something for which I’m deeply grateful,” the director said. Venice chief Alberto Barbera praised Friedkin, saying he “has contributed in a prominent way — the revolutionary impact of which has not always been recognized — to the profound renewal of American cinema regarded as ‘the New Hollywood’.”
CBS was the most nominated network at the 40th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards announced this morning with 50 nominations, almost half of them for soap The Young And The Restless, which was the most nominated program with 23. All surviving soaps on the broadcast networks received a best drama series nomination, plus One Life To Live for its final episodes on ABC. (The Daytime Emmy Awards cover the previous calendar year. OLTL and All My Children‘s reboots by Prospect Park will be eligible next year.) Among talk shows, stalwart The Ellen DeGeneres Show again leads the way with 10 noms and will square off for best talk show with Live!, The View and The Talk. Katie Couric’s freshman syndicated talk show was the only newcomer in the top talk show categories, nominated for best talk show/informative alongside The Doctors and Dr. Oz. However, fellow rookie talk show host Steve Harvey snagged a nomination for his game show host duties on Family Feud.
The National Academy Of TV Arts & Sciences kept with tradition in the morning show category, nominating the three broadcast network morning programs including the embattled Today. Speaking of embattled, Kevin Clash, subject of multiple sexual abuse lawsuits, landed his last nomination as Elmo puppeteer. This year’s Daytime Entertainment Emmy Award for lifetime achievement will be presented to game show veterans Monty Hall and Bob Stewart. The 40th Daytime Emmys will he held June 16 at the Beverly Hilton and air on HLN. Here is a full list of the nominees and tallies by network and by program: Read More »
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