Hi all, here’s your Morning Update for Friday, September 22, 2017. Have a great weekend!
SCRIPTED NEWS:
Fox Developing Step-Sibling Comedy With Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman Producing
…Fox is developing a comedy series that hails from executive producers Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman. Titled “Step Strangers,” the series would follow five 20-something adults who are forced to become step-siblings after their overbearing divorced mother and oblivious widower father meet on a singles cruise and fall in love. Lauren Caltagirone created the project and will write and executive produce. Banks and Handelman will executive produce under their Brownstone Productions banner. Warner Bros. Television will produce in association with Brownstone.(variety)
‘Homeland,’ ‘Arrow’ Producers Team for Fox CIA Drama
…Howard Gordon and Marc Guggenheim are readying a CIA drama for Fox. The project, titled Classified, has landed at Fox with a sizable put-pilot commitment. The potential series is set in the high-stakes world of the CIA and is described as a character-driven drama focusing on the dedicated attorneys who represent the agency. It revolves around a fearless woman trying to navigate her way to the top while putting out fires professionally and personally. Guggenheim will pen the script and exec produce alongside Gordon and his 20th Century Fox Television-based Teakwood Lane production company. (thr)
NBC Developing Doctor Comedy Starring Sugar Lyn Beard From Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
…NBC has put in development a comedy from Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, Sugar Lyn Beard and Sony Pictures TV, with Beard attached to star. Co-written by Beard and Guy Endore-Kaiser, the untitled half-hour centers on Dr. Olivia Boudreau (Beard), a 35-year-old hard-charging Doogie Howser-style prodigy. When she has a complete breakdown in the operating room and loses her medical license, she is forced to move in with her estranged hippy mom and her mom’s two best friends, who team up to help get her back on her feet, while teaching her all the life lessons she missed by going to med school. (deadline)
Jessica Williams To Topline Comedy In Works At Showtime, Jim Strouse To Direct
…In a competitive situation, Showtime has landed a comedy series project from former The Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams and indie filmmaker Jim Strouse, the duo behind The Incredible Jessica James, with Williams set to star. Williams and Strouse will write and executive produce the comedy, which tells the story of an African American aspiring science fiction writer (Williams) who comes of age in Brooklyn. Strause will direct. Showtime is the studio. (deadline)
‘BoJack Horseman’ Renewed at Netflix for Season 5
…Season four was released earlier this month. (thr)
(review) Variety: ‘Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders’
…This is a show addicted to its own thrills without asking why. Where “People v. O.J.” was an analysis of race and gender masquerading as a trashy, stilted soap opera, this series is simply a soap opera — baited with the barbed hook of reasonable doubt. It’s titillation with a veneer of utility. I confess it is hard to look away. (link)
(review) TVLine: Will & Grace Review: NBC’s Revival Is as Funny as You Hoped, Maybe Funnier
…As you’d expect, the political commentary is on point, savage and funny as hell. Whether a joke is aimed at President Trump or a generation of gays who don’t know Stonewall from Stonehenge, W&G hits the target with impressive consistency. And, at the end of the day, it reminds us that, beneath the barbs and bon mots, the show has a heart that’s as strong as it is soft. (link)
(ratings) What’s a hit on network TV? ‘Big Bang,’ ‘Empire,’ ‘This Is Us’ … and not much else
…In the 2016–17 season, an average episode of a non-sports show on ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC drew a 1.2 same-day rating among adults 18–49. (Throw in live sports and it ticks up slightly to 1.3.) That’s down a little from the Big 4 non-sports average of 1.3 in 2015–16. But despite that lower threshold, fewer series — 10 last season vs. 12 the year before — qualified as hits under our somewhat arbitrary but right-feeling benchmark of 50 percent above average. That means a 1.8 rating or higher. (tvbtn)
CASTING NEWS:
‘The Good Doctor’: Tamlyn Tomita Upped To Series Regular On ABC Drama
…Ahead of Monday’s premiere, Tamlyn Tomita has been promoted to series regular opposite Freddie Highmore in ABC’s new medical drama The Good Doctor. (deadline)
‘Roseanne’ Revival Taps ‘Shameless’ Star for Key Role
…Emma Kenney will play David and Darlene’s daughter on the ABC sequel. (thr)
S.W.A.T. Promotes David Lim to Regular
…CBS is beefing up its S.W.A.T. team ahead of its Nov. 2 premiere, promoting guest-star David Lim to a full-fledged series regular. The Quantico vet — who plays nascent S.W.A.T officer Victor Tan — was an 11th hour addition to the rookie drama’s cast. (tvline)
Matthew Broderick Joins Fox’s ‘A Christmas Story’ Live Musical
…The two-time Tony winner will serve as the narrator. (thr)
NEW MEDIA / SVOD NEWS:
Amazon Prime Video Lands Global Streaming Rights to ATP Youth Tennis Tournament
…After grabbing NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” for this season, Amazon has secured its second live-streaming sports-rights deal in a pact with the Association of Tennis Professionals. (variety)
NON-SCRIPTED / ALTERNATIVE NEWS:
Fox News Channel Launching ‘Fox News @ Night’ At 11 PM, Anchored By Shannon Bream
…Fox News Channel announced it will debut a live news program at 11 PM ET, anchored by Shannon Bream, called Fox News @ Night. The live hour of “hard news and analysis of the most compelling stories from Washington and across the country” will launch October 30, FNC said. (deadline)
INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
Jeff Sagansky, Aaron Kaplan Launch Indian Streaming TV Producer
…Jeff Sagansky and Florence Sloan of Goldenpeak Productions, as well as mega TV producer Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment have teamed with India- and U.S.-based Apoorva Bakshi, Pooja Kohli and Sanjay Bachani of FilmKaravan Originals to form an Indian production firm for streaming video content. Dubbed Golden Karavan, it will be based in Mumbai and create and finance a slate of original local-language over-the-top television programming over the next five years. (thr)
Marvel’s Inhumans fly to Sky1
…Sky1 in the UK has picked up Marvel’s Inhumans, with the series set to air on the entertainment channel this autumn. (c21media)
EXECUTIVE / TALENT NEWS:
Evan Langweiler Promoted to Senior VP of Global Communications for Universal Pictures
…Universal Pictures has upped Evan Langweiler to senior VP of global communications for the studio. (variety)
Rock Paper Scissors Taps Thunder Road’s Kent Kubena As EVP Film & TV Development
…Angus Wall and Linda Carlson’s Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment has tapped former Thunder Road Pictures exec Kent Kubena as EVP Feature Film and Television Development. In his new role, Kubena will oversee all of the production company’s feature film and TV projects, scripted and unscripted. (deadline)
MISCELLANEOUS NEWS:
THR: ‘Riverdale’ Star in Late-Night Car Crash After Working 16-Hour Day
…K.J. Apa, 20, who plays Archie in the Warner Bros.-produced Archie Comics adaptation, apparently fell asleep driving the 45-minute trip home after midnight. He was taken to a local hospital for observation and later discharged without serious injuries. His car, however, didn’t fare as well. The passenger side was apparently destroyed after striking a light pole, and the vehicle was rendered inoperable. The crash has ignited a firestorm of protest on the Riverdale set. The show routinely requires shoots that last until the early morning hours, and the cast and crew are not provided transportation to and from the set. (link)
(analyst) Variety: Pay-TV Losses Could Accelerate to More Than 5 Million U.S. Households per Year, Survey Indicates
…There’s more evidence of a growing subscriber exodus threatening to hit the traditional pay-TV ecosystem. In 2016, the industry dropped about a net 2 million subscribers — and an acceleration of pay-TV losses to more than 5 million annually “does not seem impossible,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Steven Cahall wrote in a report Thursday. (link)
(opinion) Financial Times: Disney should sell ABC and go full stream ahead
…In the five years since subscription streaming took off, the services with the widest array of programming have endured. …Broad therefore looks best and there is one way Disney could make its subscription offering one of the broadest around. It could shift the programming it makes for its ABC broadcast network to the new streaming service — and sell off ABC itself. (link)
T-Mobile, Sprint Close to Reaching Deal on Wireless Mega-Merger
…Shares of T-Mobile and Sprint rose Friday after a report that the two wireless companies were close to reaching an agreement to merge. According to a Reuters report citing anonymous sources, T-Mobile is close to agreeing to “tentative terms” on a combo with Sprint. (link)
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