NETworks News

Showtime Announces Four-Part Documentary Series ACTION

With SXSW 2019 just around the corner, we are excited to reveal five Keynotes as well as more Featured Speakers across 25 Tracks of curated Conference programming.

Showtime Networks Inc. announced that Virginia Lazalde-McPherson has joined the company as Executive Vice President, Business Affairs. Lazalde-McPherson will serve as the company's head of business affairs for the acquisition and production of all scripted and unscripted series, limited series and documentaries. The announcement was made today by Jana Winograde, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc., to whom Lazalde-McPherson will report. 

Lifetime heads across the pond with a follow-up to the 2018 hit movie following the romantic journey of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle with the sequel, Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal (working title).

National Geographic Global Television Networks President Courteney Monroe announced today at the network's TCA presentation that Suzan-Lori Parks, Pulitzer Prize award-winning playwright of 'Topdog/Underdog,' will be executive producer and showrunner for GENIUS: ARETHA FRANKLIN. This upcoming season will be the first-ever, definitive scripted miniseries on the life of the universally acclaimed Queen of Soul.

Bear Grylls is no stranger to National Geographic, having been tapped as host and narrator of the network's upcoming natural history series Hostile Planet, premiering this April. And today, National Geographic announces an additional partnership with Grylls that the network will be the new home of wildly popular hit series Running Wild with Bear Grylls, which is currently in production and slated to premiere in December 2019. National Geographic Global Television Networks' President Courteney Monroe was joined by Grylls on stage during the network's TCA session to make the announcement.

HISTORY's hit UFO drama series 'Project Blue Book,' from A+E Studios and Academy Award and Golden Globe(R) winning executive producer Robert Zemeckis, has landed a 10-episode sophomore season. 'Project Blue Book' is the #1 new series on cable among total viewers this TV season, averaging 3.4 million viewers in Live+3 delivery. Since the series debuted, HISTORY is the #1 entertainment network in cable on Tuesday nights in prime among total viewers.

AMC today announced that it had opened up a writers' room for '61st Street,' a potential new AMC Studios' series from BAFTA-winner Peter Moffat ('Criminal Justice' The Night Of,') as showrunner and executive producer, to be executive produced by Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society ('David Makes Man'). The project is being developed as part of AMC's 'scripts-to-series' model, which opens writers' rooms to develop potential series that, in success, move straight-to-series.

NETworks Presentations announces that the national tour of the Lincoln Center Theater Production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's THE KING AND I, based on the 2015 Tony Award -winning Lincoln Center Theater Production, will make its Madison premiere at Overture Center Tuesday, Feb. 26-Sunday, March 3, 2019 as part of the Broadway at Overture series. Tickets are available at the Overture Center Ticket Office (201 State Street), by phone (608.258.4141) or online (overture.org). Groups of 10+ may be eligible for discounted tickets; for information, please call 608.258.4159.

SHOWTIME announced today it has acquired U.S. rights to THE GO-GO'S, a feature documentary about the most successful female rock band of all time, with plans to premiere the film later this year. Alison Ellwood (HISTORY OF THE EAGLES, American Jihad) will direct the project. The band granted full access for this textured biography featuring candid interviews and archival footage to tell the real story of their meteoric rise to fame and the journeys, triumphs, laughter and struggles along the way.

 Continuing its standing as the definitive home of the most iconic natural history programming on U.S. television, BBC AMERICA announced today two Emmy®-winning and globally renowned series loved by millions will return – Planet Earth III and Frozen Planet II. BBC AMERICA is the U.S. home and co-producer of groundbreaking series Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II, Dynasties and the most recently announced upcoming Sir David Attenborough-narrated series One Planet: Seven Worlds (w/t). The commissions demonstrate the BBC'S unprecedented commitment to natural history of the highest quality. The rare and highly coveted series Planet Earth III will have a truly global scale with crews staying longer in the field than ever before and new technology will be central to its approach. Collectively, these shows will ensure that BBC AMERICA remains the definitive home of natural history programming in the U.S. for the next five years.  

T. Fellowship, in association with Columbia University School of the Arts, announces the next T. Fellow is Rachel Sussman, the seventh fellow in the one year program designed to educate and empower new creative producers. The fellow will receive a stipend of $10,000 with a $20,000 budget for the development of a new theatrical production, and will have access to courses in Columbia's MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program.

The eagerly anticipated series EPIC YELLOWSTONE is set to give audiences a front row seat to the extraordinary spectacle of wildlife and dramatic seasonal extremes in the iconic crown jewel of America's national parks. Hosted by renowned actor and Montana local Bill Pullman, and filmed over the course of three years, the series delivers stories from Yellowstone never told before. The stunning four-part project uses state-of-the art 8K cameras, FLIR thermal imagery, drone timelapse, cineflex aerials and miniature nest cameras to reveal the world of Yellowstone's predators and prey in jaw-dropping beauty – shot fully in the wild with no captive or enclosed animals.  EPIC YELLOWSTONE premieres on Sunday, March 10 at 9 PM ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel and will also be available on the channel's 10-hour 4K On-Demand model. In the lead-up to the event series, Smithsonian Channel will also premiere an all-new episode of the acclaimed and popular AERIAL AMERICA focusing entirely on Yellowstone on Sunday, March 3 at 9 PM ET/PT.

They're back from the grave! BroadwayWorld is excited to reveal that the Broadway transfer of Beetlejuice will welcome back original members of the company including Alex Brightman in the title role, Sophia Anne Caruso as Lydia, Kerry Butler as Barbara, Rob McClure as Adam, Adam Dannheisser as Charles, and Leslie Kritzer as Delia.

SHOWTIME has announced that Academy Award® winner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Anthony Peckham (Invictus) have joined the drama series THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING, inspired by the bestselling novel by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson, currently in development. McQuarrie will executive produce with Heather McQuarrie and the book's authors. Peckham will also executive produce and write the adaptation. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

With climate change at the forefront of the world's natural crises, Smithsonian Channel takes you on a dramatic adventure that reveals an ever-changing Arctic. In MY JOURNEY WITH A POLAR BEAR, viewers will get an intimate look at one polar bear mother's struggle to raise her cubs as her home melts away under her feet. Norwegian filmmaker Asgeir Helgestad worked in the harshest of conditions to document the bear's life over the course of four years, capturing her attempts to hunt and her interactions with other bears while experiencing unprecedented change to the world around her. MY JOURNEY WITH A POLAR BEAR premieres Wednesday, March 6 at 8 p.m. on Smithsonian Channel.

Saturday nights on TLC just got more colorful with the network adding more design flavor to its primetime lineup. WHILE YOU WERE OUT, the revamped home design series will premiere on Saturday, March 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, immediately following the season ten premiere of TRADING SPACES. As the first series co-production between TLC and HGTV, WHILE YOU WERE OUT will premiere simultaneously on both networks with each network brand lending its special flair to the series.

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation announced that it has awarded grants totaling $625,000 to five collaborative public art projects through its Open Spaces Program. The grants will support nonprofit organizations to partner with artists to create temporary, place-based public art projects in Oakland and San Francisco. The projects invite community participation and highlight the significant role that artists can play in creating and expanding public discourse about the most critical issues of our time.