Small Screen: ‘General Hospital’ To Celebrate 60th Anniversary, Netflix Cancels ‘Mo’
From top left to right: Donnell Turner, Real Andrews, Tanisha Harper, Tabyana Ali, brook kerr, Cassandra James, Tajh Bellow, Parry Shen, Vernee Watson-Johnson, Robert Gossett, and Lydia Look.
Broadcast: The second season of Criminal Minds: Evolution will be picked up by Paramount+. Evolution, one of Paramount+ top-performing series, is a revival of the well-known series Criminal Minds, which ran from 2005 to 2020. Original cast members Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster return to Evolution as members of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, tasked with tracking down an opportunistic murderer who used the COVID-19 pandemic to construct a network of serial killers. The finale of Season 1 will be released on February 9th.
Cornerstone of the soap-opera landscape General Hospital will celebrate their 60th anniversary this spring. On April 1, cast and crew will present a stage dedication on the Prospect Studios lot, where General Hospital is filmed. The celebration will also see the return of the Nurses Ball, and present a tribute to late series regular Sonya Eddy, who passed away last month. Fan favorites from seasons past, such as Jane Elliot, plan to make appearances as well. Despite its long run, General Hospital is far from irrelevant: last year, the series won five Daytime Emmy Awards, their 15th win in the category. Executive producer Frank Valentini expressed both gratitude and excitement at the show’s long-standing popularity, telling reporters, “Every year is an accomplishment to stay on the air, to be relevant and to be something that people talk about and care about.”
Fox will be developing El Patio, a comedy from iCarly writer Danny Fernandez produced by Two For The Road Entertainment, Kapital Entertainment, and Fox Entertainment. El Patio will follow a group of neighbors who welcome a newcomer, Gabriel Suarez, to their Miami apartment. Gabriel, a Mexican-American hailing from Texas, soon finds out that the cultural differences within the group of neighbors is a source of discord and humor and finds himself embroiled in the neighborly drama almost immediately. Casting choices have yet to be announced. El Patio is the latest product of Two For The Road’s deal with the husband-and-wife team at Kapital Entertainment. The deal is strictly for production, as spouses and founders of Kapital Roselyn Sanchez and Eric Winter are recurring characters in ABC’s The Rookie (Sanchez) and Fox’s Fantasy Island (Winter). Prior to El Patio, Two For the Road and Kapital sold the procedural drama HSI: Puerto Rico to CBS.
NBC has picked up The Irrational, a drama starring Jesse L. Martin. Based on Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational, the series follows behavioral science professor Alec Baker (Martin) as he assists the government and law enforcement in solving crime. Martin has previously appeared as NYPD Detective Ed Green on Law & Order, Captain Joe West on The Flash, and on Broadway as Tom Collins in Rent. The Irrational was adapted for TV by Arika Lisanne Mittman, who counts among her credits South of Nowhere (2005), Timeless (2016) and La Brea (2021).
To nobody’s surprise, ABC has renewed Abbott Elementary for a third season. After winning 3 Emmys in 2022, Abbott took home a Golden Globe for best comedy series this month, as well as acting awards for creator and star Quinta Brunson. The show has been both a commercial and cultural success, with creators and actors from the series engaging in community fundraising efforts after their monumental success. Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. calls the renewal “richly deserved,” citing the slew of awards and accolades achieved in its early run. Abbott’s third season will continue to follow public school teachers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who struggle through underfunding and differences in personality to humorous, heartfelt, and poignant results.
Clayton Cardenas and JD Pardo - Mayans M.C. (Sutter Ink / 20th Television / FXP)
Cable: FX has announced the demise of Mayans M.C. a month after it was renewed for a fifth and final season. The announcement was somewhat expected, as series co-creator Elgin James has spoken publicly about the finale as far back as the season 4 premiere. Hinting at Season 5 being its last, James revealed in 2022 that the show had been “headed [towards a finale] for a while now.” Mayans M.C. is set in the universe of Sons of Anarchy, an FX series which ran from 2008 to 2014. The series covers the Mayans Motorcycle Club on the California-Mexico border as brothers EZ (JD Pardo) and Angel Reyes (Clayton Cardenas) spar with other chapters of the Club. EZ and Angel also struggle within their family, having grown estranged from their father Felipe. Among the cast of Mayans M.C. are Danny Pino, Carla Baratta, Michael Irby, Raoul Max Trujillo, Emilio Rivera, Sarah Bolger, Frankie Loyal, Joseph Lucero and Vincent Vargas.
Black-ish spinoff Grown-ish has been renewed for a sixth season on Freeform. The series is Freeform’s longest-running original, and is expected to reach its 100th episode this season, a rarity for the platform. Grown-ish follows the two oldest children in the original Black-ish series, Zoey (Yara Shahidi) and Andre Jr. (Marcus Scribner) Johnson as they navigate adolescence and young adulthood. Though hit series Black-ish came to an end after eight seasons in 2022, two spinoffs — Mixed-ish (2019-2022) and Grown-ish (2018-) — have seen similar success. Regulars Yara Shahidi, Deon Cole, Trevor Jackson, and Francia Raisa will return to Grown-ish for its upcoming season.
Mo Amer - Mo (Netflix)
Streaming: Mo Amer and Ramy Youssef’s comedy Mo will come to an end on Netflix after its second season. The decision is not a cancellation, however, as creators Amer and Youssef planned for two seasons from the start of the show. Mo follows Palestinian refugee Mo Najjar on his quest to gain asylum in Houston, Texas, finding a loose basis in the creator and star’s own journey to asylum in the United States. Omar Elba, Teresa Ruiz, and Tobe Nwigwe will also return in the show’s final season.
Phill Allen - Creative arts agency
Industry: Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has promoted Pili Allen, among others, from its training program CAA Elevate. The trainees will now be Agents, with Allen serving in the Scripted Television Department. Allen represents names like Kestrin Pantera (Pretty Problems) and Jeff Greenstein (Will & Grace). After graduating with a Finance degree from California State University, Los Angeles, Allen worked in development at Bold Films and in private wealth management at Morgan Stanley. He joined CAA in 2022 as a Television and Motion Picture Literary Coordinator. Allen is currently based in Los Angeles, California.
20-time Emmy winning Hector Ramirez has passed away at 78. Ramirez was a cameraman for awards shows such as the Oscars and Grammys; for shows like Dancing With The Stars; cult classic films like This Is Spinal Tap; scores of music and concert specials (Hell Freezes Over and The Three Tenors in Concert, to name a few); music specials with the Beach Boys, Debby Boone, Fleetwood Mac and Perry Como; and a handful of 1970s sitcoms. Ramirez’s storied career spanned 44 years and more than 200 credits, at one time holding the all-time record for most Emmy nominations for an individual. Ramirez’s most recent credit is the CW’s sketch comedy improv series Whose Line Is It Anyway? His wife of 47 years remembers Hector as a “husband, partner, friend, hero, protector, handyman and cameraman extraordinaire.”