Small Screen: ‘Kings Of Napa’ Premieres On OWN; ‘Queen Sugar’ Seventh And Final Season Announced; Kathryn Busby Joins Starz
Kofi Siriboe, Rutina Wesley, and Dawn-Lyen Gardner - Queen Suager/OWN
Cable: Janine Sherman Barrois is teaming up with OWN for a new series entitled Kings of Napa. Barrois is known for Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, Claws, and will be acting as the showrunner/executive producer alongside Oscar-winning director Matthew A. Cherry, known for Hair Love. Cherry is going to be directing the first two episodes of the series with Harpo Films. Other eps include: Sherman Barrois will be Michelle Listenbee Brown (Love Is_, Real Husbands of Hollywood) and Oprah Winfrey. Cast: Ashlee Brian, Karen LeBlanc, King Mondschein, Rance Nix, Ebonée Noel, Devika Parikh, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. Kings of Napa will premiere January 11, 2022 at 8pm est.
OWN is ending its longest-running scripted drama series, Queen Sugar, with its upcoming seventh season. Adapted from the book by Natalie Baszile, the show attached Ava DuVernay and Warner Brothers Television to produce. Queen Sugar was the first show created and exec produced by DuVernay to land a series order. DuVernay used the drama, about a Black family in the deep South, as a launchpad for a number of female directors. Through six seasons, 42 women have helmed episodes of the show, 39 of whom made their directorial debut on the show that counts Oprah Winfrey among its exec producers. DuVernay has this to say in a statement: “To everything, there is a season. And my producing partner Paul Garnes and I have had seven gorgeous seasons making Queen Sugar with a remarkable cast and crew, alongside our partners at OWN and Warner Bros. Television. To write and produce seven seasons of a modern drama centered on a Black family is a radical act in our industry and a triumph that has far exceeded every hope I held. Now I feel strongly that the story, which began as a sunrise of a suggestion from Oprah, is ready for its sunset as a dream fully realized. Queen Sugar has been one of the true joys of my career and my gratitude is buoyant and boundless.”
Vanessa Ramos - Universal TV
Streaming: Vanessa Ramos is teaming up with Netflix for a new 10 episode workplace series entitled Blockbuster. Ramos created the series with David Caspe and Jackie Clarker, known for Happy Endings, serving as writers and executive producers. Randall Park is set to star in the single-camera comedy which will take place in the last remaining Blockbuster Video Store. John Davis and John Fox executive produce for Davis Entertainment (Jungle Cruise). With Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and studio-based Davis Entertainment producing as well.
E.tv has a new locally-produced drama series entitled HouseWives. The drama series follows the lives of three desperate housewives that start their own drug cartel after their husbands are murdered by an opposing cartel boss. . The 26 episode series will premiere on the eVOD service before it is even broadcast. The Milton Empire (TME) is producing with Siphosethu Tshapu as executive producer, Siphosethu Tshapu as head writer, and Sevetian Su Ong Maslamoney as director of photography. The eVOD is taking a weekly release approach as opposed to Netflix’s all episodes at once strategy. A new episode will be available every Thursday. Akhona Khumalo (Sive Mabuya), Summer Pietersen (Angela Lieveaux), and Lawrencia "Lolo" Ntsimane (Gabisile Tshabalala) is starring.
Linda Yvette Chavez - Amy Sussman
Industry: Starz has announced a new President of Original Programming to succeed Christina Davis, who left Starz in June. Kathryn Busby, known as the EVP and head of TriStar Television, has left Sony Television to accept the role at Starz. In this new position, Busby will lead the programming and development team trying to maintain the goals set by the company programming mandate committed to narratives by, about, and for women and underrepresented audiences. She will report to the Starz President and CEO Jeffery Hirsch. “Kathryn is an incredible well-seasoned executive who has a long-running track record of developing series with unique voices. We are excited to welcome her to the Starz team where I know she’ll be instrumental in furthering the company’s commitment to delivering programming for women and underrepresented audiences,” Hirsch said in a statement.
‘The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will launch a new Emmy Awards ceremony next year to honor children’s and family content. This will be the first new expansion since 1979 and comes following an agreement earlier this year between New York-based NATAS and its Los Angeles counterparts at the Television Academy (which administers the Primetime Emmys) to consolidate all children’s programming, both daytime and primetime, under NATAS’ domain. NATAS president/CEO Adam Sharp said this in regard to the news: “This is something we have had in the works for a while. That was really testing a hypothesis, reflecting on the immense growth we have seen in the children’s competition categories and the tremendous feedback we’ve been getting from the community that there was enough energy here to sustain a ceremony in itself. At the same time this year, we rolled in those primetime children’s programming categories that had never been in our competition before — awarding children’s programming across all-day parts and not being tied to an arbitrary time on the clock. And so working with our counterparts at the Television Academy, we started to really think about how to spin these categories out of the daytime competition and stand on its own two feet.”
ABC’s Promised Land creator Matt Lopez has signed a multi-year overall deal with ABC Signature, which is part of Disney TV Studios. Lopez’s Promised Land is an epic, generation-spanning drama about the Sandovals, a Hispanic family vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley, premiering on Jan. 24, 2022, on ABC. The series’ all-Hispanic cast (including John Ortiz and Christina Ochoa) and majority Hispanic crew are filled with people whose stories resemble the Sandoval family. Lopez referred to everyone involved with Promised Land as “La Familia” especially when he thinks of Jonnie Davis, Tracy Underwood, and the rest of the creative team. Lopez went on to say “The courage and integrity they have shown in supporting this show make it clear that ABC Signature is committed to telling compelling stories in fresh and exciting ways, and it’s where I want to continue to work and create for years to come.”
‘New Regency, the production entity which counts Little Women, Bohemian Rhapsody, and The Revenant among recent hits, is placing a bet on an original comic book intellectual property. The company has entered into a development and production partnership with TKO Studios, the indie publisher behind Sara, a comic centered on Russian snipers fighting Nazis, and Sentient, a sci-fi story about a colony spaceship. Under the terms of the deal, New Regency will have the right to exclusively develop television projects from TKO’s library of IP. TKO’s Salvatore Simeone and Tze Chun will develop, produce and package all shows with New Regency. Founded by Simeone and Chun in 2017, TKO is known for publishing original comics and graphic novels by top creators such as Jeff Lemire, Garth Ennis, Roxane Gay, Gabriel H. Walta, Steve Epting, Steve Niles, and Steve Orlando, among others.’
Linda Yvette Chavéz known as the co-creator of Gentefied has just inked a multi-year overall deal with the Disney Television Studios. Chavéz “Just take one look at the creators Karey Burke, Carolyn Cassidy, and their teams are uplifting at 20th Television and you’ll quickly see a studio investing in a brighter future for representation in media. I’m thrilled that I get to be a part of this family and add this bold Xicana voice to 20th’s legendary canon of television. We’re about to make some bomb-ass shows together and showcase the gorgeous array of stories that exist in our BIPOC communities. With them as my champions I know there’s nothing we can’t achieve. Hollywood’s not ready.”
