Small Screen: NBC’s ‘Sovereign’ Set To Bring Native American Representation To Television, Plus A Look Into Shonda Rhimes’ Upcoming Series And Partnership With Netflix
Sheila Ducksworth - Earl Gibson III
Broadcast: CBS has brought on Sheila Ducksworth to lead its new production partnership with the NAACP, which seeks to promote a diversity of voices and expand Black visibility in its scripted, unscripted and documentary programming for both linear television and streaming. Duckworth, prior to joining CBS, worked for Will Packer Media, where she oversaw the development and production of scripted television, and has previously worked as a producer in film, television and documentaries in addition to heading her own production company, Ducksworth Productions. Content from the producer through her Ducksworth Productions has received recognition from the NAACP in the past, as with her Lifetime original film With This Ring (2015) being nominated for three NAACP Image Awards and the Ducksworth-produced Showtime series Soul Food winning seven NAACP awards during its five-season run.
Allen Media Group, the media and entertainment company headed by businessman and producer Byron Allen, recently purchased two channels from MGM. Acquiring the 24-hour broadcast channels This TV and Light TV, the company has continued to expand its portfolio of film and television offerings. This TV focuses primarily on film, while also airing episodes of classic television series, and has been offering these types of content to viewers since 2008. The second acquisition by Allen Media is Light TV, established in 2016, which offers family-friendly content, including films and television series. Both broadcast channels are also available for live viewing online.
NBC will be bringing to network television its first-ever Native American family drama after giving a pilot commitment to Ava DuVernay, Sydney Freeland and Shaz Bennett’s Sovereign. Touching on the themes of life, love and loyalty, the story centers on an Indigenous family’s struggle to maintain the unity of their tribe when both internal and external forces threaten to change the trajectory of their future. Based on a story by DuVernay with the pilot written by Freeland and Bennett, the trio will executive produce alongside film producer Bird Runningwater and ARRAY Filmworks’ Sarah Bremner and Paul Garnes. Sovereign is an upcoming co-production from ARRAY and Warner Bros. Television.
Fresh off its recent season premier, ABC has ordered an additional six episodes for Black-ish’s seventh season, bumping it up to a full, 21-episode season. ABC renewed the series back in June with a 15-episode midseason order but had originally opted to keep Black-ish off its fall slate. The network went back on its decision a few days later after discussing with creator Kenya Barris the need for the series in telling important stories that resonate with current events in American society following the death of George Floyd. After already covering this year’s election with a recent special, Season 7 will feature relevant storylines that focus on major issues going on around the world and within the country today, including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, systemic racism and the growing progressive movements for social justice and equality. A co-production between ABC Signature, 20th Television and Touchstone Television, Black-ish is starred by Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, Marsai Martin, Laurence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, Peter Mackenzie, Deon Cole and Jeff Meacham, and features an executive production team made up of Barris, Courtney Lilly (who also acts as showrunner), Laura Gutin Peterson, Anderson, Fishburne, Helen Sugland, E. Brian Dobbins and Michael Petok.
Ziwe Fumudoh - Bravo/NBCU
Cable: Comedian Ziwe Fumudoh best known for her work as a writer on Desus & Mero and for her YouTube series Baited is set to star in a new variety series from Showtime. The currently untitled project has received a straight-to-series order from the premium cable channel and will feature interviews, sketches and unscripted interactions between Ziwe and the public. Vinnie Malhotra, Showtime’s Executive Vice President of Nonfiction Programming, called the comedian “an auteur voice in comedy and culture,” and expressed his support for Ziwe in “[continuing] to grow her edgy and hilarious brand of commentary on race, politics and everything in-between.”
Writer-producers Peter Ocko and J. David Shanks have each signed multi-year overall deals with AMC Networks’ Entertainment Group to develop and produce original series for AMC and other content companies. Having already been behind series for AMC- Ocko on Lodge 49 and Shanks on the upcoming 61st Street- the two join Ray McKinnon, Rolin Jones and Gina Mingacci as creatives that have received overall deals with the network. Shanks called “[fighting] the ugliness of bigotry and intolerance with the beauty of humanity and art,” an “obligation and responsibility as a storyteller.” He went on to praise AMC as “a respected leader in the television space,” and thanked the network for its commitment to bringing forth “programming that challenges, inspires and elevates its audience.”
Cherish the Day, the OWN original series from Ava DuVernay, has been renewed for a second season. The series follows the day-to-day developments of one couple, with each episode spanning one day in the relationship. With its second season, Cherish the Day will focus on the lives of a completely new couple, featuring a completely different cast while still retaining the show’s original format. The series’ co-executive producers from Season 1, Raynelle Swilling and Terri Schaffer, will return to co-executive produce the second season. Cherish the Day is a co-production for OWN from ARRAY Filmworks, Harpo Films and Warner Bros. Television.
HBO has cast Orange is the New Black star and three-time Emmy Award-winning actress Uzo Aduba to lead its reboot of the medical drama In Treatment. Centered on Dr. Brook Lawrence, a caring doctor who dedicates her focus on her patients while her own personal issues take a backseat, the upcoming series is a female-led reboot of HBO’s first iteration of the drama- which is based on the Israeli series BeTipul- that ran from 2008 through 2010. The upcoming reboot is executively produced by Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, Hagai Levi, Jennifer Shuur, Joshua Allen, Melissa Bernstein, Joanne Toll and Noa Tishby. A co-production between HBO, Leverage, Closest to the Hole Productions and Sheleg, production on In Treatment will begin sometime this year, with the series being slated for a 2021 premier.
Streaming: Netflix has released the first official trailer for Selena: The Series, its upcoming limited series on the life of Mexican American music superstar Selena Quintanilla. The biopic series focuses on the life and career of the famed Tejano singer, starting with her roots in music playing small gigs and follows her rise to becoming the biggest Latin singer on the planet. Throughout its portrayal of her career, the series also delves into her personal relationships, including the sacrifices made by her family as they helped her to achieve massive success and her romance with her bandmate-turned-husband, Chris Pérez. Created by Moisés Zamora and executively produced by Zamora alongside Jaime Dávila, Rico Martinez, Suzette Quintanilla and Simran A. Singh with direction from Hiromi Kamata, the series stars Christian Serratos, Gabriel Chavarria, Ricardo Chavira, Noemí Gonzalez and Seidy López. Selena: The Series will be available to stream on Netflix starting December 4.
Shonda Rhimes recently discussed the upcoming series from her Shondaland production company, with 12 projects currently in the works, as well as her 2017 move from ABC to Netflix. Rhimes’ newest works span a multitude of different genres and topics, including series adaptations of the books The Warmth of Other Suns, Recursion and Bridgerton, an anthology series on love and marriage called Notes on Love and the miniseries Inventing Anna, which is based on the true story of New York society scammer Anna Sorokin. Rhimes’ move to Netflix has been a breath of fresh air for the producer, giving her more creative freedom and removing much of the pressure to constantly put out new content that she was facing at ABC. While Rhimes created a lasting legacy on network television with such hits as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, the demands of network television had become too draining for her as a creative. “I felt like I was dying… Like I'd been pushing the same ball up the same hill in the exact same way for a really long time.” Having cultivated a fantastic relationship with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, showing her appreciation for such Netflix originals as Luke Cage and the interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the move to Netflix was a no-brainer for the creative. For their part, Netflix has worked to accommodate Rhimes and put her in a position to succeed, such as doing away with their typical requirement to produce an entire season’s-worth of scripts before filming after she expressed her opposition to the practice. The first Netflix originals from Shondaland will be released on the streaming platform in the coming weeks, with a documentary on Debbie Allen becoming available to stream starting November 27 and the Regency-era British period drama Bridgerton on December 25, with the highly anticipated Inventing Anna set to come out sometime next year.
The main cast for Apple TV’s upcoming multi-generational Korean immigrant family drama Pachinko has been announced, with Lee Min Ho, Jin Ha, Anna Sawai, Minha Kim, Soji Arai and Kaho Minami headlining the upcoming series based on the 2017 novel from Min Jin Lee. Telling the story of one family throughout four generations, the series focuses on both personal issues such as love, loss and the aim for a better life as well as concrete issues like war and peace. With a story that spans across Korea, Japan and the United States, the series will be told in three languages: Korean, Japanese and English. Lee’s Hansu is a merchant and societal outsider with criminal ties who engages in a forbidden love affair without regard to the consequences of this romance. As Solomon, Ha plays a respectable and charming young man who must face the legacy and secrets his family has left behind. Naomi, played by Sawai, is a career-oriented woman in finance making her way through a male-dominated workforce. Kim’s Sunja survives in the face of adversity as she navigates being in a foreign country. With Mosazu, Arai will portray a businessman and dedicated father who looks out for his son. Rounding out the leads is Etsuko, played by Minami, an estranged mother seeking to reconnect with her daughter. Written and executively produced by showrunner Soo Hugh, Pachinko will be directed by executive producers Kogonada and Justin Chon, with each directing four episodes. In addition to Hugh, Kogonada and Chon, the executive producing slate for the upcoming series also includes Michael Ellenberg Lindsey Springer and Dani Gorin (via Media Res), Theresa Kang-Lowe (via Blue Marble Pictures), Richard Middleton, David Kim and Sebastian Lee.
Jaden Michael has been cast as the high school-aged Colin Kaepernick for Netflix’s upcoming Colin in Black & White. Executively produced by Kaepernick, Ava DuVernay and Michael Starrbury (who also writes the six-episode limited series), the series chronicles the quarterback’s adolescence and how growing up the adopted Black son of a white family shaped his sense of identity, up through his time in the NFL and becoming a civil rights activist. In addition to his executive producing duties, Kaepernick will also narrate and play himself.
