Small Screen: WGA Negotiations Begin, Remembering Lance Reddick
Kelly McCreary - Rodin Eckenroth / Stringer
Broadcast: In yet another series departure, Kelly McCreary will be departing Grey’s Anatomy after nine seasons playing Maggie Pierce. McCreary has played head of cardiothoracic surgery and Meredith Grey’s half sister since Season 10. McCreary’s last episode will air April 13, though she is planned to appear briefly at various times later in the season. Of her time on Grey’s, McCreary said:
“Playing Maggie Pierce has been one of the true joys of my life, and I leave with profound gratitude for every step of this journey. I am excited for this next chapter, and what the future holds.”
McCreary’s character was a perfectionistic doctor who headed cardiothoracic surgery at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Maggie was later revealed to be the biological daughter of Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and Meredith Grey’s mother, Ellis Grey (Kate Burton). During her nine years on the show, Maggie dated DeLuca and Jackson, who also worked at Grey Sloan, and married Winston, one of her residents at Tufts University. Recent episodes of Grey’s have shown marital rifts for Maggie and Winston, with Maggie’s most recent episode ending on an ominous note as Meredith’s voiceover says, “Sometimes, despite our schooling and centuries of medical advancement, the disease wins.” Read McCreary’s statement on leaving the show in full below.
After nine seasons, I am saying goodbye to Maggie Pierce and her Grey Sloan family. It has been a tremendous honor to be a part of such a legendary television institution as Grey’s Anatomy. I will always be grateful to Shonda Rhimes, Krista Vernoff, and ABC for the opportunity, and to the incredible fans for their passionate support. To spend nine years exploring a character inside and out, while reaching a global audience with impactful stories, is a rare gift. It has afforded me an opportunity to collaborate with, learn from, and be inspired by countless brilliant artists both in front of and behind the camera. Playing Maggie Pierce has been one of the true joys of my life and I leave with profound gratitude for every step of this journey. I am excited for this next chapter, and what the future holds.
Terry Crews will executive produce and star in CBS’s comedy pilot JumpStart. Based on Robb Armstrong’s iconic 1989 comic strip, JumpStart follows Philadelphia cop Joseph L. Cobb (Crews), his wife Marcy, and his partner Crunchy. The show will tackle such relevant issues as race relations and police brutality, following Cobb as he grapples with his identity as a Black man and controversies surrounding policing. According to the show’s logline, “Joe and Marcy are young, hip, urban parents with old school values who are willing to sacrifice for their kids and have some laughs while doing it!” Wayne Conley will executive produce with Crews.
Fox is working with comedian Peter S. Kim on the development of No. 1 Supreme Citizen of America, a single-camera hybrid comedy series. The show will follow patriotic immigrant Sun Min Kim (played by Kim) as he learns about the United States on a quest to pass his citizenship test. Kim, a stand-up comedian, writer, and actor, was named Just For Laugh’s New Face of Comedy in 2021 and appears on Amazon’s Fairfax. He has also appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Yes Day, and Spies in Disguise, as well has written for Fox’ Housebroken and several pilots for NBC, ABC, and Disney Channel. Kim will write and executive produce No. 1 Supreme Citizen of America with Jim Margolis as showrunner. No release date has been announced.
Sarah Shahi (Sex/Life, The Rookie) has been cast in the lead of ABC’s new drama pilot Judgement. Shahi will play Mia Bahari in the new legal soap, a successful Appeals Court judge being vetted for a SCOTUS appointment. Bahari, who also works as an attorney, navigates challenges in her romantic life and tries to bury secrets that could cost her her new job. Shahi will will also produce Judgement along with executive producer and writer Joey Falco.
Ronnie Chieng - Jon Kopaloff / Stringer
Streaming: Peacock’s Fresh Prince spinoff Bel-Air has been renewed for a third season. Bel-Air, a drama spinoff of the 1990s comedy starring Will Smith, was inspired by a viral short by Morgan Cooper, and was originally promised two seasons on Peacock. The show has gone through several showrunners during its short life, beginning with Carla Banks Waddles, who was replaced by T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson, then Chris Collins and Empire’s Diane Houston, and finally Brady and Newson again. Despite the turnover, Peacock has declared Bel-Air one of its most successful original series. Bel-Air stars Jabari Banks in Will Smith’s role, with original star Tatyana Ali recurring.
Hulu will not be pursuing a pilot that was to star comedian Ronny Chieng. The project, which was never named, would have featured Chieng as the manager of the Brooklyn Nets and was inspired by the real owner of the team, Joe Tsai. 20th Television hopes to find another outlet for the pilot, which is being developed alongside Jake Kasdan and Melvin Mar. In the meantime, Chieng will continue his work on Hulu’s Interior Chinatown, which tells the story of a background character named Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang) who is trapped in a police drama. Chieng plays Fatty Choi, Willis’ best friend.
Joaquina Kalukango (Lovecraft Country), Lonnie Chavis (This is Us), Rob Morgan (Mudbound), and Ryan O’Nan (Queen of the South) have been cast in recurring roles alongside David Oyelowo and Dennis Quaid in Paramount+’s Bass Reeves. Bass Reeves, from Yellowstone co-creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan, stars Oyelowo as Reeves, the “greatest frontier hero in American history,” who is a federal peace officer in post-Reconstruction America. Kalukango plays Esme, a formerly enslaved woman who is close to Reeves; Chavis plays Arthur Mayberry, a young boy interested in Reeves’ daughter Sally; Morgan will play Ramsey, a time-weary man; and O’Nan will play Darrell Dolliver, one of two outlaw brothers for whom Bass is hunting. Kalukango is the recipient of the 2022 Tony and Drama Desk awards for leading actress in a musical, as well as a 2020 Tony nomination for her performance in Slave Play on Broadway. She was nominated for a SAG award in 2021 for her role in One Night in Miami. Chavis has played the younger version of Sterling K. Brown’s character on NBC’s hit This is Us. He also starred in The Water Man, which premiered at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival. Morgan worked on Oscar-nominated Mudbound and A24’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco. O’Nan has worked on many series, including Big Sky, Queen of the South, Fargo, Ray Donovan, Blacklist, and Person of Interest. He also starred in Kevin Smith’s film Killroy Was Here.
Lance Reddick - Leon Bennett / Stringer
Industry: Lance Reddick, known for his roles on The Wire and John Wick, has died at 60 of natural causes. Reddick’s breakout role was that of Cedric Daniels on HBO’s The Wire, following which he worked on Fringe, Bosch, and Lost. Many remember him for his deep, soothing voice, which he used to voice several characters throughout his career on such projects as The Vindicators, DuckTales, Rick and Morty and Castlevania. Most recently, Reddick has played hotel concierge Charon in the John Wick series, the latest of which, Chapter 4, Reddick had been promoting. Reddick earned his bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, where he sang, wrote, and played piano. After dipping his toe into acting “on a lark,” Reddick was accepted into the Yale School of Drama, where he got several credits to his name before auditioning for The Wire. Colleagues, fans, and peers remember Reddick as a talented and warm person, with his The Wire co-star Wendell Pierce writing, “A man of great strength and grace. As talented a musician as he was an actor. The epitome of class.” Reddick leaves his wife Stephanie Reddick and two children, Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick.
Emmy-winning Karyn Kusama, who currently serves as executive producer on Yellowjackets, has signed with WME. The writer, producer, and director is also known for her work on Golden Globe-nominated Destroyer, as well as The Invitation, Jennifer’s Body, and Sundance-award-winning Girlfight. She has also worked in TV, putting her name on Billions, The Man in the High Castle, Dead Ringers, The Outsider, and The Mysterious Benedict Society. Kusama is managed by Black Bear Management.
LA and NYC talent agency Buchwald has promoted Rob Kim to co-head of its west coast office. Kim, who joined the company in 2019, was previously in the role of Head of Literary, overseeing growth of the agency’s literary division. Kim started out in the mailroom at UTA, where he worked as a TV literary and packaging agent for nearly 20 years, building a clientele including writers, showrunners, production companies, actors, and musicians. Before he joined Buchwald, Kim also served as president at APA. Of his promotion, Kim said:
“It is my great honor to join [president] Julia [Buchwald] and Ryan [Martin] on the leadership team at Buchwald. I relish the opportunity to help chart the continued development and evolution of this amazing company. Don Buchwald has been doing it right for almost a half-century and I am so proud to consider myself just a small part of his ongoing legacy. Plus, we have the best offices and views in town.”
Grey’s Anatomy star Chandra Willson will appear at the first General Hospital Nurses Ball in over two years. Willson is to bring back her role as fashion editor Sydney Val Jean at the Ball, making it her fourth appearance on General Hospital. The return of the Ball is part of the soap’s 60th anniversary celebration beginning March 29, which will begin with a special commemorative episode honoring Sonya Eddy, a series regular who passed away last December. In addition to Willson, fan favorite and Daytime Emmy winner Jane Elliot will return as Tracy Quertermaine. In addition to special episodes and the Nurses Ball, on Friday, March 31, ABC will present the cast and crew with a stage dedication on the Prospect Studios lot, almost exactly 60 years to the day after its first episode aired on April 1, 1963.
Jerah Milligan has signed with CAA. Milligan, most known for starring in Astronomy Club and co-writing and executive producing Sherlock Homies, has made waves as a director, writer, and filmmaker. His short film Mahogany Drive was recently screened at Sundance. Milligan is an alum of Viacom’s Viewfinder: Emerging Directors Program. He also co-hosts a podcast, Black Men Can’t Jump [In Hollywood], focusing on cultural film perspectives. Once signing with CAA, Milligan will continue to be represented by Odenkirk Provissiero and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP.
DARE Pictures, a UK independent production company, has appointed producer and script editor Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe to the new position of head of scripted development. Johnson-Bekoe previously served as senior development executive at Daniel Kaluuya’s production company 59%, where she oversaw the slate and new IP generation. During her time in the scripted development space, Johnson-Bekoe worked on Ted Lasso, Riches, Secret Invasion, and The Chemistry of Death. She has also co-founded Black Women in Scripted and The Colab, collectives designed to help advance industry professionals. Of her new appointment, Johnson-Bekoe said:
“[DARE CEO] Derren [Lawson] has paved the way for many successful and innovative creatives in the industry. I am proud to say I am one of these creatives; and bestowing the opportunity of head of scripted development for DARE Pictures to me, further establishes this legacy. I am truly looking forward to this next chapter – through my entrepreneurship and true passion for scripted, we are going to create subversive and revolutionary content.”
Another bidder has entered the ring with an interest in acquiring BET. Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs joins Tyler Perry, Byron Allen, and other industry names in seeking to buy BET Media Group, which includes BET, BET+, BH1, and BET Studios. Like other bidders, Diddy says his interest in the company comes as part of a “strategy to build a Black-owned global media powerhouse.” Diddy, who last year won the BET Lifetime Achievement Award, told reporters that he would plan to “enlist a collective of high-powered Black businesspeople and entertainers to further build [the company] up,” and believes BET returning to Black ownership would be “better for the business, for the culture and for building wealth in the Black community.” Paramount, the current owner of BET, has not yet entered talks with any of the individuals or groups who have expressed interest in purchasing their stake.
Writers guild of America
Strike Watch: As negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP approach, the WGA has proposed minimum staff numbers for scripted television. Studios, the WGA says, are “squeezing more work out of fewer writers over a shorter time span,” all while paying them less than their work is worth. The union seeks to establish standards for the size and duration of writers’ rooms, doing away with the days when writers like Mike White or Craig Mazin could write entire seasons of scripted television by themselves in one go. David Goodman, co-chair of the WGA’s negotiations committee, says he has spoken with “those members [of the union] who are known for being the single writer on a show,” and that they are in support of the proposal. Of the suggested change, he says:
“We make rules that we have to follow that have to be explained because they’re complicated, but they have value to the overall membership. We can absolutely do that and it’s something we should do.”
WGA leadership is especially focused on setting a minimum number of writers in a writers’ room over a minimum span of time. Whereas in traditional TV, 15 or more writers would work for the period of a full season, the introduction of streaming services has led to some showrunners hiring smaller numbers of writers to write episodes, sometimes full seasons, before the show has even been greenlit. Such writers are making the current guild minimum wage rather than their usual fee. Ellen Stutzman, the guild’s chief negotiator, says,
“It’s not acceptable for the companies to just say, ‘Well now we want you [to] do all the work with fewer people in a smaller amount of time. . . . That’s a major problem for television writers. The guild has to look at saying, ‘This is how the business has operated, this is the amount of time it takes, and so writers have to be employed in that fashion.'”
The proposal is one of many the WGA has put forth to the AMPTP ahead of negotiations. Last week, the union released a Pattern of Demands, outlining issues for discussion including minimum pay scales, changing residual formulas, and capping “span protection” to guarantee above-scale pay for higher income writers. Union officials estimate that the proposals, if adopted, would cost around $600 million annually, about 2% of major studios’ profits. The guild argues that this is a small price to pay to ensure that writers’ compensation grows with the rest of the industry. Stutzman says that as the landscape of media consumption evolves, there emerges a need to “set up new rules and norms” so that writers are not left in the dust. “Writers who exist in [this new] workspace aren’t making their year, can’t support themselves, can’t afford to live in L.A. And that’s just untenable,” she says.
As contract talks between the WGA and AMPTP kick off, the WGA has released a video to its members outlining expectations for the upcoming media blackout. Kay Cannon of the guild’s Negotiating Committee tells members,
“During these first two weeks, your Negotiating Committee and guild staff will be meeting with the companies’ representatives at the AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks. We will be focused on presenting our proposals to the studios, and you won’t be hearing from us unless there is something of consequence to report.”
She warns of “rumors” and press leaks, and counsels members to “take these with a grain of salt,” as they may be intimidation or distraction tactics. “We know it might be frustrating to not know exactly what’s happening in that room when so much is at stake, but we’re just getting started and we will not take any collective action without your input and approval,” she assures. The guild’s Negotiating Committee further outlines and re-affirms the importance of its work and demands, restating their goal of “allow[ing] writers to maintain sustainable careers and be fairly compensated for the work we do.” The AMPTP also released a statement, which reads:
“The AMPTP companies approach this negotiation and the ones to follow with the long-term health and stability of the industry as our priority. We are all partners in charting the future of our business together and fully committed to reaching a mutually beneficial deal with each of our bargaining partners. The goal is to keep production active so that all of us can continue working and continue to deliver to consumers the best entertainment product available in the world.”