Citytv picks up Peele’s ‘The Twilight Zone’ and ‘Murphy Brown’ reboot
The past will meet the present in Citytv’s upcoming season with timely reboots of “The Twilight Zone” and “Murphy Brown.”
In unveiling Citytv’s 2018/19 schedule on Tuesday, Rogers Media called “The Twilight Zone” “a contemporary twist” on the original 1959-1964 sci-fi series, reimagined for the Trump era by “Get Out” director Jordan Peele. The CBS drama will debut next year.
Meanwhile, the much-anticipated fall return of the investigative journalism sitcom “Murphy Brown” with star/executive producer Candice Bergen is so ofthe-moment, it doesn’t have a pilot yet.
“They didn’t want to produce a pilot because it would be out of date by the time fall was here, so they’re going to be shooting it tight to the airdates and it’ll be very topical,” said Hayden Mindell, vice-president of television programming and content for Rogers Media.
“There’s so much happening obviously in the culture, in the White House, that it’s a perfect time for ‘Murphy Brown’ to be coming back to television.”
Citytv is also adding some new primetime dramas this fall: “A Million Little Things,” about a group of Boston friends rocked by a sudden loss, and “Manifest,” which explores the lives of the passengers and crew of a long-missing flight as they try to understand what happened to them.
Rogers executives likened “A Million Little Things” to the hit family drama “This Is Us,” and “Manifest” to the mystery series “Lost.”
Homegrown fall series include a drama about female codebreakers in the Second World War called “The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco,” and a second season of the Canadian mob thriller “Bad Blood.” “The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco” is a co-production with the U.K.
Mindell said Rogers is looking at new strategies to deliver Canadian content now that its partnership with Vice Canada has ended.
“We’re transitioning from a deep partnership with Vice land to investing what we do in Canada strategically differently, and we’re just in the midst of evolving that,” he said.
“We hope to announce a few new (Canadian) shows in the coming months.”
Rogers has been making “incremental steps” toward bolstering its drama offerings in recent years and this year they feel they’ve “finally gotten” to where they need to be, with a focus on the 10 p.m. timeslot, added Mindell. At the same time, Citytv is also beefing up its comedy offerings with the new season of “The Simpsons” from Global, where the show has been broadcast for about 30 years.