Will young viewers care about a ‘Dynasty’ reboot from ‘Gossip Girl’ creators?
ADD ANOTHER TV reboot to the long list of shows back from the dead: “Dynasty” will debut on the CW this autumn.
The new version of “Dynasty,” the prime-time soap that aired on ABC from 1981 to 1989, is brought to you by executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who created the CW’s “Gossip Girl” and Fox’s “The O.C.” — so, sort of the teen versions of “Dynasty.”
Will that appeal to CW’s core demographic of young viewers, especially since many of them have never heard of the original soap? CW is certainly banking on it.
“I think ‘Dynasty’ is not unlike what we had with ‘ Riverdale’ last year,” CW marketing president Rick Haskins said on a conference call on Thursday, pointing to the network’s success with the drama starring Archie Comics characters. There’s already a built-in audience with fans of the original material, he said, and new viewers will tune in out of curiosity.
CW president Mark Pedowitz called the “Dynasty” pickup a “no-brainer,” especially with Schwartz and Savage at the helm. “We want to be back in business with them,” he said. Their fellow co- executive producers include Sallie Patrick (“Revenge”), Brad Siberling (“Jane the Virgin”) and Esther and Richard Shapiro, who created the original “Dynasty.”
This version of the soap — which airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm, a nod to the original’s time slot for four seasons on ABC — stars Elizabeth Gilles as Fallon Carrington (originally played by Pamela Sue Martin), a socialite who is poised to take over her wealthy father’s global energy empire. But her plans fall apart when her father’s new fiancee Cristal ( Nathalie Kelley), a very young and savvy publicity maven, arrives on the scene.
The only other new show on CW’s fall schedule is “Valor,” which will air after “Supergirl” on Mondays. The series follows an elite unit of US Army helicopter pilots who are sent on a top- secret mission to Somalia, and the aftermath when the trip goes terribly awry. This is the network’s third attempt to launch a military drama, Pedowitz said, so it’s just a coincidence that it will debut at the same time as CBS’s “S.W. A.T.” and NBC’s “The Brave.”
“We will have a very different take,” he said, “because we’re the CW.”
And no, moving “Jane the Virgin” to Friday nights (often known as the TV “death slot”) doesn’t mean the drama is doomed. Executives stressed that they strongly believe in the show, whose ratings are boosted by delayed and digital viewing. And they’re happy to pair it again with “Crazy ExGirlfriend,” another critically loved series heading into its third season. — WP-Bloomberg