Cable networks exploring new genres
Diverse portfolios could lift ratings
Cable networks are spreading their wings in search of new viewers.
In an increasingly crowded climate for original programming, several channels are moving beyond the genres on which they’ve built their successes.
-USA is expected next month to announce its first halfhour comedy series, a companion to the Modern Family reruns it will begin airing in fall 2013.
-Drama- heavy TNT this summer airs its first reality competition, The Great Escape, from the producers of Amazing Race.
-Similarly, A&E is developing a potential family competi- tion series with Transformers producer Michael Bay.
-History is plotting Vikings, its first scripted drama series, from Michael Hirst ( The Tudors).
-Hallmark Channel is using two upcoming movies as pilots for its first foray into original weekly drama series.
-And reality-show havens E! and Bravo are planning forays into scripted programming.
E! president Lisa Berger says that “there’s a cachet” with scripted programs that will help the channel broaden its audience to non-kardashian fans. The network will choose one or two among 10 pitches for hourlong light dramas to determine “what is the distinctive E! take on these genres.”
Bravo is expanding into soapy series that complement the network’s reality success. “To really get us to be a player and be in their lavish kids’ parties. “You can sort of imagine how some of the parents on Real Housewives
of Beverly Hills would fit in that world,” she says. “Not that we’re planning that.”
TNT is plotting an escape from its steady drama diet with Es
cape, pitting pairs of amateur Houdinis against each other, due June 24 (10 ET/PT). It’s the first in an overdue “dramatic expansion” of original series led by several reality formats, says programming chief Michael Wright. “Unscripted is as relevant a form of storytelling as scripted is.”
USA comedy prospects include Local Talent, starring Nathan Lane as an aspiring Broadway actor who returns home to his ailing dad in Texas; Paging Dr. Freed, about two brothers who take over their father’s medical practice; and Sirens, Denis Leary’s take on an ER team. the top 10, we need to diversify our programming lineup,” says Bravo chief Frances Berwick.
Bravo’s pipeline includes potential series 22 Birthdays, about private-school parents, set at