[09/21/11 - 11:24 PM] Development Update: Wednesday, September 21 By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)
LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our signature "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
EXTREME MUSICAL CHAIRS (The CW, New!) - Phil Gurin, Richard Joel and Deena Dill are developing a new competition series which aims to "transform the popular children's game into a physically demanding competition with multiple rounds of elimination set in an indoor obstacle course." 405 Productions and the Gurin Co. are co-producing the project, additional details of which weren't given. Gurin, Joel and Dill then will executive produce. (Variety.com)LIVE FROM DARYL'S HOUSE (Syndication, New!) - The four-year-old internet series will make the leap to syndication this weekend via distributor Trifecta Entertainment & Media. Daryl Hall of rock duo Hall & Oates hosts the series, which features live music performances taking place inside his home. Hall, Jonathan Wolfson and Scott Sternberg are the executive producers for Good Cop Bad Cop Productions and Scott Sternberg Productions. The half-hour series is a go in nearly 80% of the top 200 markets in the U.S., including all of the top 10. WGN America aired a two-hour clip show of the series on New Year's Eve this past year. (Variety.com)MIXED BLESSINGS (NBC, New!) - Singer/songwriter John Legend and former NBC executive Teri Weinberg are developing a new single-camera comedy at the Peacock about "a prominent, black, street-bred hip-hop artist enjoying his single life who discovers that he has a teenage son and decides to connect with him and his white suburban family." Rob Pearlstein ("Medium") has been tapped to pen the half-hour, which is set up at Universal Television. Get Lifted Film Co.'s Legend and Yellow Brick Road's Weinberg then will executive produce alongside Mike Jackson with Pearlstein serving as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)ROSEANNE'S NUTS (Lifetime) - As expected, the network has passed on a second season of the reality series, star Roseanne Barr confirmed on her Twitter account. The series averaged 970,000 viewers and a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 on Wednesday nights for the cable channel before relocating to Fridays at 10:00/9:00c for the remainder of its run earlier this month. The Friday installments averaged 621,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating in said demo.
RUSSIAN DOLLS (Lifetime) - The cable channel plans to marathon the show's final five episodes on Friday, October 7 starting at 8:00 AM ET. The newcomer - which follows the comings and goings of eight men and women in Brooklyn's historic Russian-American neighborhood, Brighton Beach - opened to a modest 975,000 viewers on Thursday nights behind "Project Runway" on August 11, falling to 772,000 viewers the following week, after which it was banished to late-night. Tomorrow marks its seventh installment with episodes eight through 12 then turning up on October 7.
TEEN WOLF (MTV) - The cable channel is reportedly considering doubling up the show's second season order to 24 episodes, which would be filmed back-to-back with a short hiatus between them. The series' freshman run averaged 1.695 million viewers and a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 for the network earlier this year. (Deadline.com)UNTITLED KARYN USHER PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Karyn Usher ("Bones") has booked a potential drama at the network about "the orphaned 17-year-old daughter of a CIA operative who is recruited to become an operative herself." 20th Century Fox Television and the studio-based 21 Laps/Adelstein Productions is behind the hour, with the company's Mary Adelstein, Shawn Levy and Becky Clements executive producing alongside Usher. FOX has given a script order to the project with a penalty attached should it not go to pilot. (Deadline.com)AND IN OTHER NEWS... - Victor Garber is on track to voice the title role on ABC's "Charlie's Angels," which premieres tomorrow (NYMag.com); CCH Pounder will recur on ABC's "Revenge" as the tough-as-nails warden in charge of the juvenile detention center once occupied by Emily Van Camp's Emily Thorne (TVLine.com); Deirdre Lovejoy will guest on "Body of Proof" as the "exhausted and a bit grouchy wife" of John Carroll Lynch's Bud (TVLine.com); Susan Blakely has been cast as the mother of Christa Miller's Ellie on "Cougar Town"(TVLine.com); Alexandra Daddario is bound for a multi-episode arc on "Parenthood" as the new receptionist at Adam (Peter Krause) and Crosby's (Dax Shepard) new business venture (TVLine.com); plus Ken Marino will guest on NBC's "Whitney" as Andy's (Chris D'Elia) older brother (THR.com).
