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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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AMERICAN IDOL (FOX) - Ken Warwick has signed a new three-year, eight-figure deal with FremantleMedia North America to continue as showrunner of the ratings juggernaut for the foreseeable future. It's believed said pact is the largest of its type for a reality producer. Warwick has been a part of the series since its inception, graduating to sole showrunner in season eight after the departure of Nigel Lythgoe. Simon Fuller also serves as an executive producer via his 19 Entertainment banner.
COMMUNITY (NBC) - Co-star Donald Glover has inked a two-year talent holding deal with Universal Media Studios. The pact includes a blind script commitment for the actor/writer who will write and star in the resulting project. Prior to "Community" Glover served as a staff writer on the studio's "30 Rock."
EXIT 19 (CBS) - Lifetime is redeveloping the failed CBS pilot, about "a Manhattan homicide detective who balanced her job with her duties as the single mother to two kids." Geena Davis toplined the 2008 incarnation, who also starred Amy Farrington, Matthew Lillard, Ramon Rodriguez and Rosie Perez, and was executive produced by Nina Wass and Gene Stein. Jeffrey Bell penned said version, which was originally set up at ABC and ABC Studios. CBS Television Studios subsequently came aboard as part of the CBS pickup. Wass and Stein are presumably still attached to the Lifetime version, which has a script order.
LIGHTS OUT (FX) - Warren Leight ("In Treatment") has joined the drama pilot as an executive producer. Holt McCallany stars in the hour, about Patrick "Lights" Leary, "an aging former heavyweight boxing champion who struggles to find his identity and support his wife (Melora Hardin) and three daughters after his fighting days are over." Leight will serve as the project's showrunner should it move forward to series where he'll work alongside Ross Fineman, creator Justin Zackham and director Phillip Noyce. Separately, Leight has also landed a blind script order from Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope's recently launched production company.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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