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[11/09/10 - 06:23 PM]
Development Update: Tuesday, November 9
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC) |
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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!
THE ASSAILANT (Discovery, New!) - Renegade 83 ("Man, Woman, Wild") has scored an eight-episode order from the cable channel for a new reality competition series featuring "four contestants from the military and police worlds, all of whom battle to become the 'perfect human weapon.'" Production on the series begins in January. David Garfinkle and Jay Renfroe will executive produce. Also on tap at the network from the company: "The Kennedy Detail," a two-hour special that reunites the five members of JFK's Secret Service detail on the day of President Kennedy's assassination. It airs Monday, November 22 at 9:00/8:00c.
CLOSE QUARTERS (Lifetime, New!) - Catherine Bell ("Army Wives") is set to topline in a new telefilm at the cable channel about "Abby, a happy suburban wife and mother who has been concealing her dark past as a military-trained special-ops agent. But when her husband is mysteriously kidnapped, Abby's past returns to haunt her and she must risk everything to protect her daughter and save the man she loves." Anthony Michael Hall and Mekhi Phifer also star in the project as Abby's husband and a special ops agent she served with in Afghanistan, respectively. Ernest Dickerson is directing from a script by Jolene Rice and Adam Beason, Bell's husband. Gale Anne Hurd's Valhalla Motion Pictures and Sony Pictures Television are co-producing.
EXCUSED (Syndication, New!) - CBS Television Distribution is developing a new dating/competition strip billed as "Blind Date" meets "The Bachelor." Iliza Shlesinger ("Last Comic Standing") will host the project, a pilot for which has already been shot. No other format specifics however were given. David Garfinkle and Jay Renfroe will executive produce via their Renegade 83 banner.
FULL NELSON (FOX, New!) - Jeffrey Lieber ("Miami Medical") is set to reteam with Jerry Bruckheimer Television for a new drama "set in the music industry in the 1980s and follows a woman as she rises in the business." FOX has given a script commitment to the Warner Bros. Television-based project - which is inspired by the experiences of Kathy Nelson, former president of film music for Universal and Disney - with a penalty attached should it not go to pilot. Bruckheimer and Jonathan Littman will then executive produce alongside Lieber with KristieAnne Reed serving as a co-executive producer. Nelson herself will also receive a producing credit.
THE MCCULLOCH (NBC, New!) - Ronald D. Moore has booked a second project at the Peacock, this time a drama about "the men and women of the fictional Coast Guard cutter The McCulloch as they travel around the world." Sony Pictures Television - where Moore's overall deal is based - is behind the hour, which has a script commitment plus a penalty attached should it not go to pilot. Moore previously set up an untitled hour "set in a world ruled not by science but by magic" at the network back in September.
THE MIRACULOUS YEAR (HBO) - The pay channel has reportedly passed on ordering the drama pilot - an examination of a New York family as seen through the lens of a charismatic, self-destructive Broadway composer (Norbert Leo Butz) - to series. Said decision, suggested as the result of the concept's narrow appeal, comes despite the pedigree of screenwriter John Logan, Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and an ensemble cast that included Frank Langella, Hope Davis, Linus Roache, Patti LuPone, Lee Pace and Susan Sarandon.
PERCEPTION (TNT) - Arjay Smith ("Saving Grace") is the latest addition to the drama pilot, about Dr. Geoffrey Pierce (Eric McCormack), "an eccentric neuroscientist who uses his unique outlook to help the federal government solve complex cases." He'll play Pierce's TA, "a perpetual student who has spent nine years in college and has had sixteen majors and not a single degree." Kenneth Biller and Mike Sussman are behind the hour, which is set up at ABC Studios.
THE RABBIT FACTORY (TNT) - "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" alums Steven Weber and D.L. Hughley have scored the lead roles on the drama pilot, about "recently widowed police Detective Mike Lomax and his newly married partner, Terry Biggs, [as they] delve into a world of mystery, intrigue and occasional hijinks." Hughley is set as Biggs with as Weber on board as Lomax, who "continues to receive humorous and heartfelt weekly letters from his wife a year after her death [and] tries to navigate the singles world while also maintaining his pedigree as one of L.A.'s finest." Alan Loeb and Lionsgate Television are behind the hour, which is also executive produced by Steven Pearl and Ken Topolsky. Weber and Hughley are no strangers to the Turner family: the former will appear in a three-episode arc on TNT's upcoming "Falling Skies" while the latter will do the same on TBS's soon-to-launch "Glory Daze."
TORCHWOOD (Starz) - Arlene Tur ("Crash") is set to join the cast of the show's upcoming fourth season. She'll play Vera Juarez, a surgeon, on the series, which returns next year on the pay channel. Casting is underway for two other new regulars: "a sharp-as-nails, funny-as-hell, tough-as-rawhide CIA agent" and "a CIA Watch Analyst who possesses an unshakable faith in human nature."
UNTITLED NICOLE RICHIE PROJECT (ABC) - The Alphabet is revisiting its Nicole Richie-led comedy vehicle, this time with Jeff Rake ("Cashmere Mafia") at the helm. The single-camera effort features Richie as "a professional woman with complicated family relationships who struggles to figure out what role she'll take as her life and her family evolve." Daisy Gardner - under the supervision of Warren Bell - took a stab at the concept last year, which didn't move forward. Jamie Tarses is still on board to executive produce via her Sony Pictures Television-based FanFare Productions while Richie and Impression Entertainment's Michael Baum will receive producing credits.
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[11/21/25 - 01:01 PM]
Netflix Wins Drama Series "Trigger Point" and Orders Hot Package Straight to Series
Joel Edgerton stars in an action crime drama about a group of former Tier One Special Forces Operators who sell their elite skills to the criminal underworld behind the front of a private military contracting firm - and the FBI agent who's hunting for them.
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[11/21/25 - 12:13 PM]
"Henry David Thoreau" to Air on PBS March 2026
The three-part, three-hour film examines the life and work of the 19th-century writer in the context of antebellum New England and the larger United States, as well as through the universal themes he focused on in his writings.
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[11/21/25 - 12:00 PM]
CBS Series Top L+7 Multiplatform Competitive Charts
Seven weeks into the 2025/26 broadcast season, "Tracker" is the #1 series, averaging 14.2 million viewers across broadcast and streaming.
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[11/21/25 - 11:00 AM]
Video: New Trailer of Upcoming Drama "Memory of a Killer" Starring Patrick Dempsey and Michael Imperioli - Premiering This January on FOX
Dempsey stars as a hitman, Angelo Doyle, leading a dangerous double life while hiding an even deadlier personal secret.
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[11/21/25 - 09:00 AM]
What's New on HBO Max This December
New films due next month include "The Family McMullen," A24's "Ne Zha II," A24 documentary "Architecton," and Bleeker Street's "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues."
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[11/21/25 - 09:00 AM]
"TMZ Presents: TMZ's Most Outrageous Moments of 2025" Premieres Tuesday, December 2 at 9/8c on FOX
TMZ brings you an ultimate year-end spectacle packed with the most jaw-dropping moments, epic surprises, and unforgettable blunders of 2025!
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[11/21/25 - 09:00 AM]
Video: We TV Releases Exclusive Sneak Peek of the New Season of "Love During Lockup"
The prequel to "Love After Lockup," "Love During Lockup," reveals the fascinating moments that occur when people in the free world look for love and begin relationships with inmates, capturing their journey as they count down the days, weeks, months, or even years until the anticipated release.
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[11/21/25 - 07:39 AM]
Great American Media Celebrates "Christmas as It's Meant to Be" as the Exclusive Broadcast Home of the 2025 National Christmas Tree Lighting
Great American Media will exclusively broadcast the ceremony on Great American Family Friday, December 5 at 8 p.m. ET, with streaming available on Great American Pure Flix through January 31, 2026.
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[11/21/25 - 06:03 AM]
FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Draw Presentation Features Unprecedented 3 1/2 Hours of Live Coverage on Broadcast Television
FOX Sports' veteran sportscasters Rob Stone and Jenny Taft will anchor the network's on-site broadcast alongside former U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) stars and acclaimed analysts Alexi Lalas and Stu Holden.
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[11/21/25 - 01:01 AM]
Video: "The Night My Dad Saved Christmas 2" - Official Trailer - Netflix
When the sneaky director of a toy company kidnaps Santa, it's up to a father and son to rescue him and save Christmas from disaster.
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[11/20/25 - 04:55 PM]
"Dancing with the Stars" Jumps to Season Highs with Epic "Prince Night"
The show rose dramatically over its year-ago penultimate episode in Total Viewers, with its best semifinals performance in seven years.
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[11/20/25 - 02:50 PM]
Video: Watch the Trailers - "OWN for the Holidays" Returns with Three Festive New Movies
"Fake Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "The Christmas Showdown," and "Very Merry Mystery" are on tap in the coming weeks.
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[11/20/25 - 01:16 PM]
"Christmas in Nashville" Unveils Star-Studded Performer Lineup for Dec. 3 Country Music Holiday Special on NBC
Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers, Lauren Alaina, NE-YO, The War and Treaty and Trace Adkins are set to perform holiday favorites.
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[11/20/25 - 12:32 PM]
"The Tonight Show" Enters the Upside Down - "Stranger Things" Cast to Make a Series of Guest Appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"
Millie Bobby Brown will co-host with Fallon on December 7, which is the final post-"Sunday Night Football" special episode of the season.
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[11/20/25 - 12:30 PM]
Video: Acorn TV Debuts Trailer and Key Art for "The Madame Blanc Mysteries" Two-Part Christmas Special
Created by and starring Sally Lindsay, the special is set to premiere on Monday, December 15 and Monday, December 22, respectively, in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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