Oxygen has given a fifth-season order to Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. Last season was the most watched of the series and the finale was the biggest telecast in network’s history. The new season is scheduled to air in spring 2010. The show is about the lives of Tori Spelling, husband Dean McDermott and their two children.
Krysten Ritter, Ivan Sergei, Ving Rhames and Rachel Hunter are set to star in Gravity, the 10-episode ensemble series, formerly known as Failure to Fly. It is scheduled to premiere in the spring. Created by Eric Schaeffer and Jill Franklyn, Gravity revolves around a group from an eccentric outpatient program of suicide survivors.
Ritter plays Lily Champagne, a twentysomething clinically depressed outcast looking for the love that her father never gave her. Sergei plays Robert Collingsworth, an ophthalmologist who is despondent following the cancer death of his wife and becomes an Internet celebrity when his suicide attempt goes comically awry. Multihyphenate Schaeffer co-stars as Miller, an NYPD cop who seems to be everywhere Lily is.
Continue reading Ritter, Sergei, Rhames Join Starz’ Gravity »
ABC has given a 13-episode order to The Gates, a crime drama set in a gated suburban community. Written by Richard Hatem and Grant Scharbo, The Gates centers on a big-city cop who becomes chief of police in a seemingly sleepy planned community only to discover there’s much more to the residents than meets the eye.
Production on the series is slated to begin in early to mid-2010, with South America among the locations considered for the shoot. Scharbo and Gina Matthews are executive producing through their Little Engine production banner alongside Hatem. Fox TV Studios will produce the series under its international co-production model. The order is contingent on the production company securing foreign financing.
Showtime has green-lit a pilot for an American version of the British drama Shameless. The American version will star William H. Macy. John Wells and the original series’ creator, writer Paul Abbot, wrote the adaptation and are executive producing the pilot, which will be shot in December. Warner Bros. TV is producing with John Wells Productions. Inspired by Abbott’s childhood growing up in a working-class family with eight children, the BAFTA-winning original series chronicles a dysfunctional family led by alcoholic patriarch Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall).
When NBC aburpty canceled Southland, there was talk of the show moving to another network. The most obvious network was TNT, which shares a corporate parent with Warners Brothers TV, which produces the critically praised series with studio-based John Wells Productions. Southland, which stars Benjamin McKenzie, shot six episodes of its second season before being shut down by NBC last week.
Now its seems like talks have begun. “We continually look at all programming opportunities that fit our portfolio of brands,” TNT said in a statement. TNT has been active in the cop drama genre, from its biggest hit, The Closer to its most recent offering, Dark Blue, both from WBTV’s sister Warner Horizon.
TNT has yet to decide on the future of Dark Blue, which recently wrapped its first season.
ABC has picked up FlashForward for a full season. The show has been a solid performer on Thursday night, boosting ABC’s 8:00 PM/ET time period 32 percent over last year. Even more impressive, its premiere episode was the first regular program since Friends to beat Survivor in the 18-49 demo. New DVR numbers reveal the Joseph Fiennes starrer picked up 2 million viewers for a total of 14.5 million in its Sept. 24 premiere. Rating increased from a 4.1 to 4.9. Last Thursday, ABC picked up comedies Modern Family, The Middle and Cougar Town.
