Everything We Learned at TCA About What’s in Store for Next TV Season
Preview
To paraphrase a certain seafaring Disney princess who made a splash at this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, we’ve got goodies and big news aplenty about what TV fans can expect as we head into fall and beyond.
• ABC busy bee Jimmy Kimmel reteams with iconic producer Norman Lear for two more Live in Front of a Studio Audience specials, re-creating episodes of TV classics — one to air this holiday season and another next spring. (No word yet on which series will be chosen; the May updates of All in the Family and The Jeffersons were huge hits.) The late-night host also announced he’s taking Jimmy Kimmel Live! back to Brooklyn for a week in October and, with Mark Burnett (The Voice), will produce the game show Generation Gap, in which family members team up to answer questions about one another’s age groups.
• Missing Amy Schumer? You’re in luck! The actress, whose Comedy Central sketch show Inside Amy Schumer ended in 2016, is returning to the small screen to star in the half-hour Hulu comedy Love, Beth (she’ll also write, direct and produce). The 10-episode series premieres next year. Speaking of producing, Connie Britton (Nashville, Dirty John) is developing a series for Prime Video.
• After covering the O.J. Simpson trial and the murder of Gianni Versace, Ryan Murphy‘s American Crime Story will revisit the 1998 Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal for FX. Impeachment, set for a September 2020 debut, is based on the book A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President and stars Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp, Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart) as Lewinsky and Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex) as Paula Jones. The roles of Bill and Hillary Clinton have yet to be cast.
• HBO execs teased the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, starring Naomi Watts and Miranda Richardson and set thousands of years before the action of the original series. The drama has wrapped production and is now in the editing stage, revealed President of Programming Casey Bloys. “We finished shooting the prequel in Belfast,” he said. “I was very excited by the footage we saw, and the cast.”
• Fans of Ariel and Sebastian will head under the sea on November 5 with The Wonderful World of Disney Presents: The Little Mermaid Live. The musical “combines live action, animation and puppetry to celebrate [the animated film’s] 30th anniversary,” said ABC President of Entertainment Karey Burke. Moana‘s Auli’I Cravalho stars as Ariel, Grammy winner Shaggy plays Sebastian the crab and Queen Latifah is the evil sea witch Ursula.
• The reason behind iconic curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge’s scrooginess will be explored in December’s three-episode A Christmas Carol, starring Guy Pearce, on FX. “What I wanted to do is have the audience say, ‘Why is this person like this?'” said writer–executive producer Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders). Scrooge and other characters will be younger than in past iterations and Pearce, 51, doesn’t have to hide his good looks. “They didn’t want a Scrooge where he wears that pain on his sleeve,” said the actor.
• The 71st Emmy Awards, airing September 22 on Fox, will follow in the Oscars‘ footsteps and run minus a host. Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier explained this will give the broadcast more time to honor recently ended hits like The Big Bang Theory, Veep and Game of Thrones.
• With the new BH90210 getting buzz and upcoming streaming service HBO Max announcing a Gossip Girl spinoff, producer Kevin Williamson was asked about the possibility of rebooting or reviving his 1998–2003 dramedy Dawson’s Creek. But don’t expect a return trip to Capeside. “It’s not in the pipeline, no,” he said. “We kind of ended it. The last episode was [set] five years in the future…and Jen [Michelle Williams], you know, died.”
• Some big renewals were announced, including The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise (ABC), Love Island (CBS), Atlanta and Snowfall (FX), The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), City on a Hill (Showtime) and Animal Kingdom (TNT).
• And alas, the following cancellations were also revealed: The Proposal (ABC), Paradise Hotel (Fox) and Forever, Lore, Patriot, The Romanoffs and Too Old to Die Young (Prime Video).
Reporting by Emily Aslanian, Jim Halterman and Damian Holbrook
