2020 Preview: 8 Reboots & Spinoffs Coming to TV (PHOTOS)
Star Trek: Picard
When Star Trek: Picard opens, former spaceship captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart, who starred on the syndicated Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994) is grappling with a different enterprise: retirement on his family’s winery.
“He’s not living his best life,” executive producer Alex Kurtzman notes. But a visit from a mystery woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) sends the hero back into orbit faster than you can say “Make it so.”
The exec producer promises appearances from franchise vets such as Brent Spiner (Data), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), and Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) as well as sophisticated storytelling: “It’s more of an adult drama than Star Trek has ever been.”
—Ileane Rudolph
Star Trek: Picard, Series Premiere, Thursday, January 23, CBS All Access
Party of Five
The weepy 1994–2000 Fox drama about five siblings making do after losing their parents gets a topical reboot. Instead of San Francisco’s orphaned Salingers, the Five are L.A.’s Acostas — twentysomething Emilio (Brandon Larracuente), twin teens Beto (Niko Guardado) and Lucia (Emily Tosta), seventh grader Valentina (Elle Paris Legaspi), and 1-year-old Rafa (Arianna/Brianna Cardenas) — left on their own after their Mexican parents are deported.
This new spin sounds almost as heavy as the original, but executive producer Christopher Keyser says, “How the kids manage is the struggle and the fun.”
—Jim Halterman
Party of Five, Series Premiere, Wednesday, January 8, 9/8c, Freeform
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels
Penny Dreadful moves from Victorian-era London, where Dracula lurked, to 1930s Los Angeles, where angel of death Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo) and her demon sister (Natalie Dormer) roam.
“L.A. is a Latino city; our origins are Mexican,” says John Logan, exec producer of the 2014–16 horror show’s spinoff. Indeed, the good guys are the LAPD’s first Chicano detective, Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatta), and his mentor, Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane).
And while no past characters resurface, Logan says Angels shares “the same attention to detail and startling plot twists.”
—Ileane Rudolph
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Series Premiere, TBA, Showtime
9-1-1: Lone Star
Everything is bigger in Texas — even the crises. This Austin-set spinoff of Fox’s first responders series is even more over-the-top, with emergencies that include a runaway rodeo bull in a parking lot and a violent tornado wreaking havoc on the state capital.
“You name it, we’ve got it,” boasts Rob Lowe, who plays vain firefighter Owen Strand.
The skin care–obsessed New Yorker relocates to assemble a team for Austin’s devastated 126 Fire Battalion. He’s cut out for the job since he’s the lone person from his Big Apple firehouse to survive the 9/11 attacks, and he rebuilt that unit from scratch. But in this new gig, his progressive Empire State of mind rubs some the wrong way. “[He has] a different worldview,” Lowe notes.
One of Strand’s adversaries is Michelle Blake (Liv Tyler), who commands the medical unit operating out of the firehouse. Practical and tough, she harbors a private pain: Her sister disappeared in 2017, and Blake is intent on discovering the truth.
“It’s a meaty, cool, Ryan Murphy hook,” Lowe says, nodding to the cocreator. “I’ve never been a part of a show that was this big in terms of ambition.”
—Ryan A. Berenz
9-1-1: Lone Star, Series Premiere, Sunday, January 19, 10/9c, Fox
The Walking Dead: World Beyond
For the second spinoff of The Walking Dead, showrunner Matthew Negrete wanted to tell a coming-of-age story à la the 1986 movie Stand by Me, but in a world with zombies.
“It’s a new take on the apocalypse as we know it,” Negrete says.
Set nearly 10 years after an outbreak turned folks into flesh eaters — roughly the same period as the original Dead — this series features a group of teens who grew up in the crisis and now leave the safety of their compound to venture into a wilderness overtaken by “empties” (aka walkers).
For the youngsters, led by sisters Iris (Aliyah Royale) and Hope (Alexa Mansour), “This is their chance to explore [the world] firsthand,” Negrete says. Adults Felix (Younger‘s Nico Tortorella) and Huck (The Americans‘ Annet Mahendru), who have their own agenda, join their exploration too.
Meanwhile, Julia Ormond plays the charismatic leader of a sophisticated community. And she happens to wear a pin with the same symbol emblazoned on the helicopter that took away hero Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) when he was abducted in Season 9 of the first Dead.
Teases Negrete, “We’ll get into those ties quickly.”
—Emily Aslanian
The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Series Premiere, Spring, AMC
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
The popular 2003–12 home-renovation show has undergone its own major makeover. It has a new home (the former ABC series will now air on HGTV), a new host (Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson), a new team of designers (original host Ty Pennington returns as a skilled laborer) plus celebrity guests, such as LeAnn Rimes and black-ish star Anthony Anderson, who help revamp the houses. The show tackles much-needed demolitions, brand-new builds, and renovations for deserving families who were nominated by their communities to receive upgraded digs.
Loren Ruch, HGTV’s senior vice president of programming, hopes the new version still gives viewers that warm and fuzzy feeling. “It’s a terrific time to celebrate our local heroes,” she explains. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a feel-good show that rewards kind, good-hearted people.”
—John Russell
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Series Premiere, Sunday, February 16, 9/8c, HGTV
The Biggest Loser
The new Biggest Loser is now all about gaining — gaining health benefits, knowledge and a positive outlook, that is. USA’s reboot of the reality competition — which originally ran on NBC from 2004 to 2016 and fielded criticism for the drastic measures contestants took to lose weight — focuses on general well-being. “My personal philosophy is that health is about what you eat, how you move your body, and how you think and feel,” says host Bob Harper, a trainer on the previous incarnation.
Two new fitness experts, Steve Cook and Erica Lugo (who dropped 160 pounds), work with 12 contestants at a facility in Santa Fe, New Mexico, helping them push their bodies beyond their comfort zones. Nutritionists and doctors train their brains, encouraging healthy lifestyles while also getting to the root of their food issues.
“Everyone has a different path,” notes Harper. “What got them to the point where they needed this help? Our goal is to give them the tools to stay the course.”
No matter how tough that may be.
—John Russell
The Biggest Loser, Series Premiere, Tuesday, January 28, 9/8c, USA
FBI: Most Wanted
Julian McMahon has played men who are bad (Fantastic Four‘s Doctor Doom) or morally ambiguous (Nip/Tuck surgeon Christian Troy). Now he’s an honest guy on this spinoff of the hit procedural FBI. As agent Jess LaCroix, McMahon heads up the Bureau’s fugitive task force, created to pursue suspects on the Most Wanted list.
LaCroix, a single father and widower, is “a profiling savant who goes into the perpetrators’ mindsets and uses that skill to get ahead [of them],” McMahon explains. “He really wants to [nab] the bad guy, and he’ll push it as far as he can to get what he needs to get.”
That could also describe LaCroix’s dedicated team, the actor says: “When they get the phone call to go, they leave everything behind.”
—Ileane Rudolph
FBI: Most Wanted, Series Premiere, Tuesday, January 7, 10/9c, CBS
The holiday season is over, but TV has some new gifts you’ll never want to return. Settle in for 12 months of fan-favorite stars (Fran Drescher, Edie Falco), inspiring physical feats (the Olympics), new streaming services, and another must-see season of Outlander.
Another year of television means another year of continuations — in one form or another — and new versions of some of your favorite series.
Click through the gallery above for some inside scoop on the reboots and spinoffs coming to the small screen in 2020 — from Star Trek: Picard to 9-1-1: Lone Star and the latest Walking Dead series.
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