Pre-Upfront Deluge Of Pickups, Cancellations; 'Bridgerton' Spinoff; Moonves and CBS Settle

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( May 15, 2021 What's news: NBC sets a comedy-free fall schedule and cuts back on The Voice, Miley Cyrus inks overall deal with NBCU, Black-ish among ABC shows ending, ABC pickups and renewals, Netflix's Bridgerton spinoff, some CBS shows may move to Paramount+. Plus: Former CBS CEO Les Moonves and ViacomCBS settle over his departure, and California beefs up film and TV tax credits program. --Alex Weprin A Pre-Upfront Deluge After a pandemic year scuttled anything close to a normal upfront season, the major TV networks (or more accurately the owners of the major TV networks) are planning something closer to normal this year, albeit in a virtual format. With production back up and running, that means a flurry of pickups, renewals, and cancellations (you can [find our tracker here](... ►NBC's fall schedule: NBC is loading up its fall 2021 schedule with so much drama, it’s not funny," Rick Porter writes. "Literally: For the first time in at least 50 years, the network will start a season with no half-hour comedies on its schedule. NBC is instead saving returning shows Kenan, Mr. Mayor and Young Rock and first-year series American Auto and Grand Crew for early 2022." --The final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, however, will debut on NBC in August following the close of the Summer Olympics. Susan Rovner, chairman entertainment content for NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, told reporters Friday that the lack of comedies in the fall lineup doesn’t reflect a lack of commitment to the genre. “In recent years our comedies haven’t performed as well in the fall, so we’re doubling down in midseason with two big nights of comedy,” she said. [The story](. +NBC is cutting back on The Voice in the 2021-22 season. The network will air only one cycle of the singing competition in the coming season, marking the first time that’s happened since 2012. --NBC has also bulked up on unscripted shows for the back half of the 2021-22 season. The network plans to debut seven shows in 2022: AGT: Extreme, a stunt-based America’s Got Talent spinoff; American Song Contest, a take on the Eurovision contest that features artists from every state; Ava DuVernay’s social experiment Home Sweet Home; game show The Wheel; Dick Wolf-produced docuseries LA Fire and Rescue; the Jimmy Fallon-hosted That’s My Jam; and a revival of genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? [The story](. +NBC has acquitted one of its bubble shows: Law & Order: Organized Crime has been renewed for a second season. Wolf is also entering the unscripted space next season with the docuseries L.A. Fire and Rescue, which follows the real-life firefighters of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. [More](. +Miley Cyrus has signed a wide-ranging overall deal with NBCUniversal. The singer-songwriter, actress and performer will develop and appear in projects across the NBCU Television and Streaming portfolio. The deal includes a development component and a commitment to three specials starring Cyrus. The first of the three, Stand By You, will be a one-hour Pride concert special that will stream on Peacock. [More](. +It’s back to the drawing board for Clueless. Nine months after a mystery reboot of the 1995 cult film landed at Peacock, the NBCUniversal-backed streamer has passed on further developing the comedy. Sources tell THR that the title remains a valuable one for producers CBS Studios, with the ViacomCBS-backed outlet already planning to try its hand at redeveloping a potentially different update of the film that starred Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash. [More](. Meanwhile at ABC... ►ABC pickups: With its renewal decisions completed, ABC is now turning its attention to the new shows that will line its 2021-22 schedule. To that end, the network has ordered hip-hop drama Queens and comedies The Wonder Years, Maggie and Abbott Elementary to series. [The story](. +About those renewal decisions: Entertainment president Craig Erwich has handed out renewals for five of its 10 scripted originals that were on the bubble. Returning for the 2021-22 broadcast season are dramas A Million Little Things (for season four) and The Rookie (season four) as well as comedies The Goldbergs (season nine), The Conners (season four) and Home Economics (season two). [The story](. +All four of ABC’s remaining bubble shows have been canceled as ABC has also passed on four of its remaining pilots. New ABC Entertainment president Craig Erwich has opted to cancel veteran comedy American Housewife (after five seasons), Black-ish’s sophomore spinoff Mixed-ish, freshman drama Rebel and second-year drama For Life. They join Kyra Sedgwick multicam Call Your Mother as scripted originals that will not return to the Disney-backed broadcaster in the 2021-22 season. [The story](. +Kenya Barris’ ABC comedy Black-ish is also coming to an end. ABC has handed out an eighth and final season renewal for its award-winning comedy starring Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson. Barris announced the news in a heartfelt post on social media Friday. [The story](. +Meanwhile, the Call Your Mother news was leaked... by star Kyra Sedgwick: “Before it goes out there in the world I want my fans to be the first to know that next Wednesday will be the last episode of Call Your Mother. You guys have been so wonderful to tune in every week, or every other week or every two weeks! The rollout was nuts!” Sedgwick tweeted, followed by a facepalm emoji. [More](. Netflix Orders a Bridgerton Spinoff ►Netflix is not wasting any time in expanding the world of its mega-hit Bridgerton. The streaming giant has handed out a series order for an untitled spinoff focusing on the story of the origins of Queen Charlotte (played in the flagship by Golda Rosheuvel). Shonda Rhimes will pen the script for what is being billed as a limited series.[The story](. ►CBS has started making decisions on its remaining pilots. The network on Friday handed out series orders to Pete Holmes bowling comedy Smallwood and Sophia Bush-led family medical drama Good Sam. Both pilots had been frontrunners for the past few weeks and were expected to get the green light to join CBS’ 2021-22 schedule. [More](. +Also: Should SEAL Team and Clarice make it to the 2021-22 season, it may not be on CBS — at least not entirely. Sources tell THR that the two dramas, produced by CBS Studios (MGM also produces Clarice), are in discussions to move to Paramount+ next season. The ViacomCBS streaming service is continuing to bulk up its catalog of original series, and the two CBS shows could bring some potential built-in audience with a move. [More](. ►Three days before Fox unveils its schedule for the 2021-22 season, Fox is getting a very early jump on 2022-23. The network has given a straight to series order to Accused, an anthology drama from House and The Good Doctor creator David Shore and Homeland creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. Gordon and Gansa are also veterans of Fox’s 24. [More](. ►ViacomCBS and former CBS CEO Les Moonves have settled their arbitration over the executive’s firing by the company. Under the terms of the settlement, $120 million that had been placed in a guarantor trust will be returned to the company, according to a securities filing Friday afternoon. --“Leslie Moonves, CBS and a contractor to CBS have​ resolved their disputes,” Moonves and ViacomCBS said in a joint statement to THR. “The cost of the settlement will be borne by the contractor. Mr. Moonves has decided to contribute the entire settlement amount to various charities. There will be no further comment regarding this settlement by Mr. Moonves or CBS.” --Per a source, a law firm that led the investigation into Moonves is the contractor cited. A draft of the report was leaked to The New York Times before it had been received by the CBS board. [The story](. ►Governor Gavin Newsom has added $30 million to the state’s film and television tax credits program, thanks to California’s $75 billion budget surplus. Newsom, who is facing a recall, announced the move as part of his $100 billion “California Roars Back” plan, which he laid out during a press conference Friday afternoon from Sacramento. [More](. ►Is Jon Bon Jovi part of a music conspiracy? Are some of the most famous musicians on the globe actively participating in an antitrust conspiracy that could finish off the radio business? That might sound hyperbolic, but it’s exactly what attorneys at the prestigious law firm of Latham & Watkins told a California federal court on Thursday. [The story](. In other news... --SAG-AFTRA’s longtime National Executive Director David White [will step down]( this spring, after 12 years in the role, the guild announced on Friday. --Thomas Bezucha, who helmed last year’s crime thriller Let Him Go, and Ali Selim, who worked on Hulu’s 9-11 drama The Looming Tower, have been [tapped to direct]( Marvel Studios’ latest series, Secret Invasion. --Gillian Anderson [will move]( from playing the prime minister of the U.K. to the mother of a future empress in her next TV role. Anderson (The Crown, Sex Education) has joined the cast of Hulu’s The Great in a recurring role. --Wall Street analysts on Friday [shared their takeaways]( from the Walt Disney Co.’s fiscal second-quarter earnings report, with slower-than-expected Disney+ subscriber growth in the spotlight. --Indiana Jones 5 is [rounding out its cast]( with the additions of Boyd Holbrook and Shaunette Renée Wilson --Robert De Niro [was injured at his home]( in Oklahoma—where he’s currently living to film Martin Scorsese’s big-budget period thriller Killers of the Flower Moon—and is now en route to New York, where he’ll seek medical treatment. --Chuck Hicks, the stuntman, actor and frequent Clint Eastwood combatant whose credits included Every Which Way but Loose, The Twilight Zone, Cool Hand Luke and Dick Tracy, [has died](. He was 93. --The star of Mortal Kombat [has accused]( Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series of not having enough diversity in Middle-earth. What else we're reading... --"The HBO Max boss's script for a new Hollywood" [[WSJ]( --"How the Golden Globes canceled themselves" [[Vulture]( --"What TikTok stars owe The Ellen DeGeneres Show" [[N.Y. Times]( --"'He did good': Michael Che on Elon Musk's turn at SNL, freedom of his new HBO Max comedy series" [[USA Today]( Today's birthdays: Madeleine Albright, 84, Mike Oldfield, 68, Brian Eno, 73, Stella Maxwell, 31, Sophie Cookson, 31. This email was sent to {EMAIL} by Penske Media Corporation. Please add email@email.hollywoodreporter.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. Visit the [Preferences Center]( to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. Copyright © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. 11175 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90025 [View in Browser]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Your Privacy Rights]( | [Ad Choices]( | [Terms of Use]( | [Unsubscribe](