Turner television has the biggest stars at the Upfront
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Turner knows drama... and some prominent actors and producers. The Turner cable networks, TNT, TBS and TruTV, trotted out their new slates of original programming in New York today with a little help from Hollywood’s A-list. Turner’s event had the feel of an upfront presentation staged by one of the big broadcast networks, that is back several years ago when the broadcasters were flush with money.
That was just the point. For the second year in a row, Turner has put on its show for advertisers in New York the same week as the industry-leading ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks. Turner is determined to convince advertisers that they have as compelling shows and talent as their broadcast brethren.
And they might be right.
Actor Will Smith was on hand at Wednesday’s presentation and luncheon to support his wife and her new television project which will premiere this summer on TNT. ‘Hawthorne,’ is produced by Jada Pinkett Smith (‘The Women’ and ‘The Matrix’) and she also plays the leading role as Christina Hawthorne, the chief nurse at a Virginia hospital.
Dylan McDermott (‘The Practice’) was under observation too. He will star in another summer TNT series, this one a stylized cop drama, ‘Dark Blue,’ which comes from powerhouse producer Jerry Bruckheimer. His company also produces ‘CSI’ and has sold new shows this week to ABC and CBS. It is Bruckheimer’s first foray into cable television.
The third new summer show from TNT is ‘Wedding Day,’ which comes from DreamWorks Television and Mark Burnett (‘Survivor’) and aims to give deserving couples the most spectacular day of their lives.
TNT also this summer is bringing back its mega-hit, ‘The Closer’ with Kyra Sedgwick for its fifth season, and ‘Saving Grace’ with Holly Hunter for its third season. Two shows launched last year, ‘Raising the Bar’ and ‘Leverage,’ are returning for second seasons.
Later this year, ‘Men of a Certain Age’ reunites comedian Ray Romano and his writing partner Mike Royce from ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ Scott Bakula (‘Quantum Leap’) and Andre Braugher (‘Homicide: Life on the Street’) will join Romano in the show that is as much drama as it is comedy. The trio play life-long friends who are dealing with different issues in middle age. Romano joked to the advertisers that he went to TNT because ‘I wanted to make sure that I made 95% less money’ than when he played Raymond. And, he said, ‘TNT went above and beyond that.’
Tyler Perry added his considerable clout to the Turner family. Perry’s ‘House of Payne’ has been a huge draw on TBS for the last two summers, and TBS plans to unfurl new episodes of Perry’s ‘Meet the Browns’ beginning next week. In July, ‘The Bill Engvall Show’ will return for its third season.
TBS is preparing to mix it up with big broadcasters in late night beginning in November. That’s when the channel plans to launch a late night talk show with comedian George Lopez. ‘My show is going to be like a street party,’ Lopez said, ‘only safer because it will be in your house. .. I’m going to do a show that is so good that Latinos will actually want to get cable.’
Next year, TBS plans to serve up an animated comedy from DreamWorks Animation SKG, Fox Animation and Jeffrey Katzenberg. The half-hour series, ‘Neighbors from Hell,’ revolves around a suburban family of Munster-like characters, the Hellmans, who just happen to be from Hell.
Meanwhile, later this year, TruTV is planning a behind-the scenes look at the National Football League. The show is currently being called ‘NFL Full Contact’ and is being produced in conjunction with NFL Films. In addition, TruTV is in cahoots with the former governor of Minnesota to make a show that delves into the elusive, ‘Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura.’
-- Meg James