The first week of the Television Critics Association winter press tour has bore great fruit for new scripted series on cable channels known more their unscripted programming. History Channel, A&E and National Geographic are all adding to their scripted fare with shows about the history of sex, the Navy's SEAL Team Six, and American cult leaders.
The History Channel announced two new series last week including "Knightfall" from executive producer, Jeremy Renner, who may also appear on the show. The 10-episode series is focused on the Knights Templar warriors of the Crusades and will premiere in late 2016.
"Six" is an eight-episode military drama that follows Navy SEAL Team Six whose 2014 mission to eliminate at Taliban leader in Afghanistan goes awry when they uncover a U.S. citizen working with the terrorists. The SEALs real-life missions and the team members' complex lives inspired the series.
Jake Gyllenhaal will team up with A+E Studios to develop an anthology series about major American cult personas. The first season will tackle the Jim Jones story.
National Geographic's "Original Sin: How Sex Changed the World" will explore the "sexual revolution" of the last 50 years and how it has affected culture, science and politics in America and around the globe. It will cover everything from sex on the internet, sex robots in the U.K., Japanese bars that offer women a cocktail while they enjoy a vibrator and Thailand introducing the term "third gender" into its constitution.
The rebranded Freeform, formerly ABC Family, will debut a new series, "Made in LA," based on "The Glitter Plan," the memoir by Juicy Couture founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor. The show comes from producers Mila Kunis and "Gossip Girl" duo Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage.
TV Land ordered a pilot from Melissa McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone, called "Nobodies." The show will be written by and star former Groundlings members Hugh Davidson, Larry Dorf and Rachel Ramras and is inspired by how they watched their friends from The Groundlings go on to star in blockbuster comedies and win Oscars while they toiled away in Hollywood.
BBC America will premiere the "Doctor Who" spinoff "Class" stateside later this year. The network also adds new thriller, "Prey," which will air as two three-part stories and premiere in February 2016.
In the first three episodes, John Simm plays Detective Constable Marcus Farrow, a man on the run, who will do things he never thought possible to clear his name for the sake of his family. The second story stars Philip Glenister as prison officer David Murdoch whose life spirals out of control when he receives an unexpected phone call threatening the life of his pregnant daughter.
Hulu beefed up its original programming with two new series starring TV veterans Hugh Laurie ("House M.D.) and Jeffrey Donovan ("Burn Notice").
Laurie will star in "Chance", based on the novel by Kem Nunn, and play Eldon Chance, a San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist who reluctantly gets sucked into a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness. The show received a two-season, 20-episode order set to premiere in late 2016.
Donovan will headline the drama, "Shut Eye," which takes a darkly comedic look at the underground world of Los Angeles storefront psychics and the organized crime syndicate that runs them. He will play a failed magician who now works as a psychic/conman overseeing a number of fortune telling parlors in Los Angeles.
Known most for a schedule dominated by "Friends," "Seinfeld" and "Big Bang Theory" reruns, TBS is still trying to crack the code on original programming. It has greenlit the comedy "People of Earth," starring "Daily Show" alum Wyatt Cenac, which will join upcoming series "Angie Tribeca" and "The Detour."
Conan O'Brien and Greg Daniels will executive produce the show that centers on skeptical journalist Ozzie Graham (Cenac), who investigates a support group to write about the members' supposed alien encounters. The more he digs into their oddball claims, the more he realizes a semblance of truth to their stories and possibly even signs that point to his own alien abduction.
