The fun and festivity of San Diego Comic-Con is over and now it’s time to head north to LA and get into the more serious business of the semi-annual Television Critics Association summer press tour, held at the Beverly Hilton.

While the winter portion of press tour has gained prominence due to the sheer number of shows that are now launched each winter (thank you, American Idol), summer remains the time when the press — and by proxy, viewers and fans — finally get to take a close look of everything broadcast and cable networks were talking about at upfronts.

This year’s TCA features lots of new — or new-ish — faces coming to the Hilton ballroom stage, including ABC’s Channing Dungey, who in February became the first black woman to run a broadcast network; CBS’ Glenn Geller in his second TCA; Turner’s Kevin Reilly in his millionth TCA but only his third as head of Turner, MTV’s Sean Atkins, who took over the network less than a year ago; and HBO’s Casey Bloys, who recently replaced Michael Lombardo and who has big shoes, and big drama slots, to fill.

RELATED: After Paul Lee’s Departure, What’s Next for ABC

The tour kicks off with a bang on Wednesday with a whole day dedicated to Netflix. That the streaming video providers — including Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and YouTube — are getting dedicated time on the TCA schedule demonstrates how far all of them have come in just a short while: it wasn’t long ago that the streamers had to fight for even an hour of reporters’ time at tour. Moreover, Netflix is even offering competing sessions in a few time slots, something new that TCA is trying this year.

Netflix currently has a buzzy show with Stranger Things, a drama set in the ‘80s that’s a mix of such beloved ‘80s franchises as The Goonies, ET and Nightmare on Elm Street. Also on the slate is Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down, a hip-hop drama set in Brooklyn in the ‘70s; The Crown, about Queen Elizabeth II; limited series Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life; and Marvel’s Luke Cage, among other things.

RELATED: Luke Cage Makes Good Use of a Car Door in First Netflix Trailer

While critics will be interested in all of that, they’ll also likely question Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos on his $5 billion programming budget and how launching so many shows on the service is affecting the overall marketing and ability of those shows to find an audience.

Following a full first day of Netflix, comes two days of PBS. On Thursday and Friday, CEO Paula Kerger and her team will showcase Ken Burns’ latest, Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War; a Great Performances special on Hamilton’s America, riffing on the runaway success of Broadway’s Hamilton; the debut of Masterpiece’s Victoria, starring Dr. Who’s Jenna Coleman in the title role and seasons two of Poldark and Mercy Street; as well as plenty of political and documentary programming coming up for fall.

TCA moves into four hectic days of cable coverage over the weekend, including sessions with HBO, Nat Geo, Epix in its first appearance at TCA, Discovery, Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, etc.), AMC, A&E, Pop, Turner, Ovation, Starz and TV One. It’s a lot to absorb, but the early highlights include HBO’s session on new drama Westworld, and on new comedies Insecure and Divorce, featuring Sarah Jessica Parker’s return to TV and to HBO post-Sex and the City.

Nat Geo has several big events to discuss, including its new fictional mini-series about the first manned mission to Mars; mini-series/nature doc Savage Kingdom; and the latest adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s Killing So-and-So novels. The latest, Killing Reagan, debuts in October and stars Tim Matheson in the title role and Cynthia Nixon as Nancy Reagan.

TBS will showcase two new comedies and one new drama. People of Earth is a collaboration between the executive producers of Conan and The Office that stars former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac and former SNLer Ana Gasteyer. Search Party comes from executive producer Michael Showalter and stars Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat, with guest-starring roles from Ron Livingston, Rosie Perez, Parker Posey and Christine Taylor. Over on TNT, Good Behavior is prepping to premiere, starring Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery as a thief and a con artist.

Ovation is bringing lush period drama Versailles to the U.S. from Europe, where it was produced by France’s Canal+ with two British producers and aired on BBC Two. Versailles stars George Blagden (Vikings) as Louis XIV.

Starz will panel three of its shows: Ash v. Evil Dead, Power and an ambitious new offering, American Gods, based on Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel and starring Ian McShane.

RELATED: Starz ‘American Gods’ Coming in 2017

Discovery wraps up cable’s time at tour with two panels and a party, and then it’s on to the broadcast networks, with several of them sharing their time with co-owned cable networks.

NBCUniversal has two days at tour, with cable networks such as Bravo, E!, Syfy and USA taking their turns on Tuesday, Aug. 2, and NBC itself occupying Wednesday, Aug. 3. Disney-ABC’s day comes on Thursday, Aug. 4.

The next three days is a hodgepodge of offerings from YouTube, Hulu and others, as well as the TCA Awards on Saturday night, before the network action resumes on Monday, Aug. 8 with Fox, followed by FX on Aug. 9, CBS on Aug. 10 and last but not least, The CW and Showtime on Aug. 11.

Detailed schedules for the networks in the latter part of tour aren’t fully available yet, but all of them will present panels on their new fall shows announced at upfronts.

READ MORE: The Hollywood Reporter

[Cube image of Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at a previous tour courtesy of Variety.]

Tags:


  Save as PDF