Turner Entertainment showered reporters with announcements on Thursday, with news of pick-ups, renewals and the dreaded C word (cancellations) across truTV, TBS and TNT, all of which are now under the creative management of former NBC and Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.

truTV

Billy on the Street has been renewed for a fifth season; good thing, or else Emmy-nominated comedian Billy Eichner would’ve had some stern words for the network.

The show’s fifth season will arrive late 2016, with ten half-hour episodes.

The network also ordered 14 additional episodes of season one of the investigative comedy series Adam Ruins Everything.

Thanks to the success of the show, which originated as a College Humor series, truTV is expanding its relationship with the Big Breakfast production company, evidenced by a pilot order for No Dumb Questions. The series, hosted by College Humor alum Emily Axford, follows a team of comedy journalists asking questions you’ve never thought of, like whether you can flush a whole chocolate cake down a toilet (follow up question: why waste perfectly good cake?).

These moves continue truTV’s rebrand, with the network focusing on comedy, and managing to earn a top-10 ranking among all cable entertainment networks in its time-slots for adults 18-34.

TBS

TBS is introducing four new comedy series to the world:

TBS announced a 10-episode pickup of People of Earth, a Warner Horizon TV series headlined by The Daily Show star and three-time Emmy winner Wyatt Cenac.

Written by David Jenkins, the series is about a support group for alien abductees, as you can glean from the following trailer released today:

The show is executive produced by Greg Daniels (Parks & Recreation, The Office), who directed the pilot, teaming with TBS’ main man Conan O’Brien and his Conaco team, including executive producers David Kissinger, Jeff Ross and Larry Sullivan.

“Having Greg Daniels executive-produce and direct a project for us at such an early stage in the network’s evolution is huge. His keen ability to assemble a brilliant ensemble cast has obviously worked well in the past,” said Brett Weitz, executive vice president of original programming for TBS, in a statement. “Since the launch of CONAN, which has been a brand beacon for TBS for more than five years, we’ve been searching for just the right sophisticated and funny scripted comedy series to develop with our partners at Conaco. I believe we found that in this wonderfully original script by David Jenkins.”

The premiere date has yet to be announced.

But we do know that police procedural comedy Angie Tribeca debuts January 17, and in massive, never before seen fashion: a 25-hour commercial free “Binge-A-Thon” showcasing all ten episodes of season 1.

Hosted by Angie Tribeca star Deon Cole, the marathon will feature appearances by Tribeca leading lady Rashida Jones, executive producers Steve and Nancy Carell, Conan O’Brien and future TBS talk show host Samantha Bee, whose new series Full Frontal with Samantha Bee premieres in February (trailer below).

The event will feature many more guests, including several from upcoming TBS shows like Wrecked, Search Party and Separation Anxiety.

TBS released a bevy of trailers showcasing their upcoming 2016 slate, seen below.

Wrecked, featuring a wacky cast of characters stranded on a desert island following a plane crash. Think Lord of the Flies meets Idiocracy.

Separation Anxiety, a couple’s game show that will necessitate future counseling, coming this March:

The Detour, arriving in April, starring Jason Jones and Natalie Zea as the Clark and Ellen Griswold’s of this zany family vacation sitcom:

Search Party, slated for some time in 2016, stars Arrested Development‘s Alia Shawkat as a woman looking for a missing girl, and direction in her own life:

As reported by Variety, January 25 will mark the premiere date for Conan in Qatar, a special where O’Brien and Michelle Obama visit U.S. troops stationed in the country.

Speaking of the ubiquitous comic, TBS announced that the late night talk show host will return to San Diego for a week in July coinciding with San Diego Comic-Con, according to Variety.

Read more: Variety

TNT

TNT started its day by joining the horror trend on TV in style, with an all-new 2-hour block of both short and long-form storytelling, set to launch for fall 2016. The evening will be curated by Oscar-nominated filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who rebounded on TV with Wayward Pines. The block is headlined by a reboot of the classic anthology series Tales from the Crypt (which was a cult hit on HBO from 1989-1996).

Tales from the Crypt will be based on the original EC Comics as well as new stories, executive produced by Shyamalan and Ashwin Rajan, his partner at Binding Edge Pictures.

“This is a new genre for us in our series efforts and a great chance to partner with M. Night Shyamalan, whose blockbuster hit The Visit reminded movie audiences and critics this past summer that he truly is a master of horror,” said Sarah
Aubrey, executive vice president of original programming for TNT, in a statement. “This two-hour horror block demonstrates not only TNT’s commitment to working with today’s top talents, but also our strategy to stand out in today’s marketplace by challenging the conventional rules of programming and scheduling.”

TNT is expected to announce more horror titles that will be filling the new block in the near future.

While the Cryptkeeper came back from the dead, Father Time came for a couple of TBS shows in decidedly different life stages.

Long-running buddy procedural Rizzoli & Isles will be put into the TBS crypt, cancelled after seven seasons.

“It felt like it was time,” said Reilly at TCA, according to Variety. “Everybody felt good about that.”

Joining the dead pile is Titans, a planned DC comics drama that would’ve featured Dick Grayson, the boy who was Robin to Bruce Wayne’s Batman, and the man who becomes Nightwing.

“We just decided it wasn’t quite where we wanted to go,” Reilly said, according to Variety.

Yesterday, announcements came from Comedy Central, TV Land, Nickelodeon, History Channel, A&E and Nat Geo, which you can find here.

[Tales From the Crypt image courtesy of Variety; cube image courtesy of TBS via The Wrap]

Tags:


  Save as PDF