Paramount+ greenlit the “Mayor of Kingstown” for a second season. The McLusky family dramas are played out in fictional Kingstown, Michigan, where prisons dominate the local economy. Jeremy Renner, Dianne Wiest, Kyle Chandler, Dillon, Taylor Handley and Emma Laird star. The show launched in November 2021 and became the streamer’s second most-watched original series after “1883”
Upcoming shows and deals:
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Apple TV+ is premiering “Pachinko,” an international drama series, on March 25. The series will be told in three languages – Korean, Japanese and English — based on the bestselling novel of the same name. Epic in scope, the story begins with a forbidden love and journeys across Korea, Japan and America to tell a story of war and peace, love and loss.
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“Rise of the Pink Ladies,” the “Grease” prequel series, has been cast at Paramount+. The musical series is set in 1954, four years before the original “Grease.” Four outcasts have fun on their own terms, challenging the conventions of Rydell High. The series will star Marisa Davila, Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso, Tricia Fukuhara and Jackie Hoffman as Assistant Principal McGee.
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Sundance award-winner “Descendant,” has been acquired by Netflix. Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s production company, will present the film, alongside the streamer. The film won the U.S. documentary special jury award for creative vision. “Descendant” follows members of Africatown, a small community in Alabama, as they share their personal stories and community history as descendants of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to illegally transport human beings as cargo from Africa to America.
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“Ted Lasso” star Brett Goldstein signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. TV Group, the studio behind the hit Apple TV+ series. Goldstein will develop, create and produce new television programming for all platforms, including potentially for WarnerMedia’s HBO Max.
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Pluto TV is streaming an array of films and documentaries for Black History Month in February, including “I Am Not Your Negro,” “Michelle Obama: Hope Becomes Change,” “Jackie Robinson My Story” and “Muhammad Ali: The Greatest.”
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Mexican broadcast Grupo Televisa and U.S- based Univision merged in a $4.8 billion deal. They are also launching the largest, as yet unnamed Spanish-language streaming platform in the world in the first half of 2022. An ad-based version rolls out first, followed by a subscription-based product later, according to Televisa Co-CEO Alfonso de Angoitia. The U.S. and Mexico will get first access before the streamer debuts in Latin America and Spain. The global Spanish-speaking audience totals almost 600 million people.
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CoComelon has been acquired by WarnerMedia Kids & Family to air on Cartoonito on HBO Max and Cartoon Network. It premiered this week. Also, titles from the “Blippi” brand, an animated series of adventures, will also debut on the streamers in April.
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Euronews has signed a partnership for North America and Spain with fuboTV. Under the deal, Euronews’ English language edition and Africanews’ English language edition are now available on the fuboTV platform in the United States. Euronews also partnerships with PlutoTV, Roku, Tubi, Plex and Distro TV.
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Charles Frank’s new documentary “Somewhere With No Bridges,” begins Feb. 15, presented by First Run. Twenty years after a beloved local fisherman, Richie Madeiras, goes missing off the shores of Martha’s Vineyard, a distant cousin locates Richie’s kind, indelible spirit in the stories of family and friends. The doc streams on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and Vimeo.