ABC Studios’ The Rookie and CBS’ reboot of Magnum P.I. are among more than 10 titles that CTV brought home from the L.A. Screenings.
The Bell Media channel unveiled the acquisitions Thursday (May 31). In total, CTV secured deals with six studios for series including seven dramas, two dramedies, one comedy and a talk show fronted by actor Alec Baldwin. The titles join the channel’s 2018/2019 lineup.
The Rookie, produced by eOne, is a cop drama about a man who pursues his dream of joining the LAPD while in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Canadian actor Nathan Fillion and Dark Matter‘s Melissa O’Neil star in the show.
In addition, the upcoming legal drama The Fix (produced by ABC Studios and L.A-based Mandeville TV) follows an district attorney who suffers a devastating defeat, flees and later returns to her post to get justice. Canadian writer/director/producer Larysa Kondracki directed the drama’s first episode.
FreemantleMedia North America and Syco Entertainment’s America’s Got Talent: The Champions will also air on the channel. Featuring some of the most popular acts from other Talent franchises, participants will compete against each other in the spin-off.
Among CTV’s other acquisitions is 20th Century Fox Television’s medical drama The Resident starring Canadian actress Emily VanCamp, Universal Television’s spy-hunt thriller The Enemy Within; Ava Duvernay-produced The Red Line from CBS and Universal Television, and 6107 Productions’ The Village, about the families in a Brooklyn apartment.
Dramedies set to bring the tears and laughs in equal measure are Warner Bros. TV’s hour-long FBI series Whiskey Cavalier and God Friended Me (a copro between the U.S. net and Berlanti Productions), about an atheist who received a friend request from God.
The only straight-ahead comedy among Bell Media’s CTV pickups is ensemble The Kids Are Alright (produced by ABC Studios). The series follows a large traditional Irish-Catholic family as they try to navigate America’s most turbulent decades in a working-class neighbourhood outside Los Angeles.
Stars Alec Baldwin and Eva Longoria are also throwing their hats into the TV ring. The Alec Baldwin Show from El Dorado Pictures sees the actor host a one-hour in-depth conversations with various personalities. While, Longoria exec produces the drama Grand Hotel from ABC Studios. Based on the Spanish series, Grand Hotel follows the last family-owned hotel in Miami Beach.
CTV has also tapped the special Abba: Thank You for the Music, an All-Star Tribute dedicated to the band featuring its first new music in 35 years for its upcoming slate.
Last year, CTV’s acquisitions included four comedies and nine dramas with picks like Me, Myself and I, Ten Days in the Valley and the recently cancelled comedy reboot Roseanne. That show, which was initially renewed by ABC, has since been cancelled.
Bell Media also on Friday (June 1) lifted the lid on 10 acquisitions and returning series for its specialty channels. Among those is the spy drama Killing Eve, which will premiere on Bravo on July 22 at 9 p.m. As well, Bell Media picked up a number of other series for yet-to-be announced channels, including L.A.’s Finest (13 x 60 minutes), based on the Bad Boys movie franchise; Deadly Class (10 x 60), directed by the Russo Brothers; One Day She’ll Darken, starring Chris Pine; Gone (12 x 60), starring Chris Noth, the half-hour workplace comedy South Side; and Drew Tarver-starring comedy The Other Two.
