Business

NBCs Paul Telegdy Making Major Midseason Push With Star-Studded Non-Scripted Slate

If Sundays NBC phone call with reporters is any indication, the network will spend a goodish chunk of Mondays Upfront presentation touting its mid-season push on the reality-TV front. Calling it NBCs “most ambitious mid-season in years,” network execs boasted about a slate that includes summer hit Americas Got Talents in-season debut, featuring Simon Cowell as a judge, on Mondays, in January and February, to fill the slot between The Voice editions.

The second summer season of Jennifer Lopezs World of Dance is set to launch this month, after which the series also will get a mid-season run on Sundays after football wraps, in early 2019.

Ellens Game of Games will make mid-season, Tuesdays at 8 PM. And new competition series The Titan Games will feature the professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson as the next NBC reality-TV star with political aspirations. He will host the series in which in which everyday people get a chance to compete, on Wednesdays at 8 PM.

Paul Telegdy, President of Alternative and Reality Group at NBC Entertainment, said it has taken time to get NBCs non-scripted series to this position, adding, “we need to make moves while The Voice is still strong.”

To his point, AGT, which is returning for its 13th summer round on May 29, clocked a 3.5 demo rating and 16 million viewers in Live+7 viewing in its 12th season – the franchises most watched season ever.

Telegdy credited how runners who “really want to twin and changed the show in a thousand ways the audience might not appreciate,” and put the show in peak form. That coincided with AGTs first run in Donald Trumps America, or, as Telegdy described it, a time of “so much change in the country” and in which things familiar, and wholesome, prevail on TV.

The midseason edition is being billed as a spinoff and a “champion” edition, returning competitors from previous seasons and from other markets.

Johnsons series, like Lopezs dance series, is produced at Universal Television Alternative Studio, which was set up in June of 2016. The non-scripted studio, run by Telegdy and Meredith Ahr, is ramping up the number of shows it produced for third party broadcasters and digital services as it starts to move a number of its talent-led formats around the world.

“Thats the next round of headlines from Universal Television Alternative Studio,” he told Deadline.

During Sundays phone call with reporters, one reporter remarked about the names attached to NBCs reality programming being bigger than those attached to its new scripted series.

Telegdy acknowledges the perception that “some sort of arms race for talent going on” in the non-scripted game, but insists NBC is not engaged in that race, and has cut “generous” but “responsible” paychecks for established stars who are looking for a programming partnership.

Those names, he said, understand the value of appearing on a national platform that, in success, has maximum relevance.

And if, like Dwayne Johnson, you are a star with political aspirations, its a very valuable platform. The wrestler turned actor/producer first fueled speculation about a presidential race when GQ published a piece one year ago this month headlined simply, “Dwayne Johnson for President.”

“I think its a real possibility,” he told GQ, when asked if he would make a run at the White House, though he has ruled out 2020.

Should Johnson keep up the will-he-wont-he tease, he wont be the first person to do so while paving his way to the White House starring in an uplifting NBC reality series, in which ordinary people prove their mettle.

Original Article

[contf]
[contfnew]

Deadline

[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]

Related Articles

Business

Pressed by COVID-19 and low oil prices, Nigeria slips into recession

africanews– Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, entered recession for the second time in...

Business

EU Reeling From Yellow Vest Protests. What Happens if There Is a Debt Crisis?

There is a lot of talk about which economic bubble will burst...

Business

EU Reeling From Yellow Vest Protests. What Happens if There Is a Debt Crisis?

There is a lot of talk about which economic bubble will burst...

Business

Till Trump do they part: Top tech firms cut ties with Huawei following US trade blacklisting

Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at...