TV News Wrap-Up: Jeremy Tardy Exits ‘Dear White People,’ AMC Announces Final Season of ‘The Walking Dead,’ New ‘Black-ish’ Series in Development at ABC

We’re moving into the time of year when network shows would be premiering their new seasons but shows are only now starting to move into production. 

That isn’t stopping networks from placing new series in development, and ordering projects to series. Of course, there is also some sad news, with a beloved series announcing its final run, but also giving fans a new spin-off to look forward to. 

Take a look at the highlights from this week in TV news in this week’s TV news wrap-up. 

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Scripted Joe Exotic series starring Nicolas Cage is in the works at Amazon.

• Deadline reports, the series will be co-produced by Amazon Studios, Imagine Television Studios, and CBS Television Studios and hails from Brian Grazer, American Vandal showrunner Dan Lagana, and Paul Young.
• The series will focus on Joe Exotic, made a household name by the Netflix series Tiger King, and will specifically focus on how Joe Shreibvogel became known as Joe Exotic as he tries to keep his park, even at the risk of losing his sanity. 
• The series will be based on a Texas Monthly article entitled, Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild by Leif Reigstad, which Lagana and Young optioned as part of an overall deal with CBS TV Studios in 2019. 

Jeremy Tardy announces from Dear White People citing racial discrimination from Lionsgate.

• Tardy announced his exit from the Netflix series fourth and final season in a Facebook post.
• Tardy states that Lionsgate TV made him an offer to return for several episodes but refused to consider a counteroffer. Tardy then learned that a white colleague had initially received the same offer but successfully negotiated a counteroffer.
• Deadline reports, “Tardy and six other recurring cast members then banded together and collectively passed on the initial offer in an effort to negotiate better deals as a group. But the strategy backfired when members of the bargaining unit made side deals with the studio ‘before the collective group received a fair and equitable negotiation process.'”
• Tardy was then written out of the Netflix series, calling out Lionsgate and Netflix for questioning their support of racial justice. 
• “This was a purely financial negotiation regarding deal terms. Lionsgate is committed to equal treatment for all talent regardless of race, gender, age, or sexual orientation.  We are very proud of Dear White People and its place in the national conversation about racial equality and social justice and we look forward to beginning production on its 4^th season,” Lionsgate said in a statement. 

American Housewife has recast Anna-Kat as Julia Butters exits the series. 

• Giselle Eisenberg (Life in Pieces) will take over the role of 10-year-old Anna-Kate as Julia Butters exits the series to pursue other opportunities. 
• Butters hit stardom last year after giving a breakout performance in Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 
• Deadline reports, “Butters earned acclaim and landed a slew of nominations for her role in the movie, which opened a lot of doors for her. The young actress and her team wanted to pursue them and the studio behind American Housewife, ABC Signature, granted her request to leave the series.”

Jessica Chastain will be playing Tammy Wynette in a limited series for Spectrum Originals, the upcoming streaming service from ViacomCBS, and Paramount Network.

• According to Deadline, the series is entitled George and Tammy and will chronicle Wynette’s relationship with George Jones which inspired songs such as “We’re Gonna Hold On” and “Golden Ring.”
• The couple was married for six years from 1969 to 1975.
• The series is based on the book The Three of Us: Growing Up with Tammy and George, written by the couple’s daughter Georgette Jones.
• The series hails from Abe Sylvia, a co-exec producer on Netflix’s Dead to Me. 

Kaitlyn Dever has been cast opposite Michael Keaton in the Hulu limited series Dopesick. 

• The Unbelievable and Last Man Standing actress will star opposite Michael Keaton in an eight-episode series based on Beth Macy’s best-selling book. 
• The series comes from The Handmaid’s Tale producer Warren Littlefield and Touchstone Television will be written by Danny Strong, and directed by Barry Levinson.
• A Deadline exclusive reports, “It takes viewers from a distressed Virginia mining community to the hallways of the DEA and the opulence of ‘one-percenter’ Big Pharma Manhattan. The unsparing yet deeply human portraits of the various affected families and their intersecting stories hold up a mirror to where America is right now while shining a hopeful light on the heroes battling the worst drug epidemic in American history.”

The female-led Doogie Howser reboot has been ordered to series by Disney+, and it’s working title is Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. 

• The series hails from Fresh Off the Boat and How I Met Your Mother alumna Kourtney Kang who will also be writing the series.
• Deadline reports that the reimagined version is set in modern-day Hawaii and “…follows Lahela “Doogie” Kameāloha, a mixed-race 16-year-old girl, juggling a budding medical career and life as a teenager. Guiding Lahela (and also complicating things) is her family, including her spit-fire Irish mother who’s also her supervisor at the hospital, and her Hawaiian ‘Local Boy’ father struggling to accept that his daughter is no longer his little girl.”
• It is expected to go into production later this year for a 2021 premiere date. 

Showtime renewed The Chi for a fourth season. 

• The series was created by Lena Waithe and is a timely coming-of-age story about a group of Residents in South Side Chicago that become linked by coincidence and bond over a need for connection and redemption. 
• The Chi Season 3 casts included Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Jacob Latimore, Alex Hibbert, Yolonda Ross, Shamon Brown Jr., Michael V. Epps, and Birgundi Baker.
• Gary Levine, President of Entertainment at Showtime Networks in a statement obtained by Deadline, “Each season, The Chi’s authentic storytelling resonates more deeply with its devoted and growing audiences. Lena Waithe together with Justin Hillian explore the joys and the heartbreak of life on the South Side in a way that is unique on television, and we relish the prospect of continuing that exploration with them.”
• Creator Waithe said, “This show has definitely taken me on a journey. One of learning, healing, and growth. I didn’t know how this season would be received, but the level of engagement and enthusiasm from the fans has been fantastic. I still can’t believe our numbers are up by double digits! The Chi is a team effort, and I’m grateful to continue this journey with such an amazing group of people.”

Old-ish, a Black-ish spinoff starring Laurence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis, is in the works at ABC.

• The third spin-off of Kenya Barris’ flagship series will star Fishburne and Lewis reprising their roles.
• According to Deadline, Barris will write the series which will follow, “Dre Johnson’s (Anthony Anderson) parents, Ruby (Lewis) and Earl (Fishburne), as they give love a second chance. When they move to a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of Los Angeles, they’ll meet characters who represent the old and new faces of the community as they try to make it work as a married couple. Again.”
• Old-ish would join two other spin-offs, Grown-ish, which airs on Freeform, and ABC’s Mixed-ish.

HBO Max has ordered an adaptation of Ellen Raskin’s 1978 novel, The Westing Game. 

• According to Deadline, “[The Westing Game] is described as a Knives Out-meets-Agatha Christie ensemble mystery-comedy. The book won the Newbery Medal and was number one among all-time children’s novels by School Library Journal in 2012.”
• Julie Corman, who owns the rights to the novel will write and produce the series. 
• The series was previously adapted into a movie in 1997 with Ray Walston, Ashley Peldon, Diane Ladd, and Shane West.
• HBO Max, MGM, and Corman are currently interviewing writers and directors to adapt the series for television. 

The Walking Dead will end with a supersized Season 11; Daryl and Carol spinoff ordered for 2023.

• The apocalypse drama will conclude it’s run in 2022 with a supersize season 11.
• According to Deadline, the mothership series was once the highest-rated show on television, but fans shouldn’t fret, because AMC has already ordered a new spinoff in place of the mothership starring Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride in their roles as Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier.
• The series will be created by The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang and Deadverse chief content officer Scott M. Gimple. It is currently untitled and won’t premiere until 2023. 
• AMC previously announced that they would be taking a page out of the Mad Men and Breaking Bad playbook, airing the eleventh season over two years, with a grand total of 24 episodes. 
• In addition to the Daryl and Carol spinoff “AMC and Gimple are developing a Tales of The Walking Dead anthology series. Episodic in format, Tales will likely focus on individual characters from the clearly expanding Deadverse, both new and old.”

Bel-Air, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air spin-off, gets two-season order from Peacock.

• In what Deadline describes as a very competitive situation, the NBCUniversal has ordered two seasons of an adaptation of Morgan Cooper’s popular fan film that reimagines The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a drama. 
• The project hails from Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios.
• Bel-Air was pitched to streamers last month and drew strong commitments and multiple straight-to-series orders, which created the perfect environment for a bidding war. 
• Bel-Air is a serialized one-hour drama that leans into the show’s original premise of Will’s complicated journey from the streets of West Philidelphia to Bel Air. In this new format, Bel-Air will, “…dive deeper into the inherent conflicts, emotions, and biases that were impossible to fully explore in a 30-minute sitcom format, while still delivering swagger and nods to the original show.”
• “We have just officially closed the deal with Peacock with an unprecedented two-season-order from a pitch. I’ve been in this business for thirty years and that does not happen. They ordered two full seasons of Bel-Air based on the quality of the pitch and the work that you guys have done. So I want to say congratulations. I am hyped,” Smith said, announcing the deal. 

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