Top Stories

SILVER SPRING: Discovery Channel has unveiled a slate of specials and series for its 2010-2011 season—including John Hendricks’ Curiosity: The Questions of Life—and has announced a new development deal with Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks Television and DreamWorks Animation for a mini-series called …

LONDON: More than 100 hours of factual and factual-entertainment programming—a total of 12 new titles—from Frantic Films has joined the catalogue of Cineflix International. The package includes six series and six documentaries. Highlights include 65 half hours of the makeover …

LOS ANGELES: Showtime has ordered 12 episodes of Shameless from Warner Bros. Television, with John Wells set to executive produce the new series, based on the British show of the same name. The American adaptation will star William H. Macy and Emmy Rossum, …

HONG KONG/CANNES: Turner International’s Turner Content Solutions business, launched last year, is heading to MIPTV with a slate of entertainment content, having already notched up deals on more than 500 hours of programming. The offerings include both original productions and acquired …

NEW YORK: OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, which is slated to debut on January 1, 2011, has announced a total of 15 original series for its launch schedule. Winfrey herself will headline Oprah’s Next Chapter, a one-hour series produced by …

SILVER SPRING: John Honeycutt has been appointed to the new role of executive VP and head of international business operations for Discovery Networks International (DNI). He will be based in London and report to Mark Hollinger, the president and CEO …

BURBANK: This summer, The Bachelorette returns to ABC, along with True Beauty, Wipeout, Dating in the Dark, Shaq VS and new scripted and alternative series. The Bachelorette returns May 24, featuring Ali Fedotowsky, who left the last season of The …

LONDON: ZDF in Germany and ABC in Australia are among the networks that have picked up the rights to the AMC original drama The Prisoner from ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which has now been sold into more than 100 territories. The ITV Studios …

LONDON: Power‘s slate for MIPTV includes the dramatic environmental disaster Ice and a modern adaptation of writer Alistair MacLean’s The Dark Crusader. Ice is a co-production between Power and Screentime, based on the book by James Follett. The story follows …

LONDON: Inside the Obama White House, a National Geographic Television production for PBS, has secured a number of presales around the world, including in Australia, Ireland and Brazil. National Geographic Television International has licensed the doc to Network 10 Australia, RTE …