Miami Vice, More Matador Part of El Rey Network’s Programming Slate

BEVERLY HILLS: El Rey Network, the channel founded by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, has given a second-season renewal to its new series Matador, while also picking up the rights to classic cop show Miami Vice, among other programming highlights.

Matador’s second-run renewal comes ahead of the show’s July 15 premiere. The series, from award-winning writer and producer Roberto Orci, follows a professional soccer player who is actually a skilled covert operative executing missions for the CIA.

Additionally, the channel has nabbed the rights to air all 111 episodes of the Emmy-winning ’80s series Miami Vice, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this fall. The Michael Mann-created cop show originally aired on NBC, chronicling the adventures of detectives James Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas). The series is scheduled to join the network’s lineup in January.

Other programming highlights include two new installments of El Rey Network Presents: The Director’s Chair, hour-long specials featuring prominent filmmakers. Guillermo del Toro is slated to stop by for an interview with Rodriguez on July 30, with Quentin Tarantino’s special being split into two parts, the first airing on August 13 and the second on August 27.

The channel will also begin production on the sophomore run of its original scripted drama From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series this October in Austin. The vampire saga’s new 13 hour-long episodes are scheduled to air sometime next year.

Finally, October 8 will see the premiere of two new unscripted series, Lucha: Uprising (working title) and Cutting Crew. The first show will present masked heroes and villains battling it out in the ring in the lucha libre style of Mexico, while the second series explores the artistry and camaraderie of a team of creative barbers.