Fall Network TV Show Lineup News: Expect More Diversity in Prime Time Television
TV viewers can look forward to seeing a lot more diversity on prime time television shows featured on major networks this fall.
On Thursday, CBS announced its fall schedule, which will include a Steven Spielberg-produced alien thriller starring award-winning actress Halle Berry, reports NapleNews.com. The show, which is titled "Extant," will air this summer, marking Berry's first TV series in ages since she starred in the "Who's the Boss" spinoff "Living Dolls?!" back in 1989.
NPR's TV critic Eric Deggans notes that ABC will have the most "ethnic and cultural diversity in all the shows that they have planned for next year."
The network has dedicated their Thursday night prime time slots to three shows that were created by award-winning producer Shonda Rhimes. Both of Rhime's stellar TV creations, "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal," will air on Thursday nights and include a diverse cast. Plus, starting in the fall, ABC will premiere her new show "How to Get Away With Murder," which stars leading African American actress Viola Davis, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Davis will play a brilliant and mysterious criminal defense professor who becomes entangled in a murder plot that will shake her university. The sexy, suspenseful thriller is also about the professor's group of ambitious law students. Liza Weil, Billy Brown, Katie Findlay, Matt McGorry, Aja Naomi King, Jack Falahee, Alfred Enoch, Charlie Weber and Karla Souza will also star in the project, according to TVGuide.com.
ABC's decided to give the powerhouse producer ownership of Thursday night in order to help boost its rating among advertiser-favored young adults, Fox News reported. Her shows are also noted for attracting large female audiences.
In addition, ABC added a drama called "American Crime," which is executively produced and directed by "12 Years a Slave's" John Ridley. Anthony Anderson's comedy "Black-ish," which is loosely based on the life of showrunner Kenya Barris from "The Game," was also picked up. In the series, Anderson plays an upper-middle-class black man who struggles to raise his children with a sense of cultural identity in spite of constant contradictions from his family members, The Hollywood Reporter reported.