New Projects Casting - Major TV Cancellations & Upfronts - Industry Insights - Awards Chatter

By Abigail Hardin, May 17, 2022

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Happy Upfront Week, UTD!

Annie and I were thrilled to co-present Actor Insider Tips: LA Edition event last Sunday. Our stellar panel - casting director Jamie Castro Rausch, theatrical agent Elmer Blanco, producer/casting director Ashley-Lauren Elrod, and publicist Steven Shehori - provided actors with a wealth of ideas and tips. This event was timely considering production in LA is hitting pre-pandemic levels and with a new slate of TV being announced and greenlit.

On that note, it's upfront week! Upfronts are a weeklong event where the broadcast networks announce their Fall lineups for the advertising execs of Madison Ave. It's the time where networks show their cards on which shows are going forward and which are being retired. As I always mention around pilot season and upfronts, if you are ever curious about why some shows make it and some do not, follow the money! 💸

It will be a busy news week so look out for daily notifications on the TV shows your are targeting on The Up-To-Date Actor. Be in the know, be Up-To-Date! 😉

Create a great week! ✌️

TV: Out with the Old, In with the New!

Upfronts are upon us!! The past few weeks have seen a deluge of network cancellations and reductions in offerings from studios scrambling to keep up with decreasing ad spends and continued reliance on streaming over traditional linear content, and the results have been dicey at best. Stalwart series like MAGNUM, P.I., and ROSWELL received their walking papers from CBS and The CW, with the latter announcing that it would only be supporting 11 new and returning scripted series in the 2022-2023 cycle.

Writer-producer Phillip Iscove took to Twitter to comfort the growing cohort of shuttered shows: "Absolutely brutal. My sympathies to all the writers, cast, and crew out there."

This bloodbath came as networks clear the way for this year's Upfront announcements. Yesterday, NBC and Fox kicked off the weeklong extravaganza. Fox shocked many by forgoing the normal live presentation and instead opted for a pre-recorded programme. Fox further shirked tradition by not announcing their Fall line up. Remaining true to convention, NBC released their 22-23 schedule during a live presentation

We will be updating all shows listed on The Up-To-Date Actor throughout the week. Look for a full recap next week. If you can't wait that long, here is a schedule of events you can follow along with. And check back with Variety for their continuous coverage and updates after each presentation.

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Industry Intel

A new film and TV contract may be on the way for members of IATSE 161, the East Coast arm of the labor union that represents accountants, coordinators, and script supervisors, as representatives began negotiations with the AMPTP yesterday. The major topic on the table is pay equity, which many members say has become a sticking point among the individual areas of production. "We manage a million different things, and we have a million different job titles and we're not paid as heads of departments," IATSE rep Dawn Mountain said of the pay scale for production coordinators, in the hopes of upgrading members' salaries to bring them more in line with their male-coordinator counterparts.

The past few weeks have seen an uptick in COVID cases around the country, which unfortunately has meant a rise in positive tests on production sets, particularly in LA. County officials have logged at least three notable outbreaks at various Hollywood studios in the last few weeks, and while the overall number is still lower than the previous month, officials remain wary of the lax return-to-work protocols being instituted by the majority of studios in the area.

A HUGE congratulations to playwright James Ijames, who took home the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play FAT HAM, which received its premiere run as a streaming production at Philly's Wilma Theatre, ahead of its opening last week Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in NYC. The show is a retelling of Shakespeare's HAMLET, set in the American South. This year's runners-up were Kristina Wong's KRISTINA WONG, SWEATSHOP OVERLORD, and Sylvia Khoury's SELLING KABUL.

Rumors continue to swirl around Netflix's pivot to ad-supported plans this week, as a New York Times report snagged a memo from company officials pointing to a Q4 launch date of the lower-cost subscription offerings. While Netflix has famously sworn off ad models for being too complex, the recent drop in stock price has forced co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings to reconsider their position, with Hastings noted on a Q1 earnings call, "[A]s much as I'm a fan of [simplicity], I'm a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant get what they want, makes a lot of sense."

Spain is the latest country to rev up its film and TV tax incentive program, establishing a five-point plan to bring interested studios into the country for future productions. The new program will place an emphasis on women-led projects, as well as updates to the Film Commission website and a revised promotional package for the country. Time for the next GAME OF THRONES saga to set up shop there, me thinks 👀

Actors' Equity took aim at the audience member responsible for recording and distributing a video of TAKE ME OUT actor Jesse Williams last week, calling the video "sexual harassment and an appalling breach of consent." The recording, in which Williams appears fully nude during a scene of the show, garnered widespread outrage from the entertainment community and has since brought Williams into the spotlight to talk about the importance of consent and privacy during live performances. AEA president Katie Shindle wrote, "As actors, we regularly agree to be vulnerable on stage in order to tell difficult and challenging stories. This does not mean that we agree to have those vulnerable moments widely shared by anyone who feels like sneaking a recording device into the theater."

A new PSA is drawing attention to the continued lack of representation for people with disabilities in Hollywood, and the message couldn't be more clear: "Dear Entertainment Industry, THERE IS NO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION WITHOUT DISABILITY." The numbers are clear: only 2% of on-screen characters, and 1% of writers in Hollywood, are disabled. Organizing group Disability Is Diversity is hoping that the new PSA will bring widespread awareness to this startling lack of representation, in the hopes of creating meaningful industry change in the years ahead.

Awards: Emmys Adjust for Streaming Future, Full Look at 2022 Tony Awards

The Primetime Emmys are officially a thing of the past, as the Television Academy made the decision to cut the time-frames from the nomination process that governs which shows are selected as nominees each year. The wording of the qualifier now states that applicable shows will "identify as a Primetime program by virtue of genre and [if they] were originally presented during the current eligibility year." The shift has left many wondering if this is the latest casualty in the linear vs. streaming battle, as the fields have, in recent years, become dominated by timeslot-less streaming offerings over traditional network offerings. Is one Emmys ceremony to rule them all on the horizon? Time will tell 👁

We received our first look at the 2022 Tony Nominees last week, and the stage is set for an exciting ceremony in a few weeks. Want more intel on which shows and actors are in the running this year? Check out this breakdown from BroadwayWorld, and get your Tony ballots filled out now! 🏆

Actors on Acting

We've been so proud of the extraordinary success that our friend Dom Fishback has had in her career over the last few years, all thanks to her incredible work ethic and willingness to continue to push toward her next big project. Dom sat down with Variety to talk about her recent role in the Samuel L. Jackson-led THE LAST DAY OF PTOLEMY GREY, and the role her character played in how she interacted with the award-winning actor. "She's not intimidated by him. So, therefore, I'm not gonna do that because I'm representing this character." Take a listen to the podcast to hear more about Dom's process for preparing for the role!

You may know him as the loveable Patrick Brewer in SCHITT'S CREEK, but Noah Reid is actually quite the veteran of both the stage and screen at the young age of 34. Reid's past credits include Chip in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, as well as the voice of Franklin in the animated Nickelodeon series FRANKLIN (honestly, that one blew my mind). Now, Reid is making a name for himself in Tracy Letts' THE MINUTES on Broadway, and he's not taking any of that time for granted. "It's not going to surprise anyone for me to say...this is a complex time. The world we're living in is so cacophonous. It's so busy," Reid told Playbill. "I just want to continue to do work that challenges me and that I get to surround myself with thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate, and brilliant artists."

NYC Updates

Bryant Park's Books on Broadway series is starting up at 12:30 PM today with the one and only Harvey Fierstein, presenting excerpts from his book "I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir". The program is set to run through the summer and will feature appearances from Jodi Picoult, Tom Moore, and others, spanning film, TV, Broadway, and more. Set aside some time to take in some readings in the park this year! 📚

Looking for some more fun in the NYC sun in the next few months? Grammy-winner Nile Rogers is set to take the stage at Central Park's DiscOasis this summer, being crowned as the "Groovemaster" of the event and tasked with overseeing the music scene of the sprawling roller disco event. Running from June 16th through October 1st, DiscOasis sounds like the perfect post-audition or Broadway show hang-spot, don't you think? 🕺

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