All Def Digital and Sky-backed producer Jupiter Entertainment have struck a deal to adapt the hip hop and comedy platform’s digital media series for television.
The two companies have struck a partnership to adapt All Def Digital’s library of content, including music formats The Crate and Bar Exam.
All Def, which was founded by Russell Simmons, was acquired by Culture Genesis, the LA-based digital studio whose investors include rapper T.I, Grand Hustle Records’ founder Jason Geter, NBA star Baron Davis and venture-capital firms Betaworks and Mucker Capital, last year.
Culture Genesis co-founders Shaun Newsum and Cedric J. Rogers (below) will work closely with Jupiter Entertainment President Patrick Reardon, and Vice President of Development Chris Spry on the adaptations. Reardon, in particular, has experience in this space, working on projects such as Time: The Kalief Browder Story and #FreeMeek during his time as head of television and film for Roc Nation.
In addition to The Crate and Bar Exam, projects currently being adapted include comedy series Dad Jokes and the hip hop music format Traffic Jams.
The Crate is a format challenges music producers to create a beat on the spot with the use of random objects. It gained global notoriety when Doritos launched a beat-making competition with Busta Rhymes called Blaze The Beat (see below). Bar Exam challenges hip hop artists to guess the performer of a song based on a few bars of music.
The deal was brought together by independent producer for Jupiter Michael Lappin and Sean Kilbane on behalf of Culture Genesis.
“All Def and Culture Genesis have a history of producing authentic content that promotes Black culture,” said Reardon. “There’s a clear and immediate need for more quality programming that amplifies the voices of diverse creators. Through this partnership we hope to create a wealth of content across all platforms that supports that mission.”
“Having a TV production partner of Jupiter’s caliber is critical to the continued success of our vision of elevating both our amazing talent and our content,” added Newsum. “We couldn’t ask for better partners as we bring our slate of hit shows to TV.”
Source: Deadline
AMC and IFC announced today the renewal of the Critics’ Choice Awards-nominated variety series Sherman’s Showcase for a second season ahead of the show’s one-hour “Black History Month Spectacular” premiering this Friday, June 19th at 10PM ET/PT on AMC and 11PM ET/PT on IFC. Six all-new, 30-minute episodes are slated to air in 2021.
Created by and starring Bashir Salahuddin (Top Gun: Maverick, South Side) and Diallo Riddle (Marlon, South Side), and executive produced by Get Lifted Film Co. (Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered, Rhythm + Flow), and RadicalMedia (What Happened, Miss Simone?, GRANT), the witty, irreverent and wholly original Sherman’s Showcase features sketches, cultural nostalgia, A-list guest stars, and original award-winning songs that, all together, earned the series a 100% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and inclusion on ‘Best of 2019’ lists.
“Sherman McDaniels has been a staple in American culture for almost 50 years and shows no signs of slowing down…or aging at all,” said creators and stars Salahuddin and Riddle. “We’re thrilled to return to the uniquely nerdy, quirky, silkily soulful and musical world of Sherman’s Showcase. It’s all our favorite things and now it’s on AMC and IFC. Season 2’s so big, it needs two networks.”
Said Sarah Barnett, President of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios, “It’s rare today for a show to develop a highly passionate fanbase, get raves from critics and infiltrate popular culture. Sherman’s Showcase has done all three and we’re thrilled to put it in front of AMC audiences alongside IFC’s devoted fans. Bashir and Diallo are fantastically talented, we are all waiting with baited breath to collectively witness the continued evolution of Sherman McDaniels, American icon.”
Sherman’s Showcase will roll out its “Black History Month Spectacular” this Friday, by honoring historic African-American icons both past and present, alongside superheroes, period dramas, vampires, and a very special re-imagining of the cult film The Last Dragon. The New York Times says: “It’s one of the rare comedies capable of surprising its viewers.”
Guest stars in the “Black History Month Spectacular” include (in alphabetical order) rapper Phonte Coleman, Michael Ealy (Stumptown, Westworld), journalist Jemele Hill, Lil Rel Howery (Get Out, Rel), actor and TV host Terrence J, series executive producer and Emmy®-, GRAMMY®-, Oscar®– and Tony®-winner John Legend, rapper and activist Vic Mensa, Vanderpump Rules’ Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz, GRAMMY® winner Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, GRAMMY® winner Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, Tyrin Turner (Menace II Society), Mario Van Peebles (Heartbreak Ridge), Bresha Webb (Marlon, The Last O.G.) and more.
Sherman’s Showcase has been called “the best variety series of the summer” says Complex, “side-splitting” says Salon, “a glittering heap of invention” says Vulture and “a trippy, chill satire of a ‘Soul Train’-ish variety show that doubles as a love letter to black pop culture, a science-fiction experiment, and a good party,” says The New Yorker. Season one is currently available to watch on Hulu, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and XBOX.
Full-length versions of the songs from the series are available via digital release and vinyl from Mad Decent, the Los Angeles-based record label founded by Thomas Wesley Pentz, better known as Diplo. The “Black History Month Spectacular” album was released this week and is available here.
Creators and stars Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin serve as executive producers on the series, along with John Legend, Mike Jackson and Ty Stiklorious through their Get Lifted Film Co. (La La Land, Underground, Jesus Christ Superstar). Pete Aronson serves as executive producer, and Frank Scherma and Jim Bouvet of RadicalMedia also executive produce.
D.L. Hughley has announced his latest book SURRENDER, WHITE PEOPLE! Our Unconditional Terms for Peace, which is set for release on June 30.
Arriving in the middle of high racial tensions, countless acts of police brutality and a dedicated push of the Black Lives Matter movement, SURRENDER, WHITE PEOPLE! is the text that states the identity of America is getting browner and Black and brown people are standing up to unjust privilege.
The book will take Hughley’s trademark sense of humor to the transition of America as a majority-minority nation. Using the art of satire, SURRENDER, WHITE PEOPLE! is a guide of accountability toward America’s wrongs and offers satirical terms for reparations and reconciliation.
The book is broken into seven articles or terms:
Article I: White People Shall Consider Reparations
Article II: History Books Shall Be Aligned
Article III: We Shall Endeavor To Understand One Another
Article IV: We Shall Deal with the White Supremacy Problem
Article V: We Shall Be Un-Oppressed
Article VI: We Are Part of America
“Peace and reconciliation will only happen, I believe, when white people surrender their unjust privileges and their delusions of ‘supremacy,’” Hughley says of the book. “Look your history in the face, put aside all your visions of superiority, open up your institutions so they benefit everyone in this nation, and join the rest of us as equals. That’s what I mean by surrender.”
By Shawn Grant/The Source
It’s been a cruel spring for sports fans as the coronavirus pandemic sidelined teams, players and leagues around the world. Kevin Hart feels that pain too, and he premiered a new five-episode homebound season of his iced-down web series Cold as Balls.
The first episode of Cold as Balls: Cold Calls, featuring NFL star Richard Sherman, debuted several days ago on Hart’s and Lionsgate’s digital network Laugh Out Loud.
Hart usually interviews his Cold as Balls guests from the icy realm of the cold tub. Cold Calls takes the talk to the couch via video call — with each guest calling into the show without the host knowing who’s on the other line.
In the trailer’s intro, series host & EP Hart is quoted as saying: “I hope to bring a light to fans who have been yearning to connect with the athletes and sports they love. We found a way for the show to go on, because the world needs laughter. Laughter heals, love unites and hate divides. Let’s laugh together.”
The new season of the sports talk series, which won the 2018 Streamy Award for Sports, also will feature NFL stars Russell Wilson and Derrick Henry, retired NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb and NBA All-Star Paul George. Cold as Balls boasts 1.1 billion YouTube views since its 2018 launch.
OBB’s Michael D. Ratner and Sean Thomas Spencer created the series with Ratner serving as executive producer alongside Hart, Laugh Out Loud President Jeff Clanagan, Dave Becky and OBB’s Scott Ratner, Kfir Goldberg, and Eric D. Cohen.
Source: Deadline
The team behind Netflix’s Astronomy Club are moving onward and upward following the cancellation of their sketch comedy show and have partnered with The Problem With Apu producer Cowboy Bear Ninja on a new project.
The comedy troupe are developing Sherlock Homies, a comedy series that they describe as Curb Your Enthusiasm-meets-Reno 911 about Harlem’s first all-black detective agency.
The series is the brainchild of Shawtane Bowen, who is one of eight members of Astronomy Club, which also includes Jonathan Braylock, Ray Cordova, James III, Caroline Martin, Jerah Milligan, Monique Moses, and Keisha Zollar.
Bowen said that the show was informed by living in Harlem for eight years. “I had a lot of interactions with the cops,” he told Deadline. “I thought it’d be interesting to do a show on Harlem’s first and last all black detective agency.”
Cowboy Bear Ninja partner Michael Melamedoff, who exec produces Black Women OWN The Conversation for Oprah Winfrey’s cable network, added that the show, which they are taking out to broadcasters and streaming platforms this week, is strongly structured with outlines. “The way that the format is set up is that it’s designed so that we have an outline that the ‘Homies’ are solving and that mystery, while we know the beginning and the end of it, the scenes and action open up for the team to improve along the way,” he added.
Jerah Milligan said that they wanted to make a show that was funny and silly. “Everything seems very timely; a lot of these things on black sketch shows seem to be ahead of their time but it’s the reality we’ve always lived in and the world has caught up with us,” he said. “We’re in a time where black people, in particular, are getting a chance to venture out and not just do the same thing that we’ve been forced to do like playing a thug or a drug dealer so with Sherlock Homies we’ve got the opportunity to create a heightened world like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Reno 911.”
Historical black figures will pop up in each episodes, including the likes of Marie Van Brittan Brown, the inventor of first home security system. “We’ve got a chance to show people our history. A lot of people didn’t know about Tulsa, Oklahoma until Watchmen came out so we have an opportunity with this show to go beyond what the normal civil rights activist people know, we can bring up everything from our heritage and put it on display in a fun way,” added Milligan.
Bowen added, “Like Reno 911, it allows all eight of us to play different characters each week and there’s an opportunity for us to bring in lots of guest stars and up and coming and established black comedians and actors.”
On Milligan’s dream list for guest stars is This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown. “He will be in a comedy. I don’t know what he’s going to do but he’s hilarious.”
This comes after Netflix cancelled Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show in February. The show, which featured sketches that explore an array of topics ranging from pop culture and social issues to the Black experience, was exec produced by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, showrunner Daniel Powell and Khalabo Ink Society’s Anni Weisband.
The troupe are hopeful that they can find another home for the series, or at least another broadcaster willing to set up a sketch show with them, but they are incredibly proud of the series.
Caroline Martin told Deadline, “It was hard, it was a dream job, writing, acting and producing with your close friends. It’s not the end of Astronomy Club, we’ll find something else to do.”
“We got a show on Netflix, the biggest streaming platform in the world, at the end of the day that is an accomplishment,” added Milligan. “Of course we wanted to be renewed for season two, but hey, we wrote it our self, we produced, I directed, we starred in it and it was funny. We did it as black people, that’s hard.”
Source: Deadline
New York, NY – (June 15, 2020) –Today BET announces the first group of performers for the 20th annual “BET AWARDS” including Alicia Keys, Chloe X Halle, DaBaby, D Smoke, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Jonathan McReynolds, Kane Brown, Lil Wayne, Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, SiR, Summer Walker, Usher, Wayne Brady and more. BET Amplified Artists, Masego and Lonr. are set to take the BET Amplified Music Stage, a platform for emerging artists.
Hosted by comedian and actress Amanda Seales, The “BET AWARDS” 2020 will simulcast LIVE at 8 pm ET across ViacomCBS networks including BET, BET HER, and will make its national broadcast premiere on CBS on Sunday, June 28 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, 7:00-10:00 PM, CT).
Amanda Seales is a comedian and creative visionary. You know her as, “Tiffany DuBois” of HBO’s Insecure and her debut stand up special, “I Be Knowin”. She is a former co-host on the daytime talk show, “The Real”, host of NBC’s “Bring the Funny,” creator/host of the hit live, and now virtual, music/comedy game show, “Smart Funny & Black”, speaks truth to change via her wildly popular Instagram, weekly podcast, “Small Doses”, and book by the same my name, recently launched her membership community app, “SFB Society”! A Jedi Khaleesi with a patronus that’s a Black Panther with wings, she keeps audiences laughing, thinking, and living in their truth!
In the final countdown to the BET Awards, Terrence J and Erica Ash will host the first interactive pre-show featuring celebrities, nominees, and special guests who will be participating in Black Entertainment’s biggest night.
“BET was created to stand at the forefront of black culture. We have made strides over the past two decades to create a space where black creativity, culture, and art have the opportunity to get the celebration it deserves in a world where it is systematically muted,” said Connie Orlando, EVP Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy at BET. “This year we’re looking forward to continuing the tradition of providing fans with those special, not to be missed moments of enrichment, entertainment, empowerment and also using our platform to create change for our community.”
Internationally, the show will simulcast on BET Africa at 2 am CAT on June 29th, followed by international broadcasts in the UK on June 29th at 9 pm BST, France on June 30th at 8:45 pm CEST and in South Korea on June 30th at 9 pm KST. BET will honor the ‘Best International Act’, along with the fan-voted category ‘Best New International Act’.
Connie Orlando, EVP Specials, Music Programming & Music Strategy at BET will oversee The “BET Awards” 2020 and serve as Executive Producer along with Jesse Collins, CEO of Jesse Collins Entertainment.
BET.com/betawards is the official site for the “BET Awards” and will have all the latest news and updates about this year’s show.
Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Pharoah says he was stopped by police while jogging in Los Angeles recently, that one of the officers kneeled on his neck and that video footage, apparently from a nearby security camera, recorded the incident.
Pharoah shared the video on Instagram today, saying “I could have easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd.”
Watch the video below.
The actor and comedian spoke about the incident during an appearance on today’s episode of CBS’ The Talk, describing how he was stopped by four police officers, their guns drawn, as he was running on an L.A. sidewalk. He was told, he said, that he fit the description of a man they were seeking – “a black man with gray sweatpants and a gray shirt,” Pharoah said.
On The Talk, Pharoah said, “I see a gun from my peripheral and I look and the officer is like, ‘Freeze – get on the ground,’ and I’m like ‘Oh snap’…” Pharoah said he was ordered to drop to the ground and “spread your arms like an airplane.”
“Three more officers drove up… it’s hot, corona is definitely something to be worried about, the police officers didn’t have on gloves, they didn’t have on masks…When they put me in cuffs, after they were all on me, an officer put his knee on my neck.”
Pharoah says on his Instagram video that he told the officers to Google his name and “you will see that you made a big mistake.” When the officers were notified that the suspect they were seeking had been apprehended, they apologized. Pharoah said he told them, “Get these f’ing cuffs off me.”
According to Pharoah, the incident occurred in the vicinity of Ventura Blvd. and Corbin Avenue, a week before news broke in late April of the February killing of Arbery in Georgia. “I was just trying to exercise,” he said on The Talk. “It could have easily turned into another situation if I wasn’t who I am. And the point here is being black in America, is just that, being black in America. Other people can’t level with the same fears I have. Leaving the house, we should not have to fear going to the grocery store, going to get some gas, running down the street. It’s called human civility. That’s what it is. It’s about being a human.”
At the end of his Instagram video, the actor says, “Be in the know. I’m Jay Pharaoh and I’m a black man in America and my life matters. Black lives always matter. They always matter.”
Below, see the Instagram video and The Talk segment.
June 12 (UPI) — The Bachelor has named its first black star: Matt James.
ABC confirmed James’ casting in Season 25 Friday on Twitter following new dialogue about the franchise’s lack of diversity.
“It’s official…your next Bachelor is @mattjames919!” the post reads.
James is friends with Tyler Cameron, who competed in Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette. James was initially cast to appear in Clare Crawley’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette, which suspended production in March due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
ABC celebrated James’ casting in a statement Friday to Good Morning America.
“We know we have a responsibility to make sure the love stories we’re seeing onscreen are representative of the world we live in, and we are proudly in service to our audience,” the network said.
“This is just the beginning, and we will continue to take action with regard to diversity issues on this franchise. We feel so privileged to have Matt as our first black Bachelor and we cannot wait to embark on this journey with him.”
Rachel Lindsay, the first and only black Bachelorette, and other stars in the franchise previously raised concerns about the show’s lack of diversity. Talks renewed in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May.
Lindsay said in an interview with AfterBuzz this month that she would cut ties with the franchise if it didn’t take steps to diversify, including casting a black Bachelor in Season 25.
James said Friday on GMA that his casting is “a step in the right direction” for the franchise.
Source: UPI
Jas Waters, a TV writer who worked on the NBC series “This Is Us,” has died. She was 39.
The news was confirmed by the “This Is Us” writers in a statement shared to their official Twitter account on Wednesday.
“The entire #ThisIsUs family was devastated to learn of Jas Waters passing,” read the statement. “In our time together, Jas left her mark on us and ALL over the show. She was a brilliant storyteller and a force of nature. We send our deepest sympathies to her loved ones. She was one of us. RIP.”
Waters, who has writing credits on 18 episodes of “This Is Us” according to IMDb, also worked on Comedy Central’s “Hood Adjacent With James Davis,” VH1’s “The Breaks” and Showtime’s “Kidding.” She also worked on “Hardball,” “Save The Last Dance,” MTV’s “Real World,” “Barbershop,” “Barbershop 2: Back in Business,” NBC’s “ER” and Taraji P. Henson’s “What Men Want.” She had her own column in VIBE magazine in 2012 before she began working as a screenwriter.
“This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman took to Twitter to remember the “brilliant” storyteller. “Jas was absolutely brilliant and had so many stories still to tell,” wrote Fogelman. “She made an indelible mark on our show and my heart breaks for her loved ones.”
Source: Variety