Television Drama: Zachary Quinto Takes Up Residence on NBC; ‘Yellowstone’ Season 2 Debuts on CBS; More
The actors’ strike notwithstanding, both broadcast networks and streaming services are still making (and breaking) deals that affect their schedules.
NBC has given out a series order to the medical drama Dr. Wolf, inspired by the books The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sacks, who died in 2015 at 82. Sacks studied the strangest and most mind-boggling brain disorders in the world. His book Awakenings was turned into a 1990 movie starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro.
Zachary Quinto will lead the cast as Dr. Oliver Wolf, described as “a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist as he and his team of interns explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.”
Along with Quinto, the cast of the series includes Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop, Alexander MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, and Teddy Sears.
The project from writer/EP Michael Grassi and director/EP Lee Toland Krieger was the last 2023 NBC pilot whose fate had yet to be decided. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh London Redman will executive produce. No airdate has been announced yet.
Over at CBS, there are concrete plans to start airing the second season of its streaming hit Yellowstone starting this month.
CBS announced Friday that Season 2 will begin on October 29th, following the telecast of the Season 1 finale, which airs on October 22nd.
Yellowstone began its life airing on the basic cable Paramount Network, as well as on the Paramount+ streaming network, both owned by the parent company of CBS. It made its broadcast TV debut on September 17th to bolster the CBS’s strike-depleted schedule.
The show, which premiered on Paramount Network in 2018, has scored 21.6 million viewers to date that “have tuned in to at least one episode of ‘Yellowstone,’” said a network PR release. According to CBS, 52% of those viewers are “new to the series, having not seen a single episode in the past year on either linear or streaming.”
Yellowstone stars Kevin Costner and follows the Dutton family “who control the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the United States. Amid shifting alliances, unsolved murders, open wounds, and hard-earned respect – the ranch is in constant conflict with those it borders,” according to the official description.
It is CBS’s top draw this fall season, clocking in as the number one primetime entertainment program every Sunday night during its Season 1 run, averaging 5.49 million viewers for each episode, per Nielsen.
Over on streaming, it was good news for fans of Amazon Prime’s spinoff of The Boys, but bad news for Jon Stewart’s Apple TV show.
Gen V, the first (and so far only) spinoff of Prime’s superhero drama The Boys, has been renewed for a second season.
The news comes ahead of the Season 1 finale of the hit show, which airs November 3rd. The series began airing its eight-episode first season in September.
“Expanding the universe of The Boys with a series as bold as Gen V has been an incredible journey for us and our wonderful partners at Sony,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios said in a statement. “From our first conversation with showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, along with [The Boys creators] Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen, we knew Gen V would push the boundaries. Their unapologetic approach is exactly what audiences love, and it has helped Gen V become the No. 1 series on Prime Video in over 130 countries. Gen V is Prime Video’s most acquisitive new Original series of 2023, and we’re excited that our incredible cast and crew are going to continue telling brave and bold stories from Gen V to our customers.”
The series is set at Godolkin University, a college for superheroes within the world of The Boys. The season 2 start date has not been announced.
Fans of The Problem with Jon Stewart won’t see a new season of their show, however, as it has been canceled at Apple after two seasons, perhaps due to subject matter deemed to controversial to (and by) the execs at the platform hosting the show.
The New York Times, which first reported the story, said the move came amid creative differences between the former host of The Daily Show and the tech giant, whose execs reportedly objected to the show covering topics such as China and AI, the paper said.
The show’s writers and crew were informed of the cancellation ahead of the start of production on a third season. The second season of The Problem with Jon Stewart premiered in October 2022 and its 12 episodes ran through April. The show secured an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Talk Series this year.