What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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June 7 - 13, 2020 WHATS UP! T5 BY MICHELLE ROSE TV Media TV without borders: Giv- en the lengthy production shutdown, some TV networks are literally going the distance to find fresh material for their schedules, even importing TV hits from other countries. Luckily for NBC, it didn't have to go far to find a new ad- dition to its lineup. The broad- caster recently announced it had acquired the complete first season of "Transplant," a medical drama that's been a homegrown hit for Canada's CTV Network. The series centers on Dr. Bashier "Bash" Hamed (played by "Quantico" star Hamza Haq), a Syrian doctor who fled his country with his younger sister and is now building a new life in Canada. The cast also includes Laurence Leb- oeuf ("Trauma"), Kenny Wong ("Lost Generation"), Jim Wat- son ("Designated Survivor") and veteran Scottish actor John Hannah, who you might recognize from "The Mummy" (1999) or "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994). Following its Feb. 26 premiere on CTV, the medical drama pulled in 1.6 million viewers weekly to become the most-watched Ca- nadian series in 2020. "Transplant" should fit in on a network that is already home to medical dramas "Chicago Med" and "New Amsterdam" and has a long affiliation with top-notch hospital dramas such as "ER" and "St. Else- where." Although it's more common to find American-made shows on Canadian TV than the oth- er way around, the incursion of a Canadian series on a U.S. network isn't unprecedented — "Rookie Blue" and "Orphan Black" are previous examples that come to mind. But NBC's acquisition, or even its inter- est, isn't surprising since NBCUniversal partnered with CTV and production company Sphère Média Plus from the start. And NBC isn't the only net- work to snap up original con- tent from other outlets near and far. "L.A.'s Finest," a Spec- trum original, is set to return for a second season on June 8, but its first season will fill a gap in Fox's Monday night lineup this fall. And while DC Universe cancelled it, CW is reviving "Swamp Thing" – at least as an encore, no word yet on a Season 2 – further blur- ring the boundaries between broadcasters in these unprec- edented times. Zombies to vampires: Al- ready home to a sprawling zombie franchise, AMC may be adding vampires to the mix — and some pretty famous ones, at that. AMC has acquired the rights to the Lives of the Mayfair Witches and Vampire Chroni- cles series of bestselling books by legendary author Anne Rice. This is a big deal because it allows AMC Studios to de- velop future film and TV proj- ects based on all the books, in- cluding the crossover novels that combined the two series. Rice and her son Christo- pher (also a bestselling au- thor) will be credited as exec- utive producers on all projects related to this deal. Rolin Jones, the creator of HBO's "Perry Mason" and a show- runner on "The Exorcist," is also involved as part of his overall deal with AMC. There has long been an in- terest in developing a TV se- ries based on The Vampire Chronicles books, which have already inspired two big- screen adaptations: 1994's "In- terview With the Vampire" starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and 2002's "Queen of the Damned." After regaining those theat- rical rights in 2016, Rice began shopping them around to dif- ferent TV networks. In 2017, Paramount Television and Anonymous Content optioned the rights and was working with Christopher to adapt the books. Producer Bryan Fuller ("Hannibal") briefly signed on as showrunner in 2018, but af- ter his exit, the project landed at Hulu after a bidding war. But nothing came out of that either, and when the rights ex- pired a few months ago, Rice was able to shop them around once more as part of a larger package. 'Good Girls' renewed: Fans of the NBC drama "Good Girls" may have been left feel- ing disappointed after the third season was shortened by the pandemic. But there's some good news: there's still more "Good Girls" to come. NBC has renewed the series for a fourth season. If you haven't seen it, the series is about Beth, Annie and Ruby, a group of suburban moms — played by Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men"), Mae Whitman ("Arrested Development") and Retta ("Parks and Recre- ation"), respectively — who are involved in a criminal en- terprise. Only 11 of the 16 episodes slated for Season 3 were com- pleted before all TV and film productions were halted (Epi- sode 12 was reportedly shy of just one scene). And while the last episode wasn't intended to wrap up a season, the de facto finale did give a sense of where the storylines are headed — especially after the final scene showed FBI Agent Donnegan (Lauren Lapkus, "Orange Is the New Black") confronting Beth, Annie and Ruby. In an interview with Variety, Retta speculated that the five unproduced episodes from Season 3 will probably end up as the first episodes of Season 4. The comic also explained that Whitman was supposed to make her directorial debut with Episode 14, but it's not known if that will happen in Season 4 instead. In terms of ratings, "Good Girls" has been a modest same-day performer for NBC but a winner in terms of digital viewership. It has been pulling in an average of 3.4 million viewers after a week of de- layed viewing, which makes it NBC's second-ranked show on digital platforms and a safe bet for solid ratings next year. AFGHAN ARUBAN BELGIAN CHINESE CONGOLESE CROAT CUBAN CYPRIOT CZECH DANE DUTCH EMIRI ENGLISH GUYANESE HAITIAN I-KIRIBATI IRISH KUWAITI LAO LETT MANX MEXICAN MONTENE- GRIN MYANMA PAPUAN POLE ROMANIAN SAUDI SCOT SLOVAK STATIAN SWAZI SWEDE SWISS TAJIK THAI TONGAN TURKMEN WELSHMAN A Name to Call Home Laurence Leboeuf and Hamza Haq star in "Transplant" WORD SEARCH STARS ON SCREEN Solution on page T23