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BY LINDA MOSS
A&E Network will offer its own spin on reality programming through a co-development deal with the producer of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, as well as teaming up with Michael Davies of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
A&E has signed an exclusive co-production deal with Cosmos Studios, which is lead by CEO Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow. That pact will result in a number of specials, starting with The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt in the fourth quarter, as well as one based on the launch of a solar-sail space vehicle from a Russian nuclear submarine.
A&E also has secured rights to air the Cosmos series. The network is counting on the well-known Cosmos brand to help cut through the clutter of non-fiction programming, says Allen Sabinson, A&E's SVP-programming.
For the 2001-2002 season, A&E has two new series slated, Real People TV from Davies and Minute-by-Minute. In Real People TV, 10 everyday people will be armed with video cameras and asked to live out, and film, their life-long dreams.
?It's our effort to try to reinvent reality programming,? Sabinson says.
Minute-by-Minute will offer first-person accounts of memorable historical events, such as the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.
In addition to the two original series, A&E is ramping up its original movies with a dozen now on its slate.
A&E's sister service, The History Channel, has six new series on its primetime roster.
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