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Mike Reynolds
Continuing to ramp up its investments in fresh fare, USA Network will add a third night of original series programming to its lineup in the first quarter of 2000, when it bows a two-hour block Tuesdays. Coupled with original series airing or planned for Sundays and Saturday nights, USA will proffer seven hours of primetime original series per week come the new millennium
The announcements were made at recent upfront advertising presentations made by Stephen Chao, president of programming and marketing at USA, and other network officials in Los Angeles April 29 and in Manhattan May 6. Beginning in first quarter 2000. Shaun Cassidy, creator of American Gothic, will develop and produce 13 episodes of new one-hour drama for Studios USA and USA. The new project reunited Cassidy with former American Gothic producer and current USA SVP of series development David Eick.
Cassidy's show will be partnered with an additional new series to comprise the two-hour original block on Tuesdays.
USA's other original series are Sunday' night's Pacific Blue, the new GvsE (Good vs. Evil) and La Femme Nikita, which has been renewed for a fourth season of first-run adventures. Since April 3, USA has been calling 9 p.m. on Saturdays Happy Hour. The variety show is also expected to be supplemented by a second original hour on Saturdays.
Elsewhere, USA officials talked up some of the more innovative programming steps it will be taking in the months ahead, focusing attention on: The Avenue, a half-hour serial drama; Road Hogs, a single-camera half, featuring animatronic puppets; Hank & Nick at War, another half-hour, single camera comedy; and the previously announced Anderson Cooper, a single-topic news magazine show.
As for long-form programming, USA Pictures and Hallmark Entertainment will combine on a four-hour miniseries about one of history's most ruthless characters, Attila the Hun, which is slated to premiere in the third quarter 2000. On the movie beat, USA announced that production will begin on Toys of Glass, Cabin by the Lake, The Expendables and Hefner-The True Story.
All told, USA, which will up its spending on originals by 50% next year, is expected to outlay some $400 million for programming in 1999,
At sister network, Sci-Fi Channel, attention was devoted to Stormfront, a dry-witted half-hour series from Steven de Sousa (48 Hours and Die Hard) following two cops in weather-ravaged Los Angeles in 2025.
Green-lighted for a two-hour pilot film, Invisible Man from Matt Greenberg (Mimic and Halloween: H20), this one-hour drama will take a humorous look at the value to a small-time thief of being temporarily, and often accidentally, undetectable.
Elsewhere, Sci-Fi has obtained the rights for the exclusive TV debut of Cube, a psychological stunner that took first prize at the Toronto Film Festival.
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