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Kimmel gameshow tops ABC slate

Jimmy Kimmel interviewing former US president Barack Obama

A gameshow from talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel and producer Mark Burnett is leading US broadcast network ABC’s new slate of shows.

Kimmel will work with Survivor creator Burnett on Generation Gap. The pair will executive produce the quizshow, with Kimmel hosting. The format groups family members together and challenges them with answering questions about each other’s generations.

ABC has also ordered five special Brooklyn-set episodes of the comedian’s talkshow, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, starting on October 21. The regular edition of the long-running late-night show is filmed in Hollywood.

Then this winter, Kimmel will once again team up with Norman Lear and executive producers Brent Miller, Will Ferrell and Justin Theroux to provide the second instalment of Live in Front of a Studio Audience. A third Live in Front of a Studio Audience special will air in spring 2020.

The franchises started with Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family & The Jeffersons, with premiered on Wednesday May 22. The new instalments will be produced by Kimmelot, ACT III Productions, Gary Sanchez Productions, D’Arconville and Sony Pictures Television.

Elsewhere, ABC used its Television Critics Association (TCA) tour event to announce it is developing a limited series about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US and a live-action musical version of Disney classic The Little Mermaid.

Fall & Rise: The Story of 9/11 is being adapted from Mitchell Zuckoff’s book of the same name, which chronicles the stories of people affected by the attacks. It will air in 2021 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Lionsgate and 3 Arts Entertainment will produce the limited series, which will be exec produced by Zuckoff alongside Erwin Stoff and Richard Abate of 3 Arts.

The Little Mermaid Live will see the 1989 animated movie brought to life in front of a studio audience. Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho has been cast in the title role, with Queen Latifah playing villain Ursula and reggae star Shaggy voicing Sebastian the crab.

The show will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the feature, airing on Tuesday November 5. The format will include live musical performances based on the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid, interwoven with the broadcast of the original film.

Done+Dusted will produce the live musical alongside executive producer Richard Kraft, who has previously produced and directed Hollywood Bowl productions of The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast.

Meanwhile, the network has also announced that hip-hop mogul Jay-Z and actor Will Smith are executive producing an anthology series about America’s civil rights movement, told from the perspective of black women.

The first season of Women of the Movement (working title) will chronicle the brutal murder of Emmett Till in America’s segregated south in 1955. Told from the viewpoint of Till’s mother, Mamie Till, it will outline the story of her lifelong struggle to get justice for her son.

The first season of the anthology is produced by US firm Kapital Entertainment and is based on the book Emmett Till: The Murder that Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement by Devery S Anderson. Marissa Jo Cerar (The Handmaid’s Tale, 13 Reasons Why and The Fosters) will write the series.

Executive producers include Jay-Z, Jay Brown and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith of Roc Nation; Smith and James Lassiter (Overbrook Entertainment); Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor (Kapital Entertainment); Rosanna Grace (Serendipity Film Group); Alex Foster and John Middleton (The Middleton Media Group); and David Clark (Aptitude Entertainment).

ABC has also announced renewals of some of its most popular shows. The Bachelorette will return for a 16th season, with Bachelor in Paradise being given a seventh run. Both hosted by Chris Harrison, the shows are produced by Next Entertainment and Warner Horizon Unscripted Television.

Singing competition American Idol has been confirmed for a third season, following its revival by the network last year.  Celebrity judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan will return, with Bobby Bones again appearing as an in-house mentor.

American Idol is produced by Fremantle and Industrial Media’s 19 Entertainment.

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