ABC News unveils Studios division, 15 series already in production

ABC News in the US has officially launched a new studio division that it says will produce more than 100 hours of programming for ABC, Hulu, Disney+ and National Geographic in 2022.

Mike Kelley

ABC News Studios will commission and produce narrative non-fiction originals across feature docs, series and specials, spanning true crime, investigations, pop culture and other news-adjacent content.

The nascent division, which was soft-launched last year, already has 15 series and three feature-length documentaries in production.

Reena Mehta is senior VP of streaming and digital content for ABC News, while Mike Kelley is VP and lead of ABC News Studios.

Mehta was previously VP of content strategy and planning at HBO Max and before that was senior VP of digital programming strategy and content planning at Nickelodeon.

Before joining ABC News in 2020, Kelley was sales and distribution exec at ITV Studios. He will be charged with overseeing the creative and business direction of ABC News Studios.

Meanwhile, David Sloan will serve as senior executive producer and creative lead of ABC News Studios. Jacqueline Glover, who is head of documentary for Onyx Collective, oversaw the initial slate of feature documentary films for ABC News Films, which sits under ABC News Studios.

The official launch of the new division represents a significant play in the context of Disney’s non-fiction aspirations, said Mehta.

“We’re laser-focused on ABC News Studios contributing premier non-fiction content to linear and streaming subscriber growth and engagement for ABC and the Disney company at large.”

During its soft launch in 2021 and early 2022, ABC News Studios was involved in projects for ABC and Hulu such as documentaries Aftershock, Jacinta and Leave No Trace. It was also involved in series including City of Angels | City of Death, The Fatal Flaw: A Special Edition of 20/20 and Mormon No More.

Its slate of series either in production or preparing to launch includes: six-part Hulu docuseries The Age of Influence, which takes a look at the dark side of influencer culture; ABC doc Cinderella, marking the 25th anniversary of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s TV musical Cinderella; Death in the Dorms (Hulu), about the murders of college students in the US; and three-part true-crime series Demons and Saviors (Hulu), which examines the fascination with Christina Boyer, who became a household name for her telekinesis as a teenager and the alleged murder of her own infant daughter when in her early 20s.

Also in the works are Grails (Hulu), which goes behind the scenes of the US$60bn sneaker industry; weekly investigative reporting show IMPACT x Nightline (Hulu); Murder U, which examines murder convictions with troubling unanswered questions; and season two of Whoopi Goldberg-narrated scam series The Con.

ABC News Studios said it will produce a “significant portion” of the slate in house, in addition to working with production companies such as Part 2, IPC, Latchkey Films, Brainstormin’ Productions, Lonewolf Media, Story Syndicate and Show of Force. It added that it is aiming to launch at least one new title on Hulu each month.

On the documentary side, in-the-works projects include The Lady Bird Diaries (Hulu), about Claudia Alta Taylor “Lady Bird” Johnson, who served as First Lady of the US from 1963-69; Untitled Iwájú Documentary (Disney+); and Sound of the Police (Hulu).

“ABC News Studios, and its subsidiary ABC News Films, debut slate of 100+ hours of programming this year is a tremendous achievement,” said Kelley.

“I’m energised by the creativity from the teams inside ABC News and our third-party production partners to build out further an expansive content pipeline.”