Roku has given a green light to Scarlett Holmes, a new Roku Original limited series, with Lucy Hale set to star and executive produce. Said to “put a fresh, romantic spin on the legendary world of Sherlock Holmes,” Scarlett Holmes, produced by Jaggi Entertainment, will debut exclusively on The Roku Channel in 2027.

Written by Paris Herbert-Taylor and Katie Wilbert, Scarlett Holmes revolves around the titular character played by Hale, a modern descendant of Sherlock Holmes who has inherited his legendary powers of observation, but instead of solving crimes, she takes on mysteries of love, dating, and relationships.

Each episode’s storyline draws inspiration from a beloved romantic comedy. Joining Scarlett in each episode is her trusty sidekick, “Jane Watson,” (casting TBA) as they help clients navigate mixed signals, secret crushes, romantic dilemmas, and everything in between. But while Scarlett may be an expert at solving everyone else’s romantic problems, her own love life proves far more difficult to decipher. When she falls for “Ollie Moriarity” (casting TBA) — a charming podcast producer secretly planning an exposé on her methods —she’s faced with the toughest case of all: her own.

“Lucy Hale has the wit, warmth and comedic instincts that make her the perfect creative partner to bring ‘Scarlett Holmes’ to life,” said Brian Tannenbaum, Head of Roku Originals. “This smart, sophisticated series celebrates two genres our streamers love—romance and mystery—through a fresh, playful take on one of the most recognizable legacies in storytelling.”

Scarlett Holmes is produced by Jaggi Entertainment with Sophie Tilson and Steve Jaggi serving as executive producers along with Hale. The series is overseen by Morgan Pichinson and Sabrina Lyall on behalf of Roku. Jaggi Entertainment handles international sales.

“I am a true diehard fan of romantic comedies, and Scarlett Holmes has that special something that made me fall in love with the genre in the first place,” said Hale. “And I love that it brings mystery into the rom-com world in a way that feels really fresh and fun. It’s charming, sexy, funny, and has a lot of heart. Scarlett is smart, curious, a little complicated, and like so many of us, looking for love. I feel completely thrilled to step into her shoes.”

Known for her work in Pretty Little Liars, Lionsgate’s F, Marry Kill, Hulu’s Which Brings Me To You and romantic comedy Puppy Love, Hale most recently wrapped production on thriller Legacy and romantic comedy Princess. She’s also executive producing the mystery drama Dead Letters, which is currently in development at Netflix, and will star in a dual role in the adaptation of the 2017 novel by Caite Dolan-Leach. She’s repped by CAA and Reel Talent Management.

“Scarlett Holmes is the kind of smart, feel-good storytelling audiences crave. Partnering with Roku on such a charming project has been an exciting journey, and we can’t wait for viewers to fall in love with Scarlett and her world,” said Steve Jaggi, CEO Jaggi Entertainment.

After months of twists and turns that included a bidding war with Netflix and a legal fight with 12 state attorneys general and the Writers’ Guild of America, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery officially closed their $110 billion merger on Tuesday.

The move creates an entertainment behemoth that will oversee multiple streaming services, including Paramount+, Pluto TV, HBO Max and Discovery+, and TV networks like CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, HBO and CNN. It will also oversee a vast library of IP, such as Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Game of Thrones, SpongeBob SquarePants and more.

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry. From the start, our ambition was to bring these two storied studios together and create a stronger competitor, with the talent, resources, and reach to tell great stories in every genre, on every platform, for audiences everywhere,” CEO David Ellison said in a statement. “Now that ambition is a reality.”

“We’re grateful to everyone who made this possible – the employees, creative talent, and production teams of both companies, who worked tirelessly to get us here and inspire audiences around the world every day, as well as the advisors and partners who guided this transaction to completion. Our focus now turns to the future: building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences and rewards shareholders. We couldn’t be more excited to get to work.”

Paramount received clearance from Warner Bros. shareholders and regulators and governments representing 68 jurisdictions globally, including the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission, the European Commission and the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority.

Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin also approved a settlement between Paramount and a dozen state attorneys general that includes commitments to invest $1.5 billion in domestic film and TV production over five years, release at least 30 films a year in theaters and negotiate the distribution agreements for each company’s suite of cable networks separately.

The combined company also must set up an independent editorial board to oversee CNN and CBS News’ operations and continue to operate Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio lots for five years, among other things.

Failure to comply with the various commitments in the settlement range from a $30 million penalty per film that misses the theatrical goal to forced divestitures of the company’s 49% Miramax stake within a 12-month period as well as BET, Comedy Central, VH1, Smithsonian, Destination America and Science Channel within a 120-day period.

Additionally, Paramount reached a separate resolution with the WGA, including a five-year layoff pause at CBS and a $17.5 million health fund contribution.

It also agreed to concessions in the U.K. and Europe, including terminating its stake in United International Pictures and commitments to not to combine linear channels with its streaming services, maintain the editorial independence of its news services and children’s networks and provide more funding to Channel 5 to support high-quality news, original children’s programming and drama. 

The Emmys officially have a new rights holder.

Amazon has closed its deal with the Television Academy, as previewed last month, and it’s a significant pact. The partnership gives Prime Video the right to stream the annual television ceremony for the next six years and is thought to be worth north of $120M in total.

The streamer has taken global rights to the event but will make it free to view on its Prime Video service each September.

Deadline understands that the deal is worth between $20M-$25M per year with one source pegging the value at $24M per year.

The deal succeeds the broadcast wheel, which has seen broadcast networks ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC rotate the rights each year. That system has been in place for over 30 years, since 1995.

Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, told Deadline that it wanted to create a “global event” on Prime Video.

“We thought we could increase the viewership, bring in a younger audience, work with the Academy to put a lot more energy, and maybe look at the production itself to try to innovate. I feel that we can put the Emmys on a path to global growth and relevance that was probably harder to do when it was spinning from network to network and then distributed in various ways around the world,” he said.

The global nature of the deal is interesting, particularly given the fee increase the TV Academy has secured. The broadcast networks have paid between $8M-$10M per year to air in the U.S. but it’s not clear how much revenue the Academy makes from international broadcasters. The event has aired live in a number of international markets including on CTV in Canada, Showcase in Australia, Canal+ in France, TNT across Latin America and Sky Italia, but in many territories it is aired and streamed on smaller services and networks.

Abrego added that he didn’t want to just renew the wheel deal. “I felt strongly from the outset that this was an opportunity to rethink the model,” he said. “Starting every year with a new partner, trying to find a production partner, a brand partner, trying to bring even the simpleness of learnings from the past event into the next year didn’t matter because of the different institutions… that was very challenging. As television and the industry is evolving, the telecast and much like the Academy needed to evolve, and so having a singular home was my goal from the outset.”

Former Banijay Americas boss Abrego said that making the show free to view, and not behind a paywall, was a “non-negotiable” for the Academy.

“I give Mike credit. From our early conversations, he understood that. It’s not simply just about distributing an award show, they really understood what the Emmys mean to the television community and what we could build around that and we’re really excited about it,” he added.

Amazon has put other events in front of the paywall including a number of Amazon Fire concerts and its Black Friday NFL game. Hopkins pointed to the fact that the company has a “very large ad business”.

“We have we have a variety of other economic levers we can pull to make it make financial sense for us. We also have nearly all of the streaming services as part of Prime Video in our subscription business, and many of this year’s winners are available to our Prime Video customers via driving to HBO Max or Apple TV. We see it as something that sits as part of our entertainment system with customers where we can celebrate these awards and nominees throughout the year. We can be the home of many of the best shows on television today, not just those that we make ourselves, but our partners are the ones that are always every year going to get the lion’s share of awards,” he said.

Amazon itself hasn’t performed particularly well at the Emmys over the last few years; this year, largely thanks to Spider-Noir, which also aired on MGM+, it scored ten wins; last year, it won five awards at the Creative Arts Emmys and in 2024 it won four.

Hopkins said, “We stand up and clap at the Emmys when our partners win.” This is helped by the fact that Amazon would like to become a one-stop shop for streaming subscribers, as evidenced by recent bundles.

One of the things that both Amazon and the TV Academy stressed was the need to appeal to younger viewers.

“We’ve been talking a lot about it. It’s a little premature to get into specifics, but I think it is about the format. I think it’s about the celebration of certain stories and artists that might appeal to younger audiences. I also think it’s finding ways to promote to those audiences so they’re aware that it’s on,” added Hopkins. “Ultimately, we know that that younger audiences are more inclined to stream than watch broadcast television.”

Amazon does have one star that clearly appeals to younger audiences: MrBeast. Conan O’Brien joked at this year’s Oscars that he was going to be replaced by Jimmy Donaldson, the host of Amazon’s Beast Games, but maybe MrBeast would be a better choice to host the Emmys.

“We hadn’t thought about yet, but if you know him, please give him a call,” laughed Hopkins.

Abrego said that the Academy didn’t strike the deal to “just put on the exact same show”. “The amount of categories, the type of categories, the length of the show, the hope is that we have an awards show that’s as relevant and interesting and innovative as the shows that are winning the Emmys,” he said.

He wants to start having those conversations “in the next few days”. “We wouldn’t normally start having these conversations probably until May. We could start those conversations tomorrow, and start to really think about that. That’s what’s exciting,” he added.