The passing of actress Hayden Panettierre at the age of 36 sent a shudder through pop culture spaces.
The former child actress turned network TV star had only recently returned to the spotlight with her candid memoir, “This is Me: A Reckoning,” wherein she spoke with raw honesty about her experiences with entertainment industry tension, postpartum depression and domestic violence. Her comeback was welcomed, an exciting opportunity to see a prodigious talent get her dues. Now, she’s gone, and what is left behind is the work, her words, and an unavoidable sense that she deserved better than she got.
Many actors joke that they’ve been in the business their entire lives but for Panettiere, it was true. She started auditioning for TV commercials when she was barely eight months old. By the age of four, she was starring on the soap opera “One Life to Live”, before jumping ship to its rival, “Guiding Light,” where she got the full soap treatment with plotlines that included kidnapping, PTSD and leukemia. On film, she was the voice of Princess Dot in Pixar’s “A Bug’s Life” and starred alongside the likes of Kate Hudson, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in a slew of projects. Back on the small screen, she aged into teen roles in sitcoms like “Malcolm in the Middle,” and she made a name for herself in the world of video games before that became a familiar medium to big-name actors. If you were a kid in the early 2000s then the chances were high that you recognized Hayden Panettiere: bouncy blonde curls, a room-brightening smile, and impeccable charisma with real heft behind the sweetheart image.
She landed the perfect role for that blend of fizz and fire with “Heroes,” NBC’s sci-fi drama that proved the power of the superhero genre on the small screen well before Marvel Studios was a glint in Kevin Feige’s eye. As Claire Bennet, Panettiere was the breakout star, the cheerleader with regenerative powers who busted the chipper blonde stereotype and revealed the darkness within. Claire wasn’t just the core of the show — ”Save the cheerleader, save the world” — but the embodiment of its Bush-era turmoil. She was the “perfect” all-American girl whose body was unbreakable but who remained an object of unending fascination in the face of pure annihilation.
Panettiere was able to tread the fine line between trope and subversion, between a retro damsel and the thoroughly modern heroine of the 2000s. Claire and Panettiere were so popular that the show abandoned its original plans to refresh the superheroes with each season.
Often, it was her performance doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting. “Heroes” had a notoriously steep drop-off after its first season, leaving talented actors adrift as the writers struggled to pay off their ambitious setup. By the time the show limped to its conclusion, Claire had lost much of her spark. She became the cliche she was meant to be dismantling. It didn’t help that Panettiere, who was still an adolescent when she won the role, was frequently objectified, both in-text and by audiences. Reading some old writeups of “Heroes” from the mid-2000s is to be confronted by some truly ghoulish misogyny.
Like many a rising young starlet trying to smash through the limitations put upon her, Panettiere was often stuck in less than satisfying roles, such as the truly dismal rom-com “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” which felt two decades out of date upon release in 2009. She found steadier ground as a horror star in the “Scream” franchise, ushering in a new generation of survivors/victims for Ghostface. Back on TV, though, she found arguably her greatest role as Juliette Barnes, a rising country star, in “Nashville.” The ABC musical drama let her play a real adult woman, one who could be bitter, scheming, brittle and a fill-in diva. Juliette was the Eve Harrington in a Stetson, the bitchy backstabber who nonetheless revealed true vulnerabilities amid her scathing quips. As the show progressed, Panettiere managed to keep Juliette grounded and human, which was no easy task as “Nashville” swung wildly into the kind of soapy plotting she navigated as a child. In terms of unforgivable Emmy snubs of the 2010s, her lack of nomination throughout the show’s run is pretty unforgivable.
Panettiere disappeared for a while, after her struggles with postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter left her in what she described as a “living nightmare.” With her memoir, she delved into the full extent of her illness, as well as her experiences with addiction and an abusive relationship. In “This is Me,” she got the chance to speak up and put her own voice front and center after a lifetime of intense media scrutiny. She revealed the ways that a life in front of the cameras and in casting offices impacted her, how being a sex object at 17 hurt her, and a complicated family dynamic irrevocably changed by her status as a celebrity and breadwinner.
What garnered the most headlines from the book’s release were the tidbits about the ceaseless barrage of Hollywood misogyny that chased Panettiere her entire life: the NBC executive who kissed her on the lips at a network party; the “Oscar-winning actor and director” who flashed her when she was 19; the actress she considered a friend who took her on vacation then pushed her into a cabin on a yacht to have sex with “a famous 30-something British singer-songwriter” who was lying naked in bed. She talked about losing a major brand deal because she spoke up about her PPD, and of being plied with “happy pills” by her team so that she could get through a slew of interviews.
Many cautionary tales will be written about Hayden Panettiere, calling her “troubled” and placing her in the canon of child actors who died too young. These are the narratives that the entertainment industry prefers. But do not ignore her talent or resilience, and do not overlook how she reclaimed her voice in her final months of life. Her story was always more than that of the cheerleader.
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August 13 marked Jane Wiseman‘s one-year anniversary as EVP & Head of Originals for Paramount+. Coincidentally — and fittingly — it also marked the start of production for Discretion starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, which was the first big buy for the streamer’s new regime, led by Cindy Holland, Chair of Direct to Consumer, and her top programming executive, Wiseman, following Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount.
There have been 28 new series pickups since then across scripted, unscripted and kids and family and 16 renewals. There has been platform consolidation, with BET+ folded into Paramount+ and the Showtime name dropped from P+’s top tier.
The streamer’s sibling studio Paramount TV Studios has signed deals with top talent such as the Duffer Brothers and Issa Rae (shared with Paramount Pictures) and Liz Tigelaar (shared with CBS Studios). Meanwhile, Paramount+ is a little over two years away from seeing its most prolific creator, Taylor Sheridan, leave for NBCUniversal, with his close collaborator, David Glasser of 101 Studios, already there.
And then, there is Paramount’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery which has been commanding attention for months, with its outcome and closing date in limbo amid a legal fight with state AGs.
In a wide-ranging interview with Deadline held on her one-year anniversary, Wiseman discussed Paramount+’s programming strategy and its different areas: female forward, genre and YA dramas — but not comedies — kids and family programming and unscripted. She spoke about Paramount+’s relationship with its top creators, Sheridan and Tyler Perry — who recently sold his stake in BET+ to Paramount — teasing more shows from both. Wiseman also talked about buying from sister studios Paramount TV Studios and CBS Studios and, for the first time in Paramount+’s history, from outside studios, too, about the future of the Star Trek franchise and the Showtime brand as well as building a slate with the WBD merger noise in the background and plans for Year 2.
“The fact that I can look back on these last 12 months and see what we’ve accomplished with the green lights and the renewals after looking at this incredible foundation that we started with, with all of our amazing Taylor Sheridan shows and with Star Trek and the Showtime shows and the CBS next-day shows, it really really hit home to us that we have so much, we have a lot to build off of,” Wiseman said. “So, although Paramount+ is only five years old, it feels like we’re really just getting started. So, the takeaway for me is that we have this incredible starting point but there’s so much room to grow.”
This is the second streamer Wiseman has worked at; she was also part of Holland’s core team at Netflix that built its slate from scratch and turned it into a formidable original programming player. (Wiseman has spent most of her career to date as a comedy executive at Netflix, NBC, Fox and Chernin Entertainment.) The assignment has been different with Paramount+, which had been around for several years with originals as well as access to the Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios libraries and next-day CBS programming.
DEADLINE: There had been some expectation that when the post-merger Paramount+ regime came in, you would be going on a buying spree, which did not happen. Talk about your ramp-up approach.
WISEMAN: My dance card and phone sheet would say differently because I do feel like we are buying a lot. We are definitely developing a lot, we’ve announced seven scripted drama greenlights in the last 10 months, so it does feel like there’s volume. And then we have a lot on the runway that we haven’t announced yet. So, to me, what we don’t want to do is scale so big, so fast. We want to be very deliberate in our choices. We want to stay on strategy. We want to curate what we have, but we also want to take care of the the Sheridan audience, the Taylorverse.
Then we also want to look at our strategy in the female forward space as well as the genre. It does feel a lot, frankly, to me. We’re very busy behind the scenes. We’re working very closely with our friends at Paramount TV Studios and CBS Studios, and we’re also buying from outside studios for the first time in a long time, with A24 and MGM, just to name a few.
We have development with just about everybody in town, so the volume is increasing. But I also want to say we want to be the home where we buy something and we make it, we don’t want things to sit in development for years. We want to make sure that we’re deliberate in our buying. So that may seem like it’s less, I don’t feel that way because we want to greenlight everything we buy.
DEADLINE: Talk about your relationship with Paramount TV Studios and CBS Studios. And you mentioned Paramount+ opening up to third-party sellers for the first time, do you get a lot of incoming business from outside?
WISEMAN: We do, we get a lot. But what’s wonderful about our Paramount TV studio partners as well as our CBS studio partners that there’s so much trust. I’ve known [CBS Studios President] David Stapf for 20 years, I’ve known [PTVS President] Matt Thunell for 12 years, we worked so closely together in our last job, and we have a trust. And the fact that we have shows already on the service from both studios — we just greenlit Clueless and Ascent, we also have a lot of development. It speaks to our trust and our communication, and they’re filling the pipeline and allowing us to make these decisions easier as shows like Clueless and Ascent are really on strategy for us.
[Meanwhile], our show Trauma that we just greenlit is from Lionsgate, and we have a couple on the runway that are third-party studios. We’re working with everyone in town.
When Holland and Wiseman took over Paramount+, its original slate had a handful of cornerstones –Sheridan, who is behind the streamer’s biggest series, including Landman, Tulsa King, Lioness, and, most recently, The Madison; Glasser’s 101 Studios, which produces Sherdian’s series along with others, including MobLand; and the Star Trek franchise.
Word quickly spread to the creative community that the new regime was looking to supplement the existing lineup of largely male-skewing shows with female dramas. Signaling their arrival to the town, the first two bidding wars Paramount+ won with straight-to-series orders post-merger were for legal drama Discretion, starring Kidman and Fanning, and limited series Fear Not, headlined by Anne Hathaway. Both come from outside studios, A24 and MGM Television, respectively.
“We know that female forward ensemble shows, dramas, legal thrillers, soapy thrillers, are things that we were looking for,” Holland said at Paramount’s upfront presentation in May about the initial priorities.
Below, Wiseman goes over each aspect of Paramount+’s programming strategy.
(L-R): Dana Goldberg (Co-Chair of Paramount Pictures and Chair of Paramount Television), Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldaña, Jane Wiseman (EVP, Head of Originals) and Cindy Holland (Chair of Direct-to-Consumer) at the Lioness Season 3 Premiere
Kristina Bumphrey/JanuaryImages for Paramount+
DEADLINE: The expression I keep hearing about Paramount+’s programming strategy is filling white spaces in the lineup. Let’s talk about how you have been filling these gaps, starting with female dramas.
WISEMAN: As I said, when we started, we felt like we had a great foundation. You can look at the shows that come from Taylor and 101, they get big audiences. We just launched Lioness. We’re really, really excited about the viewing that’s coming from that show, and it’s both female and male, but it’s definitely a genre, I mean, Taylor’s his own genre, if you think about it.
So we wanted to widen the aperture, and, knowing that you already have men and women coming to the service — we have men coming, we have UFC, we have football, sports, and then we have an unscripted offering that we know can bring in women — we wanted to build on that, it’s all about building.
The female forward is in front of the camera, behind the camera, really getting women, intriguing them to come to the service and watch. And what was really exciting is that we just launched last spring The Madison and Dutton Ranch, which were from the Taylor Sheridan camp, but they over-indexed in women. So we felt like if you make shows for women, they will come.
Enter Discretion or enter Fear Not, that’s where we felt like if we could make shows for women but not alienate men; we want to make sure there’s something for everyone, and we feel like what was missing were those soapy character dramas. What I love about Discretion, just to pinpoint that one, when we first started, this was one of the first pitches that came in the door, and it was — I’m not kidding — it was a soapy female two-hander legal drama from Susannah Grant and Chandler Baker, starring Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman, and we were like, bullseye, let’s go.
That was a pitch, but we felt some comfort with Susannah Grant because we’d worked with her before, and we also know how incredible she is. Chandler had just an incredible take on this female forward storyline, and then, we had two of the most incredible stars in the world in Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman. So that one felt like a really no-brainer to us.
We’ve been developing female thrillers. We’ve been developing true crime. We’ve been developing soaps. We’ve been developing a lot. It’s not just one thing, it’s not one size fits all when we talk about female forward, which makes it exciting.
DEADLINE: A number of your buys look kind of prestige, something HBO would be doing. Did you adjust the strategy after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger was announced with a plan for Paramount+ and HBO Max to merge so your slate would be complementary to HBO’s?
WISEMAN: No. The strategy has not changed. From the day we walked in one year ago, it is still the same.
DEADLINE: How is the pending merger, especially the uncertainty surrounding it, impacting your strategy, if at all? Are you slowing down, are you pausing any efforts, programming or hiring-wise? Is there any wait-and-see approach?
WISEMAN: We came in a year ago with the goal of expanding our slate, and our commitment to that remains unchanged.
DEADLINE: And no other areas have been impacted, like staffing or buying, the volume of it?
WISEMAN: No. And, beyond the scripted dramas, we’re also playing in the unscripted space as well as kids and families. So we feel like we’re growing.
DEADLINE: And you have no issues with creatives with the merger and the limbo around it; you’re still not in shortage of great talent coming to you?
WISEMAN: Not in shortage.
‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’
Paramount+
DEADLINE: Along with female dramas, genre has been a priority. You brought in top genre executive Chris Parnell to lead the efforts but haven’t announced any series. Where are you in the process and what areas are you focusing on? I’ve heard world-building, fantasy, romantasy. Everybody wants their Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.
WISEMAN: Speaking of spaces, the space is wide open. We’re the home of Star Trek, and we have series coming back. We’re going to have more. Yellowjackets, I guess, is also considered genre, and Dexter. But as far as new things coming to the service, true, we want our world-building, platform-defining genre series, and that can be grounded. In fact, we hope it is grounded because the best genre shows have relationships at the center.
What’s also exciting is that we have a Paramount library to choose from, titles that we’re investigating that you’ll hear from at a later date. And there’s nothing better than hearing an original idea for a grounded genre series that speaks to a lot of people. So the space is pretty wide open. And yes, you alluded to Chris Parnell, there’s no one better in that space, and there’s no one more in that space that I want on my team.
DEADLINE: Do you feel strongly about your development? Do you think that your signature genre show may be one that you already have in the works?
WISEMAN: I will say that when you’re developing these genre platform-defining shows, they do tend to take a little bit longer. But I would say for sure that there are a handful of titles, from our studio partners as well as a third party, that we are looking at right now, developing, and are on a very, very strong path to green light. I just can’t talk about anything right now.
DEADLINE: What is your plan for the Star Trek franchise? It is at crossroads with Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy ending and no new series greenlit. If I heard you correctly, you said that something is coming. Yes?
WISEMAN: Well, it’s one of the reasons why Chris is here as the resident number one fan of the Star Trek franchise. And there’s so many people in this building, by the way, that are. It is our goal and it is our job to figure out what the next bounce of Star Trek is. We’re talking to a lot of writers, we are leaning on CBS Studios, and it is imperative that we figure out what the next iteration is in this franchise because it’s just too important. We also are in touch with Paramount Pictures, they have a Star Trek movie that’s in development.
DEADLINE: You mentioned Clueless, the sequel series to the Paramount movie with Alicia Silverstone reprising her role as Cher. Talk about the decision to buy it after Peacock passed; I believe this came together very quickly.
WISEMAN: Clueless is a huge, huge property for Paramount, obviously. We’ve all been huge fans of the movie and everybody involved. When we heard that it was available and that it could be a way to bring it home, we did move very quickly. CBS Studios made it undeniable for us. Josh [Schwartz] and Stephanie [Savage] and Jordan [Weiss] are incredible creators. Sitting across the table from Alicia Silverstone and hearing her talk about the character, it just makes so much sense. We really wanted to get the band back together and celebrate it in an event series, and that really is what hit home for us.
DEADLINE: Why did you decide to eventize Clueless as a limited series and not do it as ongoing series? Could it still continue?
WISEMAN: We decided to make it an event series because it deserves to be an event. We feel like this is going to be something that people are going to come to in droves — already you can tell — if you want to get the cast back together, if you want to see where everyone is. It’s also a mother-daughter story, which I don’t want to overlook because we’re really excited about the next generation of Clueless. So, if I can leave it open-ended, I’d like to. But the idea is that this particular version of the show is supposed to be an event. It’s supposed to be open and closed where Cher is in her life and what she and her daughter are up to, and how we can bring the cast back to celebrate it.
DEADLINE: I’d heard, and you alluded to it multiple times, that the idea is to bring as many of the film’s cast back as possible, like Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Donald Faison, right?
WISEMAN: Oh, we would love it.
DEADLINE: But no one has a deal, correct?
WISEMAN: Beyond who we’ve announced, like Alicia, yes, correct.
DEADLINE: You mentioned the mother-daughter relationship, which is a YA element; obviously the original was a YA movie. You also have School Spirits. YA is such a hot area on streaming right now, are you ramping up that development too? There haven’t been announcements beyond Clueless.
WISEMAN: We are definitely developing in the space, and we want to take our time and be deliberate with our choices. Clueless, even though it is a mother-daughter show, it still feels there’s a big YA element, and we love School Spirits, we can’t wait for it to come back. We know that’s a space that’s important to our viewers, having this robust kids and family audience and then being able to have a bridge into adulthood, so we’re looking at it. It’s much more opportunistic. We’re definitely taking some swings in the space.
DEADLINE: In addition to Clueless, you have Cop Land, based on the Paramount movie, in development. Are there other Paramount titles that you are adapting for TV; is there a dream IP that you would like to tackle?
WISEMAN: Well, we are the home of Avatar in the animated space, and we could not be more thrilled with this movie that just launched, and then we have series that are coming. So we have a lot of Avatar Paramount IP coming, and then you’ve also reported on Garfield, which we’re really excited about in the kids space. Nothing else at this point to point to but knowing that we’re definitely working with our partners, and we’re really, really open to finding more IP from Paramount because it’s really important. It’s our home.
DEADLINE: On Day 1, Cindy Holland indicated that Paramount+ would not be doing original comedies, relying on next-day CBS sitcoms. It is ironic since comedy is literally your background, an area you’re you’re an expert in, so I’m sure it is a little strange for you not to be in the comedy space. Colin from Affairs is coming to an end, Crutch was canceled, you don’t even have a formal head of comedy. Is drama too big of a priority not to think about comedy?
WISEMAN: Well, first of all, thank you for calling me an expert in comedy, that is probably the best thing I’ve heard in a long time. I do love comedy, I grew up on comedy in my life. And it’s true, it is wonderful that we have the next-day CBS comedies. We are the home of South Park, which is one of the biggest comedies out there. I think the priority is one-hour drama. We talk about it in building blocks, and it’s not a never, It’s just not a right now. We’re just trying to find our space in the one-hour area.
DEADLINE: But there’s premium live-action comedy, something that CBS or South Park cannot offer.
WISEMAN: Yeah. The other thing I would say is, the dramas have humor; I always want to have humor in the content that I program and frankly watch. The actual comedy half-hour is just not something we’re programming right now. But again, we never say never. That is something that we want to make sure people know is that things come in opportunistically, and we jump on them when we know that it’s right.
DEADLINE: Another area that you inherited on Paramount+ is broadcast-adjacent dramas like NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which was canceled. You have Criminal Minds: Evolution left. What is its future? I don’t know how those kinds of shows fit into your strategy, they don’t seem to.
WISEMAN: We just launched Criminal Minds Season 19, and we are big fans, we love how long-running that is. We’re going to 20, which is greenlit for 2027. Tony & Ziva, unfortunately, for the cost, it did not make sense with the viewing, although we were all fans of it.
DEADLINE: So if a show is performing, even if it’s a broadcast-type drama, it can still find a space on Paramount+?
WISEMAN: Yeah. Again, we have these incredible next-day procedurals from CBS. But if something works for us, and we feel like it’s going to work for us, we’ll take a shot.
Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris in ‘Landman’
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
DEADLINE: You mentioned Taylor Sheridan a few times. How is your relationship with him going? He surprised everyone by writing every episode of Frisco King after his 2029 move to NBCUniversal had been announced. Can we expect more new shows for P+ before his deal is up?
WISEMAN: That is the hope, and that is the intention. We have Frisco King coming. We have a couple things that I can’t talk about, but we work very closely with Taylor and David Glasser. We have a really great relationship, and the idea that we have more Madison coming, we have more Landman coming, we have more Dutton coming, and there are a couple things that we’ve been discussing that we would love to get on the service before 29. But we know that his legacy will remain with us for many, many years to come because of all the shows I just mentioned.
DEADLINE: Mayor of Kingstown is the first one of Sheridan’s ongoing Paramount+ series that is coming to an end. Of his other longer-running shows, do you see Tulsa King continuing? There had been talk about it moving to New York.
WISEMAN: We’re about to announce the premiere date for Tulsa King Season 4, that one is coming out. It’s an incredible season. Sly [Stallone] is in great form in the show, and there’s going to be some surprises. But that show is continuing.
DEADLINE: Can it continue beyond Season 4?
WISEMAN: It could. Between Tulsa and Landman, which Taylor is writing right now. Frisco, Dutton, Madison, we have a lot of business, and we’re going to be in business for time to come.
DEADLINE: Moving onto 101 Studios. Is everything okay on MobLand after the behind-the-scenes commotion involving Tom Hardy. Are you locked and loaded for Season 3?
WISEMAN: Season 2 is unbelievable, it is so explosive. We just released the trailer. It’s firing all cylinders. I’m really excited about this season.
DEADLINE: And Season 3?
WISEMAN: We haven’t made a decision on Season 3 yet.
DEADLINE: Cop Land feels like a Taylor Sheridan or 101 Studios type of show, down to the title that is a cross between Landman and MobLand. Are you starting to think about a future after their departures, developing new series that would continue that legacy?
WISEMAN: It is early, and, again, the offering that we have is so robust. We have a lot in the pipeline, so it’s a little bit early. But Cop Land, besides being Paramount IP and from an incredible team and our sister studio FTVS, it felt like something that would go really well with the audiences that watch these other shows, so it felt like a good shot to take.
DEADLINE: Cop Land came out of James Mangold’s feature pact at Paramount. Have you started developing with other talent under big deals made right after the merger? The Duffer Brothers have a movie for 2028, but do you have anything with them or Issa Rae in the works?
WISEMAN: We’ve had incredible meetings with Issa and the Duffers, frankly. They’re very very busy, but it is truly the goal to have shows from both of them, and hopefully sooner than later with Issa. The Duffers are very busy with their movie but that doesn’t mean that they can’t shepherd series at the same time. We’re just trying to be respectful of their time.
DEADLINE: The future of the Showtime-branded series. Yellowjackets and The Chi are ending, leaving only Dexter: Resurrection. Are you developing shows to be in that brand, will it continue, or will any new series be Paramount+ originals?
WISEMAN: With shows like Yellowjackets and The Chi, which felt very female forward, we definitely want to develop shows in those spaces for women by women, so that’s not going to change. Really excited for the next season of Dexter to come out, it’s been on our platform for 20 years. As far as the Showtime brand, I don’t know that there’s anything really to say about it right now. In terms of brands, we just migrated BET over to a service, which was really successful for us, and we have some wonderful series coming from BET Studios, so I can speak more to that.
DEADLINE: To clarify, you’re not developing shows and say, these fit the Showtime brand, there will not be a tile or something on Paramount+ the way FX is on Hulu, correct? it’s not a separate lane that you’re developing in.
WISEMAN: No.
DEADLINE: Why did you decide not to proceed with Dexter: Original Sin Season 2, which had been announced pre-merger?
WISEMAN: I think that was right in the beginning. I know it was really deliberate, we wanted to focus on Michael C. Hall and his character with Dexter: Resurrection, and that was really important for us to continue that storyline.
DEADLINE: Any thoughts about 101’s The Agency, which started as a Showtime series before becoming a P+ original? How is the current second season doing? Could be more?
WISEMAN: It’s too early.
(L-R): Cameron Fuller as Nathan, Guyviaud Joseph as Tony, Devale Ellis as Zac, Crystal Renee Hayslett as Fatima, and Laila Odom as Connie
Jay Johnson/Paramount+/BET/TPS
DEADLINE: You just mentioned the BET+ migration being successful. Since then, you have renewed The Ms. Pat Show, you have The Varnell Hill Show coming up. Have you seen the BET+ slate bring new viewers to Paramount+? And how is your relationship with Tyler Perry, who is behind most BET/BET+ series?
WISEMAN: It’s a good question. And yes, we feel the migration was very successful. The audiences are showing up for sure.
Our relationship with Tyler Perry is very strong, and I’m excited for more content from him, as well as working closely with our friends at BET Studios, with some announcements to come.
DEADLINE: But we could expect similar volume of originals to what BET+ was offering, just on Paramount+, it’s not going to go down, correct?
WISEMAN: Correct.
DEADLINE: In the kids and family space, you obviously have the Nickelodeon shows. But you also have ordered your own originals with the animated The Elephant & Piggie Show!, The Pigeon Show! and Garfield. Is there white space that Nickelodeon doesn’t cover? How do you decide what kids and family animated shows to do as P+ originals?
WISEMAN: Absolutely, the Nickelodeon brand is very strong and very important to Paramount, and we have a lot of offerings from the Nickelodeon studio. Elephant & Piggie and Pigeon and the Mo Willems universe in general was something that was really important to us. Preschool is we feel like a really important audience that we want to make sure we’re servicing, and the Mo Willems universe, it’s a crown jewel.
So we felt like that would be a perfect opportunity to program not just one series, but multiple series. We’re developing others, we’re working really closely with Mo Willems and Hidden Pigeon, and it’s been a joy, frankly.
DEADLINE: What about live-action family shows, like Percy Jackson. Is that something that you would do or will you rely on Nickelodeon’s output for it?
WISEMAN: We look to Nickelodeon. We have The Thundermans coming, the Avatar space is in that world as well. That is my group, small and mighty, and we are building out strategy for kids and family. We’re executing on that strategy with the announcements of the shows that we just talked about, and that is something that’s a big priority for us.
DEADLINE: In terms of your overall team, is it all built up? Are there more executives you would like to add, or are you keeping it lean and mean?
WISEMAN: I do like lean and mean. We feel nimble, we make really fast decisions, which I really like. And everyone has a direct line to me. Everyone has direct lines to Cindy. We built up last fall — I would say quickly — and then we took a pause and just we’re reevaluating what we need for the future. We’re about to go into production on four new shows, Discretion, The Best Of Us, Laird and Trauma, so ask me again in six months. But right now, it feels like the right amount of people.
DEADLINE: On the unscripted side, you have extensions of Paramount cable mainstays such as RuPaul, Teen Mom and Jersey Shore, you have ordered true crime shows, which have become a streaming staple, sports series to complement your live sports. Talk about mixing that with betting on new franchises that target young women like Making Love.
WISEMAN: Yes, and again, having this amazing foundation to start with football, with UFC, with next-day Survivor and Amazing Race. We thought we could opportunistically take some swings in the unscripted space that focuses on women, and that’s where the dating show Making Love comes in. That’s where Team Moms comes in and a few others that we’re going to announce shortly that will be female-focused, female-forward. We want to satisfy that audience because it’s a really big one.
DEADLINE: What other areas are you focusing on? True crime?
WISEMAN: We work really closely with See It Now Studios, Susan Zirinsky, she’s just a pro and has been programming here for a long time, and we’ve had an incredible experience. We have quite a few unscripted shows in the works that we haven’t announced. Handsome Devil came out in the first quarter and was so successful for us, that is true crime in its finest form. So that is something that we’re looking for as we continue, and we’re really looking to See It Now to help us with that. But also, we’re working with third parties as well.
DEADLINE: And Damla Dogan, who has been shepherding unscripted development for you, is she still a consultant?
WISEMAN: She is a pro, an expert in her field, and I’m so lucky to have her working on the unscripted content with us. She is currently consulting for us, but she is punching above her weight. She’s incredible and really helping us manage all of our shows.
DEADLINE: Paramount executives have said that you won’t chase the volume of Netflix but you do seem to be following a similar strategy of trying to program for everyone, just in a different way, with some of the content coming from CBS, the cable networks, the movie studio and the film and TV library.
WISEMAN: As Cindy has said, we just want to have everyone’s favorite show. We really want to have a destination for people where they don’t even think twice about like, oh, I’m going to Paramount+ because I know my favorite show is on that service. And that’s why we talk about the scripted dramas, the unscripted, the kids and family, and we really are making a push. And it really comes down to the creators that we work with and wanting to be the best experience for people to tell their stories and to help them achieve their vision.
It all starts with the creator, with the filmmaker, and it’s not that simple, but it does feel like it for us because we get to work with the best in the business.
DEADLINE: If you have to grade the first year, what would you say? And what are the top priorities for Year 2?
WISEMAN: You know, and I say this with all sincerity: waking up every morning and being excited to come to work, and nothing is the same. Everything is different. It feels like a brand new day, and being able to work on these shows, these green lights, these returning shows – it’s a joy. So, if I can give myself a grade of joy, then I would give myself an A.
DEADLINE: And Year 2? More of the same?
WISEMAN: More of the same for Year 2, stay tuned. We have a lot. Although I would say in Year 2, we’re going into production on a lot of shows. So buckle up.
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Somehow, it’s Monday again. Why do these keep coming up? But, as always, there’s at least one upside: new shows to watch.
Granted, we are in the doldrums of summer TV at the moment, but that just means you have less competition for your attention. There’s still plenty to choose from, but not nearly as much as usual. As always, we want to keep your stress levels low, so we’ve gone ahead and picked out a variety of shows hitting streaming this week that might interest you.
From the final season of a Netflix favorite, to a new sports docuseries on Apple TV, here are five new shows to stream this week.
“Outer Banks” is finally coming to an end, and it’s happening this week.
Per the official synopsis, Season 5 of the fan-favorite series “finds the Pogues at their absolute breaking point following the tragic loss of JJ in Morocco. Stranded far from home and mourning the heart of their crew, they’ve lost the Blue Crown and continue to face a gauntlet of familiar threats. With Chandler Groff still at large, Dalia and the Corsairs closing in, and the Kooks ensuring the Pogues have no home to return to, John B, Sarah, Kiara, Pope, and Cleo must rely on their scrappy instincts—and an uneasy alliance with Rafe—to keep from falling apart for good.”
“Their mission is now a desperate race to reclaim their future and finally win the freedom they’ve been chasing since the beginning. It’s the Pogues against the world as they seek to avenge their best friend and bring it on home … one final time.”
Season 5 of “Outer Banks” hits Netflix on Aug. 20.
If you need more “Love Is Blind” in your life, good news: Season 3 of the U.K. edition premieres this week.
As always, the show brings together hopeful singles for a series of blind dates. In this case, it’s very literally blind, since there’s a wall between them, keeping anyone from actually seeing what their date looks like. They simply need to get to know each other through conversation, and decide if they then want to get married, sight unseen.
“Love Is Blind: UK” starts streaming Aug. 19 on Netflix.
You love the drama and tea of the Kardashian family, but what about a Kardashian and her closest friends?
“The Girls: A Khloé Kardashian Project” centers on, you may have guessed from the name, Khloé Kardashian. But, instead of following the shenanigans and Khloé and her family, this reality show follows Khloé and her closest friends, and the drama that unfolds in that particular group. What is it really like being part of a friend group with a reality star? We’ll find out.
It starts streaming on Hulu on Aug. 21.
Earlier this summer, fans of “The Vampire Lestat” were treated to a live performance from Sam Reid, in character, at the iconic Beacon Theatre in New York City. Now, fans who couldn’t get themselves there can see it too.
This season of the series follows a now-rockstar Lestat (Reid) on a multi-city tour while he’s haunted by “muses” from his wild and rebellious past. As his band’s popularity and star power rises, so does Lestat’s influence. So, you know, be warned as you’re watching that you may fall under his spell.
“The Vampire Lestat: One Night Only LIVE” features original songs from series composer Daniel Hart, and starts streaming Aug. 23 on AMC+.
For those of you looking more for sports shows to watch this week, you’ll want to head over to Apple TV.
“The Dynasty: UConn Huskies” is a three-part documentary series that chronicles the rise of the most dominant program in college basketball history. It features exclusive interviews with the 2025 National Championship team, as well as several “legendary voices” spanning UConn basketball’s history, and never-before-seen archival footage.
You can start watching it on Apple TV on Aug. 21.
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For Debora Cahn getting to create and run her own Netflix hit series was simple. First, get jobs and spend years writing and producing on iconic shows like The West Wing, Homeland, and Grey’s Anatomy.
Cahn is creator, showrunner, and Executive Producer of Netflix’s The Diplomat which she thinks of as sort of the flip of West Wing, a show she joined in its fourth season and stayed through the finale, with a focus on international affairs rather than domestic politics. Now for its third season it has received more Emmy nominations than ever with seven including two for Cahn – Outstanding Drama Series and Writing in a Drama Series – and it is especially sweet because this reps her first Emmy writing nomination, although she is a past two time WGA Award winner (for “The Supremes” episode of West Wing, as well as writing on the Limited Series, Fosse/Verdon). In all three years of the series, star Keri Russell has been nominated, and the show itself was also up for Drama Series last season too.
Cahn says she has learned from the best, including of course West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and Grey’s Anatomy creator Sondra Rhimes, the latter show she joined early on in 2006 before leaving in 2013. She also worked under Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter as a writer and co-ep of HBO’s Vinyl, and wrote the TV Movie Paterno starring Al Pacino among other impressive credits.
Cahn joins me for this episode of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens where we talk about her remarkable career, the upward trajector of The Diplomat at the Emmys, how the show resonates in this upside down political climate and how she keeps it relevant, plus where it is going in the fourth season now underway in the writers room, and so much more including the meeting during the production of Homeland where Cahn jotted down just five words that led to the creation of The Diplomat.
To watch our conversation and to go ‘behind the lens’ with Debora Cahn just click on the link above.
Join me every Monday and Friday this season for a new Behind The Lens and every Wednesday for a new episode of The Actor’s Side.
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