‘Underground’: OWN Acquires WGN America’s Historical Drama Series

direct to your inboxThe oldest surviving public library in Britain is to be one of the stars of a new television show airing this evening (December 19).For the last six weeks, Professor Alice Roberts has been visiting historical parts of the country as part of the Channel 4 series Britain's Most Historic Towns.This week, the spotlight shines brightly on Manchester’s industrial revolution and features some of the most historical buildings the city-region has to offer.One of the buildings to

EXCLUSIVE: Gabrielle Ryan (Bonding, The Haves and the Have Nots) is set for a key recurring role in NBC’s new sci-fi drama Debris, starring Jonathan Tucker and Riann Steele, from Almost Human creator J.H. Wyman, Legendary Television & Universal Television.

Nexstar Media Group, the owner of the largest local station portfolio in the U.S. as well as cable channel WGN America has announced a carriage deal with Hulu.

EXCLUSIVE: Michaela Conlin is set for a key supporting role in the upcoming second season of For All Mankind, Apple’s alt-history Space Race drama from Ronald D. Moore and Sony Pictures Television.

EXCLUSIVE: Mahira Kakkar (A Suitable Boy) and Ali Lopez-Sohaili (Law & Order: SVU) are set for recurring roles opposite Josh Dallas on the upcoming third season of NBC’s missing plane drama series Manifest, from Jeff Rake and Warner Bros. TV.

Armenia has selected Arman Nshanian’s historial drama Songs of Solomon as its official submission for the 93rd Academy Awards’ International Feature Film category.

EXCLUSIVE: Tehran star Navid Negahban and Pej Vahdat (Empire) are set for recurring roles opposite Jeff Bridges in FX on Hulu drama The Old Man, from Black Sails co-creators Jon Steinberg and Robert Levine.

EXCLUSIVE: Jag alum David James Elliott and Joel Murray (Mad Men) are set for recurring roles opposite Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig in Heels, Starz’s eight-episode hourlong drama set in the outrageous world of independent professional wrestling.

Nexstar Media Group said its widely distributed cable network WGN America has reached its first carriage agreement with internet-delivered bundle FuboTV.

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes are teaming up to headline True Story, a Netflix limited series written and executive produced by Narcos: Mexico executive producer Eric Newman and produced by Hart’s HartBeat Production.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterIn a competitive situation, the George Lopez drama series “Once Upon a Time in Aztlan” has been set up at Amazon for development, Variety has learned exclusively.Lopez will star in and executive produce the one-hour series under his Travieso Productions banner.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterPeacock is developing a drama series about the FBI’s notorious COINTELPRO program, Variety has learned exclusively.Set in 1965, the series centers on Amos Harvey, a conservative black cop and veteran of the Korean War, who is forcibly recruited into the FBI’s secret task-force, COINTELPRO. His job is to infiltrate the Civil Rights movement to destroy the organizations from the inside.

EXCLUSIVE: Nepal-born actress Dichen Lachman is set as a series regular opposite Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette in Severance, Apple’s upcoming workplace thriller drama directed by and executive produced by Ben Stiller. Severance takes place at Lumen Industries, a company that’s looking to take work-life balance to a new level with a “severance procedure,” which separates work and out-of-work memories. Scott stars as Mark, an employee with a dark past trying to put himself back together.

Famed Spanish fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga is getting the biopic treatment, with ViacomCBS International Studios, a division of ViacomCBS Networks International, now developing a scripted series.

Nexstar Media Group TV stations in 120 markets and 42 states as well as WGN America nationwide have gone dark on Dish Network platforms after days of negotiations between the companies failed to yield a deal.

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Sony Pictures Television has optioned Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey’s bestselling book Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir, for development as a drama series. A search for a writer is underway.

EXCLUSIVE:  IMDb TV is developing Motorheads from John A. Norris and Cavalry Media, a coming-of-age ensemble drama that leans into the escapism and joy that comes from everything from changing the oil on your first car to your first kiss. In a blue collar steel town trying to reinvent itself, some characters will navigate the hierarchy and rules of high school, while others will be running from a dark past looking for new beginnings.

The final ten episodes of Michael Hirst’s historical drama Vikings is moving from History to Amazon for its first-window.

Pablo Sandoval As Argentina state film finance has dwindled, Argentine writers and directors are looking ever more to drama series creation as an alternative. MipCancun caught Argentine talent pitching 10 projects that have been awarded development coin by Argentina’s INCAA film-TV agency.

Matthew Vaughn's MARV studio —behind the Kingsman franchise and last year's Elton John biopic Rocketman —is making its first venture into TV with an ambitious new project set in the world of English soccer. Titled Day 1's, the show has been co-created by Doug Ellin, best known as the Emmy and BAFTA winner and six-time Golden Globe nominee behind Entourage, and Chris Case, who produced Mad About You and Spin City, with both acting as showrunners on the 10-episode series.