Deadline Hollywood - Contenders Television - Documentary + Unscripted - 04/27/24

LIFETIME

PRESENTATIONS

Saturday, April 27, 2024

The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

DISNEY+

ABC

Where Is Wendy Williams?

Jim Henson Idea Man

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

PRIME VIDEO

The Oscars

Lettering By ANDREW FOOTIT

For Love and Life: No

Ordinary Campaign

Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story

Gypsy Rose Blanchard (Subject)

Nicole Vogel (EP)

Laura Fleury (EP)

Melissa Moore (EP)

Mark Ford (EP)

Erica Hanson (EP)

Ron Howard (Director)

Molly McNearney (Co-Head Writer/EP)

Danny Ricker (Co-Head Writer/Supervising Producer)

Gary Greenberg (Writer/Supervising Producer)

Raj Kapoor EP

Katy Mullan EP

Molly McNearney Writer/EP

Hamish Hamilton Director

Christopher Burke (Director)

Tim Rummel (Producer)

Gelila Bekele (Writer/Director/Producer)

Armani Ortiz (Director/Producer)

MTV ENTERTAINMENT

STUDIOS

APPLE TV+

RuPaul’s Drag Race

PEACOCK

Girls State

The Dynasty: New England Patriots

The Super Models

Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces

Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story

The Traitors

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Queens

SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Sapphira Cristál (Contestant) Q (Contestant)

Nymphia Wind (Contestant)

Xunami Muse (Contestant)

Jesse Moss (Co-Director/Co-Producer)

Amanda McBaine (Co-Director/Co-Producer)

Matthew Hamachek (Director/EP)

Roger Ross Williams (Director/EP)

Larissa Bills (Director/Producer)

Morgan Neville (Director/Producer)

William H. Masterson III (Producer/EP)

Kirk Fraser (Director)

Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (Talent/EP)

Alan Cumming (Producer/Host)

Sam Rees-Jones (EP)

Parvati Shallow (Traitor)

Kate Chastain (Traitor)

Chloe Sarash (Showrunner/ Writer)

Vanessa Berlowitz (EP)

Faith Musembi (Director/Producer)

FOX

PRESENTATIONS

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Special Forces: World’s

Toughest Test

Tyler Cameron (Recruit)

Erin Jackson (Recruit)

JoJo Siwa (Recruit)

Nick Viall (Recruit)

NETFLIX

I Can See Your Voice

Squid Game: The Challenge

COMEDY CENTRAL INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY

The Daily Show

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

SCHEDULE AND SPEAKERS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Ken Jeong (EP/Host)

Toni Ireland (EP)

John Hay (EP)

Erika Dobrin (Casting Director)

Mathieu Weekes (Production Designer)

Zhubin Parang (Writer/Co-EP)

Jen Flanz (Showrunner/Writer/EP)

Josh Johnson (Correspondent)

Mary Robertson (Director/EP)

Emma Schwartz (Director/Co-EP)

Giovonnie Samuels (Former All That Cast Member)

Bryan Hearne (Former All That Cast Member)

theSettingRecord Straight

Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted puts the cream of the nonfiction crop in the spotlight

By Matt Carey

This year’s Emmy race features some of the most explosive nonfiction content in recent years: a docuseries on the fate of a beloved talk show host, a vulnerable young woman victimized in a case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, the scandal involving Nickelodeon kids shows, and a revealing look inside one of professional sport’s greatest dynasties.

Deadline’s Contenders: Documentary & Unscripted virtual event—your indispensable guide to Emmy season—goes in depth with the key talent behind Lifetime’s Where Is Wendy Williams?, Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, and The Dynasty: New England Patriots from Apple TV+. Gypsy Rose Blanchard herself joins us to talk about telling her shocking story in Lifetime’s The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. And that’s just for starters.

Ken Jeong, EP and host of I Can See Your Voice, visits Contenders to share insights on his Fox music guessing game series. Another innovative unscripted competition show,

Peacock’s The Traitors, is represented at Contenders by host and producer Alan Cumming, plus EP Sam ReesJones and two of the show’s “traitors.” We’ve got the team from Squid Game: The Challenge, the hit Netflix reality competition series inspired by the enormously successful drama. And JoJo Siwa and other celebrity “recruits” will spill secrets of their experience on the Fox unscripted series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

While Special Forces brings the gritty, glam is served by The Super Models, the Apple TV+ series about how Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista ruled the runways in the 1990s. Creators of the four-part documentary, including Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams, join Contenders to discuss their intimate look at these beauty icons.

No show has been a bigger hit with Television Academy voters in recent years than RuPaul’s Drag Race, the cultural phenomenon from MTV Entertainment Studios that has claimed more than 30 Primetime Emmys going back to 2016. Contenders welcomes four queenly contestants from

“...the most explosive nonfiction content in recent years”

the series, including Sapphira Cristál and Nymphia Wind.

Queens—the kind who rule the animal world—get their due in the National Geographic docuseries narrated by Angela Bassett. We hear from the creative team behind the series starring orcas, elephants, lions and more. Music royalty, meanwhile, comes into focus with Kings from Queens: The Run DMC Story. Darryl “DMC” McDaniels joins a panel discussion on the Peacock three-parter.

We’ve got late night covered with panels on The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! And we’ll pull back the curtain on the Oscars with the award show’s Emmycontending EPs and more.

Ron Howard stops by Contenders to talk about Jim Henson Idea Man, his Disney+ film about the genius who created the Muppets. Contenders further explores the premium documentary space with panels on Prime Video’s Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story and For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign and Girls State, the Apple TV+ film directed by Emmy winners Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss.

Get ready for a full day of insights with outstanding creators and scintillating stars on Deadline’s

Contenders: Documentary & Unscripted event.

MODERATORS Meet the

The Deadline staffers who’ll be guiding you through this year’s Contenders

YOUR EMCEE

PETER WHITE Executive Editor of Television

● Peter, who joined Deadline in 2017, is a respected veteran TV journalist who previously worked at UK-based Broadcast, where after starting there in 2013 rose to News Editor responsible for putting together the weekly magazine as well as breaking daily news. Before that he was deputy editor of Television Business International magazine.

He covers the television industry from Deadline’s Los Angeles bureau.

YOUR MODERATORS

PETE HAMMOND Awards Columnist/

Chief

Film Critic

● Pete, widely considered to be one of the pre-eminent awards analysts for both film and television, has for the past 14 years been Deadline’s Awards Columnist covering the year-round Oscar and Emmy seasons. He is also Deadline’s Chief Film Critic, having previously reviewed films for MovieLine, Boxoffice magazine, Backstage, Hollywood.com and Maxim, as well as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide for which he was a contributing editor. In addition to writing, Pete is also host of the PBS SoCal

Cinema Series and the weekly PBS television series “Must See Movies.” He previously held producing positions at “Entertainment Tonight”, “Extra,” “Access Hollywood,” “The Arsenio Hall Show,” “The Martin Short Show” and AMC Networks and is the recipient of five Emmy nominations for writing. Pete is only the second journalist to have received the Publicists Guild of America’s Press Award twice, in 1996 and 2013.

KATIE CAMPIONE

TV Reporter

● Katie joined Deadline in 2022 from TheWrap, where she also covered the television industry. She also has worked for The Hollywood Reporter, The Associated Press, People Magazine and more. Katie earned her degree in journalism

Meet the MODERATORS

from the University of Florida. She is based in Los Angeles.

MATTHEW CAREY

Documentary Editor, Awards

● Matthew Carey joined Deadline fulltime in 2020, after a long association as

a freelancer, to specialize in coverage of the nonfiction film landscape. Matthew is a writer and producer whose work has appeared on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español. He has written extensively about documentary film for CNN and CNN.com,

Documentary magazine, NBCNews.com and TheWrap.

ROSY CORDERO

Associate Editor, TV

● Rosy joined Deadline in July 2021 as Senior TV Reporter, where she will cover the smallscreen industry, continue to lift up talent from marginalized communities and spearhead Deadline’s Diversity & Inclusion coverage. She previously worked at Entertainment Weekly, where she had been a digital news writer the past two years. Before that in her freelance career she wrote for Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Latina.com and the New York Daily News. She is based in Los Angeles.

MATT GROBAR

Senior Film Reporter

● Matt joined the editors’ desk in March 2021 after five years as AwardsLine’s Assistant Editor. In that role, he contributed to the coverage and editing of the magazines throughout

Meet the MODERATORS

the year, focusing on artist interviews revolving around awards season and its big nights including the Oscars and Emmys. Matt also manages The Process video series, which spotlights the premier craft talent working in film and TV. He also is part of Deadline’s festival studio team at the likes of Sundance, Tribeca and Toronto. Before Deadline he worked at UTA, 8thDay Pictures and Infinity Management International.

JUSTIN KROLL

Film Editor

● Justin joined Deadline in July 2020 and covers all aspects of the film industry. Before Deadline, he had been with Variety since early 2008, starting as an intern before being upped to editorial assistant in 2009, and joining the film team in 2010. Before Variety, Kroll worked

as a freelancer for Reuters in Los Angeles. He’s a graduate of Michigan State University.

LYNETTE

RICE

Senior TV Writer

● Lynette Rice joined Deadline in February and comes from Entertainment Weekly, where she wrote for the magazine and the website. Before that, she worked for The Hollywood

Reporter and Broadcasting & Cable. The San Diego State graduate is also the author of the 2021 New York Times bestseller How to Save a Life: An Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy.

JESSE WHITTOCK

International TV Co-Editor

● Jesse joined Deadline in 2022 from UK TV trade Broadcast, where he had most recently been Insight Editor, overseeing features and long-form reporting. He worked across editing and commissioning and wrote news, features and long-read articles for Broadcast’s monthly magazine and website. A veteran entertainment industry journalist, he has also worked at Television Business International, where he was Editor, and at C21. He is based in London.

SHOWS The

ABC

● Jimmy Kimmel Live! Emmy-winning host Jimmy Kimmel welcomes guests such as celebrities, athletes, comics musicians and everyday people with quirky or compelling stories to his iconic Hollywood studio. Recurring segments include TV clips, celebrities reading mean tweets and performances from house band Cleto and the Cletones.

● The Oscars

Also referred to as The Academy Awards, this is a show that celebrates and recognizes cinematic excellence and achievements in the film industry chosen by the Academy’s voting membership. The Oscars are widely considered to be the most prestigious awards in the film industry. The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 and has been televised since 1953.

1 Jimmy Kimmel Live! 2 The Oscars 3 Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces 4 Girls State 5 The Dynasty: New England Patriots

APPLE TV+

● Girls State

Directed and produced by award-winning filmmakers Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, Girls State follows 500 teenage girls from across Missouri as they gather for a week-long immersion in an elaborate laboratory of democracy, where they build a government from the ground up, campaign for office and form a Supreme Court to weigh the most divisive issues of the day.

● The Dynasty: New England Patriots

Based on Jeff Benedict’s nonfiction bestseller, which focused on his two years inside the NFL organization of the New England Patriot and the team’s near 20-year domination of the league. The 10-episode docuseries zeroes in on Tom Brady’s quarterback years and how coach Bill Belichick led the team to six Super Bowl championships. The series will use thousands of hours of never-before-seen video footage and audio files from the Patriots organization’s archive.

● Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces

Directed by award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville,

The SHOWS

the two-part documentary follows the life and career of iconic stand-up comedian turned movie star, author, playwright and musician Steve Martin. The first film, Then, covers Martin’s early years and his slow rise to success as the first comic to play arenas and sell them out in the ’70s. The second film, Now, showcases Martin abandoning standup and going on to become a major movie star while navigating show business.

● The Super Models

The Super Models revisits the modeling careers of several prolific fashion icons that disrupted the ’90s fashion scene. Co-directed by Roger Ross Williams and Larissa Bills, the series features archival footage and interviews with Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington to explore their dynamic personalities and shifts in media and culture that helped shape and define that fashion era.

COMEDY CENTRAL

● The Daily Show

After nearly a decade since stepping down from The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart returns. The comedian and political

commentator who has served as a host, writer and producer since 1999 to 2015, will return to the award-winning program to observe the biggest news stories across politics, pop culture, entertainment and much more. Jon and his correspondents interview experts on U.S. culture, foreign affairs, activism and more.

DISNEY+

● Jim Henson Idea Man

Directed by Ron Howard, the film centers around the life and career of puppeteer Jim Henson. With the full participation and cooperation of the Henson family, the documentary uses never before seen archival footage and notes from Henson’s journal. Interviewees include Frank Oz, Rita Moreno and Jennifer Connelly.

FOX

● I Can See Your Voice

Adapted from a South Korean series of the same name, host Ken Jeong and a celebrity panel comprised of Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Bailon-Houghton help contestants tell the difference between good and bad singers, without ever hearing them sing a note. With $100,000 on the line, the contestant will

attempt to weed out the bad “secret voices” from the good. In the end, the singer whom the contestant picks will reveal their true voice in a duet performance with a musical superstar.

● Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test

Based on a long-running British series, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test follows celebrities and notable figures as they endure harsh and physically grueling challenges modeled after actual Special Forces combat and training specialties led by Force staff agents Rudy Reyes, Mark Billingham, Jason Fox and Remi Adeleke.

INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY

● Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

This four-part docuseries uncovers the toxic and dangerous culture on the sets of Dan Schneider’s Nickelodeon children’s shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Writers Jenny Kilgen and Christy Stratton expose allegations of a toxic and sexist environment in The Amanda Show writer’s room and actress Alexa Nikolas offers insight into being a part of Zoey 101. The docuseries also features

The SHOWS

additional cast and crew from iCarly, Sam & Cat and Marc Summers from the game show Double Dare.

LIFETIME

● The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

This six-hour special features unprecedented access to Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy who suffered horrific abuse and made national headlines for her role in her mother’s murder. The doc shows Blanchard in prison on the eve of her parole hearing as she recounts her emotional journey of being forced to remain a child, held prisoner by her own mother and the unfathomable choice she made to survive.

● Where is Wendy Williams? Where is Wendy Williams? was filmed over the two years following her exit from The Wendy Williams Show in 2021. The documentary captures Williams’ struggles after she was placed under a financial guardianship after her hit talk show was unexpectedly canceled. 1

1 The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard 2 Where Is Wendy Williams?

The SHOWS

MTV ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS

● RuPaul’s Drag Race

This long-running reality TV show centers around a group of talented drag queens who compete in a variety of fashion design challenges to impress host RuPaul, the world’s most famous drag queen, to win a large cash prize along with the title of American’s Next Drag Superstar.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

● Queens

Queens, narrated by awardwinning actress and executive producer Angela Bassett, takes a look at the fierce, smart and resilient female rulers of the wild animal kingdom as they fight for family and lead their queendoms.

NETFLIX

● Squid Game: The Challenge

Based on the popular Korean drama series Squid Game, the unscripted series contest showcases 456 people as they compete through a series of games inspired by the original show—plus some new additions. Hoping to walk away with $4.56 million, the largest prize in

The SHOWS

reality TV history, contestants use special strategies and alliances as they are put to the test while competitors are eliminated around them. Games included are Red Light, Green Light, the Dalgona Candy Game, Battleship, marbles and The Glass Bridge.

PEACOCK

● Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story

This three-part documentary directed by Kirk Fraser, highlights the rise of Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and “Jam Master Jay” Mizell—three friends from Queens, New York, who went on to become one of the greatest rap groups of all time. The group members get candid about everything from their early days experiencing superstardom and the loss of Jam Master Jay, who was gunned down in his recording studio in 2002.

● The Traitors

Based on a popular Dutch series of the same name, The Traitors is psychological series where participants must purposefully be involved with treachery and deceit. Throughout the competition, some of reality TV’s biggest stars come together to complete a series of

The SHOWS

challenges with the objective of earning a cash prize.

PRIME VIDEO

● For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign focuses on one couple’s fight to reclaim their future from an aggressive disease. The campaign has snowballed into a movement with resounding ramifications for the ALS community and millions of patients who seek help in a broken healthcare system. The film recounts the last several years of Brian Wallach, diagnosed at 37 with ALS, and his wife Sandra Abrevaya, as they help bring awareness to the disease.

● Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story

Directed by Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz, the documentary gives a glimpse into the life of multihyphenate writerdirector Tyler Perry. The film showcases Perry’s untold story as he becomes a father and a media mogul with a mission to pave his own road to the top of the entertainment industry.

1 For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign 2 Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story