NBCUniversal’s Peacock is optimistic that it will be able to launch with some original shows – highlighting the adaptation of Brave New World as “essentially done”.
The streamer is also confident that its reboots of Saved By The Bell and Punky Brewster will air in 2020, while it is also exploring new COVID-friendly production opportunities.
This comes as Comcast is set to launch an early preview of the premium tier of Peacock across Xfinity X1 and Flex tomorrow, April 14, before rolling out nationally on July 15.
Peacock Chairman Matt Strauss admitted that a “significant” amount of its originals will push into 2021. “We’re all unclear when exactly things are going to go back to normal and we’re going to be able to pick up where we left off with certain aspects of the original productions,” he said. “We are very, very optimistic that there’s a handful of originals that we will have. Brave New World, is essentially done, Psych movie is also done and some of the reboots like Punky Brewster and Saved By The Bell, we feel optimistic that we can also have them available in 2020 as well as a few others.”
Brave New World, which is based on Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel, imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Alden Eisenreich, Harry Lloyd and Jessica Brown Findlay star with Demi Moore in a recurring role. The series comes from UCP and Amblin Television and is written by David Wiener, Grant Morrison and Brian Taylor.
Punky Brewster is a ten-episode reboot of the 1984 NBC sitcom. Produced by UCP and Universal Television, original series star Soleil Moon Frye set to reprise her role as the titular character, alongside Cherie Johnson, reprising her role as Punky’s best friend, and new stars Quinn Copeland (Waitress the Musical), Lauren Donzis (No Good Nick), Oliver De Los Santos (Occupation: Rainfall), and Noah Cottrell (Skyscraper). Freddie Prinze Jr. (I Know What You Did Last Summer) guest stars in the pilot as Punky’s ex-husband.
Saved By The Bell returns with new leads Josie Totah and Dexter Darden starring alongside original cast members such as Elizabeth Berkley, Mario Lopez and Mark-Paul Gosselaar and new actors including Haskiri Velazquez (The Birch), Mitchell Hoog (Harriet), Alycia Pascual-Pena (Chase) and Belmont Cameli (Empire). The new Saved By the Bell will be executive produced and written by Emmy-winning 30 Rock writer-producer Tracey Wigfield. Peter Engel and Franco Bario also executive produce. The series is produced by Universal Television for Peacock.
Elsewhere, Strauss talked up producing COVID-friendly productions to bolster its originals line-up. “With so much of the world sheltering in place, it is also an opportunity for new ways to work with talent. We see that as an opportunity for Peacock and we’ve already started to have those conversations with NBC and NBC Entertainment around exploring ways to provide new original programming and accessing talent that we might not have been able to access before given their work schedule,” he said.
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