TBS AND TNT LAUNCH FRONT ROW A LIMITED COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTION PROGRAMMING DESTINATION
Under the Newly Unveiled Programming Umbrellas Front Row on TBS and Front Row on TNT Viewers Will Be Able to See Select TBS, TNT and Max Originals
LOS ANGELES (May 19, 2021) – Tony Goncalves, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer for WarnerMedia and Brett Weitz, General Manager, TBS, TNT and truTV today announced the launch of Front Row on TBS and Front Row on TNT, new premium content destinations that will be presented with limited commercial interruption and feature select Max Original series and key TBS and TNT content. Building on the already robust offering of Originals, Sports, and top-tiered acquired movies and series, these new franchises add a linear window of Max Originals that provides viewers with more premium content.
Beginning this summer, TBS and TNT will broadcast Max Original acclaimed fan favorites: “Love Life,” “Close Enough,” “12 Dates of Christmas,” “Titans” and “Class Action Park.” In addition, the first season of “The Flight Attendant,” which reached 1.6 million viewers during its premiere sneak-peek in November 2020 on TBS, will be available to watch on TBS in 2022 ahead of its second season premiere on HBO Max.
Select TNT content including “Rich People Problems” (working title), Cody and Brandi Rhodes’ “Rhodes to the Top,” “Claws” and “Snowpiercer,” will also be offered to consumers with limited commercials as part of the enhanced premium viewing experience. TBS content to be announced at a later date.
“‘Front Row’ is a great example of the strength of WarnerMedia’s broad distribution, moving with consumers,” said Goncalves. “We know viewers discover content in a variety of ways, and with ‘Front Row’ we are giving more of them an opportunity to encounter our groundbreaking Max Originals. To put it simply, we’re growing audience. That’s valuable to each and every one of our partners from distributors to brands.”
“Our first consideration is the consumer experience, and we are always thinking of ways to innovate upon, experiment with, and improve that experience,” said Weitz. “‘Front Row’ is a sure way to continue to reward the 215 million people who invited us into their homes in 2020 by enabling the great shows on HBO Max to be added to our vast content offerings in a way that has fewer interruptions but adds power and focus to those advertising partners that are also invested in being consumer-first. It’s win/win for our fans and our advertisers.”
The Max Originals airing on TBS and TNT are outlined below:
TBS
“Love Life” Season One – Premieres August 2021
“Love Life,” the first full-length scripted series to star Oscar® nominee Anna Kendrick, is about the journey from first love to last love, and how the people we’re with along the way make us into who we are when we finally end up with someone forever. This fresh take on a romantic comedy anthology series is from creator and co-showrunner Sam Boyd (In a Relationship) and is produced by Lionsgate Television and Feigco Entertainment. The series will follow a different protagonist’s quest for love each season, with each half-hour episode telling the story of one of their relationships. Anna Kendrick (“Pitch Perfect,” “A Simple Favor”) stars in the first season along with Zoë Chao (“Downhill,” “Strangers”), Peter Vack (“Someone Great,” “The Bold Type”), Sasha Compere (“Miracle Workers,” “Uncorked”), and Lesley Manville (“Phantom Thread,” “Another Year”).
Kendrick serves as an executive producer alongside Paul Feig (“A Simple Favor,” “Bridesmaids”) and Dan Magnante (“Someone Great”). Sam Boyd, who wrote the pilot and directs, also executive produces with co-showrunner and executive producer Bridget Bedard (“Transparent” and “Ramy”).
“Close Enough” Season One – October 2021
From JG Quintel, creator of the Emmy® Award-winning “Regular Show,” comes “Close Enough,” a surreal animated comedy about a married couple, their five-year-old daughter, and their two divorced best friends/roommates all living together on the east side of Los Angeles. They’re navigating that transitional time in your 30s when life is about growing up, but not growing old. It’s about juggling work, kids, and pursuing your dreams, while avoiding time-traveling snails, stripper clowns, and murderous mannequins. Their life may not be ideal but for now, it’s close enough.
“Close Enough” is produced by Cartoon Network Studios.
“12 Dates of Christmas” Season One – November 2021
Sam Dean (“Love is Blind”) showruns and Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure”) narrates this scripted holiday dating series set in a stunning winter wonderland. “12 Dates” follows three hopelessly romantic singles Faith, Chad and Garrett on their journey to meet that special someone to bring home for the holidays.
The romance begins at a fairytale castle in Austria where ten magical wintery dates await – from ugly sweater parties and an intriguing masquerade ball to après-ski activities, these dates are sure to send temperatures soaring. As in all great rom-coms, our romantic leads’ paths to love won’t be easy. Just as they make connections, new love interests arrive, adding plenty of twists, turns – and hopefully – holiday cheer. Along the way, they’ll face regular elimination ceremonies, complicated blasts from the past and no shortage of conflicting emotions. After bringing someone home for the holidays, they must decide whether to commit or walk away forever by the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.
“12 Dates of Christmas” is produced by Objective Media Group America, an All3Media America company with Jilly Pearce and Layla Smith serving as executive producers. The show was created by Michael Beilinson, with Sam Dean as showrunner, executive producer and Suzy Ratner as co-executive producer.
“The Flight Attendant” Season One – Premieres 2022
“The Flight Attendant” is a story of how an entire life can change in one night. A flight attendant (Kaley Cuoco) wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man – and no idea what happened. The dark comedic thriller is based on the novel of the same name by New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian.
Starring alongside Cuoco is Michiel Huisman, Rosie Perez, Zosia Mamet, Michelle Gomez, T.R. Knight, Colin Woodell, Merle Dandridge, Griffin Matthews and Nolan Gerard Funk.
The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television, Berlanti Productions & Yes, Norman Productions. Greg Berlanti, Kaley Cuoco, Steve Yockey, Marcie Ulin, Meredith Lavender and Sarah Schechter served as executive producers of season one, and Suzanne McCormack is co-executive producer. Susanna Fogel directs and executive produces the first two episodes.
TNT
“Titans” Season One – Premieres June 2021
“Titans” is a live-action drama series that follows a group of young soon-to-be Super Heroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe. In this action-packed series, Dick Grayson aka Robin (Brenton Thwaites) emerges from the shadows to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes – including Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and many others. This superpowered ensemble series follows this group of young heroes as they come of age and find belonging in a gritty take on the classic Teen Titans franchise. When Dick Grayson and Rachel Roth aka Raven (Teagan Croft), a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness, get embroiled in a conspiracy that could bring Hell on Earth, they are joined by the mysterious Kory Anders aka Starfire (Anna Diop) and loveable Gar Logan aka Beast Boy (Ryan Potter). Together, they become a surrogate family and team of heroes. A dramatic adventure series, “Titans” explores and celebrates one of the most popular comic book teams ever.
“Titans” is produced by Weed Road Pictures and Berlanti Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. Based on the characters from DC, the series was developed by Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns & Greg Berlanti, with Johns, Berlanti, Greg Walker and Sarah Schechter serving as executive producers.
“Class Action Park” – Premieres December 2021
“Class Action Park” is the first-ever feature-length documentary to explore the legend, legacy, and truth behind a place that long ago entered the realm of myth. To some, New Jersey’s infamous Action Park was the most spectacularly fun amusement park on Earth: A place where unruly 1980s teenagers were given free rein to go gonzo on strange contraptions that seemed to violate the laws of common sense (and perhaps physics). To others, it was an ill-conceived death trap. One thing is sure: It’s the type of place that will never exist again. Shirking the trappings of nostalgia, the film uses investigative journalism, newly unearthed and never-before-seen documents and recordings, original animations, and interviews with the people who lived it to reveal the true story for the first time. The documentary features an original score by The Holladay Brothers.
“Class Action Park” is produced and directed by Chris Charles Scott & Seth Porges. Authentic Talent & Literary Management’s Liz DeCesare executive produced.
The TNT Originals that are a part of the Front Row premium viewing experience include:
“Rich People Problems” (working title)
“Rich People Problems” reveals the untold true stories of greed, power and betrayal that lie beneath the façade of the wealthy and famous. Using startling, personal interviews and unseen archive each of the eight unique films will expose the lies, lusts, deceptions and deceit that lurk in the shadows of bulging bank accounts, private islands, TV fame and beautiful people. Viewers will be taken on a jaw-dropping journey of twists, turns, surprises and revelations about how the glitter of wealth and lure of power can leave a trail of destruction. But when’s that ever stopped anyone trying to have them?
“Rich People Problems” is produced for TNT by Raw TV (“Don’t F*** With Cats,” “Three Identical Strangers”). The series is led by executive producers Glenn Barden and Fiona Stourton and series producer Tom Lindley for Raw.
“Rhodes to the Top”
“Rhodes to the Top” will go inside the lives of Cody and Brandi as they navigate their growing family while building AEW’s global wrestling empire. Each 30-minute episode will take viewers behind-the-scenes as the powerhouse couple manage their ever-busier lives inside and outside the ring, all the while surrounded by a colorful and often hilarious motley crew of wrestlers, family and friends who both support and test them at every turn. Married in 2013, Cody and Brandi have been on an unprecedented path to wrestling greatness but will now face their newest and possibly biggest challenge yet.
“Rhodes to the Top” is a production of Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Shed Media. The series executive produced by Dan Peirson and Lisa Shannon of Shed Media, Bernie Cahill and Jon Kanak of Activist Artists Management, and Tony Khan, CEO, GM and Head of Creative of AEW.
“Claws”
“Claws” is a midnight-dark, wickedly funny meditation on female badness set in a South Florida nail salon. It follows the rise of five diverse and treacherous manicurists working at the Nail Artisan of Manatee County salon, where there is a lot more going on than silk wraps and pedicures. “Claws” is about good women caught in bad places with worse men. It’s the story of hardworking women trying to get by in this economy, set against the surreal, bright, gritty landscape of Florida and the luscious, absurd, extreme excesses of the crime world.
“Claws” is executive produced by Rashida Jones (“Angie Tribeca,” “Toy Story 4,” “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” “A to Z”), Will McCormack (“Toy Story 4,” “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” “A to Z”), Janine Sherman Barrois (“ER,” “Criminal Minds”) and Eliot Laurence (“Welcome to Me”), who created the series. Emily Silver and Sharon Lee Watson serve as executive producers/showrunners for the upcoming 4th season. “Claws” is produced for TNT by Jones and McCormack’s Le Train Train, in association with Warner Bros. Television.
“Snowpiercer”
Set more than seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, “Snowpiercer” centers on the remnants of humanity who inhabit a 1001-car, perpetually moving train that circles the globe. Class warfare, social injustice, and the politics of survival play out in the television adaptation, which is based on the movie and graphic novel series of the same name.
“Snowpiercer” stars Oscar® winner Jennifer Connelly, Grammy® and Tony® Award winner Daveed Diggs, and Sean Bean. “Snowpiercer” is executive produced by Graeme Manson, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements, Matthew O’Connor, Ben Rosenblatt and Scott Derrickson, and the original film’s producers, including Bong Joon Ho, Miky Lee, Jinnie Choi, Park Chan-wook, Lee Tae-hun and Dooho Choi. The show is produced by Tomorrow Studios, along with CJ Entertainment. ITV Studios handles international distribution.
About TBS
TBS, a WarnerMedia brand, is a top-rated destination for television among young adults and known for escapist, lean-in entertainment, featuring smart, imaginative stories with heart and comedic edge. From scripted comedy series to late-night shows, game shows, and animated programming, TBS’ Originals slate is comprised of some of the most popular shows on cable — “Miracle Workers,” “CONAN,” “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” “The Last O.G.,” “American Dad!” and “Chad.” The network’s slate of premium unscripted series includes “The Misery Index,” “Go-Big Show,” and fan favorite “Wipeout,” along with, upcoming series “Friday Night Vibes,” “The Cube” and “The Big D”. TBS’ lineup also includes comedy hits like “Family Guy” and “The Big Bang Theory,” classic sitcom favorites “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” blockbuster movies, and live event coverage of Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and “ELEAGUE,” WarnerMedia’s eSports gaming competition. Website: www.tbs.com
About TNT
TNT, a WarnerMedia brand, is watched by more people than any other cable network and known for big, lean-forward television that gives viewers the best seat in the house for electrifying stories, dynamic characters and thrilling events. TNT is home to some of television’s most popular original series including “Snowpiercer,” “Animal Kingdom,” and “Claws.” TNT is expanding its programming to include premium unscripted with the docuseries “Shaq Life.” TNT also presents primetime specials and sports coverage, including the NBA and NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships and the professional wrestling league All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which has exploded onto the scene with “AEW: Dynamite”. Website: www.tntdrama.com
