The CW has acquired the rights to AMC’s drama series 61st Street, which will air in 2024.

The series, which stars Courtney B. Vance and Aunjanue Ellis, was cancelled by AMC in January after its first season as part of the organization’s cost-cutting measures, even though the second season had been already completed. The Michael B. Jordan-produced series chronicles the story of a promising high school athlete who gets swept up in a corrupt Chicago criminal justice system. 

The CW will air 61st Street’s first seasons in Fall of 2023, with the second season debuting on the broadcast network in 2024. 

“61st Street is a gripping, star-studded premium drama led by a powerhouse performance from Courtney B. Vance and featuring an incredibly talented ensemble cast and creatively brilliant team of producers,” The CW president of entertainment Brad Schwartz said in a statement. “We are proud The CW is now the broadcast home of 61st Street and cannot wait to introduce this series to a whole new audience.”

The deal comes as eight CBS-owned The CW affiliate stations will become independent stations beginning this September. Nexstar Media Group purchased 75% of The CW in October. 

Courtney B. Vance leads a tense battle against the Chicago justice system over a deadly drug bust in the official trailer for AMC's drama series 61st Street, which debuts on the streaming service April 10.

According to AMC, the eight-episode series courses through the dark heart of the infamous Chicago criminal justice system as police and prosecutors investigate a deadly drug bust that threatens to unravel the police department's code of silence. Vance stars along with Anujanue Ellis, Mark O'Brien, Holt McCallany, Tosin Cole, Andrene Ward-Hammond and Bentley Green.

61st Street is executive produced by Michael B. Jordan, Peter Moffat, J. David Shanks, Elizabeth Raposo, Alana Mayo, Jeff Freilich, and Hillary Salmon. ■ 

MTV Entertainment Studios will partner with Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance to develop a docuseries on the history of slavery.

The four-part series, One Thousand Years of Slavery, will air on the Smithsonian Channel and will examine how slavery stained the past, shaped the present, and continues to rewrite our future through powerful stories of notable individuals courageously sharing their deeply personal Black experiences, the network said.

The Bassett Vance Productions-produced series, which will air in 2022, will feature interviews and comments from such distinguished leaders as Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and actor David Harewood, according to MTV.

“We are honored to partner with Bassett Vance Productions on this long overdue landmark documentary series that reveals the untold story of human bondage on a global scale,” said Nina L. Diaz, president of content and chief creative officer at MTV Entertainment Group and for unscripted and adult animation at Paramount Plus.

In May MTV, Bassett and Vance announced the development of a limited series based on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

 MTV Entertainment Studios has teamed with Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance to create a limited series based on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, the company said Monday.

MTV and Bassett Vance Productions have tapped playwright Nathan Alan Davis to write the series, which will follow the events that led to the burning by whites of the Greenwood district in Tulsa, which at time was considered the wealthiest Black community in the United States. The agreement marks the first project from Bassett Vance Productions as part of a deal made with MTV Entertainment Studios in 2020.

"As storytellers -- together with Courtney, Angela and Nathan -- we have the privilege of shining a light on the devastating event in our history that is important, necessary and still resonates 100 years later," said MTV Entertainment Group president of content and chief creative officer Nina Diaz in a statement. "This partnership underscores our shared commitment to raise diverse voice and create content our global audience is yearning for that is both timely and telling." 

The MTV/Bassett Vance Productions limited series is one of several projects being developed depicting the Tulsa Massacre, which marks its 100th anniversary in June. 

Read Also: Programming Review: History's 'Tulsa Massacre' Spotlights a Forgotten Tragedy' 

AMC has signed Emmy Award winner Courtney B. Vance to appear in its upcoming drama series 61stStreet, the network announced Thursday.

The series, from Peter Moffat and produced by Michael B. Jordan, is a courtroom drama that follows a promising, black high school athlete who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system. Vance (The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Lovecraft Country, Genius) plays a public defender in the twilight of his career serving the busiest courthouse in America.

AMC has ordered two seasons of 61stStreet, which is set to debut in 2021, said network officials.

Complete Coverage: TCA Winter Press Tour

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to have the phenomenal Courtney B. Vance returning to the courtroom for 61stStreet,” said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios.”Courtney is the cornerstone of what’s sure to be a stellar ensemble for this ambitious and highly entertaining drama.”

In other AMC news, the network announced new cast additions for its upcoming drama series Soulmates, including Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), Malin Akerman (Billions, Dollface, Rampage), Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad, Life in Pieces) and JJ Feild (Turn). The six-part anthology series examines the nature of romantic love, and is written by Will Bridges (Stranger Things, Black Mirror) and Brett Goldstein (Superbob, Adult Life Skills).

Fx’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson capped a strong Emmys performance in the Limited Series category by winning Best Limited Series Sunday night.

Get more Emmys coverage.

The freshman series bested ABC’s American Crime, FX’s Fargo, AMC’s The Night Manager and History’s Roots in winning the award.

RELATED: Courtney B. Vance: Channeling Cochran: 20 Years Later

The show’s win follows victories by People V. O.J. Simpson's Courtney B. Vance for Best Actor in a Limited Series or movie, and Sterling K. Brown and Sarah Paulson for best actor and actress in supporting roles for limited series or movie.  

RELATED: Making History Into Television [subscription required] | Black History Month: What to Watch | Watch the Trailer for FX's 'The People v. O.J. Simpson'

Veteran actor Courtney B. Vance plays iconic lawyer Johnnie Cochran in FX’s new 10-part limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, based on the book written by Jeffrey Toobin. The 55-year-old Vance discussed the series with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead, and provided his perspective on how the sensational 1994 case altered the way Americans discuss race. An edited version of the interview follows.

MCN: How did you prepare for the role of playing Johnnie Cochran?

Courtney B. Vance: A lot of times, you have to look at these iconic roles and make a decision as to how are you going to get in, and how are you going to do this? Johnnie Cochran cut his teeth on police brutality cases for years before the O.J. Simpson case came up, and so I know I’m not him, and I wasn’t going to spend my time trying to be him. I spent my time researching and finding out as much as I could about his life and his journey.

And then I knew the scripts would be tremendous, so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. If I could just give the appearance and the semblance of Johnnie Cochran, the scripts would do the rest. And the audience would be able to enter into the world. That’s the main thing for me — that I get out of the way and people can enter into the world. If I do my job, then they don’t see me, they see Johnnie.

MCN: Why is now the best time for this project to happen, 20 years after the verdict was handed down?

CBV: Because we all started with watching the Bronco and ended with the verdict, with black people in one corner and white people in another corner, mad or happy, and nobody ends up learning anything. Everybody goes back to their corner knowing what they know. Yet two people were killed, and was justice really served? I don’t think so.

So I knew that we really needed to sit down and unearth this thing and look at it with 20 years’ perspective for people who were back there during that time and remember it.

Before, they were so emotional, but now, 20 years later, the emotion hopefully is not as prevalent, and so maybe some sense and some perspective can be gotten as we look at it with a 20-year telescope, and [we can] understand a couple of things and maybe have a conversation about it, whereas 20 years prior no conversation could be had.

It was a trial that had a little bit of everything in it for everybody. We put it on television, and the thing blew up.

MCN: Do you think that the show actually retries O.J.?

CBV: I think it’s looking at the trial from the perspective of the attorneys with background information about their lives and their histories, so you can get a better sense of why certain decisions were made — why a certain decision was made about the glove and about Mark Fuhrman and the tapes and all. Because we were so close to it, and because a lot of times we just saw the result of what happened, we don’t know exactly what happened with that.

We didn’t know about [prosecuting attorney] Marcia Clark and all the drama that ensued with her and her second husband. I don’t know how she survived that case. I don’t know how [prosecutor Christopher] Darden survived all the things he went through. I mean, it was so much in the history and the course of this case that was about so many things other than truth or innocence, as is every case.

Nothing is ever black and white — it’s all a series of shades of gray. We have the opportunity to actually look with perspective to see what happened, how it happened and, based on all of that, hopefully at the water coolers we can begin to [discuss it].

MCN: You were quoted as saying that you cheered the O.J. verdict. Explain to me what you were feeling then and why you felt that way?

CBV: I was in Toronto with Nathan Lane and Tony Goldwyn, doing a project for Hallmark called The Boys Next Door. And Tony and I were, I guess, in his trailer, watching the verdict. And if you talked to black people and you talked to white people, I think black people were not cheering for O.J. — it wasn’t about O.J. O.J. even himself says, “I’m not black, I’m O.J.”

But this case was about race. Race is one of those things that we don’t like to talk about, like religion and politics. I mean it is a deep, deep issue that you can’t ignore. And we ignored it. We ignored it to our peril.

So my fist went up pumping because I’m realizing that finally Johnnie Cochran … this case was the culmination of all of his work. That’s what we were celebrating — all those times in courtrooms, throughout the American landscape, the black man and woman ended up on the short end of the stick. And this time, in the largest venue, we ended up victorious. So that’s what I think black Americans were celebrating. We’re not celebrating because two people were killed — nobody celebrates that. We were celebrating that finally somebody worked the system.

And was justice served? I don’t know whether it was or not, but the system was worked for the first time on this large a scale. That’s what I think African-Americans were celebrating.

MCN: Having said that, are you surprised that there is so much buzz around this show and the trial 20 years later?

CBV: I think there’s buzz around the show, No. 1, because the show was good. If the show wasn’t good, there wouldn’t be buzz. They wouldn’t be talking about it because the fact of the matter is Fox spent a lot of time and a lot of money to make sure, to ensure, that this would be done well. As [executive producer and director] Ryan Murphy said, they spent a lot of money on lawyers, making sure that every line was well-researched and was correct from a legal standpoint. Time was paid, attention was paid and the fruits of all of that labor are what we’re seeing. There is no guarantee that it will be received well, but we gave it our best shot and spent a lot of time and effort making sure that our story, our 10-part story was told well. And that’s all you can hope for.