Broadcasting + Cable's Kent Gibbons and Michael Malone chat about CBS's CSI: Vegas, Field of Dreams baseball on Fox, and the final season of The Walking Dead on AMC.

Peacock has announced a direct-to-series order for Field of Dreams, an adaptation of the 1989 baseball movie tearjerker starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and Ray Liota.

The original Field of Dreams producer, Lawrence Gordon, is listed in the topline credits. But writing the series will be one of the hottest TV creatives in the biz, Michael Schur, whose string of recent hits includes The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rutherford Falls and Hacks.

NBCUniversal could use a hit for its 13-month-old streaming service, which registered only 20 million active users as of the end of Q2. The Tokyo Olympics undoubtedly increased usage of the Peacock platform. And parent company Comcast will soon deploy Peacock in Western Europe through its Sky satellite TV operation, further helping the usage numbers.

But Peacock is still in dire need of scale, along water-cooler hits--think HBO Max's The White Lotus, Mair of Easttown and Hacks--and all those MCU limited series on Disney Plus. What original hits has Peacock had?

More than two decades after its theatrical premiere, Field of Dreams is hot, evidenced by Major League Baseball's little promotional stunt, in which a game last week between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox was played on a purpose-built venue, next to a cornfield, in Dyersville, Iowa.

That game drew 5.9 million viewers for Fox, yielding the network's best regular season MLB ratings in 16 years.

“Through the years, Field of Dreams has remained a fan favorite, maintaining its rightful position in the zeitgeist,” said Lisa Katz, president of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, in a statement. “It’s whimsical and grounded, a space where Mike Schur excels, and we’re looking forward to bringing a new version of this classic to Peacock.”

Added Erin Underhill, president of Universal Television: “Field of Dreams is an iconic Universal Film title from venerable producers Lawrence and Charles Gordon, that we could only have entrusted to Mike Schur. His talent, his love for baseball and his reverence for its themes make him the perfect choice to revisit this beloved film that evokes nostalgia and visceral emotion in so many of its fans.” 

Peacock has gone straight-to-series on Field of Dreams. Michael Schur will write the series, based on the beloved movie, and is an executive producer along with Lawrence Gordon, David Miner and Morgan Sackett. 

“The series will reimagine the mixture of family, baseball, Iowa and magic that makes the movie so enduring and beloved,” said Peacock. 

Universal Television will produce the project. 

“Through the years, Field of Dreams has remained a fan favorite, maintaining its rightful position in the zeitgeist,” said Lisa Katz, president, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “It’s whimsical and grounded, a space where Mike Schur excels, and we’re looking forward to bringing a new version of this classic to Peacock.”

The movie, with Kevin Costner as a farmer who builds a ballfield on his farm, and watches as some long departed baseball heroes turn up to play, came out in 1989. Last week, the Yankees played the White Sox in a stadium in Iowa built next to a cornfield at the movie site, an homage to the film.  

“'Field of Dreams is an iconic Universal Film title from venerable producers Lawrence and Charles Gordon, that we could only have entrusted to Mike Schur,” said Erin Underhill, president, Universal Television.  “His talent, his love for baseball and his reverence for its themes make him the perfect choice to revisit this beloved film that evokes nostalgia and visceral emotion in so many of its fans.” 

Schur co-created Peacock comedy Rutherford Falls. He previously co-created Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and created The Good Place.
 

There’s a new purpose-built Major League Baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa, set to host the first MLB game ever in the state, on the farm where the 1989 movie Field of Dreams was shot. The game is on Thursday, Aug. 12, between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. The ballpark is surrounded by 159 acres of corn and there's a corn maze beyond the right field fence, near the Field of Dreams Movie Site. The teams will wear special uniforms inspired by what their predecessors wore in the early 20th Century. 

So it’s been built. Will a big nationwide audience tune in when this experiment in sports and cinema nostalgia gets underway with pre-game hoopla starting at 6 p.m. ET on Fox?

Fox and MLB obviously hope so. Planning took about two years, interrupted by the COVID pandemic that kiboshed efforts to stage the game in 2020 (the movie’s 30th anniversary). Fox is showing the game in 4K HDR, using aerial production drones for the first time at an MLB game along with two wireless “Megalodon” cameras for up-close angles and a cabled Flycam that can travel from the movie set to the ballpark. 

“We're excited,” Fox Sports Media Group senior VP of production Judy Boyd told B+C last week. “And figuring out how we capture this magical feel with the Yankees and White Sox, but also keeping the essence of the film and what this film means to a lot of families, and fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, and fathers and daughters, et cetera, just how it impacted everybody. … It's a generational sport that many families watch together, and we hope to capture that.”

“We’re trying to find that line of, are you watching a movie, are you watching a ballgame?” Boyd said. “And that’s a line that we’re still trying to toe and figure out a little bit. We definitely have lots of the movie interspersed in, whether it’s with hopefully some of the actors from the film there, or clips from the film, as well as shots of families watching the game or the house and the film field. And then whatever storylines we have within the game from the two teams.” 

Also read: Peacock Orders 'Field of Dreams' Series

The Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, for example, is part of a famous baseball family, with his grandfather Ray, his father Bob and his brother Bret and himself all having played in the major leagues successfully, Boyd noted. Several current MLB stars had famous dads who played the game, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. Families and baseball go together, which was a big theme of the movie, starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan. (Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, played by Costner, a husband and father, is tending his cornfield when he hears a voice say: “If you build it, he will come.” When Kinsella builds a ballfield, ghosts of famous players from the past, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, come out of the corn to play ball.) 

Other nods to a bygone era of baseball will include new graphics, Boyd said. “We redesigned our ‘Fox Box’ to look more like an old-school scoreboard, where the numbers are flipping like they would at Fenway or Wrigley,” she said. Real GEICO ad signs will be brought out onto the field and hung up behind the plate, instead of the green-screen virtual ads normally there.

Challenges include “broadcasting from a cornfield in Iowa,” with no stadium fiber for connectivity, she noted. “It’s been difficult, not impossible just hard, in figuring out how to do that the right way without sacrificing our quality and what we want to do.”

They couldn’t build it in 2020, but it’s ready now, and Fox and MLB are hoping other external events will cooperate, including the weather. “Fingers crossed,” Boyd said. (The forecast looked fairly good as of Tuesday night.)

MLB Network showed the movie, which was nominated for a best-picture Oscar in 1990, this past weekend, and the network’s Intentional Talk program will air live from Field of Dreams on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 11 and 12) at 5 p.m. ET. A teaser promo that has been airing on MLB Network is here. Actors Dwier Brown and Kevin Costner have been confirmed to attend the game in Dyersville, as well. 

Joe Buck and John Smoltz will call the game on Fox, with Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci working the news on the sidelines at the new ballpark. The Fox Deportes production will feature Adrian Garcia Marquez, Carlos Alvarez and Edgar Gonzalez. 

MLB Network, coming off the most-watched quarter in its history, is looking to maintain its Nielsen momentum with a host of special programming centering next week’s All-Star Game festivities.

The service will present coverage of the goings-on around the Mid-Summer Classic at Target Field in Minneapolis, provide game coverage of two contests potentially showcasing future all-stars and allow viewers to get in the front row with Bob Uecker (pictured), aka “Mr. Baseball.”

Anchored by live coverage from Target Field, featuring Greg Amsinger, Sean Casey, Peter Gammons, Brian Kenny, Al Leiter, Kevin Millar, Dan Plesac, Harold Reynolds, Chris Rose, Ken Rosenthal, John Smoltz, Tom Verducci, Heidi Watney and Matt Yallof, MLB Network will present All-Star media day on Monday, July 14 at 1 p.m. (ET), when American and National League managers John Farrell and Mike Matheny announce the starting pitchers for the junior and senior circuits.

Coverage will shift to the ballpark with four hours of shows live from batting practice for the Gillette Home Run Derby at Target Field, starting with High Heat with Christopher Russo at 4 p.m., Intentional Talk presented by Dairy Queen with Kevin Millar and Chris Rose at 5 p.m. and MLB Tonight presented by Firestone at 6 p.m., plus a highlight-filled MLB Tonight after the Home Run Derby.

On Tuesday, July 15, MLB Network will highlight all of the 2014 All-Stars as they make their way to Target Field on the All-Star Red Carpet Show presented by Chevrolet at 3 p.m.

Throughout All-Star Week, MLB Network will share behind-the-scenes photos from its sets at Target Field and the MLB All-Star Red Carpet Show via its Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages.

Exclusive footage of Minneapolis' own The Hold Steady  will be showcased throughout MLBN's All-Star Week programming, including video filmed at the band's performance in Minnesota last week.

MLBN will televise the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game for the first time on Sunday, July 13 at 5 p.m. with Matt Vasgersian, Casey, Watney and MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo on the call live from Target Field. Comprised of players from all levels of the minors, the U.S. and World teams feature 15 former first round draft picks, six players picked in Compensation Round A and five second-round picks.  

The service will also present the 27th annual Triple-A All-Star Game for the fifth time on Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m. with MLB Network’s Paul Severino, Darryl Hamilton, Sam Ryan and Baseball America editor in chief John Manuel on the mics from Durham Bulls Athletic Ballpark in Durham, N.C.

MLBN has also lined up a one-hour original special in tribute to the Milwaukee Brewers’ beloved radiocaster, Uecker . Hank Aaron, Bob Costas, Dick Ebersol, Tim McCarver, Al Michaels, Major League director David Ward and commissioner Bud Selig come together to share stories in Mr. Baseball, Bob Uecker on Thursday, July 17 at 7 p.m. Narrated by actor Tom Berenger, the hour-long special looks back on Uecker's brief career as a big-league backstop and his 43-year broadcasting run, including new interviews with the man himself and highlights from Major League, his Miller Lite commercials, and his appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

For his part, Costas interviews award-winning actor Kevin Costner during Field of Dreams: Twenty-Five Years Later in the hour immediately following the Ueckfest. Filmed last month at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa at the silver anniversary celebration of the film’s release, Costner recounts stories of the making of the movie in this one-hour special. Also featured are Field of Dreams co-stars Timothy Busfield (Mark) and Dwier Brown (John Kinsella), with whom Costner recreates their famous catch in the film's final scene.

MLBN connected on the most-watched quarter in its history from Nielsen's April through June period, averaging 206,000 viewers in primetime, and 105,000 on a total-day measure, according to the measurement company.  The deliveries over the first three months of the 2014 season mark 12% and 27% gains from the first half of the 2013 campaign.

A further breakdown shows that April ranks as the most-watched month in the service’s history, garnering 253,000 and 126,000 in primetime and total-day. May and June 2014 stand as the most-watched for the service with respective total-day amelioration of 24% and 11% from the corresponding months in 2013.

Its coverage of ballgames aside, MLBN benefited from a 62% time slot increase with rookie show, High Heat with Christopher Russo, and double-digit gains from The Rundown (42%), MLB Now (25%), Intentional Talk (16%), MLB Tonight (30%) and Quick Pitch (20%) over their second-quarter 2013 marks.