Streaming service Fox Nation has partnered with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese to develop a new documentary series that traces the history of Christian Saints.

The series, Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints, will debut in November and will feature eight, one-hour episodes that will follow the stories of eight Saints, including Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, according to Fox Nation.

The first four episodes will premiere on November 16, and the final four episodes will premiere in May 2025. Scorsese,  Matti Leshem, Julie Yorn, Rick Yorn, Christopher Donnelly, Yoshi Stone and Craig Piligian will serve as executive producers for the series. 

The Saints is the latest Fox Nation series featuring top Hollywood talent, including Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, and Rob Lowe.

“Having the greatest storyteller tell some of the greatest stories of all time is exactly the kind of exclusive content that is driving Fox Nation’s success,” Fox Nation chief digital and marketing officer Jason Klarman said in a statement. “It’s an honor to welcome the world-renowned Martin Scorsese to the Fox Nation platform.” 

The Turner Classic Movies brand remains in flux after a busy week that saw a rare statement from three of Hollywood's top filmmakers in support of the Warner Bros. Discovery channel after the departure of network general manager Pola Changnon as well as the reported departures of several network executives, due in part to Warner Bros. Discovery layoffs. 

News of the executive departures led to a rare union of film icons Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, who said in a joint statement that they had recently spoken to WBD CEO David Zaslav about their concerns revolving around the network’s future.   

TCM, which has offered top vintage Hollywood films commercial-free since its inception in 1994, took a major executive hit this week as Changnon left the company, while recent WBD executive layoffs played a part in the departure of other senior executives including senior VP of programming and content strategy Charlie Tabesh, VP of marketing and creative Dexter Fedor, TCM Enterprises VP Genevieve McGillicuddy and VP of studio production executive Anne Wilson, according to published reports. 

“Turner Classic Movies has always been more than just a channel … it is truly a precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week,” Anderson, Scorcese and Spielberg said in the statement. ”We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him. Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.”

Changnon was immediately replaced by former TCM head Michael Ouweleen. WBD chairman and chief content officer U.S. Networks Group Kathleen Finch said in a statement Tuesday that Ouweleen, who also runs Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Family and Boomerang, would oversee a “seamless transition” at TCM and “shares our passion for classic films, and believes strongly in TCM’s essential role in preserving and spotlighting iconic movies.” 

Despite the outreach from Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson, industry observers are not convinced that TCM will not change under the new regime. 

“I’m not sure that the comments from Spielberg, Scorsese and Anderson are as comforting as many are making it out to be,” Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said. “From the news that we’ve gotten so far with all the major executive departures, it’s hard to have confidence because I’m not sure who's going to be left to do the important things that the network does well.” 

WBD’s TCM layoffs and the effects on the network’s brand drew social media backlash as entertainers and film executives rallied to its support. 

Thompson added that the TCM brand has a loyal and vocal fan base that will remain engaged in its future. “In many ways people are most worried about losing this channel because it’s a remnant from the early days of cable,” he said. “TCM as a cable service seems as old school as the old movies that they’re playing … it reminds us of when cable was the new technology.”

Fox on Wednesday (Dec. 14) will launch its music-themed series Star, the latest entry in a genre that so far this year has hit several sour notes.

The series, which takes over the prime time timeslot of Fox’s hit music series Empire, will look to strike a chord with viewers who tuned out of several cable-based music shows this year.

After much fanfare and a second season green light, HBO’s Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger ’70 s executive-produced rock ‘n’ roll drama Vinyl failed to hit with viewers, and was canceled four months after it premiered this past February.

Showtime hoped viewers would dance to the beat of its drama Roadies, which followed the lives of crew members for major performers. But the network canceled the Cameron Crowe-produced show before it opened for a second season.

FX’s Denis Leary-helmed comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll was silenced this past September after two seasons of so-so ratings.

While Empire continues to deliver big ratings for Fox, the task of developing a successful scripted series around the music business is not an exact science, according to Eric Deggans, the media and TV critic for National Public Radio, who is also a musician. While music has broad appeal, Deggans said viewers tend to gravitate to shows that weave music themes into otherwise dramatic, soap opera-esque storylines rather than shows that focus on the nuts and bolts of the music industry itself.

 “I think the way to have a successful show has been shown by Empire and [FX freshman series] Atlanta — you have to figure out ways in which the music is paired with some other attraction so that you get a wide range of viewers,” he said. “When you do feature the music, it has to be strong and authentic.”

Indeed, the Donald Glover-created Atlanta, which focuses on two cousins trying to navigate the ATL’s rap scene, has found an audience. The series’s Sept. 6 premiere drew the network’s second-biggest audience for a series debut, with 3 million viewers. Atlanta has already been renewed for a second season.

CMT is singing the praises of ABC’s cancelled country music-themed Nashville. The cable network will offer an early preview of its season-five premiere on Dec. 15 and  will officially launch the season on Jan. 5.

Star will get its chance to serenade television viewers with the hopes of making beautiful ratings music within a genre that’s delivered mixed results in 2016.

Pictured (from left):Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny and Brittany O'Grady, the stars of Fox's new series Star, premiering Dec. 14.

HBO series Vinyl, a bawdy look at the music business at the intersection of disco, rap and punk rock, will premiere Feb. 14 in the Sunday-9 p.m. slot. The premiere will fill two hours.

Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter is Vinyl's showrunner and, along with Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Rick Yorn, Victoria Pearman, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, John Melfi and Allen Coulter, is also executive producer.

Vinyl has a 10-episode first season. HBO describes it as “a ride through the sex- and drug-addled music business at the dawn of punk, disco and hip-hop … seen through the eyes of a record label president, Richie Finestra, played by Bobby Cannavale.”

A week later, comedy pair Girls and Togetherness debut, starting at 10 p.m. on Feb. 21. Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Separately, HBO announced it has canceled the Jack Black-Tim Robbins comedy series The Brink.