Less than a week after 17 stations owned and operated by Meredith Corp. went dark to its customers, Dish Network is facing another potential blackout, this time from five networks recently acquired by content behemoth The Walt Disney Co.

Disney networks National Geographic, FX, FXX, FXM and NatGeo Wild are warning customers that they could go dark at 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time on Sunday July 21 if they don’t reach a deal with Dish.

“Our contract with Dish for the FX and National Geographic networks is due to expire soon, so we have a responsibility to make our viewers aware of the potential loss of our programming,” NatGeo and FX said in a statement. “However, we remain fully committed to reaching a deal and are hopeful we can do so.”

Disney purchased the channels as part of its $71.3 billion purchase of certain 21st Century Fox assets in March. 

For Dish, this is the second warning its customers have received of potential blackouts in less than a week. On July 15, Meredith Corp. gave Dish a one-day extension to try to hammer out a retransmission consent deal, but when that deal failed to materialize, the stations went dark on July 16. 

The month of July has been an active one for retrans disputes -- Nexstar Media Group pulled the signals for 126 stations in 97 markets from DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T U-Verse customers on July 3, less than a week after 17 stations in 14 markets pulled the plug. On July 19, about 19 CBS stations went dark to AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV Now customers.  In addition, DirecTV Now customers lost access to CBS network programming and the Smithsonian Channel, while DirecTV customers also lost access to CBS Sports Network. 

National Geographic has named actor Antonio Banderas to star as Pablo Picasso in the sophomore season of its anthology series Genius.

Banderas (The Mask Of Zoro, Evita) will portray the life of the Spanish painter in the second season of the series, which returns in 2018. The first season of Genius, which chronicled the life of Albert Einstein, was nominated for 10 Emmy Awards.

The second season of Genius will again be executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, as well as Gigi Pritzker's Madison Wells Media’s OddLot Entertainment and EUE/Sokolow, said Nat Geo. 

“Not only are they both from Málaga, Spain, but also similar to Picasso, Antonio exudes charisma and passion, and has challenged boundaries with his creative artistry,” said Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president, head of global scripted for National Geographic in a statement. “He checks all the boxes for us and we couldn’t be more pleased to have him lead the series.”

Several cable networks have put their ratings faith into scripted dramas and comedies that have church- and religion-based themes as a backdrop.

Shows ranging from dramas like OWN’s upcoming Greenleaf, starring Oprah Winfrey; Bounce TV’s first original series, Saints & Sinners; and AMC’s DC Comics-driven Preacher to comedies like TV Land’s The Soul Man and Impastor feature religious overtones that networks say help bless the show’s main storyline and characters — who often than come across more as sinners than saints.

“The shows provide a fresh perspective of the world that we know,” Ri-Karlo Handy, senior vice president of original programming for multicast network Bounce TV, said about the new church-themed drama series Saints & Sinners. “We’re not being overly religious, but instead are showing real, flawed characters that often make mistakes even in the midst of the church.”

TRACK RECORD OF RATINGS WINS

Church- and religious-themed original movies and limited series have generated strong numbers in recent years. History’s five-episode series The Bible averaged more than 13 million viewers in 2013, while National Geographic Channel’s original movie Killing Jesus set a ratings record last March with 3.7 million viewers. (Nat Geo will target the faith-based audience in a different way on April 3 with the new docuseries The Story of God With Morgan Freeman.)

Until recently, though, there have been very few scripted drama or comedy series on television that have featured the church or religion as a main component of a show’s storyline. Unlike reality or Bible-based documentary shows, which tend to have a more preachy focus, scripted dramas and comedies focus less on theology and more on the human and often-flawed characters within the church, executives said.

For African-American targeted network Bounce TV, Saints & Sinners, which stars Vanessa Bell Calloway (Coming to America) and Gloria Ruben (ER) and follows the conflicts among members of a small-town Georgia Baptist church, drew a network-record 1.5 million cumulative viewers for the episode that bowed March 13.

“Our audience is one that really likes the drama and the characters, and this is a great new backdrop that they haven’t seen,” Handy said.

“Not every character in our show is a devout Christian, but they have some sort of connection to the church, whether good, bad or indifferent.”

OWN also hopes to draw religious and non-religious viewers to Greenleaf, which debuts in June. The show, the first scripted series in which network CEO Oprah Winfrey will have a recurring acting role, follows a powerful and influential family and their Memphis, Tenn., megachurch.

Greenleaf gives the network a way to reach its core viewers with drama, as it did with the Tyler Perry-created series The Haves and the Have Nots, but this time with a show that probes religious themes, OWN president Erik Logan said.

“We find this arena to be compelling and interesting … there hasn’t been a lot of exploration to date in it, and I think it’s an area where we see opportunity to put real characters and real situations on screen for storytelling purposes,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s about all the challenges that a large family has, but the background that the church provides is a very interesting and compelling stage for us to have this story and have these very rich and diverse characters talk from.”

‘SOMETHING LARGER AT PLAY’

TV Land has approached religion afrom a comedy standpoint with freshman series Impastor, about a gambling addict who ends up stealing the identity of a gay pastor, and The Soul Man, which stars Cedric the Entertainer as a superstar singer who returns to lead his father’s church.

The Soul Man, which launches its fifth and final season March 30, is TV Land’s most watched show among African-Americans.

The religious themes add a new wrinkle to the show’s overall characters and storylines, TV Land executive vice president of development and original programming Keith Cox said.

“While the church is a background element in every episode, it’s really just a touchstone for the idea that there’s always something larger at play,” Cox said.

Discovery Networks International named production veteran Ed Sayer to its created team, as vice president, production and development, factual. Based at DNI’s London production hub, Sayer will report to executive vice president and chief creative officer Phil Craig.

Sayer is a 20-year television creative executive who has worked for some of the top networks and content providers in the world, including the BBC, ITV Studios and has led numerous creative and ratings success and has been responsible for hundreds of hours of content. In his new role at Discovery, Sayer will oversee, commission and create factual content with a team of producers, including series in genres like popular science, engineering, automotive, and survival.

“It’s a really exciting time for Ed to join Discovery Networks International, and we're thrilled to have him,” Craig said in a statement. “We're facing the future with great confidence, commissioning some compelling new content and developing a strategy across a wide range of factual genes that will both engage current audiences and reach out to new viewers. Ed will bring a fresh voice, unique vision and unbridled energy to commissioning content that resonates around the globe. Between his deep relationships in the production community and his keen eye for spotting new and emerging talent, Ed is a storyteller like no other.”

Sayer was most recently at National Geographic, where he commissioned and executive produced some of the channels most recent successes – including Science of Stupid, Ultimate Airport Dubai, Air Crash Investigation and T.rex Autopsy. At ITV Studios, he created and looked after some of their biggest series including Cops With Cameras, Britain’s Best Dish and Best Dish: The Chefs.  As a BBC Development Exec and then Head of Entertainment Development at BBC Scotland, Sayer helped develop shows such as Young Doctors as well as several game shows and single documentaries for the network.

“Discovery’s brand is iconic, and it’s with a healthy dose of humility and excitement I join the team that’s behind many amazing television milestones,” Sayer said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to partnering with Phil Craig and Discovery’s worldwide and world-class producers to make noise and great television.”