AT&T Audience Network has released the official trailer for the second season of its drama series Mr. Mercedes.

The series, which premieres Aug. 22, picks up a year after Brady Hartsfield’s thwarted attempt to perpetrate a second mass murder in the community of Bridgton, Ohio, said network officials.

Mr. Mercedes, based on a bestselling novel by Stephen King, stars Brendan Gleeson and Harry Treadaway, said the network.

Complete Coverage: TCA 2108 Summer Press Tour 

PBS will develop several new documentaries on a variety of topics, including Woodstock and the Civil War, the company announced Monday (July 30) during its Television Critics Association summer press tour session. 

PBS' American Experience will team with Barak Goodman to develop Woodstock, a two-hour documentary that will air in 2019 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the historic three-day concert.

The documentary will examine the tumultuous decade that led to the concert through the voices of those who were present for the event, according to company officials.

PBS will also develop Reconstruction: America After The Civil War, a four-hour documentary executive produced and hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Airing in spring 2019, the documentary will take a broad view of the Reconstruction era and its aftermath, beginning with the hopeful moment of war’s end and emancipation in 1865 and extending through 1915 and Jim Crow segregation, according to the network.

PBS will team with Ken Burns and Goodman on a new three-hour documentary, The Gene: An Intimate History, that will air in spring 2020. The documentary, inspired by Siddhartha Mukherjee’s best selling book The Gene: An Intimate History, will use science, social history and personal stories to weave together a historical biography of the human genome while also exploring the breakthroughs in understanding the impact genes play on heredity, disease and behavior, the company said. 

Complete Coverage: TCA 2018 Summer Press Tour 

PBS has named TV programming veteran Perry Simon as its chief programming executive and general manager, the organization announced Monday (July 30) at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

Simon, who will begin his new role in September, will oversee all non-children’s programming for PBS, according to Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO.

Most recently Simon served as managing director at Vulcan Productions. Prior to that Simon served as general manager of BBC America, overseeing the channel’s cable and digital platforms.

Simon has also held executive positions at Viacom Productions and broadcast network NBC.

"We had alot of people interested in this job, and we looked for someone who had vision and a leader that understood the changing media environment," Kerger said during the session. "For someone to work at PBS, you have to truly believe in what we do, and we saw that in Perry."

Netflix Sunday released the official trailer for the second season of its Emmy-nominated series Ozark. 

The drama series, which returns Aug. 31 on the streaming service, continues to follow Marty Bryde (Jason Bateman) and his family as they navigate the murky waters of life within a dangerous drug cartel, said Netflix officials.

The series is produced by Bateman’s Aggregate in association with Media Rights Capital for Netflix.

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- Amazon Studios Saturday announced an Oct. 12 premiere date for its new anthology series The Romanoffs.

The Romanoffs is a contemporary anthology series set around the globe featuring eight separate stories about people who believe themselves to be descendants of the Russian royal family. 

The series was created, written, directed and executive produced by  Emmy award winner Matthew Weiner (Mad Men).

Beverly Hills, Calif. -- The recent rebranding of the YouTube Premium service is more representative of the streaming service’s original scripted and unscripted content than the service's former YouTube Red moniker, YouTube’s global head of original content Susanne Daniels said during the service’s Television Critics Association summer press tour executive session Friday.

“We valiantly tried [with YouTube Red], but at a certain point we realized that it didn’t really speak to what the service was to viewers,” Daniels told Tv critics. “It really wasn’t resonating with viewers so we decided to rebrand. YouTube Premium so far seems to be working for us.”

Daniels said since the $12 per month service launched four year ago its original content has been viewed more than 600 million times. She added that the service will feature long-form content that will run at least 20 minutes long to reflect the premium value of the service.

‘The feedback [from viewers] was that ‘we get short-form all day on YouTube -- if we’re going to subscribe to YouTube Premium we want longer episodes,’” she said. “We’re responding to fans.”

YouTube also announced during the session several new series and specials, including sci fi-themed Origin (launching this fall); unscripted show Will Smith: The Jump (debuting Sept. 25); The Lou Pearlman Project and an untitled Adam Pally/Sam Richardson comedy (both launching in 2019).

The service will also develop original series with Robert Downey Jr., (Untitled A.I. series) and Jordan Peele (Weird City), as well as scripted series On Becoming A God In Central Florida.

YouTube also renewed existing shows Step Up: High Water, Cobra Kai, Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television, Kevin Hart: What The Fit, Mind Field and Foursome.

Nickelodeon has renewed its new animated series Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles more than a month in advance of the series’ premiere.

The series, which follows the brother turtles – Raph, Leo, Donnie and Mikey – as they discover new powers and encounters, will debut its 26-episode freshman season Sept. 17 on the network. The second season will also feature 26 episodes, according to Nickelodeon executives.

Nickelodeon also announced the renewals of several live-action series including Henry Danger (season five), Knight Squad (season two), The Dude Perfect Show (season three) and Hunter Street (season three).

Four months after Discovery Communications' purchase of Scripps Network Interactive, executives from Discovery Inc. speaking Thursday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour declared the company in a good position both in front of and behind the camera.

With its focus on offering quality content, the combined Scripps and Discovery-owned services – which include such networks as Food Network, HGTV, DIY, Discovery Channel, TLC, OWN, Animal Planet and Investigation Discovery – provide the company with programming and marketing synergies that further help build already strong brands, according to Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who addressed TV critics along with Discovery Chief Brand Officer and Factual Nancy Daniels, Chief Lifestyles Brand Officer Kathleen Finch, and Animal Planet Global President Susanna Dinnage.

“We have four of the top five [most watched] networks for women,” Zaslav said. “If we can promote across all of our networks the broad reach that we have now, we have the ability to tell people [watching] Food and HGTV that something great is going on over on TLC. Things are going better than expected and we’re having a good time.”

The executives said the merged networks will not change their respective programming strategies or brand focus under the new Discovery company, although Discovery Channel will now focus exclusively on the non-scripted business despite some ratings and critical success with recent scripted limited series Manhunt: The Unabomber and Harley and The Davidsons.

“[Both] projects were critically well received, but at the end of the day we decided to do what we do best and focus on non-fiction programming,” Daniels said. “There’s a lot of scripted content out there and its really hard to break through … we decided to focus on what we do best.”

Zaslav also alluded to a potential Discovery networks-based OTT service but would not reveal specific details. “We really see the media business as being two sides: one side is scripted series and movies, and we’ve moved away from that,” he said. “There are great companies competing against each other, and eventually they’re all going to be offering [OTT] services for $10 to $15,” he said. “We have everything else. We think an offering of all of our content for $6, $7 or $8 will look very different to consumers around the world. We like where we are right now.”

Lifetime has renewed its upcoming drama series You more than a month before the show officially premieres on the network, Lifetime announced during its Television Critics Association summer press tour Thursday.

The series, based on Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novel of the same name, stars Penn Badgley as a bookstore manager who becomes obsessed with one of his customers (Elizabeth Lail). You premieres on Lifetime Sept. 9.

In other Lifetime TCA news, the network has signed Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts to a production deal that will include a series of movies and documentaries set to debut in 2019 under the banner Robin Roberts Presents, the network said.

The deal is part of Lifetime’s commitment to produce 75 original movies in 2019, according to Lifetime executive vice president of movies, limited series and original movie acquisitions Tonya Lopez.

Among the movies slated for the network include Seven Deadly Sins, produced by Bishop T.D. Jakes and based on the book series by Victoria Christopher Murray; Somebody’ Someone: The Regina Louise Story, based on a memoir about a young African-American girl who navigated over 30 foster homes and psychiatric facilities before age 18 and the one woman who believed in her; and V.C. Andrews’ Heaven, a five movie series based on the Casteel series from writer V.C. Andrews. 

HBO will launch in August a new animated series from Sesame Workshop, the network announced during its Television Critics Association summer press tour session Wednesday.

The series, Esme & Roy, will debut on Aug. 18, and follows a young girl and her best monster friend on adventures as the best monster babysitters in Monsterdale, said network officials.

The todder-targeted series is the first from the makers of Sesame Street in more than a decade, and offers a creative new approach to teaching and mindfulness strategies, said HBO.

In other HBO TCA news, the network announced an Oct. 6 premiere date for Flight of the Conchords: Live At The London Apollo. The musical special – taped at the Eventim Apollo in London – features Jermaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who starred in the 2007-2009 HBO series Flight Of The Conchords.

Flight of the Conchords: Live At The London Apollo is directed by Hamish Hamilton, with Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie and Mike Martinovich serving as executive producers. 

The network also released its original documentary lineup for the remainder of the year. Documentaries and premiere dates include: Swiped: Hooking Up In The Digital Age (debuts Sept. 10); The Oslo Diaries (Sept. 13); Jane Fonda In Five Acts (Sept. 24); Rx Early Detection: A Cancer Journey With Sandra Lee (Oct. 8) The Sentence (Oct. 15); Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped By Boko Haram (Oct. 22); We Are Not Done Yet (November); The Price Of Everything (November); The Truth About Killer Robots (November); Say Her Name: The Life And Death Of Sandra Bland (December); Breslin And Hamill: Deadline Artists (December); and Bleed Out (December).