TV One will return its music-themed documentary series Unsung for its 15th season on March 3 with a new lineup of legendary artist profiles. 

The series, produced for TV One by A. Smith & Co., has chronicled the lives and musical careers of some of the most iconic R&B, hip-hop, and gospel music during its 15-season run, including Billy Preston, Mary Wells, Rick James, DeBarge, The Clark Sisters, Heavy D, and Bootsy Collins. 

The upcoming season will feature such artists as Bobby Caldwell, Blaque, Chingy, Chuckii Booker, and Donald Lawrence, according to the company. 

Unsung executive producer Kysha Mounia says Unsung’s success and longevity lies in its ability to take a nostalgic look at legendary music artists that resonate with the network’s targeted Black audience. 

“It’s the music that captures everyone, because when you hear a specific song you are automatically transported to a place and time where it means something to you,” she said. 

Click below to hear more of the interview with Mounia on the latest episode of the “Content Spotlight” podcast.

TV One will celebrate music artists Dionne Warwick, Chlöe, Frankie Beverly and Donald Lawrence as part of its annual Urban One Honors awards event, airing February 25. 

The event, which celebrates individuals whose contributions have left an indelible mark on the arts, media, music and community, will honor six-time Grammy winner Warwick with its Lifetime Achievement award, and singer/actress Chlöe with its Generation Next award.

Also, veteran R&B performer Frankie Beverly will receive the Urban One Honors Living Legend award, while gospel music performer/producer Donald Lawrence will be presented with the Inspirational Impact award, said the network. 

The Urban One Honors will also feature appearances by Teyana Taylor, Bebe Winans, Damon Little, Angie Stone. Actress/singer LeToya Luckett will host the event’s “Backstage Pass” segments featuring interviews with the show’s honorees, performers and presenters, said the network. 

"As we unveil the lineup for this year's Urban One Honors, we are delighted to highlight the incredible musical journeys of Dionne Warwick, Chlöe, Frankie Beverly, and Donald Lawrence," TV One and Cleo TV president Michelle Rice said in a statement. "Their selection as honorees is a recognition of their profound impact on both music and culture, spanning generations.”  

Also: TV One FAST-Tracks Crime & Justice Streaming Service

TV One is expanding the reach of its popular true crime-themed programming by distributing a free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel featuring content from its lineup of true crime-themed programming.

African-American-targeted network TV One's Crime & Justice FAST channel showcases episodes from several of the network’s most-watched original shows, including Fatal Attraction, Atlanta Homicide, and Sins of the City. The service, which launched in late summer, is currently running on streaming services Tubi and Plex. 

“Our true crime series are extremely popular on the network and we have a large library of episodes to support a [FAST] channel,” TV One & Cleo TV SVP, content distribution & marketing Rori Peters said. 

TV One hopes to reach an underserved Black viewer watching content on the emerging FAST streaming platform. According to Horowitz Research, 45% of Black viewers report using at least one FAST service monthly, compared to one-third of total market consumers.

While TV One continues to focus on building its 19-year-old linear brand and its female-targeted Cleo TV service, Peters said the network also wants to reach its viewers on alternative platforms.

“We have some franchises that are extremely popular with the TV one audience, and luckily, we're now at a point where we can make that available to people who are outside the pay ecosystem without cannibalizing the [linear] business,” she said. 

Peters said the network plans to launch a second FAST channel focused on its entertainment documentary and reality content. Although the network is offering FAST services, Peters doesn’t see TV One rolling out a slew of FAST channels in the near future.  

“I think there will come a point where there’s too many channels in a category, and if your channel isn’t making any money, then there’s no value to them,” she said. “The answer for us is developing channels in the genre categories where we know we have strengths.” 

Revolt will look at Black communities battling systematic water pollution in the network's first investigative special, The Real Thirst Trap, debuting December 22.

The Revolt Black News special, hosted by Emmy award-winning journalist Mara Campo, investigates the detrimental impacts that polluted water has on Black communities, and gives a voice to typically unheard individuals from Flint, New Orleans and Watts that are battling pollutants, toxic landfills and water systems under threat, said the network.

Campo, who has previously worked for ABC News, NBC News and TV One, will also serve as global news anchor of Revolt Black News. She will also also host Revolt's flagship news series Revolt Black News Weekly and act as the news division's managing editor.

"By announcing Mara joining Revolt, as we air our first investigative special, we are sending a deliberate signal to the world that we are building a best-in-class news division that will center the needs of Black people from across the diaspora and boldly tell the stories the rest of media chooses to ignore," Revolt CEO Detavio Samuels said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more proud to have yet another Black woman helping to lead the charge & contribute to that mission."

Also: Multicultural TV’s Power Players: Bringing Diversity to TV Screens Everywhere

Added Revolt President of News, Specials & Documentary Monique Chenault: "We are thrilled to welcome Mara Campo as Global News Anchor and Managing Editor of Revolt Black News. I’m confident Mara's in-depth reporting style, dedication to the public citizenry, and vast experience in covering the most pressing issues will further propel our news division as a critical vessel for sharing stories and assessing realities that impact Black people in America and throughout the African diaspora in an insightful and solution-minded way." ■

Charter Communications said it has reached a deal to expand carriage of several African-American themed networks — AspireTV, Black News Channel, Impact Network, Revolt TV, The Africa Channel, TV One and Cleo TV — to its pay TV customers subscribing to the Spectrum TV Select video tier across its entire 41-state footprint. The rollout is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Spectrum TV Select is Charter’s most popular basic programming tier with about 125 channels, and is priced at $49.99 per month for the first 12 months. 

“Charter is committed to delivering programming that reflects the diverse interests of our customers, and these networks offer a wide variety of African American-themed news, lifestyle, entertainment and inspirational content,” Charter executive VP of programming acquisition Tom Montemagno said in a press release. “By including these channels on Spectrum TV Select we will significantly increase the networks’ potential audience while providing millions of our TV customers with even more choice, entertainment and value – at no extra cost.”

The channels were available on pricier Charter tiers in the past, and includes at least one channel that is likely to disappear in the future. In March, Black News Channel CEO Princell Hair said the network was shutting down in a memo to employees. However, at the moment BNC is still on the air. 

“We applaud Charter for its commitment to expanding access to diverse programming and making sure more networks that cater to Black audiences like Revolt are introduced to millions of Spectrum TV Select customers across the country,” Revolt TV CEO Detavio Samuels said in a press release. “We are focused on building the largest Black-owned media company that changes the narrative of Black culture, and carriers like Charter play a big role in helping Revolt achieve this goal by amplifying content that elevates the culture across categories.”

Among the channels included in the agreement are:

AspireTV: The television network that celebrates and reflects Black culture and urban lifestyle. AspireTV offers reality series, specials and independent films as well as dramas, contemporary comedies and documentaries that connect with and reflect its viewers.

Black News Channel: The only provider of 24/7 multiplatform programming dedicated to covering the unique perspectives, challenges and successes of Black and Brown communities. BNC delivers live news programming each weekday.

Impact Network: Founded in Detroit by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson and Dr. Beverly Y. Jackson, and is the fastest growing, 100% African American, independently owned Christian network in the United States. 

Revolt TV: A leading Black-owned and operated multimedia platform founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2013, and servicing content 24/7 across digital, linear, and live media channels. The platform produces rich content and original material with the biggest names in Hip Hop, along with reports of breaking news, current events, trends and announcements within the Black cultural movement and Hip-Hop world. 

The Africa Channel: A showcase for English language television series, feature films, documentaries and news about Africa and its influence on the world. 

TV One Networks: The hub of Black culture and entertainment with a broad offering of original programming and classic series, serving both diverse audiences for TV One and Cleo TV. Each network has a unique audience that serves viewers with fan favorites. Both networks are solely owned by Urban One, Inc., the largest African American-owned and operated multi-media company.

“We are excited Charter has expanded carriage of TV One Networks across its footprint,” said TV One and Cleo TV president Michelle Rice in a press release. “They are a great partner and like us, Charter recognizes the value of offering greater accessibility to diverse content that equitably and authentically represents the demographics of the viewers and communities we mutually serve.” ■

TV One will look at the evolution of music and social consciousness of the 1970s  through the 2000s as part of a four-part series debuting February 27.

The series, Unsung Presents: The Decades, tells the chronological story of music, from Motown and disco in the 1970s and 1980s to the revolutionary sound and style of hip-hop in the 1990s and 2000s, said the network. Decades will also look at the role music played in influencing social and cultural events such as the Vietnam War, the crack cocaine & AIDS epidemic, and police brutality in American society. 

Artists featured in the documentary include Edwin Starr, The Floaters, Brick, Carl Carlton, Dazz Band, Teddy Riley, Public Enemy, Digital Underground and Tweet, said the network.

TV One will air the first two episodes of Decades on February 27, with episode three debuting April 17 and episode four premiering April 24. ■ 

TV One will take a look at the events of 2021 as part of an upcoming town hall that will air December 26.

The Represent Our Voice town hall will break down the year’s pivotal moments – including COVID-19, racial justice, politics and the economy – and how they’ve impacted the African-American community, according to network officials. 

Featured speakers for the town hall event include include Marc Morial, President & CEO of The National Urban League, Latosha Brown, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, Dr. Reed Tuckson, Co-Founder of The Black Coalition Against COVID, and Michelle Singletary, author and columnist for The Washington Post, said the network. ■  

 TV One will celebrate the holiday season with a December 19 special featuring R&B music icon Patti LaBelle.

The special, Patti LaBelle’s Holiday Party, features LaBelle singing holiday songs and cooking up meals with special guests including R&B singer Tamar Braxton, according to the network.

TV One sister network Cleo TV has secured rights to episodes from the YouTube digital series Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix, according to network officials.

Cleo TV will air 80 episodes from the series -- which was originally launched in 2017 from lifestyle entertainment company Kin -- beginning in October. Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix helps viewers solve little dilemmas from quick ideas for a weeknight meal to beauty tips, said the network. 

The series, hosted by actress Tia Mowry (Sister, Sister Netflix’s Family Reunion), has accumulated more than 280 million views on social media. 

“Our network prides itself on offering diverse, trendsetting and inspirational content,” said Cleo TV and TV One president Michelle Rice in a statement. “We look forward to building an outstanding partnership with Tia and Kin and are thrilled to introduce Quick Fix to our audience.”

Added Kin CEO Michael Wayne: “We’re thrilled to bring Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix to Cleo TV.  Through a collaborative effort with Tia, the Kin team has built Tia Mowry’s Quick Fix into a franchise that has appealed to millions of viewers across social platforms.”

Read Also: TV One Pushes the Power of Representation

News media personality Roland Martin, along with along with legendary gospel music singer Erica Campbell, are co-hosting TV One’s Urban One Honors awards show this Sunday (May 16), as the third annual awards event showcases individuals and organizations whose work significantly impacts society and culture. 

Martin, formerly host of TV One’s daily news show News One Now, has recently taken his talents to the digital platform, hosting a daily web-based YouTube series -- #RolandMartinUnfiltered -- which focuses on news and analysis from an African-American perspective. Martin also recently launched a new Facebook Watch series, We Got Next: An Intergenerational Dialogue, which features discussions between youth and elders involved in social activism.

I recently spoke to Martin about his transition to digital media from traditional television and the opportunities the emerging platform affords diverse voices. Martin also discusses the need for more African-American owned news outlets and outlines what needs to be done to create a path for success. An edited version of the interview appears below.

Also Read: TV One's 'Uncensored'  to Air Final Interview with DMX

Picture This: What is the theme and message of this year’s version of the Urban Honors event? 

Roland Martin: The focus this year is specifically on the work that black women have been doing in areas dealing with activism, with COVID, voting rights and things along those lines. That’s what makes this year’s ceremony a lot different than in years past. For me it was pretty cool to be one of the few guys involved with it given this year’s focus.

Picture This: You’ve remained active over the past year even with the media slowdown due to the pandemic. How were you able to navigate through COVID?

RM: It’s been really interesting because we were properly positioned for COVID. When COVID hit the television networks had to pivot, but it highlighted what we were already doing digitally. I had a studio at home, so when COVID hit it was a boon to us because we were already positioned to work remotely, and we saw our numbers grow exponentially. I think that will continue through 2021 and 2022 because I just don’t think we’re going back to so-called normal anytime soon. We’re positioned to be mobile and versatile.

PT: From a news perspective, is the industry moving more toward the digital space as more consumers turn to digital for their information and entertainment?

RM: What we're experiencing right now is market fragmentation. The traditional gatekeepers no longer get to control everything. It used to be that you had no choice but to go to MSNBC, Fox News or CNN for 24-hour news coverage. What we've proven on the digital side is that people will seek out information beyond traditional television. Now look where we are -- CBS has expanded their digital offerings; NBC has created a separate digital channel. We started with 157,000 subscribers on YouTube and now we have more than 770,000 subscribers. If you know how to do it and understand the technology then you can be successful.

Also Read: TV One Pushes the Power of Representation

PT: How do we make sure that African-American owned and targeted content providers competed in an otherwise crowded media environment?

RM: What we’re doing right now with distributors and advertising agencies is drawing the line. We’re saying that there’s a reason why Black owned media has been strangled … it’s an abomination that these companies have been spending 1% with black-owned media when they know that black people are spending far more.  [Entertainment Studios CEO] Byron Allen has made it clear that he will sue companies, and I have made it clear that I will shine a light and call you out publicly. If companies have a $2 billion advertising budget, then 10% of that needs to be in black media. That would be a game changer. It means that we can do in one year what it took us 10 years to do. Now you can deal with capacity and you’re able to grow. That’s how we’re able to compete.

PT: So what is the outlook next year for Black-owned media companies? 

RM: I think next year we're going to be having a conversation where black owned media moves from getting 1% of the [advertising] dollars to 5% of the dollars. I believe you're going to see exponential growth. But it is only going to happen if you have people who are willing to stand up. We need major corporate leaders to say this has to change.

PT: What’s next for you and your production company Nu Vision Media?

RM: The next thing for us, and I’ve stated it publicly, is our OTT channels. People will soon be able to access our content on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung TV and other platforms. This environment is great for independent content creators to reach audiences. We also just launched a six-part series with Facebook as part of its “We The Culture” programming Initiative where I create these intergenerational conversations, such as Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright and Ambassador Andrew Young and young activist Kris Payne with Public Enemy’s Chuck D.

TV One will air the last interview with the late hip-hop artist DMX as part of a special May 16 Uncensored episode.

The Uncensored series, which offers first-hand accounts from popular personalities about their lives and careers, captured the interview with DMX three weeks before his passing April 9 from cardiac arrest, according to the network. The two-part special will air prior to the network’s Urban One Honors special event. 

Also Read: TV One Pushes the Power of Representation

"DMX sat down with our team and was completely uncensored,” Urban One Founder and Chairman Cathy Hughes said in a statement. “We have one hour with the late rapper in his own words. For DMX to be with us just three weeks before God called him home, I believe it's truly divine intervention.”

The Cable Center said Wednesday that it will reschedule its 23rd annual Cable Hall of Fame celebration to Oct. 20 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York City.

This is the fourth time the Center has had to reschedule the event. It was originally scheduled for April 30, 2020,  but was pushed to the fall of that year because of the pandemic.   In June 2020, it was rescheduled again to April 29, 2021.  

The Cable Hall of Fame inductees are: 

Bridget Baker: CEO Baker Media Inc.

Jim Blackley: Former EVP, IT and Engineering Charter Communications

Cathy Hughes: founder and chairwoman, Urban One

Alfred C. Liggins III: CEO, Urban One; chairman and CEO TV One

Jeff Marcus: Cable Pioneer

Dave Watson: president and CEO Comcast Cable

Jeff Zucker: chairman, WarnerMedia, News & Sports and president, CNN Worldwide 

The Bresnan Ethics in Business Award will also be presented to Ted Turner during the celebration. For those unable to gather in-person, the Cable Center said it will host a virtual celebration.

The Center said it is still confirming its plans for 2021 honorees. For more information on the celebration, visit www.cablehalloffame.com.

As TV One parent Urban One celebrates its 40th anniversary in media,
the network continues to serve the African-American community through original innovative programming and social-justice initiatives. 

While TV One celebrates black culture throughout the year, its “Represent the Movement” initiative for Black History Month features interstitial programming revolving around four female activists — Zyahna Bryant, Brea Baker, Nupol Kiazolu and Kenidra Woods — who discuss important causes such as women’s rights, criminal justice reform, freedom of speech, LGBTQ rights, racism, immigration and gun control.

On the scripted front, TV One on Feb. 28 will debut the original movie Don’t Waste Your Pretty, based on the novel of the same name penned by author and media personality Demetria L. Lucas and starring Keri Hilson (Think Like a Man, Almost Christmas).

TV One and Cleo TV president Michelle Rice recently spoke to Multichannel
News about the increased interest and appeal of African-American themed content across multiple platforms and the network’s role in continuing to foster inclusiveness and diversity both in front of and behind the camera. 

MCN: What do you see as the reasons behind the explosion of African-American images and storylines on the small screen in recent years?

Michelle Rice: I can only give you my perspective, and certainly after the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, I think that consumers are demanding it. Consumers are very discerning when they look at brands and they want their brands to represent the communities in which they serve, and I think that companies are starting to understand that. 

After the George Floyd incident, which really roused the consciousness of the country, you saw a lot of companies — big retailers, like Target, for example — saying that they were going to put money into [the African-American] community and give us more shelf space in their stores. I look at cable companies the same way. They are giving us more shelf space in their stores, because the communities that support these businesses are demanding it. 

Black people and people of color have always been some of the best consumers of digital products and services, so we now understand that power. If you’re not going to give us equal shelf space, then we have other options and opportunities, so now we’re seeing them really investing on screen, and I’m glad to see that. I think it’s about time, but I hope it’s not just fashionable to do this because of the time that we live in. It’s just good business.

MCN: Has TV One benefited from the industry’s increased focus on diversity and inclusion? 

MR: I think that we are definitely asking people to put their money where their mouths are, and one of the ways we’re seeing companies do that is investing more ad dollars into black companies. We’ve definitely been having those conversations with a lot of our partners and those conversations have been fruitful. You see more advertisers targeting this community, and we’re definitely calling those companies out that we think can do better. We have some partners that have always supported us, and our audience has always supported us — we’ve had a great swell in viewership during the pandemic. People are looking for their voice and looking to see themselves reflected positively. 

MCN: So how do we keep this momentum going? 

MR: The reason you see quality content targeted to Black audiences on networks like TV One and BET is because it’s created by Black people telling Black stories. One of the ways to keep the momentum going is to ensure that you have a diverse team of people who are going to advocate and rally around the importance of that — hiring programming executives and making sure you have diverse executives on [company executive boards] in programming and marketing and PR, so that it is ingrained in the DNA of the company and not just a check-the-box thing. Every company should have employees that reflect the communities that they serve, and the only way that’s going to change is if we have a more diverse workforce. 

TV One has always been a place for providing opportunities to new creative voices from our early days. One of the things that we're really proud of is providing opportunities to a number of young and new black creatives not only in front of the camera, in terms of actresses and actors, but also behind the cameras — particularly to black women directors. [First-time producers] like Tasha Smith, Terri Vaughn, Tamara Bass and most recently Essence Atkins have created [content] for us, so we’re really excited about the opportunities that we’ve given to Black creatives.

TV One Monday said it will launch a new documentary in January that will highlight memorable songs associated with the movement for justice and equality.

The two-part documentary, Unsung Presents: Music & Movement, will debut on Jan. 18  and will showcase artists and songs throughout the years that have provided the soundtrack to pivotal movements for Black Americans, both during a tumultuous past and a troubling present period, said network officials. 

Performers set to appear in the documentary include Erica Campbell, Big Gipp, Raheem DeVaughn and Rev. Al Sharpton, said the network.

“Music is the heart and soul of Black culture – giving life to our experiences, voice to our stories and growing power out of our pain,” said Cathy Hughes, Chairwoman, Urban One, Inc. “Every melody, lyric and rhythm artfully depicts the layers of Black diversity, scope of black creativity, and depths of the complexity of our people. TV One’s Music & the Movement special pays homage to the music and music makers whose talents created a soundtrack of Black music during moments of political and social unrest throughout our history. It is another opportunity for us to spotlight Black content.”

Urban One has elevated Michelle Rice to the position of TV One and Cleo TV president, the company announced Tuesday.

Rice, who has served as general manager of the Black targeted TV One and millennial women of color-targeted Cleo TV, will continue full oversight of both channels, said Alfred Liggins, president and CEO of Urban One, which owns both services.

"Michelle's dynamic leadership has strengthened network partnerships, developed strategic alliances, and expanded distribution for both TV One and Cleo TV. All of which has uniquely positioned our networks to navigate the changing broadcast environment and catapult them to even greater success in the future," said Liggins.

Rice, a Multichannel News Wonder Woman, was one of TV One’s original employees. Since being named general manager in 2018, Rice has expanded the network’s existing relationship with AT&T to include the launch of Cleo TV across Direct TV, AT&T TV, and AT&T Now. She also presided over a carriage agreement with streaming service Philo TV, the network’s first virtual MVPD distribution deal, according to Urban One. Rice also spearheaded the launch of Cleo TV in 2019.

TV One will develop a three-part town hall series targeted to Black women voters leading up to election day.

The series, Represent The Vote: Our Voice, Our Future, will be hosted by CNN commentator Karen Finney and will look to tackle various social, economic and political issues impacting Black women voters across the country, according to network officials. The first episode, The Issues: What's at Stake for Black Women and Our Families During This Election, will debut Oct. 22, according to the network.

The second episode, The Intersection of Race and Gender in Politics and the Power of the Black Female Vote, debuts Oct. 29, while the third and final episode -- Post-Election: Where Do We Go From Here?, premieres Nov. 13.

"The current social and political climate demands we support efforts to mobilize the Black vote, especially the power of the black female electorate. It is vital that we utilize our television networks and digital platforms to inform our audience about key ballot issues impacting our community, the core positions and views held by our nation's leaders and by those seeking to hold elected offices up and down the ballot, and the ability for voters to hold elected official accountable for promises made during this critical election," said Michelle Rice, general manager of TV One and CLEO TV in a statement. "The accomplished leaders and social activists participating in the three town hall panels will undoubtedly help viewers be a part of the conversation, be more informed citizens on the key issues in this election cycle and most importantly, to inspire everyone to take the most important action - VOTE!"

Streaming service Philo and TV One reached a distribution agreement, marking the network’s first deal with a virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD).

Philo also announced that it is working with the National Urban League to present a series of presentations aimed at helping Black small business owners build their brands.

With consumers cutting the cable cord, getting carriage on vMVPDs is helpful.

“We are excited to have TV One’s first vMVPD distribution deal be with Philo,” said TV One and CLEO TV general manager Michelle Rice. “They have been a great partner and continue to demonstrate a commitment to diverse content.”

TV One joins more than 60 channels on Philo, which charges $20 a month. The low-cost service provides non-sports programming from companies including A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Discovery and ViacomCBS. Last month Philo added INSP and get TV to its base package.

“What a great time to bring TV One onto the platform as it has been a highly requested network from our customers for quite some time, and we are excited to bring this sought-after content to our subscribers. We’re proud to be the first vMVPD to offer TV One while maintaining our best-in-class price point of $20 per month,” said Andrew McCollum, CEO of Philo. “Adding more diverse programming aligns with our continued commitment to our community. The addition of TV One is the result of our appreciation for the importance of Black-owned channels and content perspectives to our overall business objectives, which in turn create opportunities for diverse creators.” 

Philo’s three-part “Power Lunch Series: How to Build a Brand” will kick off in September as part of the National Urban League’s Tech Series.

The first session will feature Philo’s head of marketing Nii Mantse Addy and Philo’s head of customer acquisition Carolyn Ferreira. They will discuss the impact of digital marketing strategies.

“The National Urban League is proud to partner with Philo on this initiative to both support and empower small African American business owners at such a critical time,” said National Urban League president and CEO Marc Morial. “Never in history have digital marketing and branding skills been more important to building consumer awareness and loyalty. We’re confident the ‘Power Lunch Series’ will help businesses to innovate and thrive in today’s challenging environment.”

Future sessions will cover email marketing and social media and brand creative.

"Philo has always been committed to supporting the communities that we serve, which includes investing in diversity and equity where we have influence,” said Addy. “In our discussions with the National Urban League, it became clear that the small businesses they partner with could benefit from our core competencies as a rapidly growing digital business. 

Philo said The Urban League partnership and adding TV One fit with its diversity, equity and inclusion principles. 

In addition to a commitment to Black-owned content, Philo said it is donating $1 million worth of video advertising inventory to Black-owned businesses and social initiative to run on Philo and working with its programmers and the Ad Council to stream anti-racism public service announcements on the platform.

TV One will debut its original movie Coins For Love on July 19, the network said Tuesday.

The film, a sequel to TV One’s Coins For Christmas film, will bring back stars Essence Atkins, Stephen Bishop, TC Carson, Kendrick Cross and Karon Joseph Riley. The story follows single mother Madison Morris (Atkins) as she struggles to make ends meet while starting a new career, raising two teens on her own and trying to choose between an old flame and new love interest, said the network. 

In the aftermath of the June protests over the May 25 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, African-American targeted networks and streaming services are vowing to continue to keep issues important to the Black community at the forefront of new programming as the news cycle shifts to other breaking stories.

Executives at services such as Fox Soul, BET, TV One and Black News Channel said they provide a platform for target audiences to voice their concerns and demands regarding police brutality, systematic racism and other issues even as other events dominate news coverage in the future.

“We are in a unique position,” Black News Channel VP of news and programming Gary Wordlaw said. “I think people will turn to our network and others to compare the type of coverage we’re doing versus what they’re seeing on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC, and see that we’re giving stories important to our audience longer, in-depth treatment.”

Along with full coverage of regularly-scheduled shows, Black News Channel in May launched BNC Now, a live afternoon news show that allows for more discussion of the issues facing Black America, Wordlaw said. The network has also produced town hall specials that focus on specific issues ranging from police reform to the continuing effects of COVID-19 on the African-American community.

Entertainment networks are also heeding the community’s call. Streaming service Fox Soul in May launched The Black Report, a news and public-affairs show that offers a voice to disenfranchised African-Americans and provides its core viewers with much-needed information, according to Fox Soul president James DuBose.

Expanding its reach, Fox Soul two weeks ago launched one- to two-hour programming blocks on several Fox-owned stations, including WWOR New York, KCOP Los Angeles and KDFI Dallas.

“When all the other networks and services go back to normal business, we will continue to provide a voice for the black community because we have the ability to celebrate black culture every day,” DuBose said.

BET has been aggressive in its approach to covering the protests and their aftermath. Along with several June town hall specials, the network’s June 28 BET Awards provided a platform for artists from Beyoncé to Alicia Keys to address the movement against police brutality and racial injustice within the country.

Funding ‘Content for Change’

BET also announced a new social-justice initiative called “Content for Change,” designed to support the creation, distribution, marketing and promotion of programs aimed at eliminating systemic racism and inequality in America. The initiative will receive $25 million in funding from BET and its corporate partners.

“We have to give people an opportunity to have a voice, to express their rage, to express their grief, to engage in community,” BET president Scott Mills said.

Wordlaw said that the issues of police reform and economic inequality that rose up from the Floyd protests will remain very important to the community. Networks targeting the African-American community have a responsibility to serve their audience by providing an avenue for discussion of such issues, he said.

“It’s an awesome responsibility and I’m very happy to be a part of it, but we’re just a small part of it,” he said. “All of us have a responsibility to continue to put forth a story, and not one of us thinks any of us are independent — we have to work together to get the information to our audiences.”  

June is Black Music Month, and few cable shows embody the celebration of African-American musical artists more than TV One’s long-running Unsung. In its recently concluded 14th season, the docuseries — which has profiled performers ranging from Teddy Pendergrass to Rick James to DeBarge — finished as the network’s most-watched series and the most-watched show during its Sunday 10 p.m. time slot among African-American viewers, according to Nielsen.

With a new season already in the works, Unsung executive producer in charge of production Jason Ryan spoke to Multichannel News about the A. Smith & Co.-produced show’s longevity, as well as its strategy to attract younger viewers while remaining relevant to its core audience of adults 25-54.

MCN: How has Unsung helped to define TV One’s brand?

Jason Ryan:Unsung is our longest-running and our award-winning series. It’s one of those series that defines the network: People know TV One for Unsung just because it’s been running for so long. We get such a great response from fans and viewers, and many of the artists that have participated over the years have been really excited about being a part of the show.

MCN: What has the show done to help influence the business of music?

JR: It’s really important to provide a platform that really tells the story of influential black artists in this intimate type of setting. We celebrate their music, but we also tell their story. It’s just a really impactful platform, not only for the network but also culturally. Most of the time we hear artists when they are performing at a concert or they’re interviewing about a new project. This is a way to get into their story and give them a platform that you rarely see in the mainstream.

MCN: After initially focusing on artists from the ’60s and ’70s, more recent seasons of Unsung have also featured ’80s and ’90s artists. Has that introduced the series to a new generation of viewers?

JR: Incorporating some of those more-recent artists has helped broaden the scope of the show. Early on, it was more ’60s and ’70s artists, but as we’ve introduced some ’90s artists, those episodes have been received very well. As the show goes on through the years and we begin to separate from the eras, we can go back to those artists in the ’90s and 2000s because the show has been on for so long. That allows us to choose from an even larger pool of artists for future episodes that are more familiar to younger viewers.

MCN: Are you looking to make any changes to the format going forward?

JR: We’ve been talking long-term about some ways to tweak the show and make it stronger, but in the end it’s the artists and stories that make the show stand out. For the first time this past season, during our Dru Hill episode, we added an Unsung digital element in which an artist that’s featured performs a song live. For us, it’s not so much about changing the show, but more about evolving the show so that we can further engage the viewer and the artists. 

Streaming services and cable networks used social media Saturday night and early Sunday morning to support the African-American community as protests continue to take place around the country over the death of George Floyd earlier this week in Minneapolis while in police custody.  

Netflix in a tweet said, “we have a platform and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.” The streaming service added, “To be silent is complicit. Black lives matter.”

[embed]https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1266829242353893376[/embed]

Amazon Prime Video also tweeted that it stands by the black community. "Together we stand with the Black community — colleagues, artists, writers, storytellers, producers, our viewers — and all allies in the fight against racism and injustice." 

[embed]https://twitter.com/PrimeVideo/status/1266942044800344065[/embed]

Hulu also tweeted: "We support Black lives. Today, and every day. You are seen. You are heard. And we are with you."

[embed]https://twitter.com/hulu/status/1266913549512658946[/embed]

Cable networks TV One and Starz also tweeted its support for Black Lives Matter as well as organizations such as the NAACP and ColorofChange.org.

[embed]https://twitter.com/tvonetv/status/1267093474303606784[/embed][embed]https://twitter.com/STARZ/status/1266927031876325381[/embed]

Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on Friday was charged with third degree murder after being filmed on May 25 kneeling on Floyd’s neck while trying to arrest him. The incident has sparked days of protests and unrest around the country. 

RELATED: CNN Crew Arrested in Minneapolis 

TV One will celebrate Black Music Month with the June debut of an original documentary project, The Beat Don't Stop, the network announced Wednesday. 

The special, which debuts June 21, chronicles the history and legacy of Go-Go music and its contribution to the musical landscape, according to the network. The documentary features appearances from such artists as Doug E. Fresh, Junk Yard Band, Trouble Funk, E.U., Backyard Band, TOB, TCB and DJ Kool. 

Lifetime's original move The Clark Sisters: The First Family Of Gospel heads up a lineup of original programming entertainment-based cable networks are offering during the Easter holiday weekend.

The original movie, which premieres April 11, recounts the story of the highest selling female gospel group in history and their trailblazing mother, Mattie Moss Clark, played by Aunjanue Ellis, according to network officials.

Lifetime on Easter Sunday (April 12) will debut another faith-based film, A Question of Faith, said network officials.

Other Easter-themed programming include UpTV and Aspire TV's April 12 airing of The Stellar Awards: Music of Hope Special, which will feature songs of inspiration from previous Stellar Awards classic performances from such Gopsel artists as Tamela Mann, Donnie McClurkin, Marvin Sapp, Yolanda Adams, Bebe, and Cece Winans, Hezekiah Walker, Mary Mary, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and Pastor Shirley Caesar, said officials from the networks. Bounce TV will air the special on May 24, said the network.

TV One on Easter Sunday will air a day-long marathon of original, faith-based programming on Easter, including its most recent original movie, Sinners Wanted, the network said. 

Comcast continued to offer free content to families sitting at home due the coronavirus pandemic by making on demand programming from more than two dozen multicultural-themed entertainment networks and subscription VOD services.

African-American targeted services available to Xfinity customers with X1 and Flex include AFRO, Aspire TV, Black News Channel, Revolt and TV One, Brown Sugar, The Africa Channel and Impact Network.

Latino-themed networks available include CBeebies, Cinelatino, Cine Sony, Cinema, Dinamita MX, Kanal D Drama, Kids Central en español, Pantaya, RCN Novelas, Universo, ViendoMovies and Vme Kids. International Networks now available include Filipino On Demand, Hi-YAH!, KOCOWA (all programs subtitled in English) and TV5MONDE.

The move to offer free services is the third for Comcast in response to the pandemic.

“All year round, we provide our customers with a wide variety of diverse and in-language programming and we’re happy to work with our partners to make a selection available for free,” said Rebecca Heap, Senior Vice President, Video & Entertainment for Comcast Cable in a statement. 

TV One has suspended production on its daily talk show Sister Circle Live due to coronavirus concerns. 

The daily talk show series, hosted by Quad Webb, Syleena Johnson, Rashan Ali and Trina Braxton, will air repeat episodes on TV One beginning March 18, according the network.

"Due to the COVID-19 breakout, Sister Circle Live will air repeat episodes beginning Wednesday, March 18 until further notice. Thank you for your continued support," the network said in a statement.

Alfred Liggins literally grew up in the media business. He was 7 when he and his mother, Cathy Hughes, moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes worked as sales manager at WHUR, Howard University’s commercial radio station, and Liggins would head there every day after school to do his homework.

After high school, Liggins moved to Los Angeles to work in the music business while attending night classes at UCLA. He got a job at Light Records, a gospel music company, but had his eye on secular music. Thinking he had a job lined up at Motown, he quit Light Records. That’s when he learned “my first lesson of employment: never quit the job you have until you are absolutely certain of the job you think you’re going to get,” he said. The Motown job fell through, and Liggins was unemployed.

Hughes convinced her son to return to D.C. to work for her company, Radio One, which consisted of one station, WOL-AM. He joined Radio One as WOL’s account manager. Two years later, Hughes acquired a second station, WMMJ, and kept looking for acquisitions. Liggins worked his way up to president and treasurer as the company grew to three stations. As business partners, Liggins and Hughes made an excellent team. He was the financial expert, while she was the creator of programming that served listeners’ interests.

Before turning over control of Radio One’s operations, Hughes insisted that Liggins get an MBA. He graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 1995. On graduation day, Liggins told his mother that he planned to take Radio One public to enable larger-scale expansion. He was named CEO in 1997, with Hughes as board chair. Radio One went public in 1999, and the IPO made it possible for the company to grow quickly. Today, the Radio One network comprises stations in 16 urban markets.

RELATED: Magnificent Seven Earn Hall of Fame Honors

The strategy of buying small, underperforming urban stations and refocusing them to serve their communities’ demographics worked well. But Liggins also credits federal diversity and minority broadcast ownership policies for helping Radio One succeed. “I’d like to say that all of our success has been because we’re brilliant operators,” he said. “But no matter how smart you are, if you don’t get an opportunity to perform, you can’t win.”

Cable came into the picture for Liggins in 2004 with the launch of TV One, in partnership with Comcast. The cable channel was just the second to offer African- American entertainment, launching with 2.2 million households. TV One was designed to serve African-American adults who wanted an alternative to BET. Today, TV One serves 59 million households, offering “original programming, classic series, movies and music to its diverse audience of adult black viewers.”

Under Liggins’ leadership, Radio One continued to expand. In 2017, it was renamed Urban One and now comprises cable, radio, syndication, web and marketing properties, the largest U.S. multimedia company dedicated primarily to serving African-American, urban audiences.

Cable networks’ original holiday movies will deliver the gift of diversity, with many of this year’s offerings featuring actors of color in lead roles.

From OWN’s first-ever original movie, One Fine Christmas, to Lifetime’s A Sweet Christmas Romance to UP TV’s Snowbound for Christmas, these movies will aim for viewers who are underserved by the popular seasonal genre.

“There’s a formula to holiday films: You have a nice-looking couple, they end up falling in love, there’s a happy ending, fa la la la la,” Marc Berman, editor of TV industry website Programming Insider, said. “What’s always been missing from that formula are people of color — there has been an enormous lack of diverse holiday programming.”

As cable networks ramp up the number of original holiday films — nearly 90 will debut between the last week of October and the end of December — network executives said they’ve made a more concerted effort to diversify the characters and storylines.

RELATED: Hallmark Celebrates a Decade of Yule Countdowns

With African-Americans in particular watching more than 50 hours of live and time-shifted television per week during the first quarter, per Nielsen, holiday-themed scripted programs — which touch on traditions of family, food and gifts — will play well with diverse audiences, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production Brigitte McCray said.

“Black audiences are not monolithic and storytelling for this audience should be as diverse as they are, including holiday programming,” McCray said. TV One in December will air Dear Santa, I Need a Date, starring Ray J, Reagan Gomez-Preston and Anna-Marie Johnson.

“African-Americans and people of color love all types of genres and it’s no surprise that feel-good content is appealing during the holiday season,” McCray added.

BET and BET Her will simulcast four Christmas- themed movies across four straight Saturdays beginning Nov. 30: Christmas Belles, Hip Hop Holiday, ’Twas the Chaos Before Christmas and Holiday Heist.

“At BET, we know that binging on holiday movies can be comfort food for the soul, and our audience is no exception to this viewing phenomenon, so we’re proud to present our new original holiday programming to bring that holiday cheer to our audience,” said Maureen Guthman, BET senior vice president, content strategy.

OWN, which targets African-American women, will jump into the original movies arena for the first time with three holiday-themed movies debuting in November: One Fine Christmas starring Rick Fox and Vanessa Williams; Carole’s Christmas, featuring Jackée Harry and Kimberly Elise; and Baking Christmas, starring Tim Reid.

“We’ve created scripted programming that’s relatable and reflective of the lives of our African-American female audience, and we feel that it’s a natural extension for us to go into the holiday movies space,” OWN president Tina Perry said. “We will be telling the same stories that are relatable, that reflect her life and experiences at that time of the year.”

Networks targeting more general audiences are also diversifying their holiday fare. Nearly half of Lifetime’s 28 planned movies will star people of color, including Tatyana Ali (The Christmas Hotel), Kim Fields (You Light Up My Christmas), Kelly Rowland (Merry Liddle Christmas), Loretta Devine (A Sweet Christmas Romance) and Keshia Knight Pulliam (Radio Christmas).

Hallmark Channel will offer four holiday films with lead actors of color, including the Tamera Mowry-Housley starrer A Christmas Miracle, Crown Media Family Networks CEO Bill Abbott said.

TV One's launch of African-American female millennial-targeted cable network Cleo TV earlier this year added to the industry momentum for the development of TV content created by and for multicultural audiences. 

TV One general manager Michelle Rice discusses Cleo TV as well as the growing demand for multicultural programming in a new MCN Original Videos segment. 

Veteran urban radio host Russ Parr is returning to cable TV, serving as director of TV One’s music-themed original movie The Bobby DeBarge Story premiering June 29.

Parr, who produced TV One's 2016 original movie Ringside, has hosted his nationally syndicated radio show The Russ Parr Morning Show for more than 20 years. I recently spoke to Parr about his work on The Bobby DeBarge Story, which chronicles the tumultuous life of the former lead singer of the 1970s R&B/funk band Switch and the eldest sibling of the 1980s R&B group DeBarge. An edited version of the interview appears below.

What drew you to The Bobby DeBarge Story project?

I grew up in that era -- I went to a Cal State Northridge (University) in the L.A. area -- and I remember on Saturdays and Sundays I used to go play basketball at the park. At the time when I was playing I didn't know it was the DeBarges that I was playing against. The music they made was the music of our day at the time, so when [TV One] said we want to do The Bobby DeBarage Story I said man, I want to get in and produce that. Because of all my years and connections in radio playing their music and doing interviews with them over the years, I knew a little bit more about them besides just the rumors. So that's why I wanted to be connected to it.

You mentioned the success and the rumors surrounding the DeBarge family -- what is it about Bobby DeBarge’s story that compelled you and TV One to develop an original movie specifically around him?

The thing was back in the day we had hit [family] groups like the Jacksons, but then here these people came out of nowhere, and all of them had the ability to sing. Bobby was the oldest brother and he was amazing. The reason why they call the group Switch is because everybody in that group could play a different instrument. Bobby had a falsetto voice, and he was extraordinary in that arena along with his songwriting. But I have to say he set the tone for the rest of the family because the DeBarge sound is basically Bobby DeBarge's sound in my opinion.

How does The Bobby DeBarge Story translate to a younger generation who may not have grown up listening to Switch and DeBarge music?

When you watch the movie, his story is fascinating because there's so many things in life that really don't change -- drug addiction and abuse is all the same no matter what era you're in. Obviously DeBarge and Switch music is still played on the radio to this day -- [millennials] know the records but they may not know Bobby or his story. The movie takes place in an era when these guys were 20-25 years old, so a millennial can relate to that -- it just happens to be a different decade.

You’ve had a legendary career in radio and you’re also producing television content. At this point in your career do you have a preference between the two?

Radio and TV/film challenges me on two different levels. I can express a different kind of creativity on radio because it's fast-paced. You have to deliver the first thing that comes to mind, and hopefully it's funny or it's interesting to somebody. With film, the ability to get someone to be something that they're not and see it come off on the screen is very powerful to me. It completes me as an artist to be able to do both; I love radio but I am in love with film. 

Showtime’s The Loudest Voice leads the list of new shows premiering this week.

The series, based on Gabriel Sherman’s best-selling book of the same name, follows the rise and fall of former Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes. The series debuts June 30.

Also on the docket is the June 24 premiere of the third and final season of FX’s Marvel Comics-themed scripted series Legion, which stars Dan Stevens.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

June 24 -- Curfew (drama series) -- Spectrum

June 24 -- Final Space (returning animated series) -- Adult Swim

June 24 -- The Hills: New Beginnings (reality series) -- MTV

June 24 -- Years and Years (miniseries) -- HBO

June 29 -- The Bobby DeBarge Story (original movie) -- Tv One

June 30 -- The Rook (Drama) -- Starz

History’s Jesus: His Life documentary series averaged 1.4 million viewers (Nielsen Live+same day ratings) in its four-week run, History executives said.

The eight-episode series, which debuted March 25 and concluded April 15, explores the story of Jesus Christ through the people in his life who were closest to him, with each of the eight chapters told from the perspective of different biblical figures, including Joseph, John the Baptist, Mary Mother of Jesus, Caiaphas, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, Mary Magdalene and Peter, said the network. 

History premiered two new episodes each week of the series' four-week run. 

History will air a Jesus: His Life marathon April 21, one of several original religious and gospel-themed programs airing Easter Sunday.

BET on Sunday will air coverage of the 34th Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards hosted by Kirk Franklin, according to the network. Franklin on Sunday will also be profiled as part of TV One’s docu series Uncensored, while gospel star Tasha Cobbs Leonard will be the focus of the African-American targeted network’s music-themed series Unsung. 

TV One’s upstart, African-American female targeted network Cleo TV has signed a carriage deal with the Philo streaming service.

Philo TV subscribers can now access Cleo TV, which launched in January on Comcast and Charter systems, marking the network’s first vMVPD launch, according to TV One, which owns Cleo TV.

“The Philo agreement marks CLEO TV's first OTT deal and fits our strategy to widely distribute content to our target audience across multiple distribution platforms and screens," said TV One and CLEO TV General Manager Michelle Rice in a statement. "We are excited about the commitment Philo has made to offer fresh and diverse content."

Added Philo CEO Andrew McCollum: "We built Philo to be the best TV experience available and with the addition of CLEO TV, this is one more way we can reach that goal." 

NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson says tonight's (March 30) NAACP Image Awards event continues the civil rights organization's focus on the entertainment industry's efforts to showcase positive African-American images and stories.

"We created the Image Awards to assure that we held the industry accountable for projecting positive images for our community," Johnson said during a recent video interview.

Actor Anthony Anderson (black-ish) is set to return as host for Tv One's live coverage of the 50th NAACP Image Awards, which honor outstanding performances in film, television, music, and literature.

Freeform will launch its much publicized Pretty Little Liars spinoff The Perfectionists this week, while AMC premieres the final episodes of its martial arts-drama Into The Badlands.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists -- based on the novel The Perfectionists with characters from the Sara Shepard novel Pretty Little Liars -- premieres March 20 and follows the overachieving residents of a small town where the high-stakes environment eventually causes the murder of one of its residents, according to the network.

Into The Badlands will end its three-season run with the final eight episodes, which premieres March 24.

Below Are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

March 18 -- The DL Hughley Show (talk show) -- TV One

March 19 -- Amy Schumer: Growing (special) -- Netflix

March 20 -- The Act (drama) -- Hulu

March 20 -- Step Up: High Water (drama) -- YouTube

March 21 -- Bronx SIU (drama) -- UMC

March 22 -- The Dirt (movie) -- Netflix

March 22 -- The OA (drama) -- Netflix

March 23 -- Action (sports documentary) -- Showtime

Actor/Comedian and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host DL Hughley will again enter the late night talk-show arena with The DL Hughley Show, premiering March 18 on TV One. Hughley and co-host Jasmine Sanders will tackle issues of interest to the African-American community. Hughley is no stranger to late night, having hosted CNN’s DL Hughley Breaks the News in 2008 and Comedy Central’s Weekend at the DL in 2005. Hughley and Sanders recently sat down with Multichannel News to discuss the new show and the late-night programming landscape.

MCN:Why did you want to get back into late night, and what makes you believe you’ll be successful this time around?
DL Hughley: I’m excited to have an opportunity to do what I love to do, and that’s talk sh-t from my perspective. What we’re trying to do every day is to be as prepared and clear as possible, and we’ll see how that translates to television.

MCN:What should people expect to see?
Jasmine Sanders: I think they will see how the madness comes together. I’m anxious for viewers to get to see a 360-degree look at [Hughley]. I’ve never seen anyone like this who could actually be funny, but also be serious and have very poignant moments all in the same scope of the show, which is pretty amazing to me.

MCN:Results have been mixed for late-night talk shows featuring hosts of color who deal with topics for a diverse audience. Why haven’t such shows had more success on television?
DLH: People have tried different incarnations of it and [networks] have said this person would be great for this or that woman would be great for that show, but our show is organic. I’ve always wanted to get into the late-night talk show, and have done it for CNN and for Comedy Central, but I’m older now and I’m more experienced. I’ve also done my radio show five times a week for six years, so there’s a level of comfort that I didn’t have before.

MCN:Has the increase in shows featuring people of color in front of and behind the camera paved the way for this one?
DLH: Certainly it’s not unique and not taboo now — I think people have been exposed to it to a greater or lesser degree, and [the increase of diverse shows] also gives us a lot of places to mine. The medium of radio for some people used to serve as an entrée into a world that you didn’t know or hadn’t experienced. I want our TV show to feel a lot like that … I think the only way to be interesting to people is to be interested in them, and we do our very best to make sure that we’re talking about the things that people are talking about because we’re genuinely interested.

Comcast will add two new African-American owned networks to its Xfinity TV lineups in January to satisfy provisions set during its purchase of NBCUniversal.

The two services, dubbed Cleo TV and Afro, will bring to eight the number of minority-owned networks Comcast promised to launch as part of its memorandum of understanding revolving around its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal. The networks were chosen from a list of 50 proposed networks submitting requests for proposals (RFPs) for the two slots, according to Comcast senior executive vice president David Cohen.

“We had a lot of strong proposals,” Cohen said, adding that Comcast created a diverse advisory committee made up of Comcast employees to determine what networks would receive the two slots. Cohen also is Comcast's chief diversity officer.

Cleo TV, which will be owned and operated by TV One parent Urban One, will target millennial and Gen X African American women. TV One general manager Michelle Rice --who will oversee day-to-day operations of Cleo -- said that the network will create original content for an undeserved segment of the audience.

“We're at a pivotal moment in history where women are making a huge impact in our society and culture, especially women of color,” Rice said. “We view young women of this time as rule breakers and standard bearers, so Cleo will focus on lifestyle and entertainment programming targeting millennial and Gen X women.”

Afro, owned by Orlando-based production company Afrotainment, offer movies, dramas, sitcoms, music, talk, and late night comedy shows primarily targeted to African-American audiences. 

“We celebrate the richness and diversity of the Black culture with original and exclusive content with our tagline ‘All Shades of Black,’” said Yves Bollanga, founder and CEO of Afrotainment.

The new channels stem from a condition Comcast agreed to in its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal, in which it agreed to launch eight minority-owned and operated channels. Hispanic-owned channels Primo and Kids Central launched in 2016, following the 2012-2013 launches of four networks including kids-targeted BabyFirst Americas; music-themed service Revolt TV, founded by hip hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs; African-American targeted entertainment network Aspire TV, led by NBA hall of famer Magic Johnson; and millennials-aimed El Rey Network, backed by producer and director Robert Rodriguez.

RELATED: Comcast to Launch Two Kids-Targeted Hispanic Networks 

Cohen said both networks will launch in January of 2019, but would not reveal specific subscriber numbers at launch. Sources close to the situation say the networks will launch with around eight to 10 million subscribers -- approximately the same amount as Comcast’s six prior minority-owned network launches. 

“They will be given significant carriage on our digital tier and comparable to what we’ve given the other six minority-owned MOU networks when we first launched them,” Cohen said. “We and they think its sufficient carriage to give them a shot at getting additional carriage and becoming financially viable.”

Cohen also said he believes the prior six networks have found success after initially launching on Comcast.

“They are all still on the air – some of them have been more successful than others – but they are all doing more than hanging in there,” he said. “The vision of this from our perspective was to determine if we helped get some networks started."

Broadcast and cable networks will sing the praises of Aretha Franklin this weekend with special programming honoring the "Queen of Soul," who passed away Thursday.

Tonight (Aug. 17), PBS will air a special, Aretha! Queen Of Soul, which will feature archival footage from Franklin's career, along with interviews that will highlight her legacy, according to network officials.

Saturday, OWN re-air Oprah Winfrey’s 1999 television interview with Franklin from The Oprah Winfrey Show, while TV One will run an encore of two Franklin specials, TV One on One: Aretha Franklin and Aretha: Frankly Speaking.

Digital multicast TV network getTV on Sunday will pay its respects to Franklin with a rarely seen December 1967 episode of The Kraft Music Hall music variety series, featuring Franklin performing two of the biggest hits of her career, Respect and Chain Of Fools.

BET’s BET Her network on Monday will air a morning marathon of the prolific artist’s many music videos. BET Networks president Scott Mills said in a statement that Franklin’s extraordinary talents laid the groundwork for so many of today’s artists. 

“Aretha Franklin was a musical phenomenon and an iconic figure in black culture,” Mills said. “We will remember and miss her dearly.”

In light of a guilty verdict Thursday in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial, digital broadcast network Bounce has pulled reruns of The Cosby Show, but cable network TV One continues to air the series.

Bounce in a statement Thursday said it is “removing” The Cosby Show from its schedule. The decision comes hours after the show’s star, Bill Cosby, was found guilty on three counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

RELATED: Bill Cosby Found Guilty In Sexual Assault Trial 

African-American targeted TV One was airing The Cosby Show at press time as part of its daily 5 pm to 8 pm programming block the network has scheduled for the series. The network could not be reached for comment as to whether it plans to eventually pull the series. 

The Cosby Show ran on NBC from 1984-1992. 

(UPDATED) The following is a guide to some of cable's Black History Month programming.

Related: 'Our Time' Has Come|Keeping TV One in Front on the Movement

Feb. 2
2 Dope Queens (Special)
HBO

Feb. 9
Eddie Griffin: Undeniable (Comedy special)
Showtime

Feb. 11
Behind the Movement (Movie)
TV One

The Undefeated Presents: Dear Black Athlete (Special)
ESPN

Feb. 17
Douglas Wilder at Virginia Commonwealth University
(Talk/lecture)
C-SPAN3

Feb. 18
Oral Histories: Henry ‘Hank’ Thomas (Talk)
C-SPAN3

Uncensored (Documentary series)
TV One

A Long Way From Home: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Desegregation (Documentary)
TV One

Feb. 20
Death Row Chronicles (Documentary)
BET

Feb. 24
Real America: A City Decides — 1956 (Documentary)
C-SPAN3

Notes from the Field (Special)
HBO

Feb. 26
The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X (Documentary)
Smithsonian Channel

Feb. 27
Marlon Wayans: Woke-ish (Comedy special)
Netflix

Unsolved: The Murder of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. (Series)
USA Network

Oprah at The Apollo (Special)
OWN

INTERSTITIALS:TV One will launch a new short-form video campaign featuring actor Common that will feature a variety of topics related to Black History and the issues affecting the African-American community.
--AMC Networks will launch its 5th Annual Black History Month Public Service Announcement campaign. which features interviews with nine Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and showcases the people and events that inspire each elected official as they reflect on what Black History Month means to them. The spots will air on AMC, BBC AMERICA, IFC, SundanceTV, and WE tv throughout the month of February.
--Nickelodeonis celebrating Black History Month with a brand-new series of PSAs set in Charleston, South Carolina, that explore themes of education, culture and cuisine as they relate to African Americans.

Cable industry veteran Michelle Rice has officially been named TV One’s general manager, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the African-American-targeted cable network.

Rice, who joined TV One at launch 14 years ago and who most recently served as executive vice president of content distribution, takes her new post as the network prepares to celebrate Black History Month with a slew of programs, including the Feb. 11 original movie, Behind the Movement, which follows civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the days before the famous 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. Rice recently spoke to Multichannel News about the TV One brand, the challenges facing the cable industry and the #MeToo movement. An edited version of the interview appears below.

Related: 'Our Time' Has Come|Black History Month: What to Watch

MCN: How would you define the TV One brand?
Michelle Rice: TV One introduced the branding tagline of “Represent” a couple of years ago, and that’s really something that we’re going to continue to build on. It will be a common thread in pretty much everything we do at TV One in 2018. We really kick that off in a big way during Black History Month. The network will launch a new short video campaign featuring Common that will discuss a variety of black history topics and issues.

MCN: How does TV One remain competitive in a very crowded marketplace in which some general entertainment networks are beginning to aggressively reach out to African-American viewers?
MR: I started at TV One 14 years ago, and it’s always been our mission to have an authentic voice in this space, and we do that 365 days a year. We are reaching out to our core audience with our authentic voices, our diverse stories and that’s really how we got into this business.

While there’s some good [African-American-targeted] programming on other networks, it’s not their core audience. They’re kind of leveraging the black audience, which certainly they should — it’s a very powerful audience.

We’ve been saying for years that African-Americans over-index on the use of digital products and services, so they are among cable’s best customers. So the product that we see on television really should mirror our society. We’re excited to see people really telling authentic stories, but as I said, we do that 365 days a year and we believe that when you come to TV One you’re really going to learn something. Obviously, television is about entertainment, but we love to have the opportunity to tell some lesser-known stories. We’re excited about the opportunity to do that.

MCN: As a female executive heading up a cable network, what do you make of the influence of the current #MeToo and Time’s Up movements? Is this a momentary trend or one that will fundamentally change the entertainment industry?
MR: It’s an exciting time to be a woman in this country. I recently did a speech for the local [Women in Cable Telecommunications] chapter that was based on the book We Should All Be Feminists, and I said that feminism is really about everyone — both men and women. I said to the men in the room, if you have a daughter, a wife, a mother, and you seek equity in the treatment of the women in your life, then you are a feminist. I think that people look at feminism as a dirty word, but it really is the equal empowerment of women. So again, it’s an exciting time to be a woman in this country and in this business, and I think we realize that our collective voice matters. We can speak truth to power in that if we support each other, we can make real change in politics, in the industry and in the business.

Related: Michelle Rice Named to MCN Wonder Women Class of 2016

MCN: What are the biggest challenges for the industry right now and for networks like TV One?
MR: Well, my background is distribution, and that is the biggest challenge. For every launch and subscriber we gain, we probably churn a hundred. So it’s a challenge in terms of the TV everywhere movement. It is a challenge when I look at how my children are consuming content; will they ever grow up to be cable customers? I don’t know. So the challenge for us is really to make sure that we are meeting consumers where they are, and that we are competitive in terms of the quality of content and where content is available. There are always rights issues and things of that nature, so we just need to be in better partnership with our distributors. We need to make sure that we are providing the best product, the best programming and the best service for our viewers, and that means communicating with them through social media and various platforms, understanding what their needs and desires are, and meeting them where they are.

UPDATED: TV One later this month will end production of its live, daily news program News One Now, hosted byRoland Martin.

The two-hour, morning news/public affairs program targeted to African-American audiences will end its run Dec. 21, according to the New York Post, which first printed the story.

TV One said Friday that it would look to "restructure" News One Now in 2018 under a new format that will better serve its audience and advertisers. “Providing a platform for Black voices is in the DNA of our entire company,” said TV One CEO Alfred Liggins in a statement.  “As a Black-owned multi-media company, Urban One (parent company of TV One) engages Black America daily, not just on television, but radio and also online via NewsOne.com and on 77 digital platforms.  We know there is a void in mainstream media and we plan to continue to be an outlet for Black news. Roland Martin will be a part of that plan.”

RELATED: TV One to Expand 'News "One Now' to Two Hours

TV One interim general manager Michelle Rice said that the network made the “difficult” decision to suspend production of the show due to costs. “We had to make a tough decision to suspend a show we all love.  Despite the best efforts of the many talented people who work on this amazing show day to day, NewsOne Now struggled to attract a wide audience. Like any other network, we had to make a difficult choice," she said. 

 TV One in a tweet said it will continue its “long-standing relationship” with Roland Martin. 

We are committed to providing quality news to our viewers and to our long-standing relationship with @rolandsmartin#NewsOneNow who will continue to have a voice on #TVOne.

— TV One (@tvonetv) December 7, 2017

Martin also turned to Twitter to announce the end of the show, which launched in 2013 and was expanded to two hours this past September. 

Fam, the sad news is true. The staff of @tvonetv#NewsOneNow was informed this afternoon that after four years of doing groundbreaking and award-winning work, the show will cease production at the end of the year. Our last live show will be Dec. 21. #BringTheFunk

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) December 7, 2017

Related (Video): Roland Martin discusses 'News One Now's' 2016 Presidential election coverage

TV One has set an Oct. 8 date for the premiere of its original movie Bobbi Kristina, the network announced Monday.

The biopic, which focuses on the life and tragic death of the troubled daughter of music stars Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, stars Demetria McKinney (House of Payne, Saints and Sinners), Nadji Jeter (Grown Ups, Last Man Standing), Hassan Johnson (The Wire, E.R.), and Vivica A. Fox (Empire, Kill Bill).

Bobbi Kristina is directed by Ty Hodges and executive produced by Tracey Baker Simmons and Wanda Shelley, according to TV One. 

“The tabloids painted a picture of two superstars who lived a tumultuous life, but we often forget that in the process a little girl had to grow up in a limelight that she did not choose,” D’Angela Proctor, TV One Head of Original Programming & Production said in a statement. “In its simplest form, Bobbi Kristina is a story about a beautiful mother-daughter relationship intertwined with both of their desires to be loved; one just happened to be a superstar and the other an innocent bystander to her parents’ fame.”

TV One president Brad Siegel is leaving the African-American targeted network, TV One officials said Tuesday.

Michelle Rice, the network’s executive vice president of content distribution and marketing, will serve as interim general manager with full management oversight of the 13-year old network effective immediately.

READ MORE:Upfronts 2016 -- TV One's Siegel Calls 'Empire' Acquisition a Game Changer

Siegel, who joined TV One as its president in 2014, announced his resignation to TV One’s leadership earlier in the day. “Brad has made many valuable contributions to the network during his tenure and we’re grateful for his work ethic, creativity, professionalism and support of our mission to inform, inspire and entertain the black community,” said TV One parent company Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins in a statement. "He’s also an all-around good guy and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Rice has been with the network since its launch and has held numerous executive positions within the company. She was a MCN Wonder Woman in 2016. “Michelle is business savvy, understands our demographic and has the energy, vision and discipline to position TV One for the future," Liggins said. "She has the respect of our industry and I believe in her ability to provide leadership for our network during this time of intense competition, increased platform availability and growing content targeting the black viewer."

When it comes to musical icons, there are few names and personalities bigger than Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, The Notorious B.I.G, New Edition or Tupac Shakur.

On cable, those artists are among many music legends featured in original movie biopics, scripted series and limited series that are aimed at longtime fans, but also bring young, diverse audiences to their respective networks.

Original movies such as Lifetime’s Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, limited scripted series like CMT’s Sun Records — about when Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins were starting out at the famed Nashville studios — and miniseries like BET’s The New Edition Story are giving viewers shows to tap their feet to while illuminating the lives of favorite musical performers.

“Biopics on their own have always been a way to do a true story, and with music added, it just elevates the entertainment value,” Tanya Lopez, Lifetime’s senior vice president of original movies, said. “I think people come to these shows to learn something different about these artists — it’s not just Behind the Music,” referring to VH1’s venerable music-documentary series.

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Though music biopics are not new to the television landscape, networks have recently turned up the volume on the genre, especially with more recent artists (than, say, The Beatles) intriguing both younger and older viewers. The more contemporary music stars have a built-in audience from millions of social-media followers — and the older stars are being rediscovered by young millennials.

Lopez said the network’s musical biopics — which includes this past February’s Britney Ever After, on the life and career of Britney Spears, and previous films showcasing R&B legends Toni Braxton and Whitney Houston — have appealed to younger, more diverse viewers that extend beyond Lifetime’s target demo of women 25-54.

Connecting With Music Fans
“It’s an audience that was really connected to music and, more specifically, to the period when they listened to that artist’s music,” she said.

BET’s January three-part miniseries The New Edition Story, about the 1980s R&B group, drew more than 29 million viewers across its three-night run, many of them young viewers discovering the group for the first time.

BET CEO Debra Lee said the series combined the group’s triumphs and tribulations over the years with familiar songs that appealed to a broad cross-section of viewers in a scripted format that tends to underscore the drama of the storytelling better than a traditional documentary feature.

The series’ success has led BET to develop a spinoff miniseries about New Edition member Bobby Brown.

“Scripted really gives us a chance to be authentic and create drama from a storyline, as opposed to a reality setting,” Lee said.

Of course, viewers who watch biographical flicks about music stars expect artists’ top hits to be part of the soundtrack. But music isn’t always needed to convey the movie’s message. Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland, for example, focused more on Jackson’s relationship with his three children than on the King of Pop’s musical portfolio. It pulled in 2 million viewers for the May 29 premiere, Lifetime’s second biggest original movie of the year behind the January remake of Beaches, according to Lopez.

“When you’re talking about biopics on these musical artists, the challenge is to tell a part of the story that no one has heard,” Lopez said. “This was more about his personal life than his entertainment life where he was actually creating and performing music, but you can still use the musical star that is Jackson to grab the audience’s attention.”

USA Network will dance to a different beat with the upcoming limited series about the life and death of hip hop icons Biggie “Notorious B.I.G.” Smalls and Tupac Shakur. The true-crime anthology series, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., delves into the police investigations of the 1996 fatal shooting of Shakur and the 1997 murder of Smalls.

Alex Sepiol, USA’s senior vice president of development, said the series, slated to debut in 2018, hopes to draw fans of mysteries, period dramas and the music industry, as well as fans of the two artists.

“Ideally there are a lot of entry points for people … it’s a fascinating investigation and case that intersects with these distinctly American icons of Biggie and Tupac,” Sepiol said. “It’s finding that overlap of a really good mystery and compelling narrative that also touches on the world of hip hop.”

Docuseries as Film Fodder
The success of these productions has cable executives looking in-house for inspiration and material for new music biopics.

TV One, for example, is looking to convert episodes of its long-running Unsung documentary series into scripted biopics after finding ratings success with the 2016 movie Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story, which became the network’s most widely viewed original movie, according to officials.

TV One is planning two 2018 Unsung-influenced movies based on R&B groups DeBarge and Xscape, as well as a biopic this year about Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.

“Our Unsung movies are setting the standard for biopics of music artists,” D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production, said. “We have a treasure trove of musical shows from Unsung to build our movies around.”

TV One will expand its morning news/talk show offerings from one to three hours with an expanded version of News One Now and the addition of a live talk show, the network said during its upfront presentation Thursday.

The Roland Martin-hosted News One Now will expand from one hour to two hours beginning in the third quarter, said network officials. The series will also be renamed Black America Today to better reflect the show’s focus on news and issues that affect the African-American community, Martin told Multichannel News.

Martin -- who told the gathering of press and advertisers that next week on News One Now he would “eulogize” Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly, who earlier this week was let go by the network amid sexual harassment allegations – also said that the News One Now’s new two-hour format will allow the show to provide more in-depth coverage of breaking news and issues.

“There’s so much news that exists out there that we literally can’t fit it into a one hour format,” Martin told Multichannel News. “The extra hour allows us to stretch ourselves to do more, and also allows us to go deeper into some subjects.”

TV One later this year will also add a live, multi-platform, one-hour daily talk show featuring four as yet names female hosts that will focus on issues impacting the everyday lives of African-American women, said D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production.

 In other TV One upfront news:

--The network will expand its Sunday true crime & justice programming block to a Monday nights with the development of several new series, including Two Sides Of The Truth, executively produced by Viola Davis; Evidence of Innocence; Hotlanta; #Murder and Thou Shalt Not.

--TV One will develop several original movies based on R&B music groups Xscape & DeBarge, as well as on the lives of Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

On Tuesday nights at 9 o’clock on Bounce TV, Tamela and David Mann play a fictional married couple in the original sitcom Mann & Wife, recently back for a third season.

Starting this Tuesday (April 4), the Manns are also starring in a new unscripted series about their real lives, The Manns, at 8 p.m. on basic-cable network TV One.

The gospel-singing duo — stars of the play, movie and TBS TV-series versions of Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, though as father and daughter, not husband and wife — told The Wire that in a perfect world, the shows would be scheduled on different nights. They’re confident, though, that viewers looking for good, family-themed television will find and watch both series.

David Mann even coined the tagline of “The Manns’ Takeover on Tuesday Nights” for the two-hour block of Mann family programming on two different African-American focused networks.

Tamela Mann said she likes the authenticity of doing the reality series because it allows her to be in a more relaxed, family element, whereas David Mann said both the scripted show and the docuseries offer viewers family-friendly content that counters some of the more salacious programming from cable networks.

TV producers “offered ratchet, so viewers now expect to see ratchet,” David Mann said, using a term website Urban Dictionary defines as, in part, diva behavior. “But there’s an audience for family programming.”

The March 28 return of Mann & Wife — in which the two play a newly married couple with a blended family of children from different marriages — drew nearly 450,000 viewers to become the most-watched original sitcom telecast in Bounce TV’s short history, the multicast network said, citing Nielsen.

TV One, in announcing The Manns series in February, called the Manns “a great modern-day example of a family that works together, plays together and prays together.” (A previous reality series about the family, It’s a Mann’s World, aired on BET in 2015 and 2016.)

Tamela and David said that, despite their busy TV schedules, their marriage and family remain their top priority. “We put God first, then our marriage and family — everything else follows that,” said Tamela, who will appear on TV One on Sunday, April 9, as part of the network’s taped coverage of the gospel music-themed Stellar Awards ceremony, where she took home six awards.
— R. Thomas Umstead

For Charter, Job Creation Starts At the Home Office
Charter Communications’s plans to keep adding thousands of employees, following last year’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, earned chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge a March 24 visit with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Many of those thousands of jobs are to be at call centers. But the second-biggest U.S. cable operator also has been adding corporate-office jobs across the country, including its headquarters in downtown Stamford, Conn.

Sources tell The Wire Charter is starting to look for additional office space in Stamford to expand into — preferably in a building Charter could actually put its name on.

Rutledge moved Charter’s HQ to Stamford from St. Louis in late 2012, after receiving incentives from the state of Connecticut pegged to creating jobs there. Charter shares the 15-floor building at 400 Atlantic St. with other tenants, and continues to move into additional space there, but doesn’t own the building and can’t stick its brand on it prominently.

Charter wouldn’t comment, and sources said nothing was happening imminently along the lines of expanding the company’s footprint in its new hometown.
— Kent Gibbons

‘Simpsons’ Showrunner Tries Some New Tricks to Keep a Classic Current
More than 600 episodes into its run, Fox’s The Simpsons remains keen to try some new things to keep the show current, showrunner Al Jean says. It was a year ago that The Simpsons featured Homer live at the end of an episode, with viewers tweeting questions and comments his way. The show will give the next live honors to Bart at Comic-Con, Jean reports.

“We’ll have Bart animated live on the screen as he answers questions from people who are there,” Jean told The Wire and other outlets during a Fox call.

The show remains “adaptable” to new technological developments, the showrunner said, and “people want to work with us because of who we are.”

The Sunday, April 2, episode touched on current events just a bit, as Mr. Burns, disappointed with how Yale operates, decides to open a for-profit university. His professors have more star power than anything one might have found at Trump University. Jason Alexander was tasked with assembling teachers, and came up with Jeopardy! star Ken Jennings, financial wiz Suze Orman, scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson and screenwriting teacher Robert McKee.

“The topic is a really good one and Mr. Burns is the perfect guy to run [a for-profit university],” said Jean, who adds that the idea was mostly in motion before President Donald Trump was called on to defend his own for-profit university.

Asked if the president might tweet about the episode, Jean seemed to think it unlikely, but said he’d be “honored” if it happened.

The Simpsons crew will note a special anniversary on April 16, marking 30 years since The Simpsons shorts first appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show.

As season 28 winds down, Jean said The Simpsons is going strong. “I know we’ll go through 30 seasons, but I wouldn’t say that’s the end,” he said. “As long as the cast is willing and the economics work, it’ll go on.”
— Michael Malone

This article was updated on April 3 to correct the time that The Manns airs on TV One. It airs at 8 p.m., not 10 p.m.

A recent holiday season-themed poll conducted by a local Fox affiliate in York, Pa., revealed that 62% of respondents do not want to hear holiday songs from Mariah Carey, Nat King Cole and The Jackson 5 before Thanksgiving.

Yet it’s clear that some TV viewers are indeed ready to deck the halls prior to cutting the turkey, judging by the record-breaking ratings Hallmark Channel recently generated with its pre-Halloween, holiday-themed movie A Wish for Christmas (pictured).

The Oct. 29 movie premiere — the first of 19 new original holiday films in its annual “Countdown to Christmas” lineup — drew a bell-ringing 3.4 million viewers. It’s now the most-watched (and earliest-premiering) debut film for Hallmark’s annual holiday programming stunt since it started in 2009, the network said.

Not to be outdone, Hallmark’s Nov. 5 premiere of The Mistletoe Promise drew 3.9 million viewers, the network’s most watched original film of 2016.

Overall, Hallmark, and sister service Hallmark Movies & Mysteries will air a combined 12 original holiday films before Thanksgiving, not including Christmas in Homestead, which will air at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night (Nov. 24).

The strong performance of Hallmark’s holiday films over the years has emboldened the network to stretch the yuletide season well beyond its traditional limits.

The performance of A Wish for Christmas “was far greater than we ever expected, and it’s a great start to our holiday movies, which our viewers look forward to every year,” Michelle Vicary, Hallmark’s executive vice president of programming, said.

Not too far behind Hallmark in ushering the holiday season early is UP. The network’s “We Get Christmas” lineup of holiday programming launched over the weekend of Nov. 5-6 — including the premiere of its original holiday movie Married by Christmas — drew nearly 5.5 million cumulative viewers, according to the network.

A second Christmas-themed UP original movie, Merry Christmas, Baby!, debuted this past Sunday (Nov. 13).

Other networks are at least waiting until after Thanksgiving to offer up holiday programming fare. Freeform will launch a countdown to its annual “25 Days of Christmas” franchise with Christmas-themed programming beginning on Nov. 28, while TV One will unveil original holiday movie The Christmas Swap on Nov. 26 — one of two original holiday films the network plans to air before Dec. 25.

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade has yet to come and go, yet some cable-network programming lineups are already beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

It wasn’t that long ago when cable programmers looked at Labor Day weekend as a sort of respite after a long, busy summer in which many high-profile scripted shows debuted prior to the start of the broadcast networks’ fall TV season.

But with more than 400 scripted shows on cable, broadcast and online streaming services available to viewers this year, no time period can be considered off -limits for original series launches anymore. As a result, several cable networks are aggressively going after viewers during the typically slow holiday weekend with original movies, miniseries and series.

Discovery Channel has chosen Labor Day (Sept. 5) to launch its six-hour miniseries Harley and the Davidsons (pictured), the network’s first scripted miniseries since 2014’s Klondike.

Discovery’s historical motorcycle-themed series will look to capture viewers searching for original content amid the massive amount of reruns, movies and show marathons typically scheduled over holidays. History in 2014 proved that viewers will watch original content over the holiday weekend, drawing 3.7 million viewers for the Labor Day premiere of the miniseries Houdini.

Also on Labor Day, MTV will unleash two scripted comedy series in Loosely Exactly Nicole, starring comedian and Girl Code star Nicole Byer, and Mary + Jane, about the exploits of unlikely weed dealers.

The day prior, TV One will look to tap viewers suffering from Olympics withdrawal with its original boxing-themed film Ringside.

Cable’s scripted train continues the day after Labor Day with two more high-profile series premieres. FX will debut Atlanta, a half-hour comedy series from Community star Donald Glover, while OWN will roll out its Oprah Winfrey/Ava DuVernay-produced drama series Queen Sugar.

Related Video:One Question for ... OWN President Erik Logan

Online streaming service Crackle will also look to get in on the action with the debut of StartUp, starring Adam Brody.

With broadcast network series premieres premiering less than a week after Labor Day and running through May, and with a crowded cable lineup of scripted show premieres dominating the summer months, there are there are precious few pockets on the calendar where networks can get the word out on big scripted projects.

As viewers officially say goodbye to the summer and look forward to a new season of scripted broadcast fare, Labor Day weekend now seems to be as good a time as any for cable nets to raise the flag on original programming.

Get complete coverage of the 2016 TCA Summer Tour.

Beverly Hills, Calif.—Eight panelists affiliated with shows on El Rey, Starz, TV One and WGN America tore into the multifaceted issues of TV diversity during a vibrant, insight-packed panel at the TCA summer press tour.

El Rey founder and chairman Robert Rodriguez delivered a brief introduction to the session. “Cable has made great strides,” he said. “There’s never been a more important time to build cultural understanding of people and working together.”

Panelists spent ample time talking about the positives — more shows with diverse casts on air, multiplying outlets, more people of color involved behind the scenes — but also brought to light the ongoing struggle to reflect America in full.

“The way the system is set up, in order to get a job or be able to vote on awards, it’s all just old practices that don’t suit us at all,” said Victoria Mahoney, a director with credits on feature films as well as TV series like Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse and OWN’s Queen Sugar.

“The old guard’s got to let go of their grip a little bit because that’s not the way the world looks,” said Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who stars on WGN America’s Underground. “Storytellers have a right to express what’s inside of them … and consumers and viewers have a right to see themselves.”

Mahoney noted that she is among the 4% of overall directors who are women of color, according to recent guild surveys. “I’ve never been in the bottom 4% of anything in my life,” she quipped.

D’Angela Proctor, senior vice president of original programming and production for TV One, said the executive suite is another area with a lot of room for improvement.

“We have to be at the table at every single level” for truly inclusive programming to permeate the TV business, she said.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.