Warner Bros. TV Group has signed Emmy-winning producer Lena Waithe and her production company Hillman Grad Productions to a multi-year development deal.

The agreement calls for Waithe -- who previously signed a two-year deal with Amazon Studios -- and her production partner Rishi Rajani, to create television programming through Hillman Grad for streaming service HBO Max as well as  WarnerMedia’s cable networks and five broadcast networks, said WBTVG officials. 

Waithe, who won a 2017 Emmy for her work on Netflix’s Master of None, has also produced such shows as Prime Video’s horror series Them, Showtime’s The Chi and BET’s Twenties.

The first project under the new deal will be a scripted series based on the sports documentary Hoop Dreams, which was produced by Frederick Marx, Steve James, and Peter Gilbert for Kartemquin Films.

“We are excited to work with Hillman Grad, Playground and Warner Bros. Television on adapting Hoop Dreams into a scripted television series,” said James, Gilbert and Marx in a statement. “There’s been quite a bit of interest over the years since the film came out in 1994, but Lena Waithe is the ideal Chicagoan to lead the effort to finally make it happen.” 

BET has renewed its original series Tyler Perry’s Sistas for a fourth season as the network draws strong weekly ratings for its original series.

Tyler Perry’s Sistas follows a group of single Black women as they navigate their love lives, careers and friendships, said network officials. The network also announced that it will premiere a new edition of its The Tyler Perry Show: The Sistas After-Show Edition on Dec. 22.

Also Read: Presiding Over the House of Perry

The announcement comes as the network enjoyed strong ratings performances from the season premieres of several comedy series. The Oct. 12 and Oct. 13 season premieres of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living, Tyler Perry’s The Oval, Tyler Perry’s Sistas, Twenties and Twenties After-show with B. Scott drew 5.6 million viewers on a Nielsen Live+3 basis across BET and BET Her, the network said.  

TV programming veteran Traci Blackwell is leaving her position as BET Networks EVP of scripted programming, the network has confirmed.

Blackwell joined BET in 2019 and oversaw the African-American targeted network’s original scripted programming functions, including development and casting. Under Blackwell's tutelage, the network offers 14 scripted series alone across platforms, including Lena Waithe's Twenties, Tyler Perry's Sistas, Will Packer's Bigger and Tracy Oliver's First Wives Club.

Read also: BET Sets June Date for 'Sistas' Season Three Premiere

Prior to BET, Blackwell worked at the CW where she most recently served as senior vice president of current programs for the network. 

The network said it will announce a new scripted leadership team shortly. 

BET Networks President Scott Mills announced Blackwell's departure in an internal memo Tuesday lauding Blackwell's leadership, especially during the pandemic.

"Traci has done fantastic work leading BET’s Scripted Programming team during one of the most challenging periods in production history – the COVID-19 pandemic," he said. "We have been tremendously fortunate to have had her leadership, and we are grateful that she leaves us very well positioned for the future."

Blackwell in a memo thanked Mills and BET for the opportunity to lead the network's programming operations. "I am very appreciative to Scott for the incredible opportunity to lead Team Scripted as we worked to produce an unprecedented amount of scripted content for the BET brand," she said. "Being in the trenches with such amazing people who showed up daily and who I have had the privilege to also learn from, has been the most remarkable part of this journey."

In a recent Multichannel News interview, Blackwell talked about the challenges of developing successful original programming in a very crowded television environment.

“You really have to rely on really great storytellers and continue to work with excellent producers and push the content out there, but it is very challenging,” she said. “We are all working on a lot of the same things on different platforms and it’s tricky -- it’s quite the challenge for everybody.“ 

Below is the full text of Mills' memo: 

Our friend and colleague, Traci Blackwell, will be leaving BET this month. Traci has done fantastic work leading BET’s Scripted Programming Team during one of the most challenging periods in production history – the COVID-19 pandemic. 

And, a lesser known fact is that BET leads the industry in the creation of Black scripted content by volume—in fact, we’ve brought forth 14 scripted series in 2021 alone; including series from Tyler Perry, Will Packer, Tracy Oliver, Lena Waithe, Tracey Edmonds, Carl Weber and more.  Never before has BET commissioned this many scripted series.

The only thing more impressive than the volume of series the team has delivered, is the incredible quality of each series.  We salute Traci and our team of incredibly creative professionals for this remarkable contribution to BET and the industry at large.

We have been tremendously fortunate to have had her leadership, and we are grateful that she leaves us very well positioned for the future.

We will be announcing new leadership of the scripted team shortly. In the meantime, please see a personal message from Traci below.

Please join me in thanking Traci for the profound impact she leaves on our brand and wishing her even more success in her next endeavors, while we lend our full support to our Scripted team members throughout this transition.

Blackwell's comments appear below:

During my time here, I’ve been blessed to work alongside the most amazing colleagues and team. I am very appreciative to Scott for the incredible opportunity to lead Team Scripted as we worked to produce an unprecedented amount of scripted content for the BET brand. While 2020 and Covid-19 proved to be challenging, to say the least, the BET family worked tirelessly and selflessly. Being in the trenches with such amazing people who showed up daily and who I have had the privilege to also learn from, has been the most remarkable part of this journey. To my team: You are the ABSOLUTE BEST!! I am proud of the impact we’ve made on our talent partners and thankful to have worked with some of the most inspiring creators and executives in our business.  I want to thank all of the many departments and their leaders across the BET house for your unyielding support of the scripted team and the culture to which we all serve with gratitude and honor. I salute you and wish you all good things in the future.
 

BET has renewed its freshman series Twenties for a second season, with the first season of the Lena Waithe-produced series airing on Showtime in July, the network announced Friday.

The series, which follows a queer black girl who is chasing her dreams of becoming a screenwriter in Los Angeles, featured such guest stars as Jenifer Lewis, Sean “Big Sean” Anderson, Rick Fox, Vanessa Williams, Seth Green, Iman Shumpert, Kym Whitley, Chuey Martinez, Marsha Thomason, and Nazanin Mandi during its first season. 

“The first season of Twenties, led by the incredible Jonica T. Gibbs, Christina Elmore and Gabrielle Graham, was a joy to watch in every sense,” said Scott Mills, president of BET in a statement. “BET has always been about empowering and elevating black stories and we’re so excited to see where Lena Waithe and Susan Fales-Hill’s remarkable vision takes us in the second season.” 

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting the week of March 2 to March 8 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

March 2 -- Breeders (comedy) -- FX

March 4 -- Dave (comedy) -- FXX

March 4 -- Twenties (comedy) -- BET

March 5 -- Better things (returning series) -- FX

March 5 -- Castlevania (returning series) -- Netflix

March 5 -- Devs (drama/sci-fi) -- FX on Hulu (pictured)

March 6 -- Amazing Stories (drama/sci fi) -- Apple Tv+

March 6 -- Hilary (documentary) -- Hulu

March 6 -- The Most Dangerous Animal of All (documentary) -- FX

March 6 -- ZeroZeroZero (drama) -- Prime Video

March 6 -- The Trade (returning series) -- Showtime 

March 7 -- Love Goals (reality) -- OWN

March 8 -- Ride With Norman Reedus (reality) -- AMC

With the CTAM portion of the Television Critics Association’s 2020 winter press tour now in the books, the television industry is poised to continue its evolution, with linear networks vying with streaming services for the hearts and eyeballs of consumers.

Here are three trends that marked this year’s TCA Winter press tour presentations for cable networks and streaming services:

Streaming services stake out positions as streaming wars loom

While Netflix was absent from this year’s TCA tour and NBC unveiled its plans for its new streaming service Peacock during its investor day last week, several streaming services presenting at TCA offered a glimpse into their operating strategies as the streaming wars begin to take shape.

Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said Amazon Prime is not phased by the increased competition among streamers, adding that they are focused on giving its Prime subscribers quality original programming, which includes Emmy-winning series such as Fleabag. HBO Max chief content officer actually lamented the phrase “streaming wars” to describe the growing competitive landscape for streaming services, adding that many of the services currently offered are providing differentiated content offerings to appeal to different tastes and audiences.

“As these services premiere and roll out ... they really are quite different,” Reilly said.

Meanwhile, Discovery Inc. may soon step into the digital streaming ring with the potential launch of an SVOD service that would curate the company’s lineup of unscripted content from such networks as HGTV, Food Network, Discovery and TLC, according to Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

RELATED: Zaslav teases potential Discovery-based streaming service

Networks, streaming services continue to increase number of lead LGBTQ characters

Several new shows will feature LGBTQ lead characters, further increasing what LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD recently reported as a noticeable increase in gay and lesbian lead characters on television.

RELATED: Diverse Images Increasing on Screen, but Viewers Want More

LGBTQ character-led shows announced at the TCA include BET’s Twenties, created and produced by Emmy-winning producer Lena Waithe which follows the exploits of a 20-something queer black girl and her two straight best friends; Freeform’s Everything is Going to Be OK, which stars Josh Thomas as a gay man who becomes the guardian of his two half-sisters; and TLC’s reality series Dragnificent!, which recruits four drag queens to rescue people in need of help. In addition, AppleTV+ will stream a documentary, Visible: Out on Television, a five-part docuseries that examines how TV has shaped the American conscience and how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television.

Scripted series still rolling out in record numbers, but cracks are forming in the "Peak TV" universe

Scripted content continued to grow at an unprecedented pace in 2019, with more than 530 scripted original dramas, comedies and limited dramas available on streaming services and broadcast and cable networks, according to FX. But while new entrants like HBO Max,  Peacock and Apple TV+ will help add to the number of scripted series, other companies are getting out of the original series game. Premium service Cinemax will no longer develop original scripted content, according to HBO Max’s Reilly. Cinemax joins AT&T’s Audience Network -- which will be re branded as an HBO Max preview channel -- as services that previously announced a complete elimination of scripted fare. Expect more services to exit the scripted series highway in the months to come. 

TBS has ordered to pilot producer/actor writer Lena Waithe’s latest project Twenties, the network said Tuesday.

The project follows the adventures of a queer black woman, Hattie, and her two straight best friends who spend most of their days chasing their dreams, said network officials. Waithe (Netfix’s Master Of None, Showtime’s The Chi) serves as executive producer of the pilot through her company Hillman Grad Productions along with Andrew Coles.

RELATED: African-American women are finding their place at the top of the creative process 

“I wrote Twenties back in 2009,” said Waithe, who recently won an Emmy Award for writing for Master Of None. “I always wanted to tell a story where a queer black woman was the protagonist and I'm so grateful to TBS for giving me a platform to tell this story. Queer black characters have been the sidekick for long enough, it's time for us to finally take the lead.”