OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network has renewed its freshman unscripted series First-Time Buyer's Club for a second season. 

The sophomore season of the series will continue to feature realtor Amina Stevens who helps first-time home buyers through through every stage of the home-buying process, helping to educate and inspire along the way, according to OWN. The first season of the series debuted this past December and became Saturday night’s top-rated original cable series (without sports) in its time period across all key African-American demos with over 4.4 million viewers having tuned in, according to the network.

“This series perfectly embodies OWN’s commitment to serve and empower our audience across many facets of their lives, including the journey towards home ownership,” said OWN president Tina Perry in a statement. “Amina inspires us to see that home ownership is more than just possession of a piece of property, it’s about owning a piece of one’s dream and securing a solid foundation.”  

Netflix has hired former NBC Universal Television Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin as VP of unscripted series. He will be charged with bolstering Netflix’s unscripted roster, which currently includes Queer Eye, Love is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, Perfect Match, Formula 1: Drive to Survive, Selling Sunset and Squid Game: The Challenge.

Gaspin most recently ran Gaspin Media, the production studio behind Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler and Rhythm & Flow.

He will report to a former NBC colleague who now serves as VP of nonfiction series at Netflix, Brandon Riegg.

“Jeff is such a huge talent, with so much experience across unscripted and television in general, and I couldn’t be more excited that he’s joining us,” Riegg said in a statement. “From Rhythm & Flow to Tinder Swindler, he’s already been part of the Netflix family and we’re looking forward to continuing working with him and learning from him in this lively world of unscripted TV.”

“I feel a bit like Al Pacino in Godfather Part III. Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in,” said Gaspin. “I’m so thrilled to join Brandon and the unscripted team at Netflix. I was always most successful and happiest when I built or ran unscripted at VH1, Bravo and NBCU. I can’t wait to do the same at Netflix.”

Gaspin served as chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment from 2009 through 2011 overseeing broadcast and cable networks, including USA Network, Syfy, Bravo and Oxygen. He stepped down after 19 years with NBCU when it merged with Comcast. Prior to his NBCU years, he served as executive VP of production at VH1 where he created Behind the Music. As president of Bravo, he oversaw such hits as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Project Runway.

The streamer’s former unscripted VP, Jenn Levy, departed last month.

Hulu will shine a light on the family life of veteran entertainer Wayne Brady in a new unscripted project.

The eight-episode, untitled Wayne Brady & Family project will chronicle Brady, currently the host of the Let's Make A Deal game show, as he and his ex-wife Mandie Taketa serve as co-parents to their 20-year old daughter while running their production company, A Wayne & Mandie Creative, according to the streaming service. Meanwhile, Taketa’s life partner of 12 years Jason Fordham handles the family’s cinematography and post-production while they raise their recently-born son. 

According to Hulu, the series will offer an intimate look into Brady’s blended family’s personal life – revealing unexpected points of view and values that most people (including his own family) have a hard time understanding, according to Hulu.

The series is executive produced by Brady, Taketa, Shahram Qureshi and Rachel Tung. 

BBC and NBCUniversal said they will work together to find and fund unscripted programming ideas they hope will have global appeal.

The venture will be open to U.K. based production companies and studios. The companies said they’ll look at a broad range of unscripted genres and will look to co-commission pilots for shows with series potential. 

Also Read: NBCU, Telemundo Launch Bilingual Hispanic Heritage Month Campaign

“This unique partnership is such an exciting opportunity for UK-based producers,” said Kate Phillips, director of entertainment, BBC Commissioning. “We want to lead the way in finding and investing in high impact, returnable British ideas and formats from all nations and regions, and this collaboration with NBCU will enable producers to develop their ideas at scale and win commissions on both sides of the Atlantic.”

BBC and NBCU have already share some unscripted series, with NBCU airing shows based on British ideas like The Wheel, The Weakest Link and Dragon’s Den.

On and off-screen diversity will form a significant part of the decision-making process, the companies said. 

TNT in September will launch a new unscripted series that follows All Elite Wrestling power couple Cody and Brandi Rhodes.

The series, Rhodes to the Top, debuts Sept. 29 and goes inside the lives of the married couple as they navigate their growing family while helping to build AEW’s global wrestling empire, according to TNT. The series will debut with a one-hour show, followed by weekly, 30-minute episodes.

Read Also: TNT's 'AEW: Dynamite' Wrestling Series Moving to TBS in 2022

The Warner Bros. Unscripted Television-produced series is executive produced by Sam Berns and Paul Storck.

Disney veteran Marc Buhaj has been named VP of unscripted series and specials for Disney Branded Television. 

In his new position, Buhaj will oversee a nonfiction portfolio spanning documentaries and docu-series, unscripted formats, variety and specials for Disney Plus and unscripted series and specials for Disney Channels.

Buhaj, who most recently served as SVP of programming, and general manager for Disney XD, will report to Ayo Davis, executive vice president, creative development and strategy, Disney Branded Television.

"Marc will align our great strengths to support our great opportunities – he is an intuitive leader and strategic thinker with a deep appreciation for creative storytelling, and he now gains a highly effective team with complementary strengths,” Davis said in a statement. “His knowledge of the most effective ways to reflect and extend our core brands makes him ideally suited to propel their work and meet the needs of our viewers who want quality, innovative and appealing programs wherever they are watching our content."

Netflix on Friday (Sept. 18) jumps into the food competition genre with the premiere of American Barbecue Showdown, which serves up high stakes competition among amateur BBQ cooks.

The series is the latest for the All3Media-owned Maverick TV, which has produced such unscripted series as USA Network’s Chrisley Knows Best, Netflix’s DeMarcus Family Rules, and DIY’s Restoring Galveston. 

I recently spoke to Maverick TV USA president John Hesling about the company’s move into the unscripted food competition series as well as the challenges of adjusting series production deadlines due to the pandemic. Hesling also addressed the network’s decision to bring back Chrisley Knows Best this summer for its eighth season nearly a year after series star Todd Chrisley was indicted on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud.   

An edited version of the interview appears below. 

How will American Barbecue Showdown differ from some of the other food competition shows currently on the air? 

American Barbecue Showdown is different from other food competition series for a variety of reasons. The competitors have very different levels of competition experience.  Some have been on the BBQ competition circuit for years, while others are local legends and amazing amateurs who bring their own home town flavors to the show. There are so many more variables and factors that go into cooking good BBQ - from the choice of wood, the level of smoke, the level of heat, the cut of meat, the choice of rub, the choice of equipment - there are many more things that can go wrong than in most cooking competition series.  It's not just about turning the dial to 350 degrees and waiting for the meat to cook properly. The temperature is always fluctuating and it’s a complicated dance to bring it all together. And even though it’s a competition with winners and losers, the competition and drama doesn’t depend upon in-fighting and tantrums among the contestants.

Why choose Netflix -- which is known mostly for scripted series and movies -- as an outlet for American Barbecue Showdown, and what does Netflix bring to the table that traditional cable and broadcast networks don't?

We are very lucky to have great partners across cable and broadcast, and working with Netflix has been no different. They were enthusiastic about making a great show that reflected different styles of BBQ and all of the different types of people who spend a lifetime attempting to perfect it.  An obvious difference is the lack of commercial breaks, which gives you more time, and changes the structure of the episodes so you're not building to and coming back from commercial breaks. It  can also allow for a deeper dive into certain moments that you might not get the time to show on ad-funded channels. The episodes are as long as they need to be, and no less or more.

How has the pandemic affected Maverick TV in terms of producing both new and existing series? 

As with everyone, we have been hugely affected and had to quickly adjust to get used to executing almost all aspects of production remotely.  We were midway through the edit of American Barbecue Showdown when the pandemic hit, but managed to adapt quickly and get back on track.  We were lucky that we had several shows in various stages of post rather than at the beginning of shoots when the lockdown happened, and we were able to effectively revise the post workflow to a work from home environment. 

How do you see the future of the reality series genre in today's evolving television marketplace?

I think we realize that there are certain things that we as people love to watch, like singing, dancing, physical performances, cooking, things that make us laugh etc. and this will always be the case. We just need to continue to find new ways into these familiar worlds, so that the audience feels they are getting something new. The audience really is global now so more than ever before we need to tap into what it is about human nature that works across boundaries, languages and cultures. 

As a production company, how do you handle controversial and unforeseen situations within your shows such as what transpired with  Chrisley Knows Best star Todd Chrisley? 

In my opinion, you deal with difficult situations in the same way with talent as you would for a friend or family member. These are people who have exactly the same issues and complications in life as everyone else, except for the fact that because they are very well known, everything is amplified. You do a lot of listening and make sure that you are there to listen and contextualise what is going on.

What other content should we expect to see from Maverick TV for the rest of the year and into 2021? 

We have a survival show in advanced stages of development with a streamer, also a medical series with a cable channel, a big, very funny family competition show that’s getting a lot of traction, and with our overall deal with Todd Chrisley Productions, a couple more hilarious Todd Chrisley and family projects on the horizon. And of course lots and lots more Chrisley Knows Best.

This is being called the golden age of TV programming for scripted shows, in particular.

More shows than ever are being produced, viewers are binge watching them hours at a time through video on demand and streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. And media companies are making piles of cash licensing shows to streaming services, or using them to build their own subscription businesses.

Nonfiction programming has always been a bit of a stepchild in the programming world. People watch, sure. But even the best reality doesn’t get the same acclaim. Nor is it seeing the same kind of demand in this era of peak TV.

All of which leads to the question: What is reality programming’s value in an increasingly on-demand world?

While some nonfiction programming appears on Netflix and Hulu, the opportunities have been more limited.

“With respect to the subscription video-on-demand space, there has been no interest at this particular time in any of the reality types of programming,” one studio executive said.

Unlike networks, which need to fill a programming grid, buyers in an on-demand world are looking for shows that will give their services cachet and recruit and retain subscribers. “Reality is popular on networks, but it’s still viewed as voyeuristic. It’s not necessarily high-end programming,” the studio executive said.

Finding Viewers on SVOD
But as subscription services proliferate and mature, their attitude toward nonfiction could be changing. Viewers are watching more reality shows on demand. Streaming services are showing more interest in creating their own unscripted programming and adding existing shows to their offerings.

According to comScore, the top 10 rated reality programs for the 2016-17 broadcast season garnered more than 66 million VOD transactions, up 26% from the prior broadcast season’s reality programs. The gain came as overall VOD transactions dipped 3% from the prior year.

“I talk to people who produce shows for Discovery, Scripps Networks and A+E [Networks], and they all say they’re getting more interest from SVOD,” MoffettNathanson Research analyst Michael Nathanson said. “Given the price of scripted programming is going up, they’re looking at unscripted, which is less expensive, so they can raise their margins.”

Hulu currently pitches subscribers what it calls the largest offering of unscripted programming available on a streaming platform, with thousands of episodes from Scripps Networks, A+E and NBCUniversal.

“As SVOD programmers, we are always looking for content that will drive subscriber growth and keep viewers engaged,” Hulu vice president of content consumption Lisa Holme said. “We see unscripted series as an excellent driver of engagement and consumption, which correlate highly with retention. In the case of Hulu, we uniquely have a very robust advertising business, and so driving lots of hours of consumption is a priority for us, and unscripted can be a cost-effective way to balance the overall portfolio of content.”

Holme said Hulu subscribers watch a lot of unscripted programming. It accounts for a double-digit share of overall consumption on the service. “Outside of catching up on the latest episode of current series — The Voice, The Bachelor, etc. — we see a lot of viewing of character-based reality and competition-based reality, as well as, more recently, … food, home, travel-related series,” she said.

Prior seasons of broadcast series such as CBS’s Survivor and Amazing Race are popular, too. “People are often surprised that prior seasons of those series, as well as series like [Real] Housewives and [Keeping Up With the] Kardashians are consumed as much as they are on Hulu,” Holme said.

Netflix did not return calls seeking comment on nonfiction programming. Netflix’s reality offerings include Skin Wars, Tornado Hunters, America’s Funniest Home Videos and Undercover Boss.

Audiences as Loyal as Scripted Fans
TV networks say unscripted shows attract loyal audiences just like scripted programs.

“People want to be entertained, whether by scripted or unscripted,” Nancy Daniels, president and general manager of Discovery Communications’ s TLC, said. “They seek out what connects with them. We’ve seen big success with our shows even in this landscape where there are so many choices.”

While it’s harder to get viewers to watch reruns, Daniels said people watch old episodes of series like Little People, Big World to see what the characters looked like when they were younger. “The twins, Jeremy and Zack, have gotten married. They’re having children of their own. But you can go back to when they were 10 years old, starting out,” she said.

While TLC shows still get the bulk of their viewership on the linear channel, the shows that do best on the network also do best on demand or on the TLC Go app. TLC this year created an original spinoff of its 90 Day Fiancé franchise for the app called 90 Day Fiancé: What Now. “It’s been a huge driver for us on Go,” Daniels said.

Off-channel viewing is becoming an important factor in deciding which TLC series get renewed, Daniels said. “We’re not just looking at linear ratings anymore; we’re looking at overall audience engagement,” she said. “That’s certainly been an evolution for us over the last couple of years.”

App viewing is one way Discovery Communications is monetizing its mainly nonfiction programming.

“When it comes to Discovery unscripted, ours has tremendous value,” Discovery Communications chief commercial officer Paul Guyardo said.

Guyardo said that about 40% of what’s being watched on Discovery’s Go apps is library content, as opposed to current series. “Forty percent is a lot bigger than we thought,” he said.

For series on Investigation Discovery, people are streaming episodes they’ve already seen, “to pick up on clues that they didn’t catch the first time,” Guyardo said.

Discovery Communciations is not selling its programming to Netflix. It does have some shows on Hulu. The company is focusing on getting its core networks included on skinny bundles being offered by virtual distributors being rolled out by Hulu, DirecTV, YouTube and others.

Guyardo insists there’s demand for Discovery’s unscripted programing. “It’s our choice not to sell it in pieces, but rather to feature it all on our own digital platform or in skinny bundles, so we’re getting all the shows’ branding and equity.”

He added that Discovery’s programming is a good deal. “If you look at it relative to what distributors are paying for sports or paying for scripted, I would say we are an exceptionally good value.”

Producers said the subscription services are coming to them looking for original unscripted shows.

“Nonfiction may not be as sexy, but it’s very, very cost-effective,” said John Ford, a former Discovery executive and now general manager of NPACT, a trade association representing non-fiction programmers with about 100 member companies. “So you look at broadcast and cable any time of year, you take out sports programming, and many of the top 10, top 15, top 20 programs are nonscripted.

“You can create a pretty good nonscripted show for three or four hundred thousand dollars an hour,” Ford said. “On an hourly basis, you’re spending $3 million to create a scripted show. So you get 10 times the programming for your dollars in nonscripted.”

Ford pointed out there are already documentaries about food and wine on Netflix. Netflix has commissioned the producer of the acclaimed series Planet Earth to make an eight-part series, Our Planet, due to appear in 2019.

Netflix also has some older off-network nonfiction shows as well. “It’s interesting to look, just to troll through Netflix and see all the nonfiction shows that are there,” Ford said. “You’ll find inventory that I was executive producer on back in 2005 and 2006 still lurking in the inventory somewhere.”

Ford said the production of nonfiction programming for Netflix and the other streaming services flies under the radar because the shows don’t involve big stars and budgets. “What’s going on in nonfiction doesn’t necessarily claim the headlines, but I can tell you our members are actively pitching and producing for all of the OTT services,” Ford said.

Digital Is Key to The Workshop
Tom Farrell, CEO and executive producer for The Workshop, said his company is banking on selling shows to on-demand services. Last year, Amazon Prime green-lighted a series about tennis star Novak Djokovic produced by The Workshop, with Farrell as one of the executive producers.

“Everything that we develop has an eye on the digital world now,” Farrell said. “So while we’re still finding homes in the linear space, you would be foolish not to be looking at the digital component of our business.”

Production standards for on-demand shows might be higher than those for networks. “The viewer is so much more demanding because they’re going to it consciously, rather than stumbling upon it setting there on the couch riffing through the channels,” Farrell said. “You make a conscious decision, so I think your expectations are higher.”

OWN has ordered additional episodes of its unscripted series Black Love after the series’ Aug. 29 debut set a network ratings record for a reality series premiere.

The four-part series, created by Elaine Oliver and Tommy Oliver (The Perfect Guy), drew 1.2 million viewers for Tuesday's episode, becoming the network’s highest-rated unscripted series premiere in OWN history, according to network officials. The series highlights love stories from African-American married couples and examines the reality of what life-long love looks like, said network officials.

Featured couples for the current four-episode season include Viola Davis and husband Julius Tennon, actress Meagan Good and husband DeVon Franklin, Tia Mowry and husband/actor Cory Hardrict, actor Flex Alexander and his wife and musical artist Shanice.

New episodes for 2018 will include Sterling K. Brown and wife Ryan Michelle Bathe, Tina Knowles-Lawson and husband Richard Lawson, former NBA player Grant Hill and wife, recording artist Tamia.

Bravo will continue to tap into the real estate genre with three of six new unscripted series built around staging, redecorating and flipping homes, the network said Monday.

Among the new series in development are Center Staged, which follows married couple Adair Curtis and Jason Bolden who help furnish luxury houses set to go on the market; Million Dollar Home Hacks, a competition-based series in which two couples, along with the help of interior designers, compete to transform a room in their home into a “million dollar” interior;  and Flippin’ Exes, which follows current business partners Nina Klemm & Michael LeSure and their team as they buy, rehab and sell homes.   

Bravo also announced three other new shows in development, including The High School Project, a re-creation series that follows the true stories of New York City’s most elite students who grew up fast and partied hard in the 90s; Welcome to America, in which the population of a small American town is changed to reflect different parts of the country; and Empty Nesters, which follows the exploits of a group of friends who look to enjoy life after planning to send their children to summer sleep away camps, said network officials.