Cable music network VH1 is creating an extensive original-series lineup, with four weekly shows slated to debut this summer, Reuters reports.
The four new series are:
- What's My 20, an hour-long series that counts down to the 20 best videos in various categories, from "favorite power ballads" to "rock's most misinterpreted lyrics."
- VH1 Undercover, a comedy half-hour that uses pop music "as the basis for a kaleidoscope of hidden-camera pranks, daredevil stunts, sight gags and funny video clips."
- Cover Wars, which allows bands to show their "musical agility, accuracy and performance" in a tournament-style contest hosted by Paul Schaffer of Late Night With David Letterman, with a celebrity panel on hand to judge the winner.
- Strange Frequency, a scripted, filmed horror anthology along the lines of Twilight Zone. VH1 last year commissioned a two-hour "Strange Frequency" that featured four separate stories.
Strange Frequency has an order for eight half-hour episodes, while the three others are getting 12- to 14-episode commitments.
Pilots for future series include Camp Chaos, an offbeat animated half-hour that will parody rock stars; Pulling Strings, an hour-long soap opera from Barbra Streisand's company featuring her husband, James Brolin, as the hard-driving head of an entertainment company taken over by a big conglomerate; and Devil's Music, an hour-long melodrama with the devil and his disciples running a record company.
