Fresh from the debut of The Kardashians on Hulu, Kim Kardashian joins our spectacular roster of talent for Deadline’s Contenders Television: Docs + Unscripted virtual event this Saturday.
Register here for this entertaining and informative showcase of the most buzzworthy nonfiction series and films competing for recognition this TV awards season. It all kicks off at 9 a.m. PT.
Kardashian and executive producer Ben Winston talk about launching an entirely new unscripted series on a new platform after 20 seasons of E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
“I think it was really a scary jump,” Kardashian admits, “but the most exciting jump to work with a new partner.”
Coincidentally, Kim’s ex-husband is the subject of an acclaimed Netflix series taking part in our Contenders Docs + Unscripted event – jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy. Director-producers Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah reveal Ye’s current feelings about the three-part exploration of the rapper’s rise from respected music producer to a star in his own right.
In all, more than 60 executive producers, showrunners, directors, subjects and talent join us to share the inside story on their series and movies, representing more than a dozen networks, cable channels and streamers.
Lucy and Desi director Amy Poehler reveals how she uncovered the “human story” of television icons Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, mining a trove of never-before-heard audio tapes of the showbiz couple.
“The feedback I’ve gotten has been really satisfying,” Poehler says, “because I think people have been really moved by the long partnership that Lucy and Desi had.”
W. Kamau Bell tells us about taking on a fallen TV icon, Bill Cosby, in his Showtime series We Need to Talk about Cosby, revealing when he first began to believe scores of women accusing the actor-comedian of sexual assault.
Big wave surfer Garrett McNamara, the larger-than-life subject of HBO’s documentary series 100 Foot Wave, explains in dramatic detail what it’s like to be chased by a tsunami-sized wall of water, and Daymond John, one of the stars of Shark Tank, boldly declares he’s the only Shark on the ABC entrepreneurial series “bringing any kind of flavor.”
The Masked Singer panelist Robin Thicke throws shade at his fellow judge Ken Jeong, and the show’s EP details his strategy for keeping the Fox show “fresh and inviting” for viewers, concealing celebrities in costumes ranging from an armadillo, a baby mammoth, a space bunny, to a queen cobra. Queens of another sort make a glittering appearance at Contenders Television: Docs + Unscripted – the stars of the Emmy-winning VH1 series RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The stars of Queer Eye dish on the Texas-sized season of their Emmy-winning show, which finds them in the capital city of Austin. Janet Jackson, meanwhile, goes back home in the Lifetime multi-parter Janet Jackson, visiting Gary, Indiana, where she spent the first few years of her life before she followed her famous brothers onto the concert stage. The show’s EP and director tell us what it was like to accompany Janet on that emotional journey.
Contenders Television: Docs + Unscripted gets into the hottest trend within the true crime documentary genre: stories devoted to colorful fraudsters. The director-executive producers of the upcoming Apple TV+ docuseries The Big Conn reveal how they got turned onto the tale of an outlandish Kentucky attorney who allegedly fleeced the federal government out of $550 million.
LuLaRich, from Amazon Prime Video, takes an entertaining look at DeAnne and Mark Stidham, founders of LuLaRoe, a women’s clothing company known for leggings printed with fanciful designs – hamburgers, pizza slices, bespectacled dogs and more. They made a fortune before authorities in Washington State accused the firm of operating as a pyramid scheme.
“They were peddling a dream to families around America that wasn’t a reality,” executive producer Jenner Furst declares during our Contenders panel on LuLaRich. “It fell apart, like hamburger print leggings and toilet paper.”
Contenders Television: Docs + Unscripted is packed throughout with insights and emotion from some of the industry’s biggest names. Don’t miss it! Register here for Saturday’s free showcase.
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