FremantleMedia North America chief Jennifer Mullin is to become CEO of the entire business following the departure of Cécile Frot-Coutaz. Mullin, who has run the U.S. division of the American Idol and Got Talent producer since 2015, takes the top job at the RTL-owned producer and distributor as Frot-Coutaz leaves to…

Reviving singing competition staple American Idol after only two years off the air, showrunner and executive producer Trish Kinane worked to refresh the series for another run, while coming up against challenges she knew all too well from previous experience in the unscripted space—problems of technology. As FremantleM…

FremantleMedia North America, along with Random House Studio, have partnered with best-selling fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson for an ambitious, multi-media collaboration. It includes the development of drama Dark One for television. Additionally, Sanderson is concurrently creating a graphic novel that will be…

Bob Cooper’s Landscape Entertainment has signed a first-look deal with FremantleMedia North America. Under the pact, Landscape will develop and produce scripted projects for the U.S. and international markets, starting with scripted drama Michelangelo, which is in very early development at Hulu. Written by Richard…

Lower profit contributions from FremantleMedia North America impacted numbers at the American Gods producer and distributor as well as parent company RTL. In its first-quarter financials operating profit at FremantleMedia fell by €2M (US$2.4M) from last year, dropping from €15M to €13M on steady revenues of €271M…

FremantleMedia North America is bolstering its unscripted team with one exec promotion and a pair of new hires. The company said today that it has upped Joni Day to SVP Alternative Programming & Development and brought Colin Nash as SVP Alternative Programming & Development and Jean Shi as VP Alternative Programming…

Homeland executive producer Ron Nyswaner has signed a multi-year exclusive overall deal with FremantleMedia North America. His first project with the studio will be Bounty, a crime thriller drama based on Louisa Luna's acclaimed novel Two Girls Down. In Bounty, Alice Vega is a fearless and driven Recovery Agent, also…

EXCLUSIVE: Works by Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist) are headed to the small screen. American Gods producer FremantleMedia North America, Random House Studio and Dancing Ledge Productions have signed an exclusive deal with the famous Brazilian author to develop the first-ever TV drama series based on his books. Exploring…

Veteran marketing executive Kevin Blanchette has joined FremantleMedia North America as SVP marketing and communications. Blanchette will be responsible for the strategic development and implementation of all marketing, publicity and corporate public relations for FMNA, setting the brand management strategy across the…

EXCLUSIVE: FremantleMedia North America is doubling down on the fantastical after securing the rights to sprawling novel series Gormenghast with Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) lined up to adapt for television. I understand the company won a hotly contested battle to option the five books in the…

American Gods producer FremantleMedia North America has acquired the rights to Astro City superhero comic book series to develop as a live-action TV drama series. The Astro City comics, created by writer Kurt Busiek and artists Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, spans 16 (and counting) standalone yet loosely-connected…

The family of a woman who died three months after being injured in a fall from her wheelchair outside a venue where America’s Got Talent was being taped is suing the show and NBCUniversal for wrongful death. In a 20-page complaint filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court (read it here), the estate of Maureen Allen…