As Law & Order: SVU is heading into its historic 21st season, the series is bringing back one of its beloved showrunners. Warren Leight, credited with revitalizing the veteran crime drama during his five-year turn at the helm, is returning as executive producer/showrunner. He will succeed another veteran of the Dick…

A showrunner change is ahead for Season 5 of Superstore. Creator Justin Spitzer is stepping down as showrunner as he, Gabe Miller and Jonathan Green have re-upped their overall deals with Universal TV, the studio behind NBC’s critically praised comedy series. Spitzer has served as showrunner of Superstore since the…

Emmy winner Gavin Purcell has signed an exclusive overall producing deal with Universal Television for both unscripted and scripted programming. Purcell was most recently the showrunner and executive producer for Hulu’s Emmy-nominated sketch and talk show I Love You America with Sarah Silverman. Previously, Purcell…

NBC has put in development an LAPD police drama from writer Kevin O’Hare, The Brave creator Dean Georgaris, Keshet Studios and Universal TV, where Keshet is under a deal. Written and executive produced by O’Hare, the Untitled Kevin O’Hare Project is based on police pilot programs in major U.S. cities. The drama…

Shades of Blue creator Adi Hasak is teaming with Red Arrow Studios International and Universal Television to develop a U.S. version of popular German series The Last Cop (Der Letzte Bulle), under his Adi TV Studios banner. Hasak will write the pilot script and serve as executive producer and showrunner. Dean Parisot…

ABC has given a script commitment plus penalty to Can-Can, a single-camera comedy starring comedian Maysoon Zayid. It comes from writer Joanna Quraishi (Kevin Can Wait), Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills (Hot In Cleveland, Grimm) and Universal TV where Hazy Mills is based. Co-written by Zayid, and Quraishi and…

Producer Danielle Claman Gelber is continuing her relationship with Universal TV, renewing her first-look deal with the studio. Under the pact, Gelber develops both scripted and non-scripted series for broadcast, cable and streaming networks and platforms via her Acoustic Productions banner. “Danielle has played an…

Producer, director and documentarian Eddie Schmidt (In Search Of) has signed an overall deal with Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Television for both unscripted and scripted fare, respectively. The Oscar and Emmy-nominated filmmaker has produced six projects that premiered at the Sundance Film…

Following his two-year collaboration with Universal Television on Taken, veteran TV and film producer Matthew Gross has signed a two-year overall deal with the studio to develop new projects and oversee existing properties. Under the pact, Gross is joining the upcoming NBC drama series The InBetween, serving as…

After four years at Sony Pictures TV, Carol Mendelsohn is moving to Universal Television. The former CSI maven and Julie Weitz, both principals of Carol Mendelsohn Productions, have signed an exclusive overall producing deal with Universal TV. Under the pact, the duo will develop new projects for the…

Universal Television has promoted Kiersten Robinson to Senior Vice President, Current Programming, from her previous VP role. She will report to JoAnn Alfano, who recently joined Universal Television as EVP, Current Series and New Business Development. In her most recent position, Robinson has been charged with…

When DVD-by-mail company Netflix reinvented itself as a video-on-demand service, broadcast studios quickly embraced it. They used the streaming platform as an alternative to the off-network syndication market for the growing-in-popularity serialized drama series and quirky single-camera comedies that were of little…