E! Entertainment Television is set to take a comedic look at pop-culture events through Caymation reenactments in a new half-hour series from the creator of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch.
Titled Starveillance, the series was one of many announcements made Tuesday by E! Networks president and CEO Ted Harbert during the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel.
Starveillance, from Celebrity Deathmatch creator Eric Fogel, will give viewers a "fly-on-the-wall view" of real or possible events involving celebrities as they may have happened, including marriage proposals, intimate bedroom arguments, and off-camera antics.
E! cited such events as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes having a chance meeting with Brooke Shields at the hospital and Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's first date. The half-hour show premieres in January, and the segments also will be shown on broadband channel The Vine @ E! Online and other platforms.
In addition, E! has ordered another season of The Simple Life from 20th Century Fox Television and Bunim-Murray Prods. and is set to launch a "new and improved" Web site next month.
E! sister channel Style Network has inked a programming and marketing partnership with pop star Beyonce and mom Tina Knowles centered on the singer's clothing line, House of Dereon. The programming will include two specials, one focusing on the singer as she prepares to release a new CD and a new season of her clothing line, and the other a runway special.
Style also has green-lighted two new series for fall premieres: Style Her Famous, in which Jay Manuel of America's Next Top Model helps style-challenged women, and Split Ends, in which two hairsylists swap places.
Harbert touted the ratings of E! and Style since he took the job two years ago, joking that "the success is due to the fact that Britney Spears has been pregnant every single day of my tenure."
SUNDANCE COMES OUT 'SWINGING'
Earlier in the day, Sundance Channel said it has acquired US pay TV rights to the British sketch comedy series Swinging, which explores themes of sex, love, and relationships in Britain and will debut on the network next year.
Sundance also announced that it will premiere One Punk Under God, featuring alternative Christian minister Jay Bakker, at 9 p.m. on December 13.
Meanwhile, BET Networks president of entertainment Reginald Hudlin and BET Digital Networks executive vp and general manager Paxton Baker touted several new series, including BET's It's Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, Next Level: Vince Young, and Beef: The Series.
Oxygen kicked off its session with a demonstration of the Muay Thai fighting featured in its upcoming Fight Girls as the reality movie's subjects and their trainer came onstage kicking and punching.
From fighting to breaking up, Oxygen's highlights also iincluded the upcoming series Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty, featuring Doherty delivering the bad news to the dumpee.
Asked how she would feel in their place, Doherty told the group that "my reaction would be one of shock, but I would not sign the release" giving permission to air the footage, she joked.
She also became teary when asked about her difficult reputation, admitting she did play some part in earning that reputation years ago simply because she was doing the same things any 18-year-old would do at the time but happened to be doing it in the public eye. However, she added that it was an "image created by people she worked with at the time."
GSN presented a lively luncheon session as two new game shows premiering August 1 were acted out for the critics by those involved: A self-deprecating Danny Bonaduce hosted an abbreviated version of GSN's celebrity-themed Starface, poking fun at his own travails while introducing such categories as Mug Shot and Celebrity Train Wreck; and Michael Davies, executive producer of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Dylan Lane discussed the word-themed Chain Reaction," which Davies exec-produces and Lane hosts.
Asked whether Meredith Vieira, who will become cohost of NBC's Today in September, will continue to host the syndicated version of Millionaire, Davies would say only that "I'm back in the studio the week of July 24, and Meredith will be hosting."
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