8 Things to Know About NBCUniversal’s Peacock
Peacock is bringing the laughs!
During Monday’s virtual press tour, NBCUniversal’s streaming service made a bevy of exciting new announcements about upcoming original comedy series.
Grammy Award-winning singer, Emmy nominee and Broadway star Sara Bareilles will star in Tina Fey and Robert Carlock‘s girl group show Girls5eva as Dawn, a former member of the short-lived ’90s girl group who reluctantly gets the band back together for a Girls5eva reunion after their one-hit-wonder song gets sampled by a young rapper.
Peacock also announced their original series MacGruber, inspired by Will Forte‘s hilarious Saturday Night Live character, has been ordered to series with eight half-hour episodes. The service additionally announced casting news for Rutherford Falls from co-creators and executive producers Michael Schur (The Good Place), Ed Helms and Sierra Teller Ornelas (Superstore, Happy Endings). The show follows a small town in upstate New York, the Native American reservation it borders and a local legend and town namesake, Nathan Rutherford (Helms), who fights the moving of a historical statue.
Jana Schmieding (Blast) will star as Reagan Wells, Nathan’s best friend since childhood, Michael Greyeyes (I Know This Much Is True) will play Terry Tarbell, the CEO of his tribe’s mid-level casino, Jesse Leigh (Heathers) will star as Bobbie Yang, Nathan’s non-binary teenage intern/executive assistant and Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek) will play Josh Cogan, a reporter/podcaster who takes an interest in the goings-on in Rutherford Falls.
Scroll down for more info and announcements on Peacock’s upcoming originals, including talk shows from the hilarious Larry Wilmore and Amber Ruffin!
(E! and Peacock are both part of the NBCUniversal family)
Peacock is live now! Check out NBCU’s new streaming service here.
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Girls5eva
Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Emmy nominee and Broadway star Sara Bareilles is set to lead the Tina Fey and Robert Carlock produced series Girls5eva. “When a one-hit-wonder girl group from the ’90s gets sampled by a young rapper, its members reunite to give their pop star dreams one more shot. They may be grown women balancing spouses, kids, jobs, debt, aging parents and shoulder pain, but can’t they also be Girls5eva?”
Bareilles will star as Dawn, former member of the short-lived ’90s girl group Girls5eva, who is now a bit restless in life managing her family’s small Italian restaurant in Queens. When the opportunity arises, Dawn reluctantly gets the band back together for a Girls5eva reunion and it might just be exactly what she needed.
Jason Mendez/Getty Images for The Town Hall
The Amber Ruffin Show
Premiering September
Each week Amber Ruffin (writer and performer from NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers) will showcase Amber’s signature smart and silly take on the week’s news. No matter what’s happening in the world, Amber will respond to it with a charming mix of seriousness, nonsense, and evening gowns. The Amber Ruffin Show is a topical late-night show with just the good parts—the comedy.
Michaels-Goldwyn/Kobal/Shutterstock
MacGruber
Coming 2021
Will Forte will reprise his iconic Saturday Night Live role as MacGuber and also write and executive produce the new 8-episode comedy series. “After rotting in prison for over a decade, America’s ultimate hero and uber patriot MacGruber is finally released. His mission: to take down a mysterious villain from his past—Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth. With the entire world in the crosshairs, MacGruber must race against time to defeat the forces of evil—only to find that evil…may be lurking within.”
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Untitled Larry Wilmore Show (w/t)
Premiering September 2020
Emmy Award-winning producer, actor and comedian Larry Wilmore is bringing his distinct voice to streaming with a new weekly special series. Larry will have real discussions with high profile people from all different backgrounds including sports, politics and entertainment. Each episode will not only cover the election but will also engage in the important conversations of the week. It will be funny, sometimes serious, potentially awkward and most definitely honest.
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Rutherford Falls
The upcoming comedy Rutherford Falls from co-creators and executive producers Michael Schur, Ed Helms and Sierra Teller Ornelas has set its initial cast with Jana Schmieding, Michael Greyeyes, Jesse Leigh and Dustin Milligan. “A small town in upstate New York and the Native American reservation it borders, are turned upside down when local legend and town namesake, Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms) fights the moving of a historical statue.”
Peacock
Five Bedrooms
Premiering August 13, 2020
Five singles meet at, of all places, the singles’ table at a wedding. After several bottles of champagne, they decide to pitch in and buy a house together. Five singles buy a house together—what could go right? It’s a grand social experiment with one glaring problem: they’ll have to actually live with each other. All while journeying together through disasters, life-turning crises, and moments of love, joy and heartbreak. The series stars Kat Stewart (Offspring), Stephen Peacocke (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot), Doris Younane (Frayed), Katie Robertson (Rosehaven), Roy Joseph (Halim), Kate Jenkinson (Wentworth) and Hugh Sheridan (Packed to the Rafters). Five Bedrooms is produced by Hoodlum Entertainment with assistance from Film Victoria. It is co-funded by Sky Studios, Network Ten and Screen Australia.
Peacock
A.P. Bio
Premiering September 3, 2020
When disgraced Harvard philosophy scholar Jack Griffin (Glenn Howerton, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) loses out on his dream job, he is forced to return to Toledo, Ohio, and work as a high school Advanced Placement biology teacher. As he comes crashing into Whitlock High School, Jack makes it absolutely clear that he will not be teaching any biology. Realizing he has a room full of honor roll students at his disposal, Jack decides instead to use the kids’ brainpower for his own benefit. But are his students instead helping him to realize his dream job might actually be the one he has right now? Eager to prove that he is still king of the castle, Principal Durbin (Patton Oswalt, Veep) struggles to control the force of nature that is Jack Griffin. The series also stars Mary Sohn (Work in Progress), Lyric Lewis (Baskets), Jean Villepique (Sharp Objects) and Paula Pell (Saturday Night Live). A.P. Bio is produced by Broadway Video, Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions and Universal Television.
Peacock
Departure
Premiering September 17, 2020
Passenger plane Flight 716 shockingly vanishes, and brilliant investigator Kendra Malley (Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife), alongside her mentor Howard Lawson (Christopher Plummer, Knives Out) are brought on to lead the investigation. When battling forces threaten to undermine their work, Kendra must find the truth and stop it from happening again. The series also stars Kris Holden-Reid (Umbrella Academy), Rebecca Liddiard (Run This Town), Tamara Duarte (Longmire), Mark Rendall (Versailles), Peter Mensah (Midnight, Texas) and Sasha Roiz (Suits). Departure is produced in association with Starlings Television and Corus Entertainment, produced by Shaftesbury (Canada) and Greenpoint Productions Ltd. (UK).
Peacock
Hitmen
Best friends Jamie (Mel Giedroyc) and Fran (Sue Perkins) are trying to make their way in the world with only each other to rely on. They also just happen to kill people for a living. Fueled by their antics and frivolous bickering, each job inevitably gets derailed, leading them into bizarre misadventures, full of oddball characters and unexpected dilemmas. Hitmen is produced by Tiger Aspect in association with Sky Studios and is distributed by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.
Peacock
Brave New World
Based on Aldous Huxley‘s groundbreaking novel, Brave New World imagines a utopian society that has achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family, and history itself. As citizens of New London, Bernard Marx (Harry Lloyd, Game of Thrones, The Theory of Everything) and Lenina Crowne (Jessica Brown Findlay, Winter’s Tale, Downton Abbey) embark on a vacation to the Savage Lands, where they become embroiled in a harrowing and violent rebellion. Bernard and Lenina are rescued by John the Savage (Alden Ehrenreich, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Hail, Caesar!), who escapes with them back to New London. John’s arrival in the New World soon threatens to disrupt its utopian harmony, leaving Bernard and Lenina to grapple with the repercussions.
Brave New World also stars Demi Moore, Kylie Bunbury, Hannah John-Kamen, Sen Mitsuji, Joseph Morgan and Nina Sosanya.
Peacock
Psych 2: Lassie Come Home
Santa Barbara Police Chief Carlton Lassiter (Timothy Omundson, This Is Us, American Housewife) is ambushed on the job and left for dead. In a vintage Psych-style Hitchcockian nod, he begins to see impossible happenings around his recovery clinic. Shawn (James Roday, A Million Little Things, Psych) and Gus (Dulé Hill, Suits, Psych) return to Lassie’s side in Santa Barbara and are forced to navigate the personal, the professional, and possibly the supernatural. Separated from their new lives in San Francisco, our heroes find themselves unwelcome in their old stomping grounds as they secretly untangle a twisted case without the benefit of the police, their loved ones, or the quality sourdough bakeries of the Bay Area. What they uncover will change the course of their relationships forever. Psych 2 is a full-length film.
Psych 2: Lassie Comes Home also stars Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson and Corbin Bernsen.
Peacock
The Capture
The Capture is a conspiracy thriller that looks at a troubling world of fake news and the extraordinary capabilities of the intelligence services. When soldier Shaun Emery’s (Callum Turner, War & Peace, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) conviction for a murder in Afghanistan is overturned due to flawed video evidence, he returns to life as a free man with his young daughter. But when damning CCTV footage from a night out in London comes to light, Shaun’s life takes a shocking turn and he must soon fight for his freedom once again. Detective Inspector Rachel Carey (Holliday Grainger, Strike, Patrick Melrose) is drafted to investigate Shaun’s case, but she quickly learns that the truth can sometimes be a matter of perspective. The Capture also stars Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Hand of God), Famke Janssen (X-Men, Taken), Ben Miles (The Crown, Coupling), Laura Haddock (Transformers: The Last Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy), Lia Williams (The Crown, Kiri), Sophia Brown (Clique, Marcella) and Paul Ritter (Chernobyl, Friday Night Dinner).
Peacock
Intelligence
Intelligence is a workplace comedy set in the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters—a kind of weedier, geekier, more bureaucratic version of MI5 and MI6, where they tackle international and domestic Cyber Crime from a desktop. When a pompous maverick NSA agent Jerry Bernstein (David Schwimmer, American Crime Story, Friends, Band of Brothers) comes over from the U.S. to join the team, he enlists an inept and tactless computer analyst Joseph (Nick Mohammed, The Martian, Ted Lasso, Christopher Robin) in a power grab that threatens to disrupt the team’s ability to combat cyber terrorism.
Peacock
In Deep With Ryan Lochte
At the 2016 Rio Olympics Ryan Lochte (Celebrity Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars) was at the center of a scandal that has since overshadowed a decorated swimming career that includes 12 Olympic medals. Now a 35-year-old husband and father of two young children, Lochte is hoping for one more chance to make Team USA and prove he’s not the same man he was four years ago.
Peacock
Lost Speedways
Created and hosted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Dale Jr. Download), this series is an exploratory look at great racing cathedrals of the past. Dale Jr. and co-host Matthew Dillner (Dale Jr. Download) tells the stories of speedways that have been forgotten, abandoned, and overtaken by nature. Racing legends join as guests throughout the series.
Peacock
Curious George
First introduced to the world of children’s literacy over 75 years ago, Curious George® was created by Margret and H.A. Rey in 1941 and remains one of the most beloved children’s classics of all-time. The animated series targets preschool viewers and follows the adventures of everyone’s favorite monkey and his insatiable curiosity to bring delightful antics, gentle humor and heartfelt emotion to each fun-filled episode. With a focus on education, the Emmy® award-winning program incorporates early concepts in math, science, technology and engineering and encourages children to use their imagination and expand their own investigations of the world.
The Curious George voice cast includes Emmy® award winner Frank Welker (Scooby Doo and Guess Who?), Jeff Bennett (The Loud House) and Rino Romano (Spaceballs: The Animated Series).
Peacock
DreamWorks’ Cleopatra in Space
Cleopatra in Space is a comedic adventure focusing on the untold story of Cleopatra’s teenage years. Viewers can follow Cleo (Lilimar Hernandez, Bella and the Bulldogs, Knight Squad) as she is transported 30,000 years into the future, to an Egyptian-themed planet that is ruled by talking cats and where she discovers she is the prophesied savior of the future world. In order to prepare for her role and mission, Cleo is sent to an elite academy where she has to train to take on the bad guys, figure out how to eventually get herself back home to Egypt, as well as tackling the highs and lows of being a teenager in high school.
Peacock
DreamWorks’ Where’s Waldo?
Twelve-year-old Waldo (Joshua Rush, The Lion Guard, Andi Mack) and his best friend Wenda (Haley Tju, Bella and the Bulldogs) are members of the Worldwide Wanderer Society—the international order of curious travelers who circle the globe celebrating cultures and solving problems through observation. Their mentor—Wizard Whitebeard (Thomas Lennon, The State; Reno 911, The Odd Couple), a seasoned wanderer—sends these inquisitive young adventurers on international travel missions so they can earn their stripes and someday become wizard-level wanderers too. But standing in Waldo and Wenda’s way is their rival Odlulu (Eva Carlton, Little), who can’t help but cause trouble wherever she goes.
Peacock is live now! Check out NBCU’s new streaming service here.
