Fox Renews Bratt’s Drama Series “Star” for a Second Season

Benjamin Bratt’s star is still shining bright…

Fox has renewed its freshman drama series Star, starring the 53-year-old half-Peruvian American, for a second season.

Benjamin Bratt

The music-centric series was co-created by Lee Daniels, the co-creator of Fox’s hit series Empire, as well as Tom Donaghy.

It follows three talented singers – running from their pasts and desperate for a new start – with ambitions of stardom, as they navigate the cutthroat music business. The Season 1 finale airs March 15 before Empire returns to the Wednesday 9 PM time period. Guest stars set to appear on Star over the next four weeks include Naomi Campbell, Big Boi, Rickey Smiley, Missy Elliott and Paris Jackson.

“Lee Daniels is a true visionary, and he and Tom Donaghy have delivered a series with a unique and meaningful point of view,” Fox Entertainment president David Madden said.

Launching behind the fall finale of Empire, Star hasn’t been a breakout hit like the soapy hip-hop family drama. But it has had a stable audience, averaging a Live+Same Day rating between 1.2 and 1.3 in adults 18-49 for the past five weeks, rising to about 1.9 in Live+7. Its L7 average of 2.1 demo rating is below Lethal Weapon (2.5) and above Lucifer (1.9), both of which were recently renewed, along with Fox flagship Empire.

Star, whose cast includes Bratt, who plays talent manager Jahil Rivera, Queen Latifah, Jude Demorest, Brittany O’Grady, Ryan Destiny, Amiyah Scott and Quincy Brown, averages 7.5 million multi-platform audience, according to Fox.

Star is a production of 20th Century Fox Television in association with Lee Daniels Entertainment.

Fox Renews Ortiz’s Drama Series “Rosewood” for Second Season

Everything’s coming up Rosewood for Jaina Lee Ortiz

Fox has given a second season pickup to its freshman drama Rosewood, starring the 29-year-old Puerto Rican actress and dancer.

Jaina Lee Ortiz

The series stars Morris Chestnut as Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr., a private pathologist working in Miami, Florida, in high demand with law enforcement.

Ortiz portrays Det. Annalise Villa.

Rosewood, from Temple Hill and 20th Century Fox Television, was created by Todd Harthan. It’s executive-produced by Harthan, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen. Richard Shepard served as director and executive producer on the pilot.

“With Rosewood, creator Todd Harthan has put a fresh, playful spin on the procedural format, infusing it with wit and warmth, while Morris, Jaina and the show’s gifted supporting cast have turned in fantastic performances,’ said Fox’s David Madden

Rosewood averages 7.8 million total viewers across platforms.

Fox Renews Alejandro’s “Lucifer” for a Second Season

Kevin Alejandro has another season to be a Fox

The network has given second season pickup to its freshman drama Lucifer,  starring the Mexican American actor.

Kevin Alejandro

Lucifer, produced by Warner Bros. Television and Jerry Bruckheimer Television, is based on characters created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg for DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint.

Along with Alejandro, who portrays Dan, the series also stars Tom Ellis, Lauren German and D.B. Woodside.

Tom Kapinos wrote and executive-produced the pilot and is an executive consultant on the series. It is executive-produced by Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman, Ildy Modrovich and Joe Henderson.

Len Wiseman serves as director and executive producer.

“We knew we had something special with Lucifer, from the engaging performances of Tom, Lauren and the rest of the charismatic cast, to Len Wiseman’s visually stunning look of the show and the amazing storytelling savvy of the Bruckheimer team,” said Fox’s David Madden.

Fox Renews Baccarin’s Batman Origin Series “Gotham” for a Third Season

Morena Baccarin isn’t leaving Gotham just yet…

Fox has ordered a third season of the Batman origin story Gotham, based on the characters from DC Comics and starring the 36-year-old Brazilian-American actress.

Morena Baccarin in Gotham

From writer/executive producer Bruno HellerGotham follows one cop’s rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering between good and evil, and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time.

Baccarin, who recently earned her first-ever MTV Movie Awards nominations for her role in another comic-based project, Deadpool, portrays Leslie Thompkins in a starring role.

While ratings figures have been down versus the show’s first season, Gotham has been doing a solid business in multi-platform viewing, averaging 9 million total viewers in Season 2, and has done well with male demos.

The series ranks among this season’s Top 10 entertainment programs overall among Men 18-49, and is among the season’s Top 5 broadcast dramas among Men 18-49 and Men 18-34.

“It takes a very special team to tell the tales of Gotham. For the past two seasons, Bruno, Danny and John have masterfully honored the mythology of Gotham and brought it to life with depth, emotion and memorable high drama,” said David Madden, Fox’s Entertainment president.

The next episode on March 21 will kick off the guest arc of Paul Reubens as Elijah Van Dahl, Penguin’s (Robin Lord Taylor) father.

Telemundo’s La Reina del Sur to be Adapted for English Television

Telemundo’s La Reina del Sur may be getting an English-language makeover…

Fox Television Studios is developing an adaptation of last year’s blockbuster telenovela.

La Reina del Sur

Based on Arturo Perez-Reverte’s bestselling book of the same La Reina del Sur, the telenovela centers on Teresa Mendoza (Kate del Castillo), an innocent young girl from a small Mexican village, whose desire to avenge a personal tragedy leads her to become the most powerful woman in the dangerous world of drug trafficking in Europe.

La Reina Del Sur was Telemundo’s most expensive telenovela ever with a budget of $10 million and became the highest-rated program in the network’s 19-year history, averaging nearly 4.2 million viewers, and more than 2.8 million viewers in the prized Adults 18-49 demographic. In addition, the telenovela’s series finale on May 30, 2011 was the No.1 broadcast program of the night, of any language. Telemundo even launched its first-ever Primetime Emmys campaign for La Reina Del Sur.

La Reina Del Sur isn’t considered a typical telenovela, with critics noting that is feels more like Breaking Bad than One Life to Live. With that in mind, Fox’s English-language adaptation will be developed as a one-hour largely serialized crime drama, said Fox Television Studios president David Madden. He describes it as being “darker, more violent than ABC’s Missing or Revenge.

Fox Television Studios, primarily a cable player with series like Burn Notice and The Killing, plans to aim La Reina Del Sur at cable networks. “I could see it run on Showtime or FX, but I can also see an ABC version of the show,” said Madden.

The La Reina Del Sur deal “came out of Fox Television Studios’ efforts to find more material out of Spanish-speaking countries and produce more content for Spanish-speaking audiences,” said Madden. It’s part of a larger strategy of targeting Latino audiences by News Corp., which recently announced that it will be launching a Spanish-language broadcast TV network.