Sara Bareilles
Audible is taking music contests and audio storytelling to a whole new level with Breakthrough, the first audio-only singing competition series developed and launched exclusively as a podcast.
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The company revealed exclusively to Billboard on Wednesday (March 1) that Grammy-winning superstars Kelly Rowland and Sara Bareilles have joined Breakthrough as judges. On the show, the duo will guide the contestants’ performances, as well as mentor the artistic development of five artists through a season of musical challenges. As expected with the “audio only” format, the physical appearance of the performers is concealed, so their music is the only thing to connect them to listeners (and the judges too).
Over the course of nine episodes, the artists will be challenged with covering tracks that mean the most to them, stretching to genres outside their comfort zones, and writing and recording hooks and full original songs — with one artist ultimately crowned the winner. Throughout the series, Daveed Diggs will guide listeners through the contestants’ journeys as the host.
“I am so thrilled to be joining this group of wildly talented people for Breakthrough,” Bareilles said in a press statement. “I love that the creative team are on the same journey as our audience – getting to know these artists without seeing them – developing a sense of their artistry through only their music and storytelling. These five incredible souls showed up to each challenge with courage and vulnerability that invited us all into a remarkably intimate space, and I learned so much from them. No matter where you are in your career it is always inspiring to witness someone reach for the deepest parts of themselves and be willing to share that tender space.”
Rowland added, “I am so happy to be a part of this series that highlights and gives a voice to emerging artists. Audible is an ideal space for this and Breakthrough is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to up-and-coming musicians. I’m rooting for them all!”
Breakthrough premieres June 1 on Audible. Before then, check out an exclusive audio teaser below.
Girls5eva is getting the band back together and hitting the road — to a new streaming home.
The star-studded comedy, which aired as a Peacock original for its first two seasons, has been renewed for a third round — on Netflix.
Stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell and Busy Philipps will all return for the musical comedy’s third season on the streaming giant. The deal for the series also includes rights to Girls5eva’s first two seasons, which will stream on both Peacock and Netflix. The series is expected to arrive on Netflix sometime next year, ahead of the third season’s debut, in a move similar to what the streamer did when it acquired Cobra Kai from YouTube.
“Our deepest thanks to Peacock for bringing Girls5eva to life and supporting us creatively at every turn since the first pitch. And we are endlessly grateful to our partners at NBCU for their boundless commitment,” said executive producers Meredith Scardino, Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond and Robert Carlock. “Today, we are thrilled to announce that our reunited girl group will be re-reunited at Netflix. We are so thankful to everyone at the streamer who fell in love with our music-filled comedy. We cannot wait to introduce Dawn, Wickie, Summer and Gloria to the global Netflix audience. Well, not fully introduce, if you look closely, Girls5eva can be seen in the background of the Woodstock ’99 documentary setting a porta potty on fire.”
Sources say the show didn’t find an audience on Peacock, the NBCUniversal-backed streamer that also has struggled to cut through a crowded landscape and fierce competition from such other newly launched platforms as HBO Max and Apple TV+. Netflix, which previously rescued the Fey-produced Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt after NBC passed on the straight-to-series comedy, stepped in and made a deal for a third season of Girls5eva with the hopes that its global platform could help the series find an audience in a way similar to the way it did with Pop’s Schitt’s Creek, Lifetime’s You and broadcast rejects Lucifer and Manifest.
Also helping matters was Netflix’s relationship with Fey and Kimmy co-creator Robert Carlock as well as with writers Meredith Scardino and Jeff Richmond. Girls5eva was created by Scardino, who earned an Emmy nomination for writing for the series. Fey, Carlock and Richmond are among the show’s exec producers. Netflix global head of TV Bela Bajaria developed Kimmy during her tenure atop Universal Television, where Fey has been based for years with an overall deal, and eventually sold the show to the streamer after NBC passed on the series that starred Ellie Kemper and ran for four seasons.
Sources also note that Netflix head of comedy Tracey Pakosta originally wanted to buy Girls5eva for NBC when she, alongside Lisa Katz, served as co-presidents of scripted for the broadcast network. Ultimately, the project was earmarked for Peacock and Pakosta, a former Universal TV comedy exec, wound up leaving NBCU to reunite for Bajaria at Netflix.
“We are so happy to bring Girls5eva to Netflix,” said Pakosta, vp comedy at Netflix. “Just like the show, we are so excited to reunite with this amazing team.”
Peacock, meanwhile, will continue to have streaming rights to the first two seasons of Girls5eva and will share them with Netflix. Season three will be exclusive to Netflix. The decision to drop Girls5eva comes as Peacock has struggled to find a platform-defining, must-watch show. Comedy has been especially challenging for the streamer, which canceled critical darling Rutherford Falls and its Saved by the Bell update after two seasons apiece. No comedy has made it to a third season at Peacock. The platform, overseen as part of a content group that includes NBC and various cable networks, has Pete Davidson comedy Bupkis, a Ted reboot and a Pitch Perfect spinoff in the works, among others.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
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