Lifetime has tapped a new showrunner for UnREAL. The network has appointed Stacy Rukeyser, an executive producer who’s been with the show since the beginning, to oversee the third season of the Emmy-nominated drama.
Created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, the series — which offers a fictionalized look behind the scenes of a Bachelor-like reality dating show — has long been the subject of rumors about a messy behind-the-scenes. But Rukeyser, who was Noxon’s very first hire on the series, has been a stable force in the otherwise tumultuous creative process.
She served as a co-executive producer during the first season before she was upped to exec producer in the drama's second outing. The writersroom for the new season started up in Los Angeles about a month ago, with the series set to begin production in February in Vancouver. Season three will debut in the summer of 2017.
Is Shapiro still intimately involved in the show?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Sarah is an executive producer on the show, and she and I are in the trenches together. And I would just say also about Marti that there would be no UnREAL without Marti Noxon or Sarah Shapiro. Everything that Marti brought is so embedded in the show’s DNA, it’s so crucial to our characters and our story as we move forward. What’s exciting about the third season is we’re going even deeper into Rachel’s [Shiri Appleby] character and her emotional journey, and that path for that journey has been laid by both Marti and Sarah from the moment that they wrote this pilot script that I fell in love with. Sarah and I are both really excited to take all of our characters on to that next journey.
Created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, the series — which offers a fictionalized look behind the scenes of a Bachelor-like reality dating show — has long been the subject of rumors about a messy behind-the-scenes. But Rukeyser, who was Noxon’s very first hire on the series, has been a stable force in the otherwise tumultuous creative process.
She served as a co-executive producer during the first season before she was upped to exec producer in the drama's second outing. The writersroom for the new season started up in Los Angeles about a month ago, with the series set to begin production in February in Vancouver. Season three will debut in the summer of 2017.
Is Shapiro still intimately involved in the show?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Sarah is an executive producer on the show, and she and I are in the trenches together. And I would just say also about Marti that there would be no UnREAL without Marti Noxon or Sarah Shapiro. Everything that Marti brought is so embedded in the show’s DNA, it’s so crucial to our characters and our story as we move forward. What’s exciting about the third season is we’re going even deeper into Rachel’s [Shiri Appleby] character and her emotional journey, and that path for that journey has been laid by both Marti and Sarah from the moment that they wrote this pilot script that I fell in love with. Sarah and I are both really excited to take all of our characters on to that next journey.
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