EXCLUSIVE: The spinoff of ABC’s acclaimed family comedy Black-ish, toplined by young co-star Yara Shahidi, is eying a series green light with a twist — it would be moving to another network. I’ve learned that Freeform is in talks for a series order to the project, which originated as a planted spinoff episode of the mothership ABC series that aired this spring.
Toplined by Shahidi, the spinoff focuses on her character Zoey Johnson — Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Rainbow’s (Tracee Ellis Ross) popular, entitled, stylish and socially active 17-year-old daughter — as she heads to college. While the pilot was received well at ABC, it was deemed too young skewing for the broadcast network but would hit right into the millennial demo target of sibling Freeform. Speculation about the comedy migrating to Freeform surfaced a couple of weeks ago, and I hear the move is now close to reality.
The script for the backdoor pilot episode was written by Barris and former Black-ish showrunner Larry Wilmore who is no longer involved in the project. Chris Parnell, Matt Walsh and young actor Trevor Jackson co-starred (Walsh as a guest star because of his regular duties on Veep, so he may have to be recast).
Toplined by Shahidi, the spinoff focuses on her character Zoey Johnson — Dre (Anthony Anderson) and Rainbow’s (Tracee Ellis Ross) popular, entitled, stylish and socially active 17-year-old daughter — as she heads to college. While the pilot was received well at ABC, it was deemed too young skewing for the broadcast network but would hit right into the millennial demo target of sibling Freeform. Speculation about the comedy migrating to Freeform surfaced a couple of weeks ago, and I hear the move is now close to reality.
The script for the backdoor pilot episode was written by Barris and former Black-ish showrunner Larry Wilmore who is no longer involved in the project. Chris Parnell, Matt Walsh and young actor Trevor Jackson co-starred (Walsh as a guest star because of his regular duties on Veep, so he may have to be recast).
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