USA Network Welcomes Back Scripted Programming With 'Resident Alien' Pickup, 'The Rainmaker' Series
USA Network Welcomes Back Scripted Programming With 'Resident Alien' Pickup, 'The Rainmaker' Series
The Syfy series is moving to USA for season 4, and another John Grisham novel gets adapted, or in this case readapted
Blue skies are definitely ahead. After reports that USA Network was looking to reinvest in scripted programming in December, the network has solidified that plan with two scripted pickups. The first was a straight-to-series order for a series adaptation of John Grisham novel The Rainmaker, and the other is the now-former Syfy series Resident Alien starring Alan Tudyk, renewed for a fourth season.
The Rainmaker comes from both Lionsgate and Blumhouse’s TV divisions, based on the best-selling 1995 John Grisham novel and the film adaptation released just two years later, starring Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight and Danny DeVito. In it Rudy Baylor is an attorney just graduated from law school who faces off against courtroom lion Leo Drummond, while also dealing with his law school girlfriend. Rudy, his boss and her disordered paralegal, find two related conspiracies regarding the peculiar death of their client’s son. Michael Seitzman and Jason Richman co-wrote the pilot and will executive produce alongside Grisham, David Gernert and Blumhouse’s Jason Blum.
On Resident Alien, created by Chris Sheridan based on comics from Dark Horse created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, Tudyk plays a crash-landed alien who goes by Harry, sent on a secret mission to wipe out all humans. Season 3 saw Harry work with General McCallister to rid the Earth of the Grey aliens, when a hurdle arises: Grey hybrid Joseph has taken up a job as the town’s new deputy. Harry’s also fallen in love, causing him to struggle balancing business and his personal life. He discovers the moon is a Grey spaceship as they seek to invade and transform Earth’s atmosphere. Harry’s attempts to sabotage lead to him being discovered and captured, ending the season. Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Judah Prehn and Elizabeth Bowen also star.
The series is coming off of its own Netflix boon, with the first season making its Top 10 of English-language series for its first five weeks of release. The hope is this move will catch it an even wider audience. Season 3, currently streaming exclusively on Peacock, averaged 3.3 million total viewers on Syfy, up +4% against season 2 and 1 million in the 18-49 demo, up 36% season-to-season across all platforms through 35 days. Season 4 will also stream on Peacock, with future windowing plans still to be agreed upon. When rumblings of a potential move were first reported in May, so was a major budget reduction, as much as $500,000 an episode, likely bringing it in range of USA’s desired $2-3 million. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV and Nastaran Dibai also executive produce.
These are the network’s first non-shared scripted series since 2020, with Chucky premiering in 2021 being the only scripted original currently on the network, and that’s shared with Syfy. The NBCUniversal-owned basic cable network now takes another of its sister network’s shows wholly for itself, leaving it with The Ark (new season premiering July 17), Reginald the Vampire, which has its second season ongoing, SurrealEstate, and the aforementioned and awaiting word Chucky. It’s not much either but it’s still something. The return to scripted investment comes as the blue sky dramas like Suits and White Collar find renewed popularity on Netflix. The former now has its second spinoff, Suits: L.A. with a February pilot order, while the latter had its revival recently confirmed to have returned to active development, as series creator Jeff Eastin had revealed as far back as 2020 there were discussions for a return that the pandemic put on the backburner.
The shift away from the “blue skies” image that dominated the network’s 2000s and early 2010s was due thanks in part to Mr. Robot, leading to darker, grittier stories to catch younger viewers and more awards recognition along the way, with such programming as The Sinner, Shooter, Dirty John and the rather successful run of Queen of the South. Combined with the closure of NBCSN, USA had become a place of sports and unscripted series joined by the syndicated repeats and WWE programming that had been part of things even during its dozen+ years as the most watched cable network.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter