A&E used its Wednesday (May 4) upfront presentation to advertisers to announce an expansive original programming slate that will include the premiere of 10 new shows and the return of 11 franchises in 2011.
The cable network also announced that the miniseries “Coma” has been greenlit for a Memorial Day 2012 premiere.
“Coma” comes from Ridley Scott and Tony Scott’s Scott Free Productions, which previously brought “The Andromeda Strain” to A&E. Based on Robin Cook’s bestseller, “Coma” is a medical thriller about a doctor who begins to suspect something sinister is afoot when a high number of otherwise healthy patients lapse into comas. John J. McLaughlin has written the script for what will be a two-night, four-hour production.
Other new shows coming to A&E include the largely self-explanatory “Storage Wars: Dallas,” “Boar Hunters” and “InLaws,” which will launch in the third quarter of 2011, and the trucking series “Ship Happens,” premiering in the fourth quarter.
Among the A&E favorites returning later this year are “Intervention,” “Hoarders,” “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” “Parking Wars” and the drama “The Glades.”
As was previously announced, A&E is currently in looking at a pair of drama pilots: Greg Grunberg plays a plus-sized detective in “Big Mike,” while Robert Taylor plays a Wyoming sheriff, opposite Katee Sackhoff, in “Longmire.”