CNN unveiled three new non-fiction series at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront, giving a glimpse of its plans after the unit was greatly scaled back last year.
The projects include Columbia: The Final Flight (working title), which tells the story of the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. The series is a co-production of CNN Original Series, BBC and Mindhouse Productions, and it being distributed globally by BBC Studios.
TinderBox: Great Moments in Pop Culture (working title) highlights the TV moments that became cultural phenomenons, including Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out on her sitcom, and the first interracial kiss on Star Trek.
Spy Wars (working title) is another co-production with the BBC, telling the story of real life spies in the climax of the Cold War between the West and the East in the early 1980.
Last year, CNN announced that it was ending commissioned projects with outside partners in its Original Series and Original Films units, as Warner Bros. Discovery went through an aggressive round of cost cutting. Instead, the network looked to produce projects in house. The units were responsible for projects such as Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy and Navalny, which won the feature documentary Academy Award this year. The network canceled the Tucci series in December.
