TV One will expand its morning news/talk show offerings from one to three hours with an expanded version of News One Now and the addition of a live talk show, the network said during its upfront presentation Thursday.
The Roland Martin-hosted News One Now will expand from one hour to two hours beginning in the third quarter, said network officials. The series will also be renamed Black America Today to better reflect the show’s focus on news and issues that affect the African-American community, Martin told Multichannel News.
Martin -- who told the gathering of press and advertisers that next week on News One Now he would “eulogize” Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly, who earlier this week was let go by the network amid sexual harassment allegations – also said that the News One Now’s new two-hour format will allow the show to provide more in-depth coverage of breaking news and issues.
“There’s so much news that exists out there that we literally can’t fit it into a one hour format,” Martin told Multichannel News. “The extra hour allows us to stretch ourselves to do more, and also allows us to go deeper into some subjects.”
TV One later this year will also add a live, multi-platform, one-hour daily talk show featuring four as yet names female hosts that will focus on issues impacting the everyday lives of African-American women, said D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production.
In other TV One upfront news:
--The network will expand its Sunday true crime & justice programming block to a Monday nights with the development of several new series, including Two Sides Of The Truth, executively produced by Viola Davis; Evidence of Innocence; Hotlanta; #Murder and Thou Shalt Not.
--TV One will develop several original movies based on R&B music groups Xscape & DeBarge, as well as on the lives of Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.
