The number of true crime series on the small is going to balloon over the next year or so, as development slates seem to have an open-door policy for entries in the sub-genre. At this point, not a lot of the in-progress projects are being put together by those involved with high profile crimes themselves, but that’s an advantage that will be touted by a new series from NBC News’ Peacock Productions and Denise Brown, the sister of one of the most publicized murder victims in U.S. history, Nicole Brown Simpson.
Denise Brown will lead a team of experts as they launch their own investigations into cases for which justice may not have been carried out in the proper manner, approaching these cases from all angles to arrive at the truth. As far as the press release goes, it sounds like the as-yet-untitled and unscripted series will take on a different case for each episode, making it unlike the recent batch of one-story-per-season true crime projects and more like your average news magazine shows focused on such things.
Peacock Productions’ Vice President of Development Melody Shafir, understandably, pointed to Brown’s lengthy first-hand experience of being deeply embedded in a headline-grabbing murder trial as a reason for the confidence that NBC News has in the former model and social activist taking the reins. Brown indeed knows what it’s like to be in the public eye, as she became quite outspoken against O.J. Simpson during that infamous trial and thereafter, never missing a beat to call him out. In the years since, she became a public speaker for domestic violence awareness and a proponent of assisting victims of such awfulness. Assuming the crackerjack team she works with works on captivating cases, this could be a series well worth the attention of fans anyone who got into Making a Murderer, Serial and similar offerings.
It isn’t clear exactly where Denise Brown’s series would air, unfortunately. It doesn’t appear that NBC proper will have anything to do with it, so perhaps we can expect to find it on CNBC or MSNBC in the future, unless interest in it skyrockets. Perhaps this will just be a web project focused to gaining attention to NBC News’ website. Hard to tell at this point without my own team of experts.
Denise Brown and true crime television have already crossed paths in 2016, as she was played by Jordana Brewster in FX’s The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. That series will be getting a second season next year, and we’ll also be interesting in seeing what happens with CBS’ JonBenét Ramsey series and NBC’s Law & Order spinoff about the Menendez brothers.
No word on where this project’s development will go next, but we’ll keep an eye out.
