NBC Greenlights Dance Competition Show from Jenna Dewan Tatum & Channing Tatum
NBC is getting into the dance competition craze with a project from dancer and actress Jenna Dewan Tatum, Variety has learned.
The untitled show, which is described as a fresh take on the unscripted dance competition genre, has landed a six-episode order. Dewan Tatum will serve as a judge and mentor on the series. Her husband Channing Tatum will also appear on the show.
The husband-and-wife team, who met on the set of their 2006 dance movie “Step Up,” will exec produce the show, which hails from Endemol Shine North America.
The project is the first between NBC and Dewan Tatum’s production company Purple Cup Productions. Tatum’s Free Association banner is also behind the dance series. Purple Cup’s Meegan Kiernan and Free Association’s Peter Kiernan and Reid Carolin will also serve as exec producers.
Dewan Tatum got her start as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson, Pink, Missy Elliott and Christina Aguilera. After her acting break in “Step Up,” she segued further into acting with a recurring role on FX’s “American Horror Story” and a starring role on Lifetime’s “Witches of East End.” She is currently recurring on “Supergirl” on CBS. Before breaking into A-list acting territory, Channing Tatum also began as a dancer, appearing in a Ricky Martin music video. His experience working as a male stripper in his younger years inspired the “Magic Mike” movies in which he starred.
For NBC, the dance series is a somewhat new genre for the network’s alternative slate. Most recently, NBC has found huge success in “Little Big Shots,” the Steve Harvey-hosted kid talent show. “The Voice,” “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior” have also been big hits for the net, which has found a strong niche in live, unscripted talent fare, but does not have a show in the dance genre.
The reality dance genre has produced some of broadcast’s longest-lived unscripted successes, with ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” just entering its 22nd season and Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” heading into Season 13 this summer.
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