News & Updates

Mariana De Andrade and Chris Singleton will wed live on Lifetime this evening on My Great Big Live Wedding. The couple are high school sweethearts and are tying the knot at a venue near their hometown of Charleston, S.C. Tuesday night, which is about all they know about their wedding.

Most of the ceremony details have been left up to David Tutera, who has planned this wedding and seven others for his new TV show, My Great Big Live Wedding, so the couple knows very little about what to expect for their big night.

For years, Lifetime’s unscripted brand had been associated primarily with Project Runway. Then in 2011, Dance Moms came along, followed by the Little Womenfranchise. In 2017, the breakout relationship series Married at First Sight moved to Lifetime from A+E Networks sibling FYI. A year later, the network launched a Justice For Women programming block. That theme was punctuated by this year’s Surviving R. Kelly six-part documentary detailing sexual abuse allegations against Kelly, which was a ratings hit and triggered a social conversation that is still ongoing.

In an interview with Deadline, Gena McCarthy, EVP, Head of Programming, Lifetime Unscripted & Head of Programming, FYI, reveals Lifetime’s plans for following up on the success of Surviving R. Kelly with other docu series, talks about the return of Abby Lee Miller to Dance Moms and possible spinoffs of the hit reality series, and addresses whether the network would take on new fashion/design formats after ending the Project Runway deal last year, McCarthy, who retook the reins of Lifetime’s unscripted programming 10 months ago in addition to her FYI duties, has greenlighted three new series, Cheerleader Generation, Marrying Millions and Temmoraland (working title). Cheerleader Generation marks a return to the cheerleading space which Lifetime explored with the 2006 series Cheerleader Nation in an example of the network’s efforts to reinvent genre areas — and shows — as it also is mulling bringing back How To Look Good Naked.

Additionally, Lifetime will be bringing back the 2016 FYI series Bride and Prejudice, which will follow fellow FYI originals Married at First Sight and Seven Year Switch in a move to Lifetime. The series revolves around couples planning to wed despite their families’ disapproval.

“We currently develop and produce unscripted content in three anchor genres on Lifetime,” McCarthy said. “It’s the world of relationships as defined currently by Married at First Sight. We have My Great Big Live Wedding,which is a big, exciting, nerve-racking swing but it’s something that we’re just extraordinarily proud of.”

Also in the relationship area, “we have an upcoming swing, Bride and Prejudice,which is very timely, we think, that we are bringing to Lifetime. It explores sort of Romeo and Juliet people overcoming divides of race, or class, or religion in pursuit of real love and overcoming obstacles that family and friends might put up.”

Also coming up in the relationship genre is the newly picked up Marrying Millions, “which is asking that ancient question, are they together for love or for money,” McCarthy said. “It is following these unexpected couples in which one person is extraordinarily wealthy and one is not. Sometimes, it’s the standard archetype, and sometimes it’s the woman who’s wealthy and the man is not. It is a very provocative concept and a big swing for us.”

The second anchor unscripted genre, “I call it our big character, big talent wheelhouse, currently defined by performance-based shows like Dance Moms, or Bring It!, or The Rap Game. We’re bringing a mother-daughter cheerleader format back to Lifetime with Cheerleader Generation,” McCarthy said.

“We have a show called Temmoraland coming in our big character, big performance, big talent on display wheelhouse. Temmora Levy runs a bootcamp, a training school for aspiring singers in Tennessee, and she’s an amazing, lightning in a bottle character that we think will work really well the way Coach D and Abby Lee Miller really resonate with Lifetime viewers.”

Speaking of Miller, McCarthy confirmed that “a Dance Moms resurrection is under way” with the famed dance instructor who has been dealing with health issues. “That’s what we are calling it, with Abby, and back to her home town of Pittsburgh, PA where it all began, where she bred championship dancers and teams, and she’s building a new dance troupe, ready to take on nationals once again.”

Through the years, Dance Mons has produced a number of stars, including the Ziegler sisters. Is Lifetime considering expanding the franchise with shows built around former Dance Momsstandouts?

“We are going back in with a fresh team,” McCarthy said. “(Miller) rebuilds her studio and her troupe of dancers. We’ve looked at spinoffs with some of the originals, and that’s not off the table, but right now, we’re focused on relaunching the mothership franchise and just reestablishing its dominance once again.”

Lifetime’s third anchor unscripted genre is documentaries/limited docuseries focused on women’s issues. “We have reignited our Justice for Women night as defined by the trailblazing success of Surviving R. Kelly,” McCarthy said. In light of that success, the network is “looking at a lot of different subjects” for docuseries.

“There is nothing I can confirm at the moment, but we’re looking at more Justice for Women tentpole miniseries events,” she said. “We’re looking at a subgenre approach that we’re calling our Caped Crusaders, women who served in various vocations in jobs, finding some of those unsung heroes that have always worked in scripted series in Lifetime’s history, but for an unscripted audience in storytelling format.”

Lifetime aired Surviving R. Kelly despite a legal threat by the musician. Asked whether the network considered not airing the docu or whether last-minute cuts were made, McCarthy said, “We took our time to do (the series) with great deliberation and with great factual research and accuracy. You have one shot to get it right with a swing like this, so we are very, very proud that we were able to share these women’s stories, in their voices, sharing their experiences, in this factual documentary event.”

More than a month after Surviving R. Kelly aired, there are still new developments, including reports of a grand jury convened in Illinois in connection with the new allegations against him. Will Lifetime do a followup?

“We continue to follow the story and we are looking at potential follow-ups,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy oversaw Lifetime’s unscripted efforts in the early 2010s, launching Dance Moms, followed by Bring It!, overseeing Project Runway and shepherding its All Stars spinoff. She then moved to help launch the rebranded sibling factual entertainment lifestyle network FYI as head of programming, developing such series as Married At First Sight, Seven Year Switch and Bride and Prejudice. “A lot of that content, particularly the relationship content, proved to be so strong that now I’ve returned to Lifetime and have brought a lot of that breakthrough, innovative relationship content with me, which is a new anchor for unscripted content on Lifetime,” she said. “Shows like Married at First Sight, which is I believe the highest-rated serialized content, certainly in unscripted, right now at the brand, and shows like Seven Year Switch.”

While Project Runway was a signature Lifetime series for a decade, the network has no intention of returning to the fashion space.

“The relationship genre that we have is closer to the natural Lifetime voice, so we’re really pushing out that strand aggressively, and it delivers a very upscale audience to Lifetime the way Runway did,” McCarthy said. “So, we’re really focusing on doing more of those homegrown relationships and big character, big talent performance wheelhouse shows, because they’re just an organic, authentic fit on Lifetime. We are looking at some transformational formats, as well, but they’d be homegrown formats in a Lifetime voice from day one.”

McCarthy gave an example of a transformational series the network is looking into.

Joslyn Pennywell found her knight in shining armor. She said her fiance, Kibwe Trim, is a dream come true.

On March 19, the two will tie the knot in front of their family and friends and everyone tuned into Lifetime.

The pair from Van Nuys, California, were chosen to be among eight couples featured on “My Great Big Live Wedding.”

Celebrity wedding planner David Tutera surprised them with the announcement that he’s going to entirely plan their wedding.

Joslyn said when she was younger, she watched “My Fair Wedding” and hoped Tutera could design her big day.

She had no idea her wildest hopes — for her groom and her wedding planner — would come true.

For Kibwe, the experience is proof that good things come to people who are disciplined, determined and dedicated.

He grew up in Trinidad, a small Caribbean island, watching a lot of TV and nursing what he thought were impossible dreams.

Kibwe got a college scholarship and moved to the U.S. then went on to play pro basketball internationally. In 2013, he started DreamChaser International, an nonprofit that offers scholarships and mentoring for at-risk youth. He wrote a book, “From Nerd to Pro” and gives inspirational talks.

Joslyn is originally from northeastern Louisiana. She attended Boley Elementary in West Monroe and graduated from Jonesboro-Hodge High School in Jonesboro. Her family still lives in the area.

The couple met a few years ago at The Parlor, a sports bar on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. They were watching daytime football with their friends. Joslyn was in the restroom when a woman randomly asked her to take a picture. As she and the stranger were leaving the bathroom, the stranger asked 6-foot-10 Kibwe to take a photo, too, because he was tall.

Joslyn said she grabbed his hand and led him over for the photo, then they went back to their groups of friends. They kept making eye contact, then she approached him.

They’ve been together ever since.

A stranger somewhere has their first photo. Joslyn laughed that they’d love to get a copy.

She’s accustomed to being in the public eye. She was on “America’s Next Top Model” in 2008 and has continued her career as a model, actress and producer. Kibwe said she naturally started working with him at DreamChaser.

Half of the couple’s wedding registry will go toward helping others. Dream Chaser is working on a “One Word, One Globe,” campaign. The idea is to raise $10,000 annually to help young people in 10 deserving countries. They want to start with the first country in August, but that depends on fundraising efforts.

Together, they have organized drives, run athletic camps, spoken at schools and volunteered their time. In April 2018, they did an Easter event with Blessed Beyond Measure in Monroe.

Kibwe said they met on Nov. 16 a few years ago. His birthday is May 16, hers is Jan. 16. Sixteens are important to them. So he made dinner on July 15, then waited until after midnight to pop the question.

Initially, the two kept the engagement quiet. They wanted to wait and be more public with it when they went to visit his family in Trinidad over Thanksgiving, but that trip fell through. (Kibwe did a second public proposal with her friends.)

Joslyn has met her future in-laws over video chat, but she’ll be meeting most of Kibwe’s family and finally get to hug them when they come to Los Angeles for the wedding.

It makes the event even more special to her. She said the whole experience is blessing, from the groom to the whole fantasy planning experience.

Joslyn won’t see her dress until fittings the week of the event. Both said handing over the wedding planning is a little nerve-wracking, but Tutera has met with them a few times to make sure things are on track. They trust him implicitly.

For both of them, the whole wedding is about dreams coming true.

Tune in

Joslyn and Kibwe will get married March 19. The show will start at 9 p.m. CT.

View the full article here.

A Shreveport bride’s dream is coming true thanks to the television reality wedding series and a celebrity wedding planner.

“My Great Big Live Wedding with David Tutera” spotlights eight inspirational couples who will take turns having their weddings broadcast live on each episode. The new season premiered on Feb. 5 with new episodes every Tuesday on the Lifetime channel.

At 9 p.m. March 19, Joslyn Pennywell, of Shreveport, will marry her fiance Kibwe Trim, of Trinidad, in a ceremony set in their current residence of Los Angeles.

The couple planned their dream wedding with show host David Tutera. Tutera is an award-winning celebrity wedding planner whose style and expertise caught Pennywell’s eye years ago.

“David is amazing,” Pennywell said. “He’s such a beautiful spirit, such an amazing man and so talented. When I was in college, I used to watch ‘My Fair Wedding with David Tutera’ and I used to say, ‘That man is going to do my wedding.'”

Pennywell was born in Lucky, Louisiana — a small town in Bienville Parish about an hour and a half southeast of Shreveport. She attended Grambling State University where she graduated with a bachelor of science in business and a masters of science in criminal justice. After living in Shreveport, where her family still resides, Pennywell moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career goals in 2010.

Since then, she’s embarked on many professional pursuits, including as a product specialist, nonprofit leader, actor, writer, public speaker and model. She competed on the competitive reality series, “America’s Next Top Model” on cycle 11.

Trim is a former professional basketball player and founder of a social networking company called L.A. Lime and the nonprofit The DreamChaser International Foundation, led by the couple.

DreamChaser provides tutoring, mentoring and financial aid to kids in underserved communities in the U.S., Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa. A portion of the funds contributed to Pennywell and Trim’s online wedding registry will benefit the organization.

WELLINGTON, Fla. — A young Wellington woman who has battled cancer will receive a dream wedding that will be televised live on the Lifetime channel.

Kristin Moya was just 22 years old when her world was turned upside down.

“I was diagnosed in 2016 with stage-two breast cancer, and I battled through chemotherapy bilateral mastectomy and radiation. And the following year I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer,” said Moya.

Her boyfriend, Luis Polanco, who she has known since she was 14 years old, was by her side through it all.

“Because it got questionable at times but like I said you put your head down, and you go through the obstacle and hope for the best,” said Polanco.

Once Moya was in remission, the Wellington couple got engaged.

“My mom actually wrote David Tutera telling him about my cancer story and how I was getting married,” said Moya.

Tutera is a celebrity wedding planner. His assistant called and picked them to have a dream wedding that will be televised live Tuesday night.

“I won’t know what my wedding dress will look like until the day of the wedding,” said Moya.

“I love it. I think that not knowing and not having control sometimes is a little bit better than having to make the decision,” said Polanco.

When she walks down the aisle, a local pastor and her bridesmaids will be there. One of the bridesmaids is Mary-Madison Sims.

“For someone so selfless to get something so special, she totally deserves it, and Luis is the greatest and such a support,” said Sims.

Pastor Jim Sims will officiate the wedding.

“It’s hard to believe that we are at this point finally, not only the time she went through the struggle, but just these months of getting prepared and getting ready. Now, we are here and it’s really exciting,” Moya added. “It’s so incredible to be so fortunate enough to be blessed by God that I’m still alive, I’m still here, I’m still living and I have so much to do in this life.”

Luis and Kristin’s wedding will be televised live on Tuesday at 10 p.m. on Lifetime.

View the full article here.

Wedding and party planner extraordinaire David Tutera is taking his talents to TV once more with Lifetime’s My Great Big Live Wedding with David Tutera. And this time, he’s pushing the envelope even further — each episode will be a live broadcast!

According to the network, “Every week, one new couple will share their emotional and heart-warming story live from a different city across the country.” Thinkfactory Media, Lifetime, and Tutera “scoured the country and found eight inspirational couples whose remarkable stories of love and survival redefine real love.”

Viewers who tune in will get to experience the entire wedding journey with Tutera and the couples. “It’s not like you turn on the TV and it’s just the wedding. The journey starts at the moment I tell them they’re going to get this amazing wedding,” Tutera tells TVInsider.

He’s responsible for every last detail but insists the show isn’t about him — “I’m just the messenger. It’s all about the wonderful couples.”

Read on for our chat with Tutera below.

What do you think people will connect with most about the series?

David Tutera: I think the timing for this show is perfect. It’s one hour of happiness and you’re rooting for a great couple. And it’s also about seeing the magic of what I do to making these amazing weddings come alive. It’s a feel-great show and I’m beyond excited for people to experience it.

Is the live element even more stressful for you?

Yes! [Laughs] In all the things that I’ve done in my career and personal life, I aim to do things that have never been done. So when I was talking to Lifetime about how we were going to do this, everyone was like, ‘I don’t know. It’s never been done before.’ Which makes it even more fascinating to me. It’s a lot of moving pieces. We know that when it comes to weddings anything can happen. By filming it live, we’re telling the story with heart and honesty and we’re shooting it in a way so the TV audience feels like a guest of that wedding.

Every couple is so inspirational. Is there one couple’s story that touched you the most?

I traveled around the country for two months meeting these couples and I would leave them and call my husband and say, ‘I’m emotionally drained.’ These couples are legitimately happy even though they’ve gone through life’s challenges and struggles. They’ve come to a place we’re they’re great even though they’ve experienced hardships. I think that’s what will make viewers fall in love with them even more. The couples weren’t begging for this; they weren’t asking for this. Sometimes, as a society, we don’t see these stories because they get buried by the everyday drama but it’s true that love conquers all.

Are you working with local vendors or bringing in your own people?

My whole thing was that I’m coming into your life; it’s not me bringing in my own people. It’s about me working with your community and you’re people that best represent who you are. It’s just me elevating it.

After this, what’s next on the horizon?

I’m launching my next bridal gown collection — called David Tutera Bridal — and my men’s fashion collection. I’ve upped the ante. I’ve tried to take wedding fashions and elevate the visuals. The brides on the show are all wearing my designs made specifically for them.

My Great Big Live Wedding with David Tutera, Premieres, Tuesday, February 5, 10/9c, Lifetime

View the full article here.

Lifetime event series My Great Big Live Wedding with David Tutera follows eight deserving couples who work with famed event planner Tutera, culminating with their ceremonies aired live. Adam Reed, CEO of Thinkfactory Media, says it truly takes a village to pull off such an ambitious project.

Series premieres Tuesday, February 5th at 10p.

The Decision to Go LIVE

At Thinkfactory, we never develop a project around a “live” hook. For us, the potential success of a series hinges completely on a strong concept and format, as well as compelling characters that viewers can invest in. In other words, the project needs to be able to stand on its own – the live component can’t be the only factor that’s making viewers tune in.

Once all the right pieces are in place, it then becomes a conversation around, “how can we elevate this further?”. That’s where the “live” discussion begins. With any wedding (televised or not), the stakes are extremely high and there are a million things that can go wrong at any moment. Now add to that a celebrity wedding planner (Tutera) who is working around the clock to bring each couple a perfect wedding that’s chock-full of surprises – plus a camera crew and production team that’s capturing every second live, as it happens – and you’ve got quite the rollercoaster ride.

In short, the live element isn’t the ice cream sundae – it’s the cherry on top.

Casting the Wedding Maestro & the Most Deserving Couples in America

In the very early stages of development, Gena McCarthy from Lifetime and myself agreed that David Tutera was the host we needed for this show. There’s no one better than Tutera, and he brings a whole new layer of excitement to the project. It’s the type of series he’s always wanted to do, and his enthusiasm shines through in each episode.

Once he was onboard, we cast a wide net in our search for the “most deserving couples in America.” Our team met with so many different future brides and grooms, and a lot of people actually referred us to other couples with incredible stories. In multiple instances, we had different folks pointing us in the same directions, and as a result, we’ve landed on eight amazing couples whose backstories and journeys to the altar are nothing short of remarkable.

It Takes a Village

With most cable series, you have a core production team in the trenches, pulling it all together. For a series like My Great Big Live Wedding, it really takes a village. We have three separate teams on the show who need to focus on completely different tasks, all while moving forward in lockstep.

First, we have our producing and showrunning team, which executes the creative vision for the series through every phase of production. Then, we have our “live” team that focuses on pulling off the live broadcast and leading the charge on the night of the wedding. Of course, this team needs to stay aligned with our producing/showrunning team at every turn – in order to seamlessly blend our taped packages with the live broadcast.

And both of those teams need to stay in constant communication with Tutera’s team, as he’s developing and executing his own creative vision for the wedding that needs to mesh with the overarching vision for the series.

It’s an intricate production, and you need a top-notch crew (which we’re very lucky to have) to pull it off.

Capturing the Love Story

While the live wedding broadcast will be the anchor of each episode, this show doesn’t work unless viewers are invested in our couples from the onset. That said, we needed to be surgical about piecing together each couple’s love story – finding the most compelling approach to capturing their history together and their engagement, as well as the massive physical and emotional challenges they’ve overcome on their path to the wedding.

If the audience isn’t emotionally hooked five minutes in, we haven’t done our job.

Staying Light on Your Feet 

Of course, it’s absolutely impossible to control everything for a live series. Anything can happen at any given moment, and our team needs to remain nimble and be prepared for every possible scenario. There’s a Plan B, Plan C and Plan D for everything, and even then, you need an experienced team that can improvise in the moment and create an entirely new plan on the spot. It’s what makes live television so great and what keeps viewers tuning in.

As a producer, you just prepare and rehearse like a maniac, knowing that in the end, it all may need to go out the window.

View the full article here.

Thinkfactory Media has promoted its longstanding unscripted executive Adam Freeman to president of creative as part of a rejig at the US prodco.

The outfit has also upped its VP of unscripted development, Brian Dale, to senior VP, while Ashley Kolpack has become VP of unscripted development and Justin Nichols is now head of casting.

The moves come a few months after ITV America took full control of the company, with former CEO Leslie Greif being replaced by current chief Adam Reed.

Freeman joined Thinkfactory in 2006 and most recently served as executive VP of creative affairs. He has exec produced a number of the company’s hits including 12 seasons of WE tv’s Marriage Boot Camp franchise and Gene Simmons Family Jewels for A&E, on which he was also showrunner.

He was previously an MTV exec for 11 years, working on music video show Total Request Live for more than 800 episodes.

Dale, who has been at Thinkfactory for eight years, has been key to the firm’s unscripted development growth, working on TLC’s Married by Mom & Dad and Lifetime’s Preacher’s Daughters, among other shows. Kolpack worked at UTA and MTV before moving to Thinkfactory in 2015.

“Having been a part of Thinkfactory from the ground up, it has been simply amazing to watch us grow from four people above a bakery to a full-service production company with more than a decade in the business under our belts,” said Freeman. “This is a tremendous opportunity to lead the company’s creative efforts, as we further expand and diversify our slate.”

Both Freeman and Kolpack have played integral roles in Thinkfactory’s forthcoming project My Great Big Live Wedding with David Tutera, which was greenlit by Lifetime in September 2018.

View the full article here.