'Manhunt' Series on the Move as Charter Talks Two-Season Deal With Lionsgate

[Nergal]

 

Charter Communications is embarking on a Manhunt.


The company is in advance talks with Lionsgate on a two-season order for the show, though a deal is not final, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Manhunt, which began life as a limited series on Discovery in 2017, would be an anthology drama detailing law enforcement's search for notorious criminals.


The first season (on Charter) would follow the search for Eric Rudolph, a domestic terrorist responsible for the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics as well as the bombings of two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar in the late '90s.


Should a deal go through, Manhunt would join L.A.'s Finest, which Charter picked up after NBC passed on the Sony TV procedural, as offerings to customers of Charter's Spectrum cable systems. The company started making a concerted push into scripted programming in January with the hiring of former NBC and Chernin Entertainment executive Katherine Pope as head of original programming.


Executive producers John Goldwyn and Andrew Sodroski, who were behind Manhunt: Unabomber on Discovery, are set to resume their duties if a deal is consummated.


Unabomber, which starred Paul Bettany and Sam Worthington, drew largely positive reviews and performed reasonably well for Discovery in the Nielsen ratings: It averaged just over 1 million viewers in live-plus-same-day ratings. Discovery, however, subsequently opted to walk away from the scripted game, leaving Manhunt homeless.