‘Star Search’ Reborn at Netflix as Live Competition

Netflix is reaching back into TV history for its next piece of live programming.

The streamer has picked up a new version of the talent competition Star Search. The announcement came Wednesday during Netflix’s upfront presentation to advertisers, which also included a host of series renewals (for Bridgerton, The Four Seasons and The Diplomat, among others).

Star Search is one of a few new series orders Netflix announced at the event. Also on tap are a comedy from Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Dan Levy; All the Sinners Bleed, a thriller from Black Panther co-writer Joe Robert Cole; The Body, a YA drama created by Quinn Shepherd (Hulu’s Under the Bridge); and Prime Time, a doc series about NFL Hall of Famer and University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders.

Star Search premiered in 1983 as a syndicated talent show hosted by Ed McMahon. It ran for 12 years and was revived at CBS from 2003-04 with Arsenio Hall as host. Among the notable contestants over the years were Destiny’s Child (performing as Girls Tyme), Britney Spears, Ray Romano, Dave Chappelle, Billy Porter, The Backstreet Boys and Usher.

The Netflix show will stream live twice a week as contestants in music, dance, variety/comedy and kids categories vie for the audience votes that will determine who continues in the competition.

Emmy Awards and Super Bowl halftime show producer Jesse Collins Entertainment is behind Star Search, with Collins, Dionne Harmon, Madison Merritt, Elaine Metaxas executive producing. America’s Got Talent veteran Jason Raff is the showrunner.

The untitled comedy from Levy and co-creator Rachel Sennott is a result of the overall deal Levy has at the streamer (which also produced the movie Good Grief). It will follow “two deeply incapable siblings who are blackmailed into the world organized crime.” Levy, Laurie Metcalf, and Taylor Ortega star; Levy is the showrunner and exec produces with Sennott.

All the Sinners Bleed is based on an S.A. Cosby novel of the same name. It centers on a former FBI agent who’s now the first Black sheriff in a small county in southern Virginia and leads the search for a serial killer who has been preying on Black communities.

Cole will serve as showrunner, writer and director on the series, which comes from Higher Ground Productions and Amblin Television. The two companies will be credited as executive producers along with Cole and Cosby.

Shepherd’s The Body is a coming-of-age drama. The show’s logline reads, “After a dance-team initiation gone wrong, a group of badly behaved Catholic school girls begin having prophetic visions that set off mass hysteria in their town.” Shepherd will be the showrunner and direct several episodes, executive producing with Amy Israel, Peter Chernin, and Josh Stern for The North Road Company and Riley Keough, Gina Gammell, and Sacha Ben Harroche for Felix Culpa.

Prime Time, from SMAC Entertainment, Skydance Sports and NFL Films, will delve into Sanders’ life on and off the field. The exec producers are Constance Schwartz-Morini and FredAnthony Smith for SMAC Entertainment) Jesse Sisgold, Jason T. Reed and Jon Weinbach for Skydance Sports; and Jessica Boddy, Keith Cossrow, Ross Ketover and Ken Rodgers for NFL Films.