TV News: Lifetime's UnREAL Preps for Season Two Summer Launch

In a press release:

LIFETIME’S UNREAL
PREPS FOR SEASON TWO SUMMER LAUNCH

LOS ANGELES, CA (January 6, 2016) – Scheduled this Friday to be honored by the American Film Institute as a 2015 Television Program of the Year and recently nominated the Broadcast Television Journalists Association for a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Drama, Lifetime’s critically-acclaimed series UnREAL (#UnREALTV) is set to begin production this March for a summer return. Co-created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, UnREAL gives a fictitious behind-the-scenes glimpse into the chaos surrounding the production of a dating competition program, Everlasting. Starring Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer as producers Rachel Goldberg and Quinn King, season two stirs up the controversy when Everlasting casts its first-ever African American suitor.

Returning for season two as series regulars are Craig Bierko as Everlasting’s creator, Chet, who is on a quest to reclaim his full power on set; Josh Kelly as Jeremy, Everlasting’s director of photography and Rachel’s ex-boyfriend and Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman as Jay, a field producer whose ambitions run far beyond the show. Casting is currently underway for Everlasting’s new suitor Darius Hill, an All-American football star, and the contestants including Yael, a gorgeous upscale hipster; Tiffany, a daddy’s girl and football player’s dream; Ruby, a shrewd contestant, not at all interested in being a puppet for the producers; Bethann, an Alabama born and bred patriotic girl; and Chantal, a prim and proper southern debutante. Everlasting will also get Coleman, a new producer and the series is also casting the role of Romeo, Darius’ street-smart and savvy cousin.

Noxon and Shapiro executive produce UnREAL, along with Carol Barbee, Sally DeSipio, Robert M. Sertner and Stacy Rukeyser. UnREAL is the first scripted series fully produced and distributed by A+E Studios. A+E Networks also handles global sales for UnREAL, which has been sold and will air in more than 100 territories.

The full first season of UnREAL will be available for streaming on Hulu, beginning February 3rd.

ABOUT UnREAL

Set against the backdrop of the hit dating competition show Everlasting, UnREAL is led by flawed heroine Rachel Goldberg (Appleby), who returns as supervising producer, renowned for her skills manipulating her relationships with, and among, the contestants to get the vital dramatic and outrageous footage that the program’s dispassionate executive producer, Quinn King (Zimmer), demands. What ensues once again is an eye-opening look at what happens in the outrageous world of unscripted television, where being a contestant can be vicious andbeing a producer is a whole other reality.

Inspired by Shapiro’s 2013 SXSW award-winning independent short film, Sequin Raze, UnREAL was named one of 2015 honorees for the Critics’ Choice Television Awards’ Most Exciting New Series. Recently UnREAL was nominated for three Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Drama Series; Best Actress in a Drama, Shiri Appleby; and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Constance Zimmer. Lifetime also received its first Gotham Award nomination in the Breakthrough Series category and its first AFI Award nomination for Program of the Year. To date, season one averaged more than 3.7 million views across all available platforms. UnREAL is Lifetime’s youngest scripted series ever, with a median age of 43.