Cable channel CMT orders two adventure series

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - CMT wants to bring back the traditional family sitcom -- and add a few gators.

The country-music cable network has ordered two series to launch an action block and hired a comedy executive to oversee an expansion into scripted programing.

It intends to develop about a dozen comedy scripts with an eye toward having two sitcoms on the air next year.

But first, coming in the second quarter are "Danger Coast" and "Gator 911" (both working titles). "Danger Coast" follows Miami's elite Marine Operations Bureau as it protects the public. "Gator 911" follows Gary Suarage, owner of Texas-based adventure park Gator Country, as he and his team rescue wandering gators. Both half-hours received 10-episode orders.

CMT has followed corporate sibling VH1's model of gradually expanding into reality shows and specials such as its country revamp of former NBC title "The Singing Bee" and its reality show "World's Strictest Parents."

CMT's audience research has shown the network's viewership is fairly broad (and evenly split between men and women), which supports expanding into more general programing -- music, comedy, adventure and family are the genres that execs say best suit their network.

With plenty of family-friendly and music video programing already on the air, that left adventure and comedy. To that end, Brad Johnson has assumed the newly created position of senior vp comedy development. A former executive at Fox, Johnson developed "The Simple Life," "American Dad" and "Arrested Development" and served as a showrunner on the long-running sitcom "Coach."

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