Getty Images
Yes, Channing Tatum will also appear and exec produce on the six-episode series. Dewan Tatum is set to serve as a judge.
NBC is ready to step up its dance game.
The network has handed out a six-episode series pickup to an untitled Jenna Dewan Tatum dance show, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Details about the format are being kept under wraps but the hourlong series is described as a "fresh take" on the dance competition genre. Dewan Tatum will serve as a judge and mentor on the series, with husband and former Step Up co-star Channing Tatum also set to appear on-screen. (Insiders stress that the latter will not be a judge as he is potentially expected to appear occasionally.)
The dance series hails from Endemol Shine North America, with Dewan Tatum and partner Meegan Kiernan set to exec produce via her Purple Cup Productions banner. The series, in partnership with Free Association, is exec produced by Channing Tatum, Peter Kiernan, Reid Carolin, Dewan Tatum and Meegan Kiernan.
Dewan Tatum started her career as a backup dancer for Janet Jackson and has worked with artists including Pink, Missy Elliott and Christina Aguilera. Her dancing skills helped her earn the starring role in 2006 feature Step Up, opposite a then-unknown Channing Tatum (watch a clip, below). The couple married in 2009. Dewan Tatum has continued to focus on acting with roles including Lifetime's Witches of East End and her current recurring role as comic book character Lucy Lane on CBS freshman drama Supergirl. She's repped by UTA, Management and Bloom Hergott.
The Dewan Tatum series puts NBC in the dance competition business. The news comes as ABC's Dancing With the Stars returned this week with its 22nd season, netting a series premiere low. Fox, meanwhile, renewed ratings underperformer So You Think You Can Dance for a 13th season — but changed the format to feature all children in what it dubbed SYTYCD: The Next Generation.
For NBC, meanwhile, the dance series comes as the network has found broad appeal with kid-friendly Little Big Shots. Check out the duo together in Step Up and on Spike's Lip Sync Battle, below.
Channing Tatum NBC
