Two months after inking Tyler Perry to an overall deal and announcing its move into scripted fare, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network has announced the pair of series to be overseen by the multihyphenate.
Perry will write, direct and executive produce a comedy and a drama for Harpo and Discovery Communications joint venture, with both series via his Tyler Perry Studios banner for OWN. The two series will begin production early next year and bow in mid-2013.
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The Haves and the Have Nots is a drama effort about the dynamics of the affluent Cyrer family and the impoverished family of their housekeeper, Hanna, and the obstacles and secrets that exist within both families.
Love Thy Neighbor, meanwhile, is a multicamera comedy series set at Love's Diner, where every day the menu serves up good food, great laughs, valuable life lessons and a lot of love for its zany neighbors.
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Episode orders for both projects are unclear with additional writers and producers expected to be added.
OWN inked Perry -- the prolific writer, director, producer and actor behind the Madea features, among several other stage and small-screen projects -- to a multiyear pact in October to produce original content for the cabler.
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Before the deal, Perry's TV efforts were housed at Turner-owned TBS, where the network launched half-hours Tyler Perry's House of Payne, Meet the Browns and For Better or Worse.
Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav, speaking Dec. 4 at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in London, expressed confidence in OWN, noting its recent ratings growth puts the channel as one of the top three growing networks and noting he expected it to be profitable in the second half of 2013 as he forecast its growth to go from 80 million to 85 million homes.
"The cherry on top is we got Tyler Perry," Zaslav told investors at the time. November marked OWN's 10th consecutive month of year-over-year ratings growth.
Perry is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit
