Upfront season is revving up and it was NBCUniversal-owned cable network USA’s turn to present their upcoming programming slate to the press. The unveiling introduced a variety of properties including an untitled project from Dwayne Johnson, a collection of WWE content and a Mark Wahlberg produced action series called Shooter.
One series that was not presented on stage, but which made their press release was Queen of the South, a show based on the Arturo Perez-Reverte best-selling book La Reina Del Sur. The story was previously a record-breaking hit telenovela for Telemundo starring Kate del Castillo back in 2011.
According to the press release, Queen of the South remains in contention. In order to understand the status of the series, we spoke with Alex Sepiol, USA’s SVP of Original Scripted Series Programming. The project stars Brazilian actress Alice Braga. “The pilot is in post production and we’re taking a look at it now. It’s always a process with any pilot. We’re not like a broadcast network where we have a certain inventory to fill. We evaluate each pilot as they come in and see if we want to move forward with it,” Sepiol said.
Sepiol also commented that they are exploring diversity in their programming. He noted that Queen of the South is an entry point into a world that many American audiences have not seen necessarily, offering an original voice. “I think it is always great when the stories we tell reflect America as it is happening. Clearly America has gone through some major demographic shifts and I think our new slate of shows reflect that,” he added.
Only time will tell if Queen of the South will air, but if the pilot eventually makes it to the screen, Hispanic viewers will likely be watching to see if it matches the popularity it once found on Telemundo.
Joshua John Miller and M.A. Fortin wrote the English language adaptation and it is executive produced by Pancho Mansfield and David Friendly.
