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OZY Media Moves Into Scripted With ‘Ripped From The Headlines’ Drama At Lifetime

Peter White
·3-min read

EXCLUSIVE: OZY Media has set a border immigration television movie at Lifetime as part of its Ripped From The Headlines strand.

The drama is the first scripted project to emerge from the company’s first-look deal at A+E Networks signed earlier this year. OZY Media was set up in 2013 by former CNN and MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson and former Goldman Sachs exec Samir Rao.

The project is based on articles in the immigration and human rights space from OZY’s reporting arm including Ginger Thompson’s Meet The Reporter Who Made America Listen To The Children At The Border and the story of Cindy Madrid, who was separated from her daughter at the border.

The story from Thompson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist ProPublica reporter and former New York Times Mexico City bureau chief, centered around the conditions of young children at the border, and the tapes from her original story were played at the White House press briefing and on the floor of Congress, which are thought to have led to President Donald Trump signing an executive order to end child separation policies.

The film will be the latest for Lifetime’s popular Ripped From The Headlines strand, which has also featured I Was Lorena Bobbitt, Poisoned Love: The Stacey Castor Story, The College Admissions Scandal and Escaping The NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Fight To Save Her Daughter.

The order comes a month after OZY Media set a pair of projects via its first-look deal. It is developing The Science of Dating (w/t), in partnership with A+E Networks’ Six West Media, at Lifetime and making one-hour presidential campaign special, The Contenders for History.

“OZY is on the front line of so many stories that need to be told,” said Amy Winter, EVP, Head of Programming, Lifetime, LMN. “This project in particular has perfect synergy with our ‘Ripped From The Headlines’ genre and will greatly resonate with our Lifetime audience. We look forward to our continued partnership with OZY capturing the many stories they are uncovering on a daily basis.”

“We are incredibly excited to be trying something new in the scripted space, and we are so grateful to the terrific folks at Lifetime and A+E, who are the perfect partners to help us bring alive this longstanding dream,” added OZY co-founder and CEO Carlos Watson.

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