ABC Family Inks Reality Show ‘The Letter’

ABC Family has greenlit the reality series The Letter. Sirens Media will start production in 2016. In each stand-alone episode, four friends draw names and anonymously write to the selected person a “thoughtful yet totally honest letter,” according to ABC Family, “outlining what, in their opinion, needs to be changed in order to improve the life of the recipient. For a week, each recipient must follow all the instructions outlined in the letter.

“When your best friends tell you what you ‘really need to hear,’ it can be very emotional–whether hurtful, helpful, kind or hopeful,” said Karey Burke, ABC Family executive VP, programming and development. “All these emotions and transformations are explored in our explosive new reality series.”

The pickup follows ABC Family, which becomes Freeform next month, greenlighting season two of docuseries Monica the Medium.

Sirens Media is part of Leftfield Entertainment, an ITV America company. Executive producers for Sirens Media are Rebecca Toth Diefenbach, Valerie Haselton and Lucilla D’Agostino.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.