Bravo Orders Two Seasons of Scripted Anthology Series ‘Dirty John’

Bravo has greenlit a two-season, straight to series order for Dirty John, a scripted anthology series. Universal Cable Productions is producing. The series is based on the true crime podcast of the same name from Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard.

Alexandra Cunningham will write and executive produce.

Oxygen Media has ordered a companion docuseries produced by Herzog & Co. and Los Angeles Times Studios, investigating the real life “Dirty John" through the eyes of those he deceived. Mark Herzog and Christopher G. Cowen are executive producers.

“The story of Dirty John is uniquely fit for both the Bravo and Oxygen brands,” said Frances Berwick, president, Lifestyle Networks, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment “For the Bravo audience, it’s a chillingly relatable story of love, manipulation and survival that dovetails nicely with our other original scripted series Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce and Imposters. For Oxygen, it joins a roster of exclusive access, high-stakes premium content that the network is becoming known for among true crime enthusiasts.”

Dirty John tells the story of how a romance with the charismatic John Meehan spiraled into secrets, denial, manipulation and ultimately, survival, said Bravo, with horrific consequences for an entire family. 

Season two will be a different story.

Richard Suckle and Charles Roven are executive producing Dirty John for Atlas Entertainment and Mark Herzog, Christopher G. Cowen and Chris Argentieri are doing so for Los Angeles Times Studios.

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.