Spike Developing Scripted Event Series

Spike TV is developing five event series from producers like
Tom Fontana, Craig Piligian and Chris Collins as part of its move back intoscripted programming,
the Viacom-owned network announced Monday.

If greenlit, the scripted projects would air as limited,
special-event series. Sharon Levy, executive VP of original series at Spike,
who will oversee the projects, said they would act "as a stepping stone to
developing original scripted dramatic series." 

The event series in development include Hit Men, a look at how the mafia took control of the music industry
in the 1970s from Leslie Greif (Hatfields
& McCoys
), Collins (Sons of
Anarchy
) and KISS frontman Gene Simmons; and the Whitey Bulgar Project, about the rise and fall of the notorious
criminal from writer Bobby Moresco (Crash)
and producers Jonathan Koch and Steve Michaels (The Kennedys).

Also on the slate is Fontana's The Lamp, about a secretive U.S. military department in the 1970s
that uncovered Aladdin's Lamp; an untitled
Benghazi project from Piligian about the 2012 terrorist attack on the
American diplomatic mission in the Libyan city; and iHuman, a series of films from Raw TV about how technological innovation is
transforming the human condition.

Spike's last scripted event series was 2007's The Kill Point, and its last scripted
series, the comedy Blue Mountain State,
was canceled in 2012. On the unscripted side, the network has been moving to
target a broader general audience, with projects in development in the food and
home design space.