Jonathan Levi named ITV Studios' head of arts and popular culture

Former EP of arts magazine series South Bank Show has been appointed ITV Studios' head of arts and popular culture. Jonathan Levi will report to Alexander Gardiner, creative director, factual and features. Levi is currently working with Andrew Lloyd Webber on a new arts show about the Pre-Raphaelites for ITV1.

Allan King events celebrate filmmaker at TIFF

A book launch and TIFF screening will celebrate Canadian filmmaker Allan King's 1969 documentary A Married Couple. King's doc follows the collapse of a middle-class marriage and a restored version will be shown at the film fest. In conjunction, a book called Allan King's A Married Couple by Zoë Druick will have its launch on September 8. Druick's book uses a scene-by-scene synopsis and analysis to trace the film's influence on the documentary genre and Canadian filmmaking. A Married Couple screens at TIFF in the Canadian Open Vault program of the festival, on September 10.

Outright announces deals in South Africa, Israel

British distributor Outright Distribution announced a raft of deals for the South African and Israeli markets this week. BBC Global Channels has picked up prodco Twenty Twenty's The Choir: Unsung Town, both seasons of BBC 2 drama Garrow's Law and the first season of Wall to Wall Productions' series for NBC, Who Do You Think You Are? The broadcaster also pre-bought the second season, which is in production. It also took the seventh season of the UK version and the local South African version, produced by Rapid Blue for SABC2. BBC Global also picked up KEO Film's doc Welcome to Lagos for BBC2 about slum life in the world's fastest-growing megacity.
South African broadcaster MNET picked up the first season of Shed Media's VH1 show Basketball Wives and pre-bought the second season, as well as the second season of the US version of Twenty Twenty's reality format The World's Strictest Parents. Etv licensed the first three seasons of Supernanny US in its first deal with Outright.
In Israel, Keshet renewed a contract to produce the fourth season of Supernanny. YES picked up the American version of Who Do You Think You Are? and three seasons of the Blood, Sweat... franchise plus a package of docs from Outright's slate. Lastly, Ananey picked up a 25-hour package from the distributor that included KEO's Three Hungry Boys, Wall to Wall's feature-length First Columbus, Ricochet's Unbreakables and the third season of Extreme Dreams.

BBC Four commissions three arts series from Tern TV

BBC Four in the UK has commissioned three factual arts, science and history programs from independent Scotland/Northern Ireland-based production company Tern TV: The Beauty of Diagrams (6x30), a show about the meaning behind scientific diagrams; The Beauty of Books (4x30), about the meaning of iconic books "as physical and artistic objects" and Delphi: The Bellybutton of the Ancient World, a one-hour long program investigating the oracle of Delphi.

ITV and Pulse ink global distribution deal for "Showbusiness"

ITV Studios Global Entertainment in London will handle global distribution of Pulse Films' scripted reality dance series Showbusiness starring Louie Spence. Produced by Pulse for Sky 1 in the UK, the 13-episode show features characters from Pineapple Dance Studios and is being produced with double the budget and more ambitious scripted fantasy elements. The deal comes on the heels of Pineapple's MIPTV success where it was licensed to broadcasters in Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Singapore and The Netherlands.

Armoza Formats' "The Bubble" pops up in Lithuania

Armoza Formats' game show format The Bubble has been snapped up by Lithuania's Rytas TV for a full season of 60 episodes. The Lithuanian version will air from Monday to Thursday over a period of 15 weeks beginning September 27, making it the first daily iteration of the show. The format takes three contestants and isolates them for one week, depriving them of any contact with the outside world including television, phones or Internet. They're then brought back to the studio and quizzed on what happened during their isolation, and whether or not they can believe "the facts." So far in 2010, the format has debuted on the UK's BBC2, Sweden's SVT, and Holland's BNN/NED3.

Babyfoot signs first look with ITV Studios

TV format producers Babyfoot, the company behind Gay Army, I Survived a Japanese Game Show and Bingo Banko, has signed a first look development deal with ITV Studios. As part of the deal, ITV Studios will have first look rights to develop and produce local versions of Babyfoot's new format ideas. The multi-year deal excludes Scandinavia, Babyfoot's territory.

Crusty Demons come to TV with new series

Daredevil motocross troupe the Crusty Demons are coming to television via a new series from Angry Scot Productions, Oceanwatch Productions and Apparent Gravity Media (AGM), in association with Fleshwound Films. Crusty Demons: No Borders follows the team on its international arena tours and also features behind-the-scenes footage and candid interviews. AGM will globally distribute the 26x26-minute series.

"Real Housewives of New Jersey" reunion racks up big numbers for Bravo

If anyone needs any more proof that Jersey is hot right now, here it is. Monday night's Real Housewives of New Jersey reunion special on Bravo was the highest-rated episode in the franchise's history in all key demos and the No. 1 cable telecast for the day among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen Media Research. Part one of the reunion special brought in 3.9 million total viewers and 2.7 million adults in the 18-49 demo, with double-digit increases from the season finale, up 15% and 18% respectively. Unsurprisingly, Bravo announced it will be picking up a third season of the Jersey Housewives spin-off, as well as a fourth of its New York counterpart. Part two of the Jersey reunion special airs next Monday, Sept. 6, as a lead-in to the series premiere of Thintervention.

Trinny and Susannah makeover The Netherlands and Australia

Kanakna's new format, Trinny & Susannah's Makeover Missions has sold to RTL in the Netherlands and XYZ in Australia. The seven-part one-hour series follows style gurus Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine (What Not To Wear) as they travel from city to city, making over 20 women in 12 hours. Trinny & Susannah: Missie Holland debuts in prime time on September 1 on RTL4, and is produced locally by Palm Plus, a Zodiak Entertainment company. The format also sold into Australia, with XYZ commissioning six episodes produced by DeTour Productions for its LifeStyle You channel.

Food Network Asia launches in Taiwan

After launching in Singapore earlier this year, The Food Network Asia began broadcasting in the Taiwanese market Wednesday on satellite pay-TV service DishHD. The Scripps International-operated network will air a mix of American-produced programs as well as content that is tailored to the local market, such as Eat Like a Local, Home Cooking, and Food Fun At 3am, which features stories shot throughout Southeast Asia. Scripps also offers the network in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

"The Prettiest Girl in the Class" comes to Spain

Cologne/Barcelona-based sales and distribution company ohm:tv's format The Prettiest Girl in the Class is coming to Spain. Created by Dutch prodco Simpel Media, the Spanish version of the family-friendly, one-hour reality show about the post-graduation exploits of a high-school A-lister is being produced by Magnum Contenido Multimedia (MCM TV) and will air this fall on Valencian public TV station Canal Nou. The format is now in its fourth season in the Netherlands, its first in Italy via FOX Italy and its second in Belgium via VTM.

Endemol names managing director for the Middle East

Global entertainment producer Endemol has appointed Lara El Haddad as managing director for the company's operations in the Middle East. She will be based in Dubai and Beirut and replaces outgoing managing director Ziad Kebbi, who stepped down last month. El Haddad will review the company's existing business and plot new growth in the region. Prior to joining Endemol she spent eight years working for an international consultancy advising on areas such as programming strategies, scheduling and channel repositioning and has worked with Middle Eastern broadcasters such as LBC and ADMC.

Documentary Campus celebrates 10 years

Documentary Campus is celebrating its 10-year anniversary with a weekend celebration. Held in Munich and running from September 10 to 12, Documentary Campus will host a range of keynotes, screenings, workshops and panels. The registration deadline is September 7, and the full program can be found here. Over the course of its 10 years, Documentary Campus has hosted 50 events in Europe, trained 6,500 delegates and presented 10 Masterschools.

TLC launches across Asia-Pacific region

Discovery Networks International has announced that TLC is launching across Asia-Pacific as of today, September 1. The lifestyle network behind LA Ink, Cake Boss and Say Yes to the Dress will reach 133 million households in 20 countries across Asia-Pacific after today's launch. The newly launched channel will replace Discovery Travel & Living in Discovery's Asia-Pacific channel portfolio, and joins networks Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Science, Discovery HD World, Discovery Turbo and Discovery Home & Health. Along with programming from the U.S. version of TLC, the international channel will also carry programming from Investigation Discovery, Planet Green and Animal Planet, as well as newly commissioned programming of interest to the region.

UK premiere of Joan Rivers doc to open Sheffield

Sheffield Doc/Fest has announced its opening film is Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work from co-directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (The End of America, The Devil Came on Horseback). The comedian herself, Joan Rivers, will be attending the opening night film premiere on November 3, alongside Stern and Sundberg. There will also be a second screening on November 5, with Rivers and the filmmakers in attendance, as well as a masterclass on the making of the documentary. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work will also broadcast on November 9 on More4.

Beyond seals deals for new Cream series

Beyond Distribution has sold a new series of Cream Productions' I Could Do That! to Discovery Turbo in the UK and Discovery Channel across EMEA. The 13x30-minute series gives ordinary people the opportunity to work with massive machinery such as monster trucks and military tanks.

Eyeworks Belguim appoints Dries Martin as creative director

Eyeworks Belgium has hired on former Kanakna/Zodiak Belgium chief creative officer Dries Martin as creative director entertainment. Martin succeeds Steven Vlassenroot in this role. He has worked on fare such as the first season of Big Brother and Temptation Island and has been creatively involved in Trinny and Susannah and others. The production house also recently welcomed on Erwin Provoost a few months ago as managing director.

Canada's Gemini Award nominees announced

The 25th annual Gemini Awards, which honor the best in Canadian English-language television, have revealed the nominees selected by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

The nominees for best direction in a documentary program include Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge for Reel Injun; Rosie Dransfeld for Broke; Julian Jones for The Great Sperm Race; Rob King for Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland and Nimisha Mukerji and Philip Lyall for 65_RedRoses.

For best direction in a documentary series, the nominees are Mike Downie for One Ocean - Birth of An Ocean, Leon Laflamme for Love, Hate and Propaganda - Truth and Total War, Jeff Semple for Ancestors in the Attic - Black Market Baby?, Stavros Stavrides, Leslie Lucas and John Westheuser for Licence to Drill - Paydirt and Wendy Treuman for Mega Builders - Big Rig.

The nominees for best documentary series include Aftermath from Cream Productions, Down the Mighty River from Rezolution Pictures, License to Drill from Pixcom Productions Inc., The View from Here from TVO and Word Travels from Omni Film Productions Limited.

White Pine Pictures' Genius Within - The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, Productions Grand Nord's Karsh is History and Take 3 Productions copro with France's 13 Productions, Prokofiev: The Unfinished Diary are all nominated for the best biography documentary program.

For best reality program or series, Temple Street Productions' Canada's Next Top Model was nominated, as well as The Cupcake Girls from Force Four Entertainment Inc, the CBC's Dragons' Den and Should I Stay or Should I Go Productions' Love it or List it.

The Donald Brittain Award, given to the best social/political documentary program, has two NFB copros as nominees: A Dream for Kabul, with InformAction Films and Reel Injun, with Rezolution Pictures and CBC News Network. Other projects nominated are ID: Productions Inc's Broke., Stormy Nights Productions' Up Against the Wall and Water On the Table Inc.'s Water On the Table.

ABC brings Bristol Palin, The Situation and the Hoff to "Dancing"

ABC announced the celeb cast for the upcoming 11th season of Dancing with the Stars during a press conference-styled plug within Monday night's episode of Bachelor Pad. The cast includes singer Michael Bolton, R&B star Brandy, Dirty Dancing's Jennifer Gray, Baywatch's David Hasselhoff, comedienne Margaret Cho, actor/athlete Rick Fox, The Brady Bunch's Florence Henderson, Cory in the House star Kyle Massey, The Hills' Audrina Patridge, Jersey Shore's Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner and Bristol Palin, daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The 11th season of Dancing with the Stars premieres on September 20.