The Zone Snatches Braindead
May 31, 2016 
8 Comments
Sky’s The Zone will premiere BrainDead, the new body snatching romp from the creators of The Good Wife, on July 26.
The series, which has been dubbed The West Wing meets The Strain, will air 8.30 Tuesdays, six weeks after launching in the US (June 13 on CBS).
It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (The Returned) as a new Capitol Hill employee who discovers the government has stopped working because alien spawn have invaded and eaten the brains of politicians and bureaucrats.
“BrainDead is our reaction to what’s going on in the country right now,” says Robert King, who created the series with his wife, Michelle.
“It feels like politics has turned everybody more and more extreme. People seem to be losing their collective minds.
“We’re just positing that there is a reason for this: bugs from a meteor are eating out the brains of politicians in Washington.”
He argues the best way to address the news today is not straight, “but as the opening act of a horror movie.”
The cast includes ex-Good Wife star Nikki M James, Monk’s Tony Shalhoub and Underground’s Johnny Ray Gill (below).
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May 31, 2016 at 10:37 am
Once again Prime doesn’t get first dibs on content through its output deal with CBS.
Is there any news about Wynonna Earp, Philip? Looks like fun 🙂
Not true, Leo. Prime got Limitless, NCIS: New Orleans, CSI: Cyber and Madam Secretary. BrainDead will probably have an appeal to a narrow audience and the programmers at Sky probably think it’s best served on the Zone first and Prime later (a la Zoo – another CBSSI property).
Hi Trevor. I presume Wynonna Earp will wind up on The Zone. Still to have confirmation from Sky but I know it’s not a Lightbox acquisition and sometimes several months can elapse between a show’s Syfy and Zone debuts. Fingers crossed for August.
Thanks Mike, I get what your saying but Prime should always get first broadcast over Sky’s pay channels.
Gotta to disagree, Leo. Sky’s programmers have a suite of channels (of which Prime is just one) and need to think where best each piece of content fits. For a genre like this (rather than a broad appeal series like MacGyver or Bull – both upcoming from CBSSI and, I’m betting, more likely to be of broad appeal to Prime viewers) it should be on a Sci-fi specialist channel that already reaches 48% of households. If it can’t be successful there (and also proven successful in its home market) then it shouldn’t be on Prime at all. The more interesting question to pose – putting yourself in the programmers shoes (which you should do)– is where to put Star Trek? Should it be the specialist sci-fi channel or Prime? Bear in mind it will be on CBSAccess, not on the main CBS channel in the US.
Thanks, Philip, I guess it’s watch this space 🙂
I agree with Mike. Shows like this should be screened on Sky’s pay channels before it screens on a channel which you don’t have to pay for.