The fall TV season is kicking off next month, but right before all the networks start bombarding viewers with new content, Amazon hopes to grab some interest for a slate of new original shows on its Instant Video service.
On Sept. 28, Amazon will release pilots for five original shows and allow its users to offer feedback and provide insights into what they want to see. The Seattle-based company will then choose which shows it wants to pick up for a full season.
This is the third pilot season for the company, which has branched out into original video programming as a means of drawing people to its streaming video platform.
Viewers will be able to choose from three comedies and two dramas this time around, including “The Cosmopolitans,” a romantic comedy about American expatriates living in Paris and “Hand of God,” an hour-long drama about a judge (played by Ron Perlman) who becomes a vigilante to find and kill a rapist using messages sent to him by God through his son.
The other shows on Amazon’s slate include “Hysteria,” which focuses on a town struck by a violent illness that spreads through technology; “Red Oaks,” a comedy produced by Stephen Soderbergh about working at a country club; and “Really,” a comedy about four Chicago couples dealing with the complexities of married life.
The slate announced today comes half a year after Amazon’s second round of pilots, which premiered in February. Four of those shows (“Transparent,” “Bosch,” “The After” and “Mozart in the Jungle”) were picked up for a full season earlier this year. Amazon hasn’t announced the exact release date for any of those shows, but “Transparent” will be airing in late September.
“Alpha House,” the political comedy starring John Goodman, will be returning for a second season in late October along with the other new arrivals.