Court TV is unveiling two new series and three new original telefilms at the summer edition of the Television Critics Association Press Tour, getting under way this week in Los Angeles.
The cable network is expected to announce the following projects during its session on July 7:
* “Fake Out” (working title), a reality/game series set to debut Oct. 1, in which participants, using investigative and lie-detecting techniques, try to determine if their opponents are lying or telling the truth. The series is hosted by Jack Trimarco, a former FBI interrogator.
* “Mind Games,” a hidden-camera reality series scheduled for late fall that will focus on theories of human behavior, to be illustrated by “experiments” in the field.
* “The Christy Adair Story,” a true-life telefilm starring Jane Seymour (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”), who also co-produces, as a woman on a jury convinced that her fellow jurors are unjustly convicting an innocent man. Actor James Keach, Ms. Seymour’s husband, will direct.
* “The Perfect Witness: The Debbie Smith Story,” a true-life telefilm starring Ally Sheedy (who also starred in Court TV’s “The Interrogation of Michael Crowe” telefilm) as a police officer’s wife and the victim of a sexual assault who becomes a crusader for DNA-testing reform.
* “Executing the Innocent: The Gary Graham Story,” a true-life telefilm, set in the period when George W. Bush was governor of Texas, about the struggle to free a man on that state’s death row.
In other Court TV news, Art Bell has been named president and chief operating officer of the network. The elevation of Mr. Bell from the position of executive VP, programming and marketing, comes after Dick Beahrs, president and chief operating officer since 1999, announced his retirement.
In addition to his current responsibilities for programming, production, creative services and marketing, along with corporate communications, Mr. Bell will oversee affiliate relations and ad sales.
Also at Court, Galen Jones has been named to the newly created position of executive VP, chief corporate strategist.