The sports activities docuseries craze is hitting the school circuit, with USC star JuJu Watkins set to star in and government produce an upcoming documentary sequence for NBC and Peacock.
The sequence, On the Rise: JuJu Watkins, will premiere its first two episodes on Saturday. Nov. 23. at 3 p.m. on NBC, simply forward of the printed of the USC vs. Notre Dame basketball recreation. Episodes three by six will probably be unique to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service.
The sequence, from Klutch Sports activities, Uninterrupted and 4.4.Forty, will “give individuals extra perception into who I’m, my values and my story, as a result of I take a lot delight in it,” Watkins tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview.
However additionally it is quietly carving out a completely new mannequin for the sports activities doc, with most earlier tasks related to all-time-great gamers or historic moments, or maybe a present behind-the-scenes sequence like Netflix’s Beginning 5. On The Rise is following a singular school athlete, Watkins, from her highschool days by her freshman 12 months solely. Whereas it’s solely a matter of tine earlier than she goes professional, the sequence successfully serves as an introduction to somebody who’s a future famous person. By no means earlier than has a school athlete produced a docuseries about their very own life whereas nonetheless taking part in within the NCAA.
“The Olympics in all probability do that the perfect, proper? You get these wonderful, heartwarming packages, and now the stakes are so excessive whenever you’re watching that bobsledder. Now think about if Caitlin [Clark] had this earlier than once we have been watching these Iowa video games,” says Uninterrupted’s Jamal Henderson. “I feel that is the brand new, revolutionary mannequin in storytelling, and that’s why we’re actually excited to be part of it.”
Henderson says that they first met Watkins when she was taking part in at Sierra Canyon on the similar time Bronny James was. She signed with Klutch Sports activities for illustration.
“The increase in girls’s basketball was beginning to take maintain, clearly, and every little thing within the panorama was shifting, but it surely additionally was fairly clear early on that JuJu was particular, even from that early stage,” says 4.4.Forty Media’s Danny Barton. “I really keep in mind calling Jamal about this once we first began, and simply saying, ‘seem like we have to put cameras on her, as a result of one thing nice goes to come back out of this.’ And we didn’t even know what it was in the end going to be.”
Now the fruits of that undertaking will probably be seen on NBC and Peacock, with Watkins additionally noting that she is worked up for the nation to get to know her a bit higher.
“I’m an introvert, so I don’t actually share that a lot on-line, truthfully,” she says. “I feel to simply give individuals extra perspective into who I’m, and my household, my buddies, I feel that’s additionally an vital dynamic. And like I stated, I’m introverted, so that is sort of my approach of sharing myself a bit bit with with everybody else.”
And as girls’s basketball continues its speedy rise at each the school and WNBA stage, Henderson says that his firm — backed by LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill — is able to benefit from the increase.
As for Watkins, Barton says that if the preliminary season of On The Rise does nicely, it might portend future alternatives — maybe because the USC star weighs whether or not to go professional.
“We’re undoubtedly in the midst of discussions proper now to determine what continuum would seem like,” he says. “Clearly, as she continues to develop, the story continues to develop, and the potential for it’s there.”
NBC, it ought to be famous, not solely has Huge Ten rights, however may even achieve WNBA rights starting subsequent 12 months, marking a major improve in its girls’s sports activities portfolio.
LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Devin Johnson, Jamal Henderson and Philip Byron government produce for Uninterrupted; Watkins and Wealthy Paul of Klutch Sports activities and Danny Barton of 4.4.Forty Media may even government produce. Nikki Spetseris is the showrunner, and Amy Glickman Brown is co-executive Producer for Uninterrupted.