Starz greenlit its second wholly-owned original series on Thursday. The untitled drama will take place in Southeast Texas and follow the world of Black rodeos.
Kirk A. Moore, known for his work on “Demascus” and “American Crime,” will serve as the series’ showrunner and executive producer. The series will have eight hourlong episodes in its first season and follow three siblings bound by the legacy their mother built as well as the unfinished business of their father. “Driven by their own ambitions and drawn into each other’s orbit, alliances shift, relationships tangle and nothing stays private for long,” a press release for the series reads.
This upcoming series will be the second original to be fully owned by Starz after the crime drama “Fightland.” It also continues the network’s commitment to deliver more programming that serves women and underrepresented audiences. Alongside the hit series “P-Vally,” the rodeo drama also expands the network’s slate of series rooted in Black Southern culture.
This series order comes at a time when on-screen diversity is down throughout Hollywood, a trend accelerated by the Trump administration’s “anti-woke” policies. Last year, UCLA’s Diversity Report found that the percentage of film roles given to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) actors fell by more than 6% from 2023, accounting for only 23.1% of film roles in 2025. This statistic is especially jarring considering the fact that movies with casts composed of 41-50% BIPOC actors had the highest median global and domestic box office grosses. TV has also seen a notable decline. UCLA found that in 2024, nearly 80% of leads in the most-watched streaming comedies and dramas were white actors.
“Messy family dynamics, jaw-dropping spectacle and an undeniable swagger — this is the kind of bold, original storytelling we’re proud to own from the ground up,” said Kathryn Busby, president of original programming at Starz. “With a touch of urban grit and a huge dose of country soul, it’s Texas through and through. There’s nothing else like it, and we’re thrilled to bring it to Starz’s audiences.”
The upcoming series will be executive produced by Mark Johnson (“Breaking Bad,” “Interview with the Vampire”) and Myki Bajaj (“Demascus”) of Gran Via Productions, and Tony Hernandez, Elise Henderson and Lilly Burns of Counterpart Studios (“Dexter: Resurrection,” “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed”). On the Starz side, Giovanna Desselle, vice president of original programming, and Christina Jokanovich, senior vice president of original programming, will oversee the project. Moore is represented by CAA. His manager is Scott Carr, and his attorneys are Loan Dang and Nina Shaw.
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