NBCUniversal's Spinoff Company Versant Unveils It's Content Slate For 2025/6 Season

NBCUniversal’s spin-off company Versant has revealed its first programming slate, with 16 new titles in the pipeline for 2025/26 including new scripted originals for cablenets Syfy and USA Network and unscripted titles for E! and Oxygen True Crime.

USA Network ordered The Rainmaker, a legal drama from Lionsgate Television and Blumhouse Television based on a John Grisham novel of the same name. The series follows a law school graduate who ends up uncovering two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of a client’s son.

Anna Pigeon, based on the bestselling novels by Nevada Barr, was also greenlit by USA Network. Produced by Cineflix Studios and December Films, the project follows a former city slicker who becomes a park ranger and turns her attentions to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds. Morwyn Brebner is showrunner.

USA Network also commissioned Everything On The Menu with Braun Strowman (WWE Studios and BrightNorth Studios), a culinary series following the WWE wrestler as he eats his way across America.

Syfy commissioned a zombie series based on comic series Revival, produced by Blue Ice Pictures and Hemmings Films. The project is set in a world where zombies are revived and appear and act just like they did before. The cast includes Melanie Scrofano, Romy Weltman, David James Elliott and Andy McQueen.

E! Commissioned unscripted titles Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane (Hartbeat), Plastic Surgery Rewind (Fulwell Entertainment), Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour (32 Flavors) and three instalments in a new franchise called Dirty Rotten Scandals focused on the dark side of America’s Next Top Model, the Dr Phil Show and The Price is Right.

Oxygen True Crime ordered The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher (Wolf Entertainment), murder mystery series The Killer Among Us hosted by Alan Cumming, The Death Row Informant (Wolf Entertainment, Fireside Pictures, Universal Television Alternative Studios, Vanity Fair Studios), The Silent Serial Killer: Gretzler (Glass Entertainment), Killer Grannies (Jarrett Creative) and The Boston Stranglers (This is Just a Test).

Versant, set to be spun off from Comcast by the end of the year, consists of USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen True Crime, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel, in addition to digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine. The programming team for the company was confirmed last week.

“Our audiences are among the most devoted in the industry, and their passion fuels everything we do,” said Versant’s president of entertainment Val Boreland. “By uniting the power of our iconic brands with a commitment to bold, original storytelling, we’re deepening our connection with viewers in meaningful ways. We’re proud to unveil this exciting new programming slate as we move forward under our new name.”

Cartoon Network Africa Acquires Broadcasting Rights To Pokémon: Indigo League, Rebroadcasts Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated And Batman: The Brave And The Bold

In a surprising move, Cartoon Network Africa will be allocating the first season of Pokémon: Indigo League from 30 June at 15:30 CAT. The problem part, neither Cartoon Network or Warner had marketed the show I mean they acquired Power Rangers Ninja Steel before Samurai and advertised both yet they're being hush about this.

The only other broadcaster to have aired this season at the time was the SABC so it's rather interesting that Cartoon Network Africa is getting more old content.

Another development that occured on Cartoon Network for some apparent reason is the sudden inclusion of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and Batman: The Brave And The Bold. From my understanding, Boing had been airing the latter for sometime and now it's on Cartoon Network.

Batman airs a double bill on weeknights at 19:20 CAT while Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated also a double bill airs at 10:10 and 13:45. It should be noted that Pokémon (Indigo League) is also premiering as a double bill presuming they'll be airing more previous iterations.

I'd like to think similar to the US, they're probably acknowledging more of their older shows but then Discovery had been promoting shows amongst their other brands so it could be that. Warner and Discovery are undergoing a split by mid 2026 but I don't think that's the reason.

Maybe my previous sentiments about the channel acknowledging their older properties and although Boing is a channel in Africa. It is not seen on DStv so maybe Warner caught a drift of that which is why TNT has got a lot of animated DC films from Toonami - anyways it's nice to these shows on the network.

Synopsis for Pokémon: Indigo League 

The series follows the adventures of Ash Ketchum, a 10-year-old aspiring Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town who is given a Pikachu by Pokémon researcher Professor Oak to begin his Pokémon journey. Ash is driven by his desire to win the Indigo Plateau's Pokémon League, a challenging tournament for outstanding Pokémon trainers who compete against each other in Pokémon battles. To qualify for the tournament, Ash must collect the required number of gym badges, which are tokens earned after defeating each of the Kanto region's elite Pokémon gym leaders. Early in the season, Ash befriends the water-type Pokémon trainer Misty, who initially travels with Ash in hopes of him replacing her destroyed bicycle, and Brock, a Pokémon breeder who is the leader of the Pewter City gym.

Is Toonami Africa Closing Soon???

Toonami is an action based animation channel home to content based from DC Comic characters such as Batman, Superman, Teen Titans and The Justice League. It had also distributed anime in one point with known figures such as Inazuma Eleven and Dragonball.

Since it's revival on StarTimes, Toonami had been repetitive state with very little new content outside of its DC films with its only notable show being Fire Force. Other than that, Toonami has been going the same route as other channels formerly in Africa such as EVA and Sony Channel.

In case anyone had been keeping tabs, Warner and Discovery are splitting up to some degree with this restructure set to be finalised by mid 2026. As we've seen with NBCUniversal's spinoff Versant, Warner Bros. Discovery is likely to close a few channels ahead of this transaction.

Cartoon Network and Cartoonito are set to fold under the Discovery umbrella and if I had to guess they'd likely want to streamline their efforts as they won't have much content from Warner Bros. to sustain them. This would put a brand like Toonami under scrutiny as a majority of its content comes from the mentioned brands.

The news of Toonami Africa demise wouldn't really come as a shocker as TNT had been distributing a batch of its films in recent years. Even Cartoon Network had begun to show interest in DC with Batman: The Brave And Bold and Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo.

Warner Bros. Discovery hasn't done much marketing for the network and as it stands Toonami has been mummified. At the moment, they only offer 5 shows 3 of which are centered on Batman with all the movies that were meant to build its primetime offering on TNT.

Africa is currently the last market to offer a dedicated channel for Toonami as France folded that under the Warner trademark. With its demise, this means that Toonami would be reduced to just a programming block in the US.

July 2025 On Studio Universal Across Africa | KidzClub With Movie Premiere Rumble | Action Weekend With Movie Premiere Dangerous | More

KIDZCLUB

30th June – 20th July

Three whole weeks of family fun, from early morning to late afternoon

We have wrestling monsters and wrestling robots, and Spongebob leaving his lagoon!

Matilda

30th June at 16:15

Danny DeVito directs this big-screen version of Roald Dahl’s classic fantasy tale. Matilda reads a lot and is very bright for her age – not that her family cares. The only person who does is lovely teacher Miss Honey, but not even she can do anything about vicious principal Trunchbull, who rules Matilda’s school with an iron fist. But all that starts to change when the youngster realises she possesses some amazing powers. Mara Wilson plays Matilda, while Pam Ferris is the fearsome Trunchbull.

Annie

30th June at 18:00

The Broadway musical gets a 21st-century revamp and a starry cast headed by Quvenzhané Wallis as the eponymous heroine. Unhappy living with foster mum Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), Annie’s run-in with billionaire Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) looks set to change her fortunes. Will is eager to get into politics and, thinking he’s doing Annie a favour, takes her under his wing. However, with a little help from Grace (Rose Byrne), the young girl brings a much needed dose of sunshine and optimism.

Rumble

2nd July at 16:15

The residents of Stoker are aghast when their newly crowned world-champion wrestling monster announces he’s off to pastures new. With the town’s stadium and economy on the line, young Winnie aims to follow in her father’s coaching footsteps. Unfortunately, Steve, her chosen monster candidate, would rather dance than duke it out in the ring. Can Winnie turn him into Stoker’s new wrestling champion? Will Arnett and Geraldine Viswanathan head the voice cast as Steve and Winnie.

Real Steel

12th July at 17:50

In this drama set in the near future, Hugh Jackman plays down-on-his-luck former boxer Charlie, who has fatherhood thrust upon him after his former partner dies. His son Max turns out to have a keen interest in building fighting robots. Charlie and Max form a bond as they create Atom, a machine cobbled together from spare parts, but good enough to start winning competitions. As Atom rises through the robot ranks, a bout with an undefeated champion is on the cards.

ACTION WEEKEND

Non-Stop Action

12th July – 27th July

Hold on tight as we wind up the tension and let loose our all new Action Weekend!

Dangerous

13th July at 20:00

Scott Eastwood shows echoes of his famous father Clint, playing a former convict and sociopath who, having served his time, wants a quiet life while serving out his parole. When his brother dies in questionable circumstances, the ex-Navy SEAL decides to dig deeper. Besides his having an FBI agent on his heels, a gang of mercenaries are convinced the brother possessed something they want – and they’ll do anything to get it. Mel Gibson, Tyrese Gibson and Famke Janssen are among the co-stars.

2 Guns

20th July at 20:00

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg head the

cast of this action thriller, playing rival agents who

have no idea they are both working undercover. The

men have the same goal: to be part of a powerful

drugs syndicate. But when a job goes wrong, their

covers are blown and they quickly discover they can

only count on each other. On the run from the law

and keen to avoid retribution from the criminals, the

pair face a tricky game of cat and mouse. Edward

James Olmos and Bill Paxton also feature.

John Wick: Chapter 2

26th July at 20:00

The second instalment of the wildly successful action franchise sees Keanu Reeves reprise the leading role. This time, the deadly assassin must forgo the quiet life he craves and head to Italy, where Wick is forced to honour the blood debt he owes crime lord Santino D’Antonio. With a price on his own head and his Mustang missing, he is targeted by numerous villains, all of whom are ready and eager to collect the bounty. Ian McShane, Ruby Rose and Riccardo Scamarcio also feature among the cast.

Ambulance

27th July at 20:00

A former soldier, burdened by his wife’s medical bills, turns to his adopted brother to help pull off a bank robbery in Los Angeles. The heist goes to plan, but the getaway is a disaster, and the men end up hijacking an ambulance to ensure their escape. Unfortunately, the EMT worker inside is caring for a wounded police officer. Suddenly the criminal duo not only have to evade the long arm of the law – they also have to keep both hostages alive. Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II star.

July 2025 On Universal TV And E! Entertainment Across Africa | Channel Premiere: The Making Of Jurassic World Rebirth | Returning Shows Including Chicago Med | More

Universal TV

NCIS: SYDNEY Season 2 – Territory Premiere

Premieres Monday 21st July at 8pm

Get ready for more action as NCIS: Sydney returns with high-stakes investigations set amid stunning scenery. Season 2 begins with a rogue assassin on the run.

HARRY WILD Season 4 – Territory Premiere

Premieres Tuesday 8th July at 8pm

The Irish mystery series returns for more intrigue with the sharp-witted professor turned private investigator, as Harry and Fergus try to solve a serial-killer case.

CHICAGO MED Season 8 – Channel Premiere

Premieres Wednesday 2nd July at 8pm

The doctors and nurses of the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center's emergency ward fight to save more lives, as another season of thrills starts with an apartment fire.

Returning shows include 61st Street Season 2 on Thursdays at 8pm.

E!

Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour

Premieres Sunday 27th July at 19:05 – Double Bills Every Sunday

In this roadshow docu-series, Kristin Cavallari is taking her podcast on tour for a week to interview people with whom she’s been linked.

The Making Of Jurassic World Rebirth

Premieres Tuesday 1st July at 20:00

The behind-the-scenes special of Jurassic World Rebirth, revealing thrilling moments, visual effects, and insights from the cast and crew.

Returning shows include Below Deck Mediterranean Season 9 on Sunday 27th July at 18:10, E! News on Tuesdays to Fridays at 22:00 and Watch What Happens Live on Monday to Friday at 22:30.