TV Talk: Strike’s end means filming will return to Western Pa., including a Sammy Davis Jr. limited series

With the actors’ strike over, though yet to be officially ratified by the members of SAG-AFTRA (they will ratify it), everyone wants to know: When will things go back to normal? When will my favorite shows return?

It’s going to be a little bit yet.

Regarding local production, “Mayor of Kingstown” received a third-season renewal midstrike and will likely be the first production to resume filming in Western Pennsylvania, said Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer.

“Were gonna get everybody back to work. The (more than) 5,000 people who live and work in Southwestern Pennsylvania who are a part of the film industry are all thrilled with SAG coming to a tentative agreement and putting everybody back to work at midnight tonight,” Keezer said. “ ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ arrived and they’ve opened their production offices, and we expect them to begin principal photography in January.”

Season two of “American Rust” wrapped in the spring, does not yet have a premiere date on Amazon Freevee and has not yet been officially renewed for a third season. But it sounds like it will be renewed.

“We expect to see ‘American Rust’ returning in January to prep for a spring start of principal photography,” Keezer said.

And Lee Daniels, who filmed the yet-to-premiere Netflix movie “The Deliverance” in Pittsburgh in 2022 (with reshoots locally earlier this year), will be back in Pittsburgh in 2024 to direct an untitled limited series about Sammy Davis Jr. for Hulu.

“We are expecting ‘Sammy Davis Jr.’ after the first of the year, but we don’t have specific dates,” Keezer said.

Hulu ordered the eight-­episode Sammy Davis Jr. biographical series, written by Daniels and Thomas Westfall and based on Wil Haygood’s book, “In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr.,” back in April. It will chronicle the singer’s rise to become one of the most famous Black entertainers of the 1950s and ’60s and the only Black member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack. Actor Elijah Kelley (“The Butler,” “Star”) will play Sammy Davis Jr.

Amazon Freevee has yet to confirm the cancellation of “Sprung,” which premiered in August 2022, but given how much time has passed since its first season, it seems unlikely that series will be renewed.

Keezer expects more film, TV and streaming projects will come to the region in 2024.

“It’s going to start getting really busy because the floodgates are open and people are going to have to have somewhere to go,” she said. “We expect to see more work, but it will all be dictated by the size of the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program, which has a $100 million cap — but the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s budget (for 2023-24) still has to be approved.”

When will my show return?

It will take some time before new shows are on the air.

Broadcast networks have not announced which prime-time series will produce new episodes for the 2023-24 season.

Networks will likely punt some shows to fall 2024. Networks aren’t saying yet which series will hold until next fall, but it seems likely that shows with momentum (say, “Ghosts” on CBS) will be more likely to return in the 2023-24 season whereas series that were ordered in May but have not premiered (e.g., CBS’s “Matlock” reboot with Kathy Bates) are more likely to have a delayed debut.

Hollywood trades have reported production will resume in three to six weeks, but the holidays do throw a wrench in things, necessitating a lot of stops and starts, which is why some shows may hold off on filming until January when they have a free and clear production runway.

There will be exceptions. Projects shut down mid­production with just a few days left of filming may resume this year. That’s probably more likely true for movies, including “Deadpool 3,” than for TV and streaming series.

Late February is likely the earliest new episodes of returning series will make it to air with March a surer bet for more shows to return.

Channel surfing

The final season of “Yellowstone” won’t air until fall 2024 with two new spin-offs ordered, “1944” and “2024.” … HBO’s third season of “The White Lotus” won’t air until 2025 because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes. … “Reacher” season two debuts Dec. 15 on Amazon’s Prime Video.