CBS, Amazon Partner for Summer Streaming

The new show from Robert and Michelle King, producers of The Good Wife is scheduled to premiere on linear in the summer of 2016 (no specific date has been set) and will go live on Amazon Video four days later.

Amazon and CBS are extending their partnership in a new multi-year and multi-series licensing deal that will give the online retailer’s streaming service exclusive rights for three new CBS summer series through 2018. The series follows a young Capitol Hill staffer (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who discovers that aliens have eaten the brains of a number of congressmen and Capitol Hill staffers. Movies produced by CBS Films will also be added to Amazon Prime Video.

However, with Dome ending, Amazon had to secure deals for CBS’ future summer shows to keep the relationship going. The arrangement helped the network cover the costs of the series, developed as an effort to put more first-run scripted programming on during the summer months.

While nothing beats the lure of instantly bingeable original series, Amazon Prime Instant Video continues to build on an attractive slate of third-party exclusives.

The move makes Amazon Prime the video home of upcoming comic thriller series BrainDead, where members will be able to stream episodes four days after a broadcast airing. “With a truly original, genre-bending concept from outstanding creative auspices, Braindead will be one of the most talked-about shows next summer by CBS viewers and Prime members”.

The licensing pact also expands the menu of CBS and Showtime library titles available to Amazon, ranging “I Love Lucy” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” to the original “Twin Peaks” to “The L Word“.