Five goes digital with US drama

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Channel Five's digital channels, Five US and Five Life, will go live in October with a host of shows new to the UK in a bid to attract fans of American programmes and more women.
Five US, which is dedicated to American drama, films, documentaries, sport and comedy, will launch on Sunday October 15 and will broadcast daily between 4pm and 1am.

The female-focused Five Life, featuring drama series Love My Way and the award-winning The Ellen Degeneres Show, will launch the next day, Monday October 16, a will be on air daily between 6am and 11pm.

Among the drama highlights on Five US is 20th Century Fox Television's Shark, starring James Woods as Sebastian Stark, a celebrity defence attorney in Los Angeles who makes a life-changing decision to switch sides and become a prosecutor.

Conspiracy drama Vanished tracks the search for Sara Collins, a senator's wife who goes missing. The story of her life unravels through the eyes of police, family members and the media as the manhunt continues.

Conviction, a 13-part drama from Emmy Award-winner Dick Wolf, focuses on the frenetic lives of young Manhattan assistant district attorneys.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of is an eight-part series based on Stephen King's short stories with an all-star cast including William Hurt and Tom Berenger.

Five Life has secured The Ellen DeGeneres Show as part of a daytime lineup that will feature daily instalments of the comedian interviewing celebrity guests and the public interspersed with games and chart-topping music.

Australian drama Love My Way debuts on Five Life following critical acclaim in its home country. The 10-part series centres on the complicated web of relationships of main character Frankie Paige.

Supermodel Extra has all the backstage gossip with behind-the-scenes access to Five's second series of Make Me a Supermodel, which will premiere on Channel Five.

There will also be the first chance to see episodes of long-running soap Home and Away as well as a weekly omnibus of the show.

Five yesterday named Nick Thorogood as the controller of the two digital channels.

He was editor of ITV daytime until earlier this year, a position he'd held since 2004. Prior to that he was head of lifestyle channels at UKTV for four years

world-of-digital.com