The #MeToo movement will be the subject of PBS’ next series. According to Deadline, PBS CEO Paula Kerger unveiled “#MeToo, Now What?” at TCA. Set to debut February 2, the five-part series will delve into the various aspects of sexual harassment. Women for Women International founder Zainab Salbi will host, exec produce, and contribute to the project’s reporting.
“#MeToo, Now What?” will have women and men of all ages on as guests. Activists, journalists, celebrities, and professional leaders will also be invited to appear. With Salbi, they’ll discuss pop culture’s influence on the workplace, pay inequality, discrimination, intersectionality, and other topics.
“‘#MeToo, Now What?’ will offer a much-needed space for honest conversation around this issue,” stated Beth Hoppe, PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming in a press release. “This series will provide context and perspective from a wide range of voices, with the goal of moving towards healing and understanding.”
“In order for this conversation to create true cultural change, we must talk with the man on the street, in our lives, our colleagues and friends,” added Salbi. “Equally, we need to have the conversation with the women in our lives to examine why, when we’ve seen sexual misconduct, we’ve often looked the other way when it didn’t impact us directly.”
Salbi’s Women for Women International is a grassroots organization designed to support female war survivors. She started “The Nida’a Show,” a talk show focussing on women in the Arab world, in 2015, has written several books, and is the editor-at-large at Women in the World.
Other women-centric PBS projects include Daisy Goodwin’s series about Queen Victoria’s early reign, “Victoria.” The Jenna Coleman-starrer returned for its second season this past Sunday. PBS will also air a miniseries adaptation of “Little Women,” starring Emily Watson and Maya Hawke. Heidi Thomas (“Call the Midwife”) penned the script, and Vanessa Caswill (“Thirteen”) directs. “Little Women” will premiere May 13.
