Alec Berg and Adam Countee are moving from Silicon Valley to the world of F1.
Hulu is teaming with the duo for Downforce, a comedy that has been picked up to pilot at the Disney-run streamer.
Described as Entourage set in the world of Formula 1 racing, Downforce follows what happens when the heiress to a dynastic racing team is thrust back into the family business and the hard choices she must make about the future of the team and her family’s legacy.
Berg and Countee will write and serve as showrunners on the potential series, which is produced by ABC Signature. Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will exec produce alongside Berg, Countee, Aussie F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo and Amy Solomon. The latter serves as head of development for Berg’s ABC Signature-based production company after working with the writer-producer on Barry and Silicon Valley. Ricciardo’s involvement as an exec producer will also lend added credibility to the show and likely assist with marketing to the F1 base.
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Downforce marks the first sale to stem from Berg’s overall deal with ABC Signature. The prolific writer and creator, whose credits include Seinfeld, Late Night With Conan O’Brien and Curb Your Enthusiasm, moved his overall deal to Disney’s ABC Signature in September 2022 after spending more than 15 years housed at HBO. For his part, Countee is also set at ABC Signature with an overall deal.
The order for Downforce comes as sports-adjacent programming — both scripted and unscripted — continues to play well on both linear and streaming. Netflix previously had a Kevin James family comedy that was set in the world of auto racing, The Crew, but it lasted only one season at the streamer.
With the price of sports rights soaring, appealing to the broad fan bases of such sports as F1 with scripted and even unscripted programming is a more cost-effective way to tap into those audiences.
