'The Gilded Age' Finally Sets Its Cast
The drama behind The Gilded Age is probably enough for a show of its own. The Downton Abbey follow up was commissioned in 2012 by NBC Universal, the American partners of Carnival Films, the company behind Downton. (This is why Universal produced the Downton Abbey movie, and all of the show's six seasons are now on NBC's Peacock.) The Gilded Age is the American answer to Downton, set in New York City in the 1880s, the world where someone like Lady Cora Crawley came from, where new moneyed rich female heiresses and old-world respectability jostle for dominance.
But The Gilded Age was also an odd fit for NBC and its cable partners. One cannot imagine such a show on reality TV channels like Bravo, science fiction-oriented SyFy, or the wrestling-heavy USA. A pet project of Bob Greenblatt, who ran NBC, the show languished for years. In 2019, Greenblatt left for WarnerMedia, home of HBO, a channel far more suited to period piece big-budget dramas. He took The Gilded Age with him, turning it into a co-pro between Universal and HBO, set to begin filming in the spring of 2020. Obviously, that got delayed and then delayed again this fall. But it is now confirmed The Gilded Age will start filming in early 2021.
Here's the show's synopsis:
