Cancelled shows get new life; so does Joan Rivers

Bravo is resurrecting the "Brilliant But Cancelled" franchise from its former sister network, Trio. And like Trio, which is now a broadband channel, the "Brilliant" shows will air online.

The new broadband effort, BrilliantButCancelled.com, will go live on Tuesday, May 23. The broadband channel will showcase several series Trio featured when it was on the air, such as "EZ Streets" and "Johnny Staccato," as well as the never-aired NBC comedy "The Jake Effect," starring a pre-"Arrested Development" Jason Bateman.

Additionally, three hours' worth of "The Jake Effect" will air on Bravo on Thursday, May 25, to help draw viewers to the broadband site. Episodes from the "BBC" series will also be on sale at iTunes.

"We have curated some of television's most extraordinary shows for this site," says Lauren Zalaznick, the president of Bravo and former head of Trio. "These are programs that pushed the TV envelope, so to speak, but never got the chance they deserved to prove their worth. The joy of this process is uncovering those little gems that failed to find their audience on TV and giving them back to viewers on demand."

BrilliantButCancelled.com is one of several new projects for Bravo, which announced its development slate this week. The cable channel is also developing several competition shows in the vein of "Project Runway" and "Top Chef" and, in its first foray into the talk-show genre, a vehicle for Joan Rivers.

"Can We Dish?" will feature Rivers hashing out the water-cooler issues of the day with the help of three male sidekicks, some celebrity guests and a live audience. The show marks a return to talk for Rivers, a long-time "Tonight Show" guest host who had her own show on FOX in the late 1980s and in syndication in the early '90s.

Bravo is also launching another broadband channel aimed at gay and lesbian viewers on June 1. OutzoneTV.com will offer, among other things, bonus material from the network's show "Queer Eye," the series "Gay Weddings" and the 1972 telefilm "That Certain Summer," one of the first TV projects to deal directly with gay themes.