Vice isn’t wasting any time proving to the public that it’s ready to disrupt the heck out of TV news. A day after announcing the title of its first TV channel, Viceland, the company has unleashed a searing nine-minute trailer outlining the original programming viewers can expect from Viceland at launch.
The trailer includes clips from 10 original shows that Vice is prepping for the new channel, which will be under the A&E Network umbrella. There are several shows highlighted in the video that Vice is hoping will catch on with viewers.
Michael K Williams of The Wire and Boardwalk Empire fame explores the car theft craze in Newark, New Jersey for his series Black Market With Michael K. Williams. And Vice’s music-centric website, Noisey will host a music documentary series, the first episode of which will feature Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar exploring their upbringing in Compton, California.
But perhaps the most gripping preview in the trailer is for the series Gaycation with Ellen Page, in which the actor — who came out publicly as a lesbian in February 2014 — travels around the world to bring awareness to issues facing the LGBT community.
Page spent a month in Brazil, and in a particularly poignant clip in the trailer, she comes in contact with a police officer who has murdered gay people. At one point he tells Page that if any gay people cross his path, he will kill them. Page’s noticeable quivering as she asks her colleague if it is safe to tell the officer she is gay offers a telling glimpse of Vice’s gritty style, and it appears the hallmark will permeate Viceland.
At an event in New York City last May, Vice hinted that the new channel would debut this fall but the launch has since been pushed back, expected to be available in the U.S. and Canada in early 2016. However, with Disney’s recent investment of $200 million into Vice Media, and the fourth season of Vice debuting on HBO in 2016, the company is looking to make a big splash in the coming year.
