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Getty NBC cancels Hillary Clinton miniseries

NBC Entertainment has cancelled its highly anticipated dramatic miniseries about Hillary Clinton after intense pressure from Clinton aides and supporters, as well as the Republican National Committee.

"After reviewing and prioritizing our slate of movie/miniseries development, we’ve decided that we will no longer continue developing the Hillary Clinton miniseries,” the network said in a statement Monday.

The announcement comes just hours after CNN Films confirmed that its forthcoming Clinton documentary project had been cancelled. The director of that project, Charles Ferguson, said that pressure from Clinton-land and the RNC had cast a chilling effect on potential sources and interview subjects.

The NBC miniseries, which was set to star Diane Lane, would have portrayed Clinton from her time as First Lady to Secretary of State. Like the CNN Films documentary, it had been heavily criticized by Clinton supporters and Republicans alike. While Clinton proxies like David Brock wrote open letters to the two networks warning of "conflicts of interest," the RNC voted to ban both CNN and NBC from hosting or sponsoring Republican primary debates unless they dropped their respective film projects.

After CNN confirmed that its documentary project had been cancelled, the RNC called upon NBC to do the same.

"The pressure is now squarely on NBC to cancel its Hillary infomercial," RNC spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski said in a statement. "The timing, frequency, moderators and venues will all be part of new debate model that will come in the next few months. Any media organization looking to be part of the debate process will have to comply with the new system.”

By abandoning the project, Kukowski said CNN was now technically eligible to host Republican primary debates following the decision to abandon the documentary project. The same will apply to NBC News.

"Same as what we’ve been saying for CNN – if they don’t run Hillary productions they are eligible," she told POLITICO.

Clinton press secretary Nick Merrill and Clinton aide Philippe Reines declined to comment.

UPDATE (6:06 p.m.): Kukowski emails:

This was only the first step in the Republican Party taking control of our debate process. The purpose of our party’s debates is to better inform our grassroots and those participating in Republican primaries and caucuses. Now that CNN and NBC have canceled their Hillary Clinton infomercials, we will work on developing a new debate model that will address the timing, frequency, moderators and venues that will come in the next few months. Any media organization looking to be part of the debate process will have to comply with the new system.