Actresses Jada Pinkett Smith and Olivia Munn (“The Newsroom”) have promising new TV gigs behind the scenes, with both serving as executive producers on upcoming shows.

Pinkett Smith will produce and star in “Murder Town,” a legal drama with a put pilot commitment from ABC. Pinkett Smith will play the lead in the series, Delaware’s first African-American District Attorney. Variety reports, “She finds herself confronted by old loyalties and loves, a shocking revelation about her murdered husband and a polarizing, racially-charged case that threatens to burn her and her city to the ground.” ABC adding another female-centric show — starring a woman of color — to its roster is all the more enticing given that the material seems to confront issues related to racism head-on.

The CW has put an untitled drama produced by Munn in development. This series, set in 1974, also focuses on a successful woman in a male-dominated field: a young female sportscaster who gets hired as an on-air reporter as a publicity stunt. She has to figure out how to do her job in a time when women weren’t allowed entry in the press box. This is Munn’s first sale as TV producer. Neither Deadline nor The Hollywood Reporter specifies whether Munn will star in the project, which is likely inspired by some of her own experiences covering college football and women’s basketball as a sideline reporter.

[via Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline]