Next week’s “upfront” presentations in New York are where TV networks will hype their upcoming schedules to advertisers. As a result, a lot of big television decisions are being made. Many female-led shows were given the ax last week, but a good number of pilots were ordered as well.
In this week’s announcements, Katherine Heigl will return to television. After years on “Grey’s Anatomy” and one season on NBC’s short-lived “State of Affairs,” she has a new series. CBS has given a series order to “Doubt,” Variety has reported, a show that tells the story of a “smart, chic, successful defense lawyer (Heigl) at a boutique firm as she starts to fall for her charismatic client, who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime.”
“Doubt” was originally developed for the 2015–2016 season, and at that time starred KaDee Strickland and Teddy Sears. But the pilot was never ordered to series and instead was re-developed and re-shot for this season with Heigl and Steven Pasquale. Laverne Cox (“Orange is the New Black”) was also set to star in the original iteration and will remain in this version.
As it turns out, “Doubt” was going head-to-head with another procedural pilot, “Drew,” an adult adaptation of the Nancy Drew stories. According to Deadline, “CBS brass took extra time to deliberate between Joan Rater and Tony Phelan’s two drama pilots for the network, legal drama ‘Doubt’ and cop show ‘Drew,’ a contemporary take on the character from the Nancy Drew books. In the end, ‘Doubt,’ which had had the edge heading into the final stretch, was picked up to series on Saturday.”
The Deadline writer reports that the “Drew” “skewed too female for CBS’ schedule;” this comes just days after dropping the only female-led superhero series on network TV, “Supergirl,” to The CW. “Drew” is now being shopped to other outlets by CBS studios.
“Drew” as Deadline describes, stars Sarah Shahi (“Person of Interest”) as Nancy — now in her 30s — “a detective for the NYPD where she investigates and solves crimes using her uncanny observational skills, all while navigating the complexities of life in a modern world.”
As Indiewire pointed out, “CBS recently picked up a pack of, dare we say it, male-skewing series, thanks to new shows like ‘MacGyver,’ ‘Training Day,’ ‘Man With a Plan,’ and ‘The Great Indoors.’ Seems like CBS doesn’t have a problem with going male-centric in its programming, at least as it suits them.”
In other TV news, NBC has ordered a spin-off of their hit series “The Blacklist.” “The Blacklist: Redemption” will feature “The Blacklist” guest stars Famke Janssen and Tawny Cypress.
According to the AP, “the spin-off will revolve around [Ryan] Eggold’s undercover operative Tom Keen joining forces with Janssen’s mercenary boss Susan ‘Scottie’ Hargrave.” Janssen has appeared on “Nip/Tuck” and “Hemlock Grove,” and is currently a recurring guest star on “How to Get Away with Murder.”
