Women created just 20% of all the shows during the 2013–2014 TV season. If you’re on the lookout for new series with women creators, you’ll be glad to hear three new women-created and/or women-produced pilots in development at ABC, Fox and NBC have been recently announced.
On Monday, we reported that TV powerhouses Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers are developing “Splitsville,” a divorce comedy, for ABC. Now we know that the Shondaland empire also has a drama in development at the network. The untitled project comes from writer and exec-producer Alison Schapker (“The Flash,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Alias”). According to Variety, the ensemble series will focus on a group of Catholic nuns in the Bronx struggling to keep their convent from being closed. The nuns’ lives are further complicated by the arrival of three young additions to their convent and the discovery of long-hidden secrets. (Fortunately for the writing staff, there’s a bevy of scandals in the Catholic Church to draw inspiration from.) Rhimes and Beers will EP the series.
“Modern Family” star and repeat Emmy winner Julie Bowen will executive produce “Hypochondriac,” an adaptation of a Columbian telenovela, for Fox. The single-camera comedy will be written and EP’d by Robin Shorr (“The Middle,” “Samantha Who?”). “Hypochondriac” centers on — surprise — a hypochondriac who, it turns out, isn’t worrying for naught: the day comes when she receives a terminal diagnosis. The bad news spurs her to embark on what Deadline calls “a path of comedic destruction in pursuit of her ‘authentic self.’” (Semi-spoiler alert: In the telenovela on which the series is based, the lead character is actually misdiagnosed, but the doctor who made the prognosis falls in love with her and avoids telling her the truth so he can continue caring for her. How, uh, romantic.)
NBC is also developing a single-cam comedy with a woman creator, “Oh Mama” from Claudia Lonow (“How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life)”). “Oh Mama” is about an engaged couple whose relationship is put into crisis when each of their mothers start having an affair. Plot twist: they’re having an affair with one another. Lonow will write the script and exec-produce.
