The Daily Show’s Kristen Schaal and Private Practice’s Kate Walsh were among several women to sell network shows this week, while Showtime’s Homeland and TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles gained new female showrunners for their upcoming seasons.
A roundup of what’s happening in TV:
— Longtime supporting actress Kristin Schaal might finally get her own starring vehicle at ABC. Schaal and her husband/writing partner Rich Blomquist have sold a comedy to the alphabet network. Deadline reports that the comedy, American Monster, will be about “a small-town misfit who becomes an unlikely celebrity when she goes on trial for the murder of the century.”
— Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice star Kate Walsh received an early pilot order from NBC. Walsh will star in a single-camera comedy called Bad Judge, in which she’ll play “a hard-living, sexually unapologetic woman who plays with the law, and whose life on the edge is constantly in balance as she also happens to be a judge in the criminal court system.” Deadline reports that the initial premise was brought to Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s production company by Anne Heche.
— Diablo Cody will supervise Amanda Lund and Matt Gourley’s new workplace comedy, Wunderland, for Fox. According to Deadline, Wunderland “explores the minutiae behind the scenes of America’s most beloved (fictional) theme park. The project is inspired by the couple’s years working at multiple theme parks, where Lund played an array of beloved princesses.”
— Emmy-nominated Boardwalk Empire scribe Margaret Nagle will adapt a Spanish series, Polseres Vermelles (The Red-Band Society), for Fox. The Hollywood Reporter writes that The Red-Band Society “explores with dark humor the daily lives of a group of teenager living in a hospital who become unlikely friends. The depth of the unexpected friendships allows them to survive the challenges of growing up under such intense circumstances.” The original series’ most recently aired season featured characters with cancer, anorexia, and Asperger’s syndrome.
— Over on cable, comedienne Jen Kirkman will star in and write a half-hour comedy on FX. Kirkman is most well-known as a Chelsea Lately regular, and she and Chelsea Handler will co-executive produce. Jen, named a la Louie, will center on a “newly divorced [Bostonite], a woman in her mid-30s, who doesn’t want kids and once always did things the way you were supposed to but is now following her gut,” reports Deadline.
— After winning raves for adapting The Bridge for American TV on FX, writer Meredith Stiehm will return to Homeland to take up showrunner duties once more.
— The upcoming seasons of the neo-Cagney and Lacey detective drama Rizzoli & Isles will be overseen Jan Nash. According to Deadline, “Rizzoli & Isles is TNT’s №1 show of all time and the №2 scripted series in the history of ad-supported cable television, behind only AMC’s The Walking Dead.”
— ABC will adapt the Australian crime series Secrets & Lies with Private Practice executive producer Barbie Kligman at the helm. Deadline reports, “The original six-episode series stars Martin Henderson as a family man who finds the body of a young boy and quickly becomes the prime murder suspect. He has no choice but to try to find the real killer as his marriage, his kids, his reputation, and his sanity are all at stake.”