Rueben's Ramblings

Here are the FOX pilots up for consideration for the 2017-2018 TV season:

Behind Enemy Lines: A military soap thriller where a group of U.S. soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. The “distinctly patriotic series” is a multi-perspective narrative that closely follows our soldiers on the ground, and the officers and service men and women on a nearby aircraft carrier, along with intelligence officers in D.C., as they attempt to bring our heroes home safely and under the radar.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Nikki Toscano, McG, Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, John Davis and John Fox.

CAST: B.J. Britt (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Marg Helgenberger (CSI), Gabriel Chavarria (East Los High), Melia Kreiling (Tyrant), Nestor Carbonell (Bates Motel), Colm Feore (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Willa Fitzgerald (Scream and Royal Pains), Dylan Bruno (Numb3rs), Benito Martinez (American Crime and Supernatural) and Gabriel Chavarria (East Los High).

The Resident: The pilot centers on an idealistic young doctor who begins his first day under the supervision of a tough, brilliant senior resident who pulls the curtain back on all of the good and evil in modern-day medicine. Lives may be saved or lost, but expectations will always be shattered.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Amy Holden Jones, Hayley Schore, Roshan Sethi, Antoine Fuqua and Oly Obst.

CAST: Manish Dayal (The Hundred-Foot Journey), Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), Matt Czuchry (The Good Wife and Gilmore Girls), Shaunette Renee Wilson (Billions), Emily Van Camp (Revenge) and Valerie Cruz (The Following).

Untitled Marvel Action-Adventure Pilot(also known as Gifted): The pilot revolves around two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Matt Nix, Lauren Shuler Donner, Simon Kinberg, Jeph Loeb, Jim Chory and Bryan Singer.

CAST: Blair Redford (Switched at Birth and Satisfaction), Natalie Alyn Lind (The Goldbergs), Jamie Chung (Once Upon a Time), Sean Teale (Incorporated), Stephen Moyer (True Blood), Amy Acker (Angel and Person of Interest), Coby Bell (Burn Notice), Emma Dumont (Bunheads and Aquarius)

Untitled University Project (formerly titled Controversy): The pilot follows the Junior Counsel of a prestigious Illinois university who must deal with an out-of-control scandal when a young co-ed accuses several star football players of sexual assault. From the football coaches and boosters who wield outsize influence to a university administration under siege, the project explores the type of high-profile controversy all too familiar on today’s college campuses, as well as the corrosive, dangerous nature of institutional power.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Judy Smith, Jennifer Klein, Charlie Gogolak, Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air), John Requa and Glenn Ficarra.

CAST: Austin Stowell (Whiplash), Christine Lahti, Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife and Blindspot), Erin Moriarty (Jessica Jones), Saycon Sengbloh (Scandal), Griffin Freeman (Paper Towns), Anthony Edwards (ER), Robbie Jones (Bosch and 90210) and Vince Nappo (Reign and NCIS).

MOST LIKELY TO BE PICKED-UP: Untitled Marvel’s Pilot

WOULD BE INTERESTING TO SEE: Behind Enemy Lines

LONG SHOT: The Resident (seems a bit too much like House, to an extent)

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Here are the CBS pilots up for consideration for the 2017-2018 TV season:

Instinct: Based on the upcoming James Patterson novel, a former CIA operative who has since built a “normal” life as a gifted professor and writer is pulled back into his old life when the NYPD needs his help to stop a serial killer on the loose.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Michael Rauch (Royal Pains), Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Alan Cumming, James Patterson, Bill Robinson and Leopoldo Gout.

CAST: Alan Cumming (The Good Wife), Bojana Novakoic (Shameless and Rake), Daniel Ings (The Crown), Naveen Andrews (Lost) and Khandi Alexander (CSI: Miami).

Mission Control: The next generation of NASA astronauts and scientists juggle both their personal and professional lives during a critical mission with no margin for error.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Andy Weir (The Martian), Courtney Conte, Quan Phung, Simon Kinberg (The Martian), Aditya Sood and Charles Eglee (Dexter).

CAST: Levi Fiehler (The Fosters), David Giuntoli (Grimm), Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace and Unforgettable), Ricardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives and Jane the Virgin), Peyton List (Frequency) and Wunmi Mosaku (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice).

Perfect Citizen: Revolves around the former General Counsel for the NSA who, after his involvement as a whistleblower in an international scandal, embarks on a new career at a storied law firm in Boston. There, he faces the reality that while half the country thinks he’s our greatest patriot, the other half thinks he’s a traitor.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Craig Turk (The Good Wife)

CAST: Lenny Platt (Quantico and How to Get Away With Murder), Noah Wyle (ER and The Librarians), Shanley Caswell (The Conjuring), newcomer Adrienne Warren, Stephanie Szostak (Satisfaction), Kristin Chenoweth (Pushing Daisies and Glee) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (The Path and Mr. Robot).

S.W.A.T.: Inspired by the 1975 TV series of the same name, the series follows a locally born and bred S.W.A.T. lieutenant who is torn between loyalty to the streets and duty to his fellow officers when he’s tasked to run a highly-trained unit that is the last stop for solving crimes in Los Angeles.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Aaron Thomas Shawn Ryan, Marney Hochman, Neal Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Danielle Woodrow and Justin Lin.

CAST: Stephanie Sigman (Spectre), Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds), Lina Esco (Kingdom), Kenny Johnson (Bates Motel and Secrets and Lies), Jay Harrington (Better Off Ted and Code Black), Peter Onorati (Murder in the First) and Australia actor Alex Russell.

The Get: This workplace drama centers on a team of tireless internet journalists who pursue and expose the stories of injustice using their unconventional investigative techniques in today’s anything-goes world of reporting.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Bridget Carpenter.

CAST: Emayatzy Corinealdi (Hand of God), Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond), Jeananne Goossen (The Night Shift), newcomer Alex Fitzalan, Michael Rady (UnReal and Jane the Virgin) and Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy and Private Practice).

Untitled Jenny Lumet Project (formerly known as Higher Ground): The pilot focuses on an elite team of investigators for the Northeast Regional U.S. Hate Crimes Unit, who solve a myriad of crimes against humanity as they confront their own biases.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Jenny Lumet and Katie Couric.

CAST: Brad William Henke (Orange Is the New Black), Zach Appleman (Sleepy Hollow), Grace Rex (The Good Wife), Kevin Daniels (Sirens), Sharon Leal (Supergirl) and Omar Metwally (The Affair).

Untitled Navy SEALs Pilot: The pilot follows the lives of the elite Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high stakes missions the country can ask.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Ben Cavell (Justified), Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly.

CAST: Neil Brown, Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Max Theriot (Bates Motel), Toni Trucks (Franklin & Bash), A.J. Buckley (Supernatural and CSI: NY), David Boreanaz (Bones and Angel) and Jessica Pare (Mad Men).

Wisdom of the Crowd: Based on the Israeli television series of the same name, the pilot tells the story of a tech innovator who, inspired by the notion that a million minds are better than one, creates a cutting edge crowdsourcing hub to solve his own daughter’s murder, as well as revolutionizing crime solving in San Francisco.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Ted Humphrey.

CAST: Jeremy Piven (Entourage and Mr. Selfridge), Richard T. Jones (Judging Amy), Blake Lee (Mixology), Monica Potter (Parenthood), Natalia Tena (Game of Thrones) and Jake Matthews (Bosch).

MOST LIKELY TO BE PICKED-UP: Instinct and Mission Control

WOULD BE INTERESTING TO SEE: S.W.A.T. and Untitled Navy SEALs Pilot

LONG SHOT: Wisdom of the Crowd

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Here are the ABC pilots up for consideration for the 2017-2018 TV season:

Deception: When his career is ruined by scandal, superstar magician Cameron Black has only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, illusion and influence — the FBI. He’ll become the world’s first consulting illusionist, helping the government solve crimes that defy explanation and trap criminals and spies by using deception.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Chris Fedak (Chuck and Forever); Greg Berlanti, Martin Gero, Sarah Schechter and David Kwong (Blindspot, Now You See Me).

CAST: Jack Cutmore-Scott (Cooper Barrett and Kingsman: The Secret Service), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Lenora Crichlow (Being Human), Ilfenesh Hadera (Billions), Justin Chon (Twilight movie franchise), Vinnie Jones (Arrow) and Laila Robins (Murder in the First and Homeland).

Doomsday: The series is set in the aftermath of Sept. 11, when the U.S. government instituted a secret think-tank comprised of the most creative minds in science and entertainment who were tasked solely with dreaming up man-made disaster scenarios and their possible solutions. The ideas they invented were so dangerous that the list was sealed and the program shut down. But when a catastrophe occurs ripped from the pages of the missing doomsday book, the team is brought back years later to prevent the disasters of their own making.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Carole Mendelsohn, Julie Weitz, Mark Bianculli and VJ Boyd.

CAST: Dan Boyd (Cougar Town), Jack Davenport (Smash), Rachelle Lefevre (Under the Dome), Taye Diggs (Murder in the First), Claire Holt (The Originals), Rochelle Aytes (Mistresses) and Justin Chatwin (Shameless).

Las Reinas: Revolves around Detective Sonya De La Reina, who is forced to confront her past when a case compels her to reconnect with her estranged family — the most powerful criminal outfit in Miami. Thrust back into the world she thought she had left behind, Sonya must walk the murky line between the law and her family, and question her true destiny as a De La Reina.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Dean Georgaris, Mark Gordon, Nicholas Pepper and Chris Brancato.

CAST: Sonia Braga (Royal Pains and Luke Cage), John Corbett (Northern Exposure and Sex and the City), Daniella Alonso (Revolution), Matt Davis (The Vampire Diaries), Eric Winter (Witches of East End), Shalim Ortiz (Heroes) and Amanda Warren (The Leftovers).

Salamander: The pilot follows a brilliant but misanthropic engineer who recruits a skeptical Homeland Security agent to help him track a mysterious bank robber whose theft of 66 specific safety deposit boxes, belonging to the elite and powerful, sets in motion a series of blackmails that may be linked to a greater conspiracy.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Jeff Pinkner, Andre Nemec, Josh Applebaum and Scott Rosenberg.

CAST: Alison Miller (Incorporated), John Leguizamo, Larenz Tate (Game of Silence and House of Lies), Elaine Tan (Hand of God), Karine Vanasse (Revenge), Treat Williams (Everwood), Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Grimm and Robin Hood movie) and Eric Bogosian,

The Crossing: Refugees from a war-torn country start showing up to seek asylum in an American town. Only the country these people are from is America and the war they are fleeing is 250 years in the future. The local sheriff with a past, a federal agent and a mother in search of her missing refugee daughter drive this allegory with a surprising conspiracy at the center.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Dan Dworkin, Jay Beattie (Criminal Minds) and Jason Reed

CAST: Sandrine Holt (House of Cards and MacGyver), Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club), Jay Karnes (Burn Notice and The Shield), Simone Kessell (Terra Nova), Grant Harvey (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), Marcius Harris (Vice Principals), Kelley Missal (One Life to Live), Tommy Bastow (EastEnders), John D’Leo (the box office movie The Family), Natalie Martinez (Under the Dome and APB) and Rick Gomez (Justified).

The Good Doctor: Based on a South Korean format, the drama centers on a young surgeon with Savant syndrome who is recruited into the pediatric surgical unit of a prestigious hospital. The question will arise: Can a person who doesn’t have the ability to relate to people actually save their lives?

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: David Shore (House) and actor Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0).

CAST: Antonia Thomas (Misfits), Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel), Nicholas Gonzalez (Pretty Little Liars and Jane the Virgin), Chuku Modu (Game of Thrones), Hill Harper (CSI: NY), Irene Keng (Grey’s Anatomy and Harry’s Law), Richard Schiff (The West Wing) and Beau Garrett (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce).

The Gospel of Kevin: A light one hour about Kevin, a down-on-his-luck man who is tasked by God with a mission to save the world.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Marvel’s Agent Carter)

CAST: Newcomer Natacha Karam, Mike Vogel (Under the Dome), Jason Ritter (Parenthood and Joan of Arcadia), Cristela Alonzo (Cristela), India de Beaufort (Jane By Design, Younger and NCIS: Los Angeles), Dustin Ybarra (We Bought a Zoo), Chloe East (Liv and Maddie), J. August Richards (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Angel) and JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Reba, Once Upon a Time and Privileged).

The Trustee: The hour-long comedic pilot revolves around a driven but stubborn detective finds who unlikely help from her precinct’s trustee, a larger than life ex-con finishing out her prison sentence doing menial tasks for the police department. Although these two have completely opposing views on crime and punishment, a highly entertaining and successful partnership is born.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Jay Scherick, David Ronn (Spin City), Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman.

CAST: Meaghan Rath (Being Human), Michael Cudltiz (The Walking Dead), Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), Tim Kang (The Mentalist), David Warshofsky (Scandal and Captain Philllips), L. Scott Caldwell (Lost), Berto Colon (Orange Is the New Black) and Lance Gross (Sleepy Hollow).

Untitled Marc Cherry Pilot (formerly known as Bluegrass or Blood Red): Ruby Adair, the sheriff of colorful small town Oxblood, Kentucky, finds her red state outlook challenged when a young FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent is sent to help her solve a horrific crime. Together they form an uneasy alliance as Ruby takes the agent behind the lace curtains of this southern gothic community to meet an assortment of bizarre characters, each with a secret of their own.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Marc Cherry, Reba McEntire, Sabrina Wind, Mindy Schultheis, Michael Hanel and Michael Offer

CAST: Singer-actress Reba McEntire, Ben Esler (Hell on Wheels), Natalie Hall (Pretty Little Liars and Star Crossed), Ryan McPartlin (Chuck), Jack Coleman (Heroes), Saidah Ekulona (Kevin Can Wait), Emily Rose (Haven), Saamer Usmani (Reign and Nikita), W. Earl Brown (Deadwood), Roslyn Ruff (Madam Secretary) and Amanda Detmer (Necessary Roughness).

Untitled Paul William Davies Pilot: Set in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Federal Court, aka “The Mother Court,” this legal drama follows brand-new lawyers working on opposite sides — for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high-profile and high-stakes cases in the country, all as their personal lives intersect.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Paul William Davies (Scandal), Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers.

CAST: Ben Rappaport (The Good Wife), Britne Oldford (Hunters and Ravenswood), Anna Deavere Smith (Nurse Jackie), Susannah Flood (Chicago Fire), Hope Davis (Wayward Pines), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Daredevil and Soul Food), Rege-Jean Page (Roots), Lyndon Smith (Parenthood), Ben Shenkman (Royal Pains) and Wesam Keesh (Awkward.).

Unit Zero: The pilot follows Jackie Fink, a brilliant but unassuming CIA engineer and single mom, as she leads a team of desk jockeys into the field as secret agents. Overlooked in the workplace, their invisibility makes them perfect for the CIA’s most covert missions.

THOSE BEHIND THE SCENES: Lindsey Shockley and Kenya Barris.

CAST: Toni Collette (United States of Tara), Kimberly Hebert Gregory (Vice Principals), Rob Huebel (Blunt Talk), Dana Powell (Modern Family), Peter Cambor (NCIS: Los Angeles and Suits), Jamey Sheridan (Sully), Parvesh Cheena (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Ayden Mayeri (New Girl).

MOST LIKELY TO BE PICKED-UP: Unit Zero and Untitled Marc Cherry Pilot

WOULD BE INTERESTING TO SEE: The Gospel of Kevin

LONG SHOT: Deception and Doomsday

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