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
For Your Consideration Awardsline Event: Timeless
April 29, 2017 by rozofla
Left to Right: Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett, Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan
This last week, in conjunction with the well-known entertainment news site Deadline and their Awardsline screening series, NBC’s freshman drama Timeless was presented to members of various Guilds and fans.
The room was treated to a first (or second) viewing of the show’s fourth episode entitled “Party at Castle Varlar,” that featured Nazis and Ian Fleming (as played by Once Upon a Time alum Sean Maguire). It was also one of the first episodes to dig deeply into Flynn Garcia’s (series regular Goran Visnijc) motives. After the episode, Dominic Patten from Deadline led a short question and answer session with Executive Producers Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan as well as stars Matt Lanter (Wyatt Logan), Abigail Spencer (Lucy Preston) and Malcolm Barrett (Rufus Carlin).
While nothing about the show’s future was discussed, much was asked about how some stories were broken (usually the room focuses on a style of episode – Western, Mystery, etc. – and then finds a historical time to match) while also allowing the cast to share their favorite episodes and costumes.
Left to Right: Matt Lanter, Abigail Spencer, Malcolm Barrett, Eric Kripke and Shawn Ryan
Overall, for a show that generated some buzz during the year, but could always use more if there’s another season, this event allowed existing fans a shot at seeing the cast up close while also teasing some of the behind the scenes stories that made the show fun and captivating each week.
NBC will announce their 2017-2018 TV schedule at the network’s annual upfront presentation in New York City on Monday, May 15. It is possible that the fate of Timeless could be revealed shortly before the official announcement is made.
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