LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:

CARNIVALE/UNSCRIPTED (HBO) - The respective season and series premieres of the pay channel originals opened to less than stellar results. "Carnivale" bowed to 1.81 million viewers overall, down a whopping 65.84% from its debut in September of 2003 (5.3 million). That episode however followed a new installment of the network's signature series "Sex and the City." "Unscripted" meanwhile opened to just 814,000 viewers at 10:00/9:00c with a second episode at 10:30/9:30c falling to 726,000 viewers. Both numbers were off from the launch of Section Eight's previous HBO effort "K Street" (3.0 million in September 2003).

DAWN ANNA (Lifetime) - The Debra Winger-led telefilm scored 4.39 million viewers on Monday including a 1.5 rating/3 share among adults 18-49. Not surprisingly the broadcast also led basic cable on the night in several key female demographics.

LAWS OF CHANCE (A.K.A. UNTITLED KELLY SIEGLER PROJECT) (ABC) - The Alphabet has greenlit production on the drama pilot, about the life of unconventional Houston assistant district attorney Kelly Siegler, whose 95% success rate in court was partly due to her theatrical presentation in arguing cases. Roundtable Entertainment's Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo ("The Mountain") are behind the project, which was created by Gary Glasberg ("Crossing Jordan") and is set up at 20th Century Fox Television.

INVASION (ABC, New!) - Shaun Cassidy ("The Agency," "The Mountain") has booked a new alien-themed drama pilot at ABC, about what happens in a small Florida town after a hurricane hits. The project, which has been given the go ahead to produce a pilot, is set up at Warner Bros. Television.

PROS AND CONS (ABC) - Touchstone Television-based Bad Robot has been given the green light to produce a pilot for the project, a drama about five ex-cons who end up working with the government's antifraud forces. Raven Metzner and Stu Zicherman ("Rush Hour 2") are behind "Pros," with the pair executive producing with Bad Robot's J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk and Thom Sherman.

Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters