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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our signature "Devwatch" section. There visitors can view our listings by network, genre, studio and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!
COUPLE TIME (FOX, New!) - Allyn Rachel and Patrick Carlyle are set to star and write a potential comedy at the network based on their web series of the same name, about "a young long-term couple living in Los Angeles who have long passed the bickering and insecurity of early coupledom and are now tackling becoming adults together." The single-camera project is set up at Ellen DeGeneres's Warner Bros. Television-based A Very Good Production with DeGeneres herself serving as an executive producer and Rachel and Carlyle as supervising producers. (Deadline.com)
EX MEN (CBS) - Emmy-winner Tony Shalhoub ("Monk") has joined the cast of the comedy pilot, about "a charming young man (Chris Smith) who, after being left at the altar by his fiancée, moves into a short-term housing complex and makes unlikely friends with a group of divorced men." He'll play Frank Bober, "a college drop-out who built, ran and is now semi-retired from a clothing manufacturing company." Kal Penn also stars in the CBS Television Studios-based half-hour, from writer/director Rob Greenberg. (TVLine.com)
GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS (A&E) - The cable channel has pulled the plug on its reality staple after seven seasons. "For seven great seasons, Gene, Shannon, Nick and Sophie have been part of the A&E family, and we could not be more proud of the unparalleled run of Gene Simmons Family Jewels," the network said in a statement. "On behalf of everyone at A&E, we'd like to thank the production team at Thinkfactory Media, Gene and his amazing family for their partnership, collaboration and for opening up their lives, warts-and-all, to us throughout the years." The show's most recent 15-episode cycle averaged 1.075 million viewers and a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49. (THR.com)
GREAT LAKE WARRIORS (History) - The newcomer has quietly been shuffled to the 11:00/10:00c hour on Thursday nights by the cable channel. The show delivered a series low 868,000 viewers and a 0.3 adults 18-49 rating on August 9 at 10:00/9:00c, less than half of its debut audience of 2.089 million viewers and a 0.7 adults 18-49 rating on July 19 behind the season finale of "Mountain Men" (3.591 million viewers, 1.2 adults 18-49 rating).
SPY (ABC, New!) - Simeon Goulden is in negotiations to import his U.K. comedy, about a "hapless single father who, trying to impress his horribly precocious nine-year-old son, quits his job as a junior sales assistant in a computer shop but then gets accidentally recruited into the British intelligence agency MI5." ABC Studios and Hat Trick Productions are behind the project, which is on track for a put pilot commitment. Goulden and Jimmy Mulville are the executive producers. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED SARAH WATSON PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Sarah Watson ("Parenthood") has sold a new dramedy to the network about a single thirtysomething attorney working at a Chicago law firm. Said hour, which has a penalty attached, comes from Universal Television with the studio-based Jason Katims executive producing alongside Watson. Michelle Lee, Katims's head of development, will also receive a producing credit. (Deadline.com)
UNTITLED SERA GAMBLE PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Sera Gamble ("Supernatural") has nabbed a script order from the Alphabet for a new drama about Dr. Steven Saylor, a "world-renowned neurosurgeon who becomes a medical anomaly himself after suffering a traumatic brain injury [and is] forced to re-specialize as an internist at the hospital where he was once king." Warner Bros. Television-based Berlanti Productions is behind the hour, which has a penalty attached. Gamble and Greg Berlanti will then executive produce with Melissa Kellner Berman serving as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)
AND IN OTHER NEWS... - John Slattery has booked a top secret role on the Netflix revival of "Arrested Development" (TVLine.com); Michael Grant Terry will likewise recur on "Grimm" as "a wide-eyed and enthusiastic student starting his internship with the Portland Police Department" (TVGuide.com); Ayelet Zurer will guest on "Touch" as "a gifted architect who's had special talents from an early age" (TVLine.com); Miriam Shor is set to recur on "The Good Wife," a role presumably designed to fill the void of Kristin Chenoweth's departing reporter character (TVLine.com); H. Jon Benjamin will guest on "Suburgatory" as Dallas's (Cheryl Hines) unconventional and unlicensed life coach (TVLine.com); "The Big Bang Theory" co-star Mayim Bialik sustained serious injuries in a car accident in Los Angeles this afternoon (TMZ.com); Michael J. Fox, Will Gluck and Sam Laybourne are making the broadcast rounds with a single-camera featuring the iconic "Family Ties" star and inspired by his life (Vulture.com); the producers of "Sister Sister" have filed suit against the accounting firm Green Hasson Janks over "negligence in auditing and calculating profit participation" from the show's run (Deadline.com);
Brad Wigor is likewise suing Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions and McGee Street Productions over "The Night Flyer," a planned Christmas-themed telefilm (Deadline.com); "Criminal Minds" co-star Thomas Gibson will go behind the camera to direct an upcoming episode of the series (EW.com); Lucy Lawless will appear in two episodes of "Parks & Recreation" as "a single mother named Diane who catches Ron Swanson's (Nick Offerman) eye" (EW.com); Tamara Feldman's Poppy Lifton is the latest "Gossip Girl" alum set to return for the show's final season (EW.com); John Barrowman will recur on "Arrow" as "an acquaintance of the Queen family and a prominent figure in Starling City" (EW.com); Abby Elliott has confirmed that she's leaving "Saturday Night Live" after four seasons (Splitsider.com); John Benjamin Hickey is set to recur on "The Mob Doctor" as "a presidentially appointed federal prosecutor" (THR.com); and Aarti Mann will guest on "Suits" as a "recent Harvard Law graduate who lands on Louis's (Rick Hoffman) radar" (THR.com).
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