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[01/30/15 - 11:56 PM]
Development Update: Friday, January 30
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

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!


46 PERCENTERS, THE (ABC, New!) - Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer have scored a pilot order for a new half-hour billed as "an anti-romantic romantic comedy about the 46 percent of the population who choose to stay married, told through the POV of three couples." The presumably multi-camera project is set up at Warner Bros. Television via their Gavin&Roxie&Hap Productions banner. (Deadline.com)


ADVERSARIES (ABC, New!) - David Zabel ("Betrayal") is back in business with the Alphabet for a new drama about "the patriarch of a New York legal dynasty who becomes embroiled in a trial of his own, and his federal prosecutor daughter must decide which side she will fight on." ABC Studios is behind the hour, which has a pilot commitment. (Deadline.com)


ADVOCATE, THE (UNTITLED DAVID MARSHALL GRANT PROJECT) (ABC/WBT; W: Sheldon Turner; D: TBA) - The Alphabet has given a pilot order to the drama about "a tough, resourceful, type-A business woman at the top of her game who has a medical scare, only to be dangerously misdiagnosed, and experiences firsthand the hazards of our healthcare system. Shocking her friends and family, she leaves her career behind, becoming instead a brilliant and relentless advocate for anyone caught in the chaotic and ever-changing maze that is modern medicine." Sheldon Turner penned the hour, succeeding original writer David Marshall Grant. Turner and Jennifer Klein will executive produce via their Warner Bros. Television-based Vendetta Productions with Byrdie Lifson-Pompan and Valerie Ulene, upon whom the project is based, serving as consulting producers. (Deadline.com)


ALL STARS (A.K.A. UNTITLED JUDAH MILLER PROJECT) (ABC/20th; W: Judah Miller; D: TBA) - Judah Miller's single-camera comedy - about "a Tony Award-winning mother and a risk-averse, cerebral father who are blessed with a son who is a natural born competitive athlete, forcing them outside their parental comfort zones and into the high-octane world of youth sports" - has likewise received a pilot commitment from the Alphabet. 3 Arts Entertainment's Tom Lassally and Jonathan Berry also serve as executive producers for 20th Century Fox Television. (Deadline.com)


BOOM (ABC/ABCS; W: Josh Pate & Rodes Fishburne; D: TBA) - Josh Pate and Rodes Fishburne's drama - about a young couple who moves to a contemporary boomtown in North Dakota in pursuit of the American dream and are seduced by the sudden wealth of frontier life - has found a new home at ABC where it has received a pilot order. Previously set up at USA, Tony Krantz and Pate are the executive producers with Fisburne co-executive producing for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


BRAINY BUNCH, THE (ABC/20th; W: Lizzie & Wendy Molyneux ; D: TBA) - Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux's single-camera comedy, inspired by the book by Kip and Mona Lisa Harding, has received a pilot order from the Alphabet. Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo also executive produce the half-hour, in which parents find themselves raising their extraordinarily intelligent kids with limited life and social skills, via their 20th Century Fox Television-based Imagine Television. (Deadline.com)


DELORES & JERMAINE (A.K.A. UNTITLED JERMAINE FOWLER PROJECT) (ABC/ABCS; W: Jermaine Fowler; D: TBA) - Jermaine Fowler's multi-camera comedy - which "stars Fowler as a millennial with big ideas, but very little drive, who moves in with his estranged grandmother, a strict, football-loving, former DC cop who needs his youthful enthusiasm in her life as much as he needs her old-school parenting" - has landed a pilot commitment at the network. Daniel Chun co-wrote the ABC Studios-based half-hour and is executive producing alongside 3 Arts Entertainment's Michael Rotenberg and Avi Gilbert with Fowler as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)


DR. KEN (ABC/Sony; W: Jared Stern; D: TBA) - The Ken Jeong-led comedy, about a brilliant physician with zero bedside manner, has found a new home at ABC where it has received a pilot order. Jared Stern is behind the multi-camera comedy, which was previously set up at NBC in 2013. John Davis and John Fox of the Sony Pictures Television-based Davis Entertainment also serve as executive producers. Jeong will also receive a co-executive producer credit. (Deadline.com)


FOR JUSTICE (THOMAS BERRYMAN NUMBER) (CBS/CBSP; W: Rene Balcer; D: TBA) - The drama, based on James Patterson's debut crime novel, has been ordered to pilot at the Eye. Said effort, written by Rene Balcer, centers on "an FBI agent who works in the Criminal Section of the Department of Civil Rights Division and finds herself caught between the radical family she was born into and the professional family she has chosen." Tribeca's Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal and James Patterson Entertainment's James Patterson, Leopoldo Gout and Bill Robinson will executive produce alongside Balcer for CBS Television Studios with Tribeca's Berry Welsh as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)


KING OF 7B, THE (ABC, New!) - Howard Franklin (The Big Year) has received a pilot commitment for a new comedy about "an agoraphobic recluse who ventures outside for the first time in 20 years when he spies what could be his soulmate moving into the building across the street." ABC Studios is behind the half-hour, a format for which has yet to be specified. Rhode Island Ave. Productions' Dan Fogelman will also executive produce. (Deadline.com)


KINGMAKERS (ABC, New!) - Sallie Patrick ("Revenge") has booked a pilot commitment at the Alphabet for a new drama about "a young man whose sister is found dead during her freshman year at an elite Ivy League university. He adopts a new identity to infiltrate the school and its century-old secret society - consisting of privileged students, ambitious faculty, and high-profile alums - in order to investigate her death." Said effort is set up at ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


LFE (CBS/CBSP; W: Paul Downs Colaizzo; D: TBA) - Paul Downs Colaizzo's drama - "a high-octane medical procedural centering on second-year residents at New York City's top hospital as they attempt to balance their god complexes with their humanity" - has received a pilot order from the Eye. CBS Television Studios is behind the hour with The Dan Jinks Co.'s Dan Jinks executive producing and Colaizzo as a co-executive producer. (Deadline.com)


SNEAKY PETE (CBS/Sony; W: Bryan Cranston & David Shore; D: TBA) - Bryan Cranston and David Shore's drama - about "a thirty-something con man who, upon leaving prison, takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of a cellmate, hiding out from his debtors while working for his new "family's" bail bond business - is heading to pilot at the Eye. James Degus of Cranston's Moon Shot Entertainment will also executive produce with Erin Gunn of Shore's Shore Z co-executive producing for Sony Pictures Television. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED JOHNNY KNOXVILLE PROJECT (ABC/ABCS; W: Victor Fresco; D: TBA) - The single-camera comedy, which "follows the exploits of 12-year-old Johnny navigating the "outlaw culture" of his family and small hometown of Knoxville, TN, and documents the childhood experiences that inspired him to become one of the greatest pranksters of a generation," is heading to pilot at ABC. Victor Fresco penned the project and will executive produce alongside Johnny Knoxville, who will serve as narrator, and 3 Arts Entertainment's Michael Rotenberg and Dave Becky for ABC Studios. (Deadline.com)


UNTITLED NBA (A.K.A. JOHNSON & WINDSOR) PROJECT (ABC/ABCS; W: Casey Johnson & David Windsor; D: TBA) - The single-camera comedy, "set in the world of the NBA about a rookie who doesn't speak English and a translator who doesn't speak basketball," has been given a pilot order from the Alphabet. Dan Fogelman of Rhode Island Ave Productions, Peter Guber and Mike Tollin of Mandalay Sports Media and Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment are executive producing alongside writers Casey Johnson and David Windsor. Said effort is being done with the cooperation of the NBA and Guber's Golden State Warriors. (Deadline.com)


VICE PRINCIPALS (HBO; W: Danny McBride & Jody Hill; D: TBA) - Busy Philipps ("Cougar Town") has joined the cast of the upcoming Danny McBride-led comedy, which tells the story of a high school and the people who almost run it, the vice principals. She'll play Gale Liptrapp, "ex-wife of Neal Gamby (McBride) and loving mother to his child who has remarried and has no tolerance for Gamby's antics." Da'vine Joy Randolph, Georgia King and Sheaun McKinney also star. (Deadline.com)


AND IN OTHER NEWS... - TBS reportedly has pulled the plug on "Ground Floor" after two seasons however a spokesperson maintains the series has not been officially cancelled (TVLine.com); Idina Menzel is set up star in "Happy Time", a new comedy from Warner Bros. Television and Ellen DeGeneres's studio-based A Very Good Production targeted for the next development cycle (Deadline.com); Jason Butler Harner, Shree Crooks and Fairuza Balk are among the latest faces bound for "Ray Donovan" this season (Deadline.com, THR.com); and "Bad Judge" co-star Tone Bell has inked a talent holding deal with NBC while sibling Universal Television has inked a blind script deal with him (THR.com).






  [january 2015]  
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T
W
T
F
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· 46 PERCENTERS, THE (ABC)
· ADVERSARIES, THE (ABC)
· ADVOCATE, THE (ABC)
· BAD JUDGE (NBC)
· BETRAYAL (ABC)
· BLOOD & OIL (ABC)
· BRAINY (ABC)
· COUGAR TOWN (TBS)
· DELORES & JERMAINE (ABC)
· DEVELOPMENT UPDATE (TFC)
· DIVA THE DOC AND THE JOC, THE (ABC)
· DR KEN (ABC)
· FOR JUSTICE (CBS)
· GOLDEN STATE (ABC)
· GROUND FLOOR (TBS)
· KING OF 7B, THE (ABC)
· KINGMAKERS (ABC)
· KNOXVILLE (ABC)
· LFE (CBS)
· RAY DONOVAN (SHOWTIME)
· REVENGE (ABC)
· SNEAKY PETE (AMAZON)
· TRUTH BE TOLD (NBC)
· VICE PRINCIPALS (HBO)





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