10 New Broadcast TV Pilots We’re Rooting For Already
It’s pilot season in Hollywood, with the broadcast networks lining up talent to write, produce, and star in TV shows that might end up making the 2020–2021 primetime lineup.
And all eyes are on the TV industry, with Deadline tracking the “Primetime Pilot Panic” and announcing each casting of a bold-faced name.
With any luck, we’ll see the 10 projects below — featuring Dwayne Johnson, Lisa Kudrow, Ted Danson, and even Erin Brockovich — thrive on the small screen next season. Keep reading for loglines and other details about these exciting titles, some of which have already been ordered to series.
At That Age (NBC)
“After the Cooper family’s golden child suffers a catastrophic event, seven family members face a foundational shift, make life-altering decisions and deal with deep secrets coming to light,” in this drama billed as “an exploration of an African-American family’s legacy.”
Carla (Fox)
In this ordered-to-series multi-camera comedy based on the BBC show Miranda, Mayim Bialik stars as a “39-year-old woman who struggles every day against society and her mother to prove that you cannot have everything you want—and still be happy. Which is why she spent the money her parents set aside for her wedding to open a Cat Café in Louisville, KY.”
Housebroken (Fox)
Image via Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
This ordered-to-series animated pilot featuring the voices of Lisa Kudrow, Clea DuVall, Sharon Horgan, Will Forte, and Tony Hale is “an irreverent comedy that explores human dysfunction and neurosis through a group of neighborhood animals who live in the suburbs”
Clarice (CBS)
This prospective drama is “set in 1993, a year after the events of The Silence of the Lambs,” and it’s “a deep dive into the untold personal story of Clarice Starling, as she returns to the field to pursue serial murderers and sexual predators while navigating the high stakes political world of Washington, D.C.”
Harlem’s Kitchen (ABC)
“Executive Chef and patriarch Ellis Rice runs a successful fine-dining restaurant in Harlem with his wife and three daughters,” in this drama written by Shondaland vet Zahir McGhee and executive-produced by famed chef Marcus Samuelsson. “But an unexpected death thrusts the family into turmoil and puts the restaurant’s future in jeopardy as long-buried secrets are revealed.”
Rebel (ABC)
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
“Annie ‘Rebel’ Bello [Katey Sagal, pictured above] is a blue-collar legal advocate without a law degree—a funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves,” in this drama from Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff and exec-produced by Erin Brockovich. “When Rebel applies herself to a fight she believes in, she will win at almost any cost.”
Superman & Lois (The CW)
The latest entry in the Arrowverse is this ordered-to-series drama starring Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch, a show that “revolves around the world’s most famous superhero and comic books’ most famous journalist as they deal with all the stress, pressures and complexities that come with being working parents in today’s society.”
Thirtysomething(else) (ABC)
Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images
Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig, Mel Harris, and Timothy Busfield are reprising their roles from the Emmy-winning, 1980s-era ABC drama for this sequel project. “Apparently, raising children—even grown children—never ends, but who could have known how hard it would be for them to raise their parents?”
Untitled Tina Fey/Robert Carlock Project (NBC)
“A wealthy businessman runs for mayor of Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons,” in this ordered-to-series, single-camera comedy starring Ted Danson, Bobby Moynihan, and Holly Hunter. “Once he wins, he has to figure out what he stands for, gain the respect of his staff and connect with his teenage daughter—all while controlling the coyote population.”
Young Rock (NBC)
Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
Dwayne Johnson executive-produces and stars in this ordered-to-series comedy that “will chronicle his formative years.” Fresh Off the Boat creator Nahnatchka Khan and EP Jeff Chiang co-wrote the script.
