I wonder why no one got the idea of creating a primetime soap set in the Wall Street banking world. Very topical, du jour, plenty of storyline possibilities, ample character possibilities...

I was expecting one.

Or even a newspaper/journalism show. The show can cover everything from politics to fashion from crime to blogging. The show can also address the decline of printed news, the connfusion of instant information,24 hour news cycles and of course the charctors, thier families, and all the inter office shanaginzs.

Or even a newspaper/journalism show. The show can cover everything from politics to fashion from crime to blogging. The show can also address the decline of printed news, the connfusion of instant information,24 hour news cycles and of course the charctors, thier families, and all the inter office shanaginzs.

Lou Grant in the 21st century. It could work.

Or that Canadian show... Set in a TV network... Forgot the name.

"Cutthroat," from 20th TV, is a one-hour dramedy centering on Nina Cabrera ("Without a Trace" alumna Sanchez), an upscale Beverly Hills widow and soccer mom who runs an international drug cartel.

The Cabrera role was envisioned and written as a Latina by creators Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters.

That also was the case in another 20th TV pilot, CBS' CIA drama "Chaos," directed and executive produced by Brett Ratner, whose lead was conceived as a Latino man and recently cast with Freddy Rodriguez.

It already has been a breakthrough pilot-casting season in drama-lead diversity. Other high-profile pilots so far this season that have opted for minority leads include Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe, who topline J.J. Abrams' NBC action pilot "Undercovers"; Forest Whitaker, who leads CBS' "Criminal Minds" spinoff; and Laz Alonso, who tops Fox's action drama "Breakout Kings," directed and executive produced by Gavin Hood.

Pilot season does the time warp

"Rockford Files" and "Hawaii Five-O" are flying high, procedurals are hotter than ever before, multicamera comedies are staging a comeback and veteran sitcom directors James Burrows and Pamela Fryman are the most sought-after helmers with three projects each.

"It feels like we're going back in time -- but in a good way," one TV lit agent said about this year's pilot season.

In addition to this dial-back to the '70s, networks are turning back time on the number of pilot orders. After a post-WGA strike nosedive in the number of orders in 2008 to 61, down from 100-plus the previous three years, the tally has been edging up -- to 74 last year and 83 so far this season.

There are plenty of other surprises as well.

First, British formats are out, but British creators and personalities are in.

For the first time in a decade, there is no broadcast pilot based on a U.K. format after NBC's "Prime Suspect" remake was pushed because of difficulties casting the lead.

Sparked by the success of "The Office" and deregulation in the British TV industry in 2004 that handed producers distribution rights to their series, adaptations of British series reached a peak in 2007 with eight pilots. That number went down to six the next year and has declined since.

The reason for the cool-off is twofold. First, there hasn't been a hit U.S. series based on a foreign format since NBC's "The Office" and ABC's telenovela-inspired "Ugly Betty." That fact wasn't lost on the broadcast nets, which didn't pick up a single new series last May based on a foreign format. Additionally, format dealmaking has become increasingly difficult as networks and rightsholders squabble over control of international territories.

Three foreign formats still made it to the pilot stage this season and, in another surprise, two came from non-English-speaking Israel, population 7 million: CBS' drama "The Quinn-tuplets" and Fox's comedy "Traffic Light." (The third, ABC's drama "Generation Y," is based on a Scandinavian format, also a territory rarely mined by U.S. broadcasters.)

India, too, is making a breakthrough post-"Slumdog Millionaire" with two Indian-themed comedy pilots: "Nirvana" on Fox and "Outsourced" on NBC.

Still, while British formats fizzled this year, two pilots with a British pedigree and a similar theme -- a Brit coming to the U.S. -- made the cut: ABC's comedy "Awkward Situations for Men," starring Danny Wallace, and CBS' untitled Ant Hines comedy starring Paul Kaye.

Also unexpected this season was NBC's dramatic change in attitude toward outside suppliers.

"Now there is a shift back to where the best projects are, not just the best projects that the network owns," one studio topper said.

During the past few years, NBC had looked inward, working almost exclusively with its sister studio. To make things worse, the network strained its longtime ties with major nonaligned supplier Warner Bros. TV in the fall when it pulled the plug on the studio's cop drama "Southland."

Fox's "Keep Hope Alive"

"We wanted to repair our reputation," NBC scripted chief Angela Bromstad said, adding that "it's great to have the strength of Warner Bros. back in the fold."

Indeed, the Peacock bid on and landed four of the biggest projects to hit the marketplace this development season, all from Warner Bros.: J.J. Abrams' "Undercovers," Jerry Bruckheimer's "Chase," David E. Kelley's "Kindreds" and Paul Reiser's "Next."

Then it ordered the ABC Studios-produced comedy "This Little Piggy," the only instance of cross-pollination between a vertically integrated broadcast net and in-house production company this season.

The network also stepped in to pick up 20th TV's comedy pilot "Friends with Benefits" when ABC passed on the project.

To top it off, NBC gave a green light to the untitled John Eisendrath drama pilot days after parting ways with the producer behind it, Conan O'Brien.

Eisendrath admitted that he wondered whether NBC would go ahead with a project from O'Brien's Conaco following the two sides' acrimonious divorce.

"I was appreciative and impressed that they set aside any potential awkwardness and made a decision based on the material," he said.

On the casting side, the biggest surprise this season is the breakthrough for minorities as drama leads.

After years of pledging a commitment to diversity onscreen, broadcast networks handed the top roles on six drama pilots to non-Caucasian actors: The spy couple at the center of Abrams' "Undercovers" for NBC is played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Boris Kodjoe, Forest Whitaker is the lead on CBS' "Criminal Minds" spinoff, Laz Alonso tops the Fox action drama "Breakout Kings," Freddy Rodriguez headlines CBS' Brett Ratner-directed CIA drama "Chaos," Maggie Q plays the title character in the CW's "Nikita" reboot and Roselyn Sanchez is the lead in ABC's Latino-themed "Cutthroat."

By comparison, last year's crop of pilots included only one co-lead by a minority actor: "NCIS: Los Angeles," starring LL Cool J. The season before that, there were no pilots toplined by minorities.

Part of the reason for the diversity, which includes the casting of Blair Underwood as the U.S. president in NBC's drama pilot "The Event," might be the Obama Effect, which also would explain the popularity of the president's hometown, Chicago, as the setting for four pilots this year.

In another surprise, AFTRA dominates the pilot field with virtually 100% representation.

Fears of a possible SAG strike last spring led to a swing from 90%-plus SAG pilot representation in 2008 to 90%-plus AFTRA affiliation a year later; however, with no labor stoppage on the horizon and a more moderate regime installed at SAG, the leading actors union was expected to regain pilot ground.

Instead, SAG has been pushed out of the primetime picture -- just as in the '70s and '80s, when AFTRA was dominant as shows were filmed on videotape.

Which brings us back to the time warp.

While the '80s were hot last year with remakes of "Parenthood," "The Witches of Eastwick" and "V" and the '80s-set "Gossip Girl" spinoff, networks have shifted back a decade this year with "Rockford," "Hawaii" and the '70s-set ABC comedy "Funny in Farsi."

If the rollback continues, '60s remakes could be in order for next season. Perhaps Ron Howard, behind the "Parenthood" revival at NBC, will re-imagine "The Andy Griffith Show."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ie79635783d45812702fc6a2cfc9d3cda

"ER" alum Goran Visnjic is in negotiations to star opposite Katee Sackhoff in the ABC drama pilot "Boston's Finest," which also has cast Nia Long.

Additionally, Dougray Scott and Molly Parker are set to star in CBS drama presentation "Quinn-Tuplets."

In other pilot castings, Josh Henderson is leading the cast of the CW's drama "Betwixt," Randall Park has joined the Fox comedy "Tax Man," and Omid Abtahi has boarded Fox drama "Pleading Guilty."

"Finest" centers on a detective (Katee Sackhoff) who teams with a disgraced ex-cop (Visnjic) to solve crimes and untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground. Long, repped by Gersh and Hyphenate's Glenn Rigberg, will play her friend, mentor and partner.

Following his nine-year stint on "ER" playing Dr. Luka Kovac, Visnjic co-starred in the 2009 CBS movie "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler."

"Quinn-Tuplets" follows the personal and professional lives of the Quinn quintuplets. Scott will play Michael, the documentary filmmaker who has chronicled the quints' lives. Parker will play their mother, who was single when she had them in-vitro but subsequently married Michael and had another daughter.

On "Betwixt," about three teenagers who discover they are changelings, Henderson ("Desperate Housewives"), repped by Innovative and Impression, will play the leader of the group who sees a halo of light around people who are about to die.

On "Tax Man," set at an IRS office in Fresno, Calif., Park ("Dinner for Schmucks") will play a fiercely loyal IRS auditor. He is repped by TalentWorks and manager Judy Orbach.

"Guilty" is a legal thriller about embezzlement and the politics of a high-powered firm where Abtahi ("Sleeper Cell"), repped by Greene and Associates, plays the youngest associate.

Taken from The Hollywood Reporter.

Sissy Spacek joins John Wells pilot!

In her first regular series gig, Oscar winner Sissy Spacek has been tapped as the lead on the John Wells-produced medical drama pilot on CBS.

The Warner Bros. TV-produced project, written by Hannah Shakespeare and to be directed by Christopher Chulack, centers on a mobile team of volunteer doctors led by a driven visionary (Spacek) that travels the world and the U.S. helping those in need.

Deeply committed to her work, Spacek's character, originally envisioned as a man, works around the clock, and expects her team to do likewise. Complicating things is her own cancer diagnosis, which requires agonizing chemo treatments at regular intervals, as well as her physician daughter's (Rachelle Lefevre) decision to join the team.

This is the second major drama pilot this season whose lead character's gender was switched to male to female for an Oscar-winning actress.

The curmudgeonly lawyer at the center of David E. Kelley's "Kindreds," also from WBTV, was conceived as a man, Harry Korn, but became Harriet when Bates came on board.

The name of the lead character on the CBS medical drama pilot will similarly be changed from Adrian to Adrianne for Spacek.

Spacek, repped by Innovative and Benderspink, is coming off a strong arc on HBO's drama "Big Love."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i121152486b7856cd5c2c5d1a7e934ded