Pilots 2019: Last-Minute Buzz On What’s Still Hot
ABC threw a curveball this year by heading into the pre-upfront weekend with only two new series pickups, Untitled Cobie Smulders (fka Stumptown) drama and Black-ish spinoff Mixed-ish. Because many of you have questions and a heightened level of anxiety, here is a special, upfronts-eve edition of Deadline’s Pilot buzz list.
It wouldn’t be an upfront season without a twist or two. One of the biggest ones this year may be brewing at ABC as I hear the network is eyeing NBC’s drama pilot Emergence, which is produced by ABC Studios. With two buzzy pilots — NYPD Blue and Heart of Life — out of fall contention for some tweaking , ABC appears to still be high on the Hank Steinberg/50 Cent legal drama, with a major dark horse emerging in romantic one-hour The Baker and the Beauty. As we reported on Friday, ABC was expected to pick up at most one more comedy pilot, with United We Fall being buzzed about.
Related stories
ELSEWHERE: I hear NBC continues negotiations with two outside studios: with 20th Century Fox TV for the Bradley Whitford comedy Perfect Harmony, which appears close to a deal, and with Sony Pictures TV on drama Lincoln, based on the Bone Collector books, which is more up in the air.
Talks also continue at Fox for a series pickup of family drama soap pilot Filthy Rich, starring Kim Cattrall. The issues had been related to writer/director/exec producer’s Tate Taylor’s busy film schedule and availability.
Ditto for the CW, whose brass are still trying to pick up to series the cosmetics company drama pilot Glamorous.
There are no pilots left in contention at CBS.
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
