A TV series inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s Chasing Hillary bestseller has taken a detour to The CW, after Netflix bailed on the politically themed project.
Published in April 2018, Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling offered “the dishy, rollicking, and deeply personal story of what really happened in the 2016 election, as seen through the eyes of the New York Times reporter (Chozick) who gave eight years of her life to covering the First Woman President who wasn’t” (aka Hillary Clinton).
Warner Bros. TV acquired the rights to the book in September 2018. About a year after, Netflix ordered to series The Girls on the Bus, from Julie Plec (Legacies) and Chozick and executive-produced by Greg Berlanti. Though inspired by a book chapter of the same name, the drama will not be about Clinton or the 2016 election and instead focus on “four female journalists who follow the every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, finding friendship, love, and a scandal that could take down not just the presidency but our entire democracy along the way.”
As first reported by THR, The Girls on the Bus is now being redeveloped for The CW with an eye on the broadcast net’s audience after Netflix — in the wake of a September 2020 change in leadership — reportedly grew wary of the political backdrop. Plec and Chozick are still set to pen the pilot, with Berlanti and production partner Sarah Schechter exec-producing.
