Pilot Season 2013: Get Scoop on This Fall’s (Possible) Newcomers, and Who’s In Them
Our running update of pilots ordered for the 2013-14 TV season, going network by network (EPs = executive producers):
The 100 (Drama)
EPs | Jason Rothenberg, Leslie Morgenstein, Gina Girolamo, Matt Miller (Chuck)
DIRECTOR | Bharat Nalluri (Emily Owens, M.D.)
CAST | Eliza Taylor (Neighbours), Bob Morley (Home and Away), Eli Goree (Emily Owens, M.D.), Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), Marie Avgeropoulos (Cult), Paige Turco (Person of Interest), Isaiah Washington (Grey’s Anatomy), Kelly Hu (Arrow), Thomas McDonell (Suburgatory), Christopher Larkin
Based on upcoming Alloy books written by Kass Morgan, the project is set 97 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization. A spaceship housing the lone human survivors sends 100 juvenile delinquents back to Earth to investigate the possibility of re-colonizing the planet.
Blink (Drama)
EPs | Vera Herbert (Awkward), David Marshall Grant (Brothers & Sisters), Sarah Timberman (Justified), Carl Beverly (Justified)
CAST | John Benjamin Hickey (The Big C), Madeline Carroll (Mr. Popper’s Penguins), Michael Weston (House), Johnny Simmons (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Elizabeth Marvel (Person of Interest)
A “warm, quirky, humorous drama” about a family patriarch who lands in a coma-like state after a car accident, but can still see and hear all.
Company Town (Drama)
EPs | Sera Gamble (Supernatural), Taylor Hackford (E-Ring)
CAST | Gage Golightly (Teen Wolf), Stella Maeve (Golden Boy), Maya Kazan, Merle Dandridge (Sons of Anarchy), Arjun Gupta (Nurse Jackie), Dondre Whitfield (The Event), Graham Hamilton, Evie Thompson
A scandal at a Naval base in Virginia touches the lives of both civilians and military personnel in the area, putting two early twentysomething women who grew up together and were once best friends on opposite sides of the Townie/Military divide.
The Originals (Drama)
EPs | Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries), Leslie Morgenstein, Gina Girolamo
CAST | Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies, Claire Holt, Phoebe Tonkin, Daniella Pineda (Homeland), Charles Michael Davis (The Game), Danielle Campbell (Prison Break), Leah Pipes (Sorority Row)
This planted pilot, airing as an April episode of The Vampire Diaries, Klaus returns to the French Quarter of New Orleans, a supernatural melting pot that he helped build centuries ago, and is reunited with his diabolical former protégé Marcel.
Oxygen (Drama)
EPs | Meredith Averill (The Good Wife), Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Richard Shepard, Bryan Furst, Sean Furst, Daniel Gutman
DIRECTOR | Gary Fleder (Beauty and the Beast)
CAST | Aimee Teegarden (Friday Night Lights), Matt Lanter (90210), Malese Jow (The Vampire Diaries), Titus Makin Jr. (Glee), Grey Damon (The Secret Circle), Natalie Hall (Pretty Little Liars), Chelsea Gilligan, Greg Finley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), guest star/recurring Maggie Elizabeth Jones (Ben and Kate)
Passion and politics threaten the peace and an epic romance ignites between a human girl and an alien boy when he and eight others of his kind (The Orion 9) are integrated into a suburban high school ten years after they and hundreds of others landed on Earth and were immediately consigned to an internment camp where they’ve been imprisoned ever since.
Reign (Drama)
EPs | Laurie McCarthy (CSI: Miami), Stephanie Sengupta (Outlaw)
DIRECTOR | Brad Silberling (NYPD Blue)
CAST | Adelaide Kane (Neighbours), Toby Regbo, Celina Sinden, Jenessa Grant, Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables), Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia), Rossif Sutherland
The previously unknown and untold story of Mary Queen of Scots rise to power when she arrives in France as a 15-year-old, betrothed to Prince Francis, and with her three best friends as ladies-in-waiting. The secret history of survival at French Court amidst fierce foes, dark forces, and a world of sexual intrigue.
The Selection (Drama)
EPs | Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (Dollhouse, Vampire Diaries)
DIRECTOR | Alex Graves (666 Park Ave, Fringe)
CAST | Yael Grobglas, Michael Malarkey, Lucien Laviscount (Coronation Street), Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Louise Lombard (CSI), Sean Patrick Thomas (Save the Last Dance), Peta Sergeant, Celia Massingham, Sarah Winter (An Adventure in Space and Time), Ben Aldridge
Getting a pilot order for the second year in a row, the project, based on Kiera Cass’ book series, is an epic romance set 300 years in the future. In it, a poor young woman is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.
The Tomorrow People (Drama)
EPs | Phil Klemmer (Chuck), Greg Berlanti (Arrow), Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries), Danny Cannon (Nikita)
DIRECTOR | Danny Cannon (Nikita)
CAST | Peyton List (Mad Men), Luke Mitchell (Home and Away), Robbie Amell (Revenge), Mark Pellegrino (Lost), Madeleine Mantock
Adapted from the 1970s UK series, it follows several young people from around the world who represent the next stage in human evolution, all possessing special powers including the ability to teleport and communicate with each other telepathically. Together they work to defeat the forces of evil.
This is a great thing, thanks for posting it. It is hard to imagine some of the shows without knowing who the actors will be, which could make all the difference. It will be interesting to see who ends up with the pilots and which ones make it.
My thoughts exactly. Some of these summaries may not sound all that adventurous or exciting right now, but with the right cast they could wind up working out really well, so I’ll show much more interest once I find out who’s going to be in what. There are a couple ideas here and there that have me slightly curious…guess we’ll see what happens in the coming months!
Still waiting for Corey Reynolds(The Closer) to show up in a pilot. He is really missed on the screen.
Or Jon Tenney!
Jon Tenney is the lead in a new TNT private-eye series based on David Baldacci novels King And Maxwell. It will air in the summer. Yay! Got our “Fritz” back on screen right away!
If these are the shows they decided to pick up, I’d hate to see what they passed on. The only one that sounds worth checking out is Sleepy Hollow and they don’t give much info on that.
Forgot about S.H.E.I.L.D. but the rest – pass.
I’m only interested fully in The Sixth Gun, The Returned, Sleepy Hollow and Delirium. I’m partially interested in Super Fun Night and Venice.
Looks like there’s a heavy comedic presence this year — I’m seeing a smattering of shows across networks that look like they’ll be really interesting, but it looks to me like NBC’s (potentially) got the strongest lineup.
Horrible pilot season!!
I know. I could pull a better show out of my ass!
Yes , again. We lose number and quality with All the Trash from Reality Shows. It’s like hearing the Words “Porn Star”. How do they fit together ? Artist vs Tatooist.. Lol
Girlfriend in a Coma is a TERRIBLE title. That will definitely change before it’s seen (if it gets picked up) a la Are you There Chelsea, GCB and Don’t Trust the B-
Well, it is the title of a Smiths song. Can’t blame them for thinking it might fly
And the original title of Are you There and GCB were book titles. That doesn’t mean they’ll make good series titles. Can shows with/misleading titles work? Absolutely, Cougar Town has shown that. But Cougar Town has also shown that a bad title can affect viewership.
Douglas Coupland does have a lot of control over things developed from his work, including the name (see CBC’s jpod). This is a fantastic book based in my hometown of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. However, I would guess they will change where the show would be based. I would also wonder about the category of ‘comedy’. I found the book to be definitely more ‘drama sci-fi’. And it reads more like a mini-series to me rather than a regular 22 ep. Guess we shall see!
Wow. All that, and there’s one show I’m definitely interested in, and one show that’s a maybe. I’m so happy I cut the cable.
Ooh! I was hoping Kal Penn would get a pilot. Love him, I’ll watch.
I had no idea FOX picked up a pilot based on a YA dystopian series too, considering all we’ve been hearing about CW’s Selection.
Delirium JUST got picked up and the Selection was picked up last year. Delirium is a good series though. i’m currently reading the books.
Yes, the books are great (I’m currently half-way through the second one) but I can’t really picture it as a TV series… there are so many different characters in the second book, which just didn’t appear in the first one, so I’d hate to loose the way the storyline played out in the first book, just so yu can introduce all the characters in the Pilot…. in my opinion, the story would have been much better suited for movies.
What’s the point? They’re just gonna cancel everything anyway.
I hope they can pull off the Pulling remake. The original bbc series was fantastic.
Super Fun Night! Damn I hope this makes it!
Only a few things sound decent (Delirium, The Selection, Venice..and I guess The Originals because I’m such a huge TVD fan)… all the comedy descriptions just blend together. I am as of right now truely disappointed and happy that I have a Netflix subscription because I don’t foresee much decent new TV next year.
I miss the fantastical edge that pilot seasons has the past few years. Now we seem to be getting straightforward dramas and tons of meaningless 1/2 hr comedies. Hopefully some good things come around.
I’m interested in the comedies on ABC list (Supre Fun Night, etc), Venice, Delirium, The Sixth Gun, The serial killer pilot on NBC and The Selection.
Some scripts that I hope get a green light are NBC’s Cleopatra, ABC’s Chosen, ABC’s The Clan, ABC’s End Game, ABC’s Evolve, ABC’S Finn & Sawyer, ABC’s MILA 2.0, ABC’s The Royals, ABC’s Weird Desk, FOX’s Athena, FOX’s Shelter, NBC’s Believe, NBC’s Bloodline, and NBC’s Midnight Mass.
I just think there are a TON of amazing concepts still in the coffer at most nextworks (except maybe CBS). Right now the pattern seems to be standard soap or standard “obnoxious main character, with quirks that make them likeable”. I think the networks need more ADVENTURE, GENRE, ROMANTIC – EPIC shows. Less soaps about rich people no one cares about or the next generation of procedural. I hope that the networks really challenge themselve and pick up a couple of extra risker pilots. I think they could support more diversity on their schedules if they have shorter run series (like two genre shows in the same timeslot- one runs 13-15 straight in the fall and the other runs 13-15 straight in the spring). It works folks, check out cable models. It would work and allow the networks to be more creative in the line-ups. Be Brave! Take some risks!
Also, most people watch television for an escape… take a look at what people went in droves to see this year…Hunger Games (Adventure, Romance, Epic Battles), The Avengers (Heroes and Adventure), Batman (Genre and Action) and Eclipse (Romace, Epic Battles and Adventure).
Get it, people don’t want to watch shows about the rich people and their debaucheries, they want to be swept away and escape life for an hour, but they also want to be satisfied at the end of the hour. So, please branch out and bring back some Epic Adventures with a strong Romantic Component. You have the stories there in the potential scripts. Please step out of the box.
wow with the exception of a couple interesting ones the rest look God awful. i don’t think i see one good comedy their all recycled dribble, maybe the Michael J Fox one cuz he’s always good. i’d be weary of letting any bubble shows go this season because from what i can see theirs nothing much to replace it with. IMO
Bethany Joy Lenz for Company Town? Or anything really? I just miss having her on TV and would like to see her on something with quality writing (even though that’s rarely found at the CW).
A lot of them don’t sound like anything that appeals to me, but there are several I’ll check out. I’m concerned that a third NCIS is going to be way too much. I feel like it might bomb like Criminal Minds’ spin-off did. Then again, I thought that about LA too, and I enjoy that more lately than the original.
I really hope the Rebel Wilson and Liza Lapira show gets a pick up!
“Backstrom (Drama)
EPs | Hart Hanson (Bones), Leif G.W. Persson, Niclas Salomonsson
CAST | TBA
Based on the Swedish book series about an overweight, offensive, irascible detective as he tries, and fails, to change his self-destructive behavior.”
Never read any of Leifs book, but it sure sounds like this is going to be about himself… Also why is the title not with swedish letters, that’s just annoying.
My wish for this year’s pilot season is that Jason Dohring is cast on a show that not only gets picked up, but also manages to survive past the first season.
I second that! LOVE Jason Dohring!
S.H.I.E.L.D, Sleepy Hollow, Micheal Fox thing and Sixth Gun sound promising. WAY, WAY too many half hour sitcoms that are usually completely unfunny because it’s humor we’ve seen just too many times before. Which is why the Fox thing just might work. The absolute best news is, Im seeing very few “reality” shows. Hopefully that garbage has finally run it’s course.
What about Julian Fellows’ “The Gilded Age”?
Yes, we need more Downton Abbey in our lives, and cant wait to see the Astors in the story
Isnt that from last season?
I want to see some new Science Fiction !
I know it’s hard tell anything about a show based on a two sentence description but really…most of these sound just awful.
100% agree except for SLEEPY HOLLOW & Untitled show by JJ Abrams & JH Wyman
There are a couple of actors I really, really want to see back on television but honestly I don’t want them stuck in any of these crappy sounding shows.
Let’s see….we have multiple detectives/lawyers with self-destructive behavior, poor, dopey, divorced men moving in with family/friends/other loosers, and a load of 20 something people trying to figure themselves out. These pilots all sound exactly alike.