Skip to main content

NBC Rumored to Be Powering Up "Lights" and "Heroes" While Relocating "ER"

According to a report at The Futon Critic, NBC is rumored to be close to giving drama pilots Heroes and Friday Night Lights series orders, as reports indicate that both series have begun staffing.

Heroes is a supernatural serialized drama in the vein of Lost about a group of everyday people who suddenly find themselves imbued with extraordinary powers. The project, from NBC Universal Television, was created by Tim Kring (Crossing Jordan), who wrote the two-hour pilot, which was directed by David Semel (House), who also exec produces along with Dennis Hammer. Alias' Jesse Alexander was also recently named a co-executive producer.

The show's sprawling ensemble includes Greg Grunberg (Alias), Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls), Ali Larter (Final Destination), Hayden Panettiere (The Book of Daniel), Leonard Roberts (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Adrian Pasdar (Desperate Housewives), among others.

Jason Katims (Pepper Dennis) has been hired to serve as the showrunner on NBC's other buzzworthy pilot Friday Night Lights, which is also expected to receive an official pickup before the NBC upfronts on Monday. The NBC Universal TV project (from Imagine Television and Film 44), is based on the feature film and book of the same title. Executive producers are Katims, Brian Grazer, David Nevins, John Cameron, Sarah Aubrey, and creator Peter Berg.

The cast of Friday Night Lights will include Kyle Chandler (Grey's Anatomy), Adrianne Palicki (South Beach), Aimee Teegarden (Cold Case), Connie Britton (24), Jesse Plemons (Grey's Anatomy), Minka Kelly (What I Like About You), and Zach Gilford (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

In other NBC scheduling news, the Peacock is considering relocating stalwart medical drama ER from its longtime berth to another timeslot, possibly Tuesdays at 9 or 10 pm, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The reason? Possibly to give its once-prime Thursdays at 10 pm timeslot to the freshman dramedy series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, from Aaron Sorkin. NBC declined to comment; a final decision will be announced at the network's upfront presentation on Monday.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

In Defense of Downton Abbey (Or, Don't Believe Everything You Read)

The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating. Which means, if I can get on my soapbox for a minute, that in order to judge something, one ought to experience it first hand. One can't know how the pudding has turned out until one actually tastes it. I was asked last week--while I was on vacation with my wife--for an interview by a journalist from The Daily Mail, who got in touch to talk to me about PBS' upcoming launch of ITV's period drama Downton Abbey , which stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Dan Stevens, Elizabeth McGovern, and a host of others. (It launches on Sunday evening as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic ; my advance review of the first season can be read here , while my interview with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and stars Dan Stevens and Hugh Bonneville can be read here .) Normally, I would have refused, just based on the fact that I was traveling and wasn't working, but I love Downton Abbey and am so enchanted with the proj...