ABC has made decisions on some of its current pilots, moving forward with production on five and killing off three others. Those three are arguably the more interesting part of this, since they include some big names (as spoiled by the headline of this story), with The Hollywood Reporter saying that ABC has passed on the pilots of its Thirtysomething sequel series, a Jason Lee comedy called Valley Trash, and sexy Dracula series called The Brides from super-producer Greg Berlanti—all three of which were co-productions with other studios, meaning ABC didn’t have sole ownership of them anyway.
The Brides is especially noteworthy since it would’ve been ABC’s first step into the highly successful Berlantiverse, which includes The CW’s superhero shows, Riverdale, and Love, Victor, but hopefully he can distract himself from this loss by focusing on the dozens of other projects he has in the works. Or maybe it’ll inspire him to step it up and start developing fresher ideas. Nobody wants to see Berlanti turn into Dick Wolf and just start pitching the same show but with different characters. (Coming to The CW this fall: Riverdale Med. It’s like Riverdale but everyone’s a doctor. Followed by Arrow: Chicago. It’s just Arrow but it’s in Chicago!)
The lucky five are Rebel (starring Katey Sagal and inspired by Erin Brockovich), Harlem’s Kitchen (a restaurant drama), Bossy (a sitcom formerly called Kids Matter Now), a comedy called Home Economics with Topher Grace (hey, good for him), and a show based on Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest called Work Wife. The actors on those pilots have deals that keep them on board through September 30, but if production can’t safely resume by then, ABC can extend those contracts through December 30—meaning pilot season is going to be predictably weird this year.