The Next Big Things We've got a hunch about the new dramas we'll be watching this fall
Angie Harmon, Secrets of a Small Town
It's that time of year again: Network executives are spending these lovely spring days in dark screening rooms, searching for next fall's big hit. As we approach the mid-May unveiling of the new 2006-07 prime-time schedules, the Biz is here to provide you with an early glimpse of which drama pilots are heating up. We'll report on the sitcoms next week.
ABC: Secrets of a Small Town — a drama starring Angie Harmon about a small town whose residents have plenty of skeletons in the closet — is believed to have the inside track for the Sunday-night slot after Desperate Housewives. (It's now a given that the network will move the superhot Grey's Anatomy to another night where it can help launch a new show.) Also hot are Six Degrees — another ensemble soap about six strangers whose lives intertwine in New York — and Traveler, about three graduate students involved in a national-security emergency.
CBS: The as-yet-unnamed new legal drama from CSI executive producer Carol Mendelsohn appears to be a sure bet. Kevin Pollack and Joshua Jackson are costars. Also in the running are the post-nuclear-disaster drama Jericho (with Skeet Ulrich); Shark, with James Woods as the celebrity defense attorney who becomes a prosecutor; and 3 Lbs., which is about television executives — uh, no, make that brain surgeons.
NBC: The network has already ordered Kidnapped and Black Donnellys, and it is "committed" to Aaron Sorkin's Saturday Night Live send-up, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Heroes — about a group of ordinary people who learn they have superpowers — continues to be the most talked-about project at the network. Peacock executives are also said to be fond of Friday Night Lights, which is based on the feature film.
Fox: Primary, which stars Ron Livingston as a hostage negotiator, could be picked up before Fox announces its schedule on May 18. Legal show Damages is also in the running. Already on the schedule is Vanished, a season-long story about the disappearance of a senator's wife.
CW: Reports have been mixed about the status of Aquaman, based on the DC Comics character, which was expected to be a slam dunk for the new network's schedule. But one source tells the Biz that the pilot isn't even completed, so who knows? The other hourlong series generating buzz is the family-on-the-lam drama Runaway, with Donnie Wahlberg.
