Women's Murder Club Kills Its First Pilot

• Sep 28, 2007 07:48 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

The entire pilot for ABC's new Friday night procedural The Women's Murder Club has been reshot. Why? Apparently, it was a little too mysterious for fans to follow. Executive producer Joe Simpson, tells TV Guide that there were too many characters and too many murders in the first attempt to turn James Patterson's best-selling novels about crime-solving female buddies into a TV series. "We tried to cover too much too early," Jessica and Ashlee's dad says. So one of the books' characters, Yuki Castellano (played by Elisabeth Ho) has been written out, and a simpler homicide written in. The version that will debut on October 12 is darker and more grisly as well.

Although Patterson is a writer on the series, the only storyline expected to be copied from his novels is an ongoing search for a - what else - serial killer. In other changes, Rob Estes ( CSI:Miami) has replaced the less-known Christopher Wiehl as the former hubby of cop Lindsay Boxer, played by series star Angie Harmon. And Kyle Secor ( Commander In Chief) has a recurring role as a public defender. Patterson and Simpson are also developing another of the prolific author's mysteries into a TV series. "It's one of his first books called The Midnight Club," says Simpson. "It's about a young detective in a wheelchair, who plays Murderball and has a love life." Somewhere, Ironside is smiling.