Looks like the man behind all three CSIs, Without a Trace, Cold Case and The Amazing Race wants an even bigger piece of the prime-time pie. Movie producer turned TV-hitmaker Jerry Bruckheimer has five pilots vying for space on the fall schedule.
A military drama called
The E-Ring shines as the Bruckheimer series most likely to get picked up. Starring
Law & Order alum
Benjamin Bratt and
Dennis Hopper, the NBC pilot goes inside the Pentagon the way
The West Wing went behind the scenes of the White House.
"It's a formula that can be updated for these tenser times of insecurity over homeland security," says
John Rash of ad agency Campbell Mithun, who's had a sneak peek at
The E-Ring.
CBS is considering
American Crime, a drama about a prosecutor who's also a new mom (
Jennifer Finnigan could star if NBC cancels her sitcom,
Committed).
Meanwhile, WB might pick up
Just Legal, which casts
Don Johnson as an ambulance-chasing lawyer who hires an 18-year-old law school grad (
Undeclared's
Jay Baruchel).
Networks are so desperate for a new hit sitcom that they've even turned to Bruckheimer for comedy, although he has no track record in that department. The drama king has two comedies in the works: the tentatively titled
Evolution of Man, a WB show starring
Just Shoot Me's
Wendie Malick as a life coach for three underachieving guys and a CBS project about adult siblings who have to deal with their newly divorced dad. Says Rash about Bruckheimer's risky forays into comedy, "With his ability to find talent, I wouldn't underestimate him."