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[10/19/05 - 12:00 AM]
Development Update: October 18-19
By The Futon Critic Staff (TFC)

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:

Looking to keep track of all the various projects in development? Click here to visit our newly revamped "Series in Development" charts. Visitors can now filter our listings by network, genre and even development stage (ordered to pilot, cast-contingent, script, etc.). It's updated every day!

10.5 APOCALYPSE (NBC) - The Peacock has quietly bumped the "10.5" sequel from its November sweeps schedule. Originally slated for November 27-28, the project will now air sometime in 2006. No specific reason was given for the move.

30 YEAR OLD GRANDPA (FOX, New!) - Writer/producer Holly Hester ("The Drew Carey Show") and Katalyst Television's Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Karey Burke are set to team for a new comedy that will undoubtedly remind viewers of Kutcher's own real-life relationship with actress Demi Moore. The project, which is set up at 20th Century Fox Television, tracks a young man who marries an older woman and becomes the stepfather to kids nearly his age. Hester will write and executive produce the pilot along with the Katalyst trio. As for plot specifics, the new couple - a 30-year-old Chicago club owner and a successful fortysomething businesswoman - discover they're expecting a child shortly after their wedding, just as the woman's 22-year-old unmarried daughter announces she's pregnant and plans to move back home to raise her baby, putting her promising architectural career on hold in the process. Further complicating things - the woman's youngest daughter, who had been living with her dad, decides she wants to move in with her mom and stepdad.

BASKETBALL WIVES (FOX, New!) - Darren Star ("Kitchen Confidential") and Ayanna Floyd ("Medical Investigation") have landed a script order from FOX for a new primetime soap about the lives of women romantically involved with, you guessed it, professional basketball players. Floyd will write the script, with Star executive producing via his Sony Pictures Television-based banner. The Atlanta-based project is described as focusing on what it's like being married to someone who has everything and how that life isn't exactly what the women bargain for.

THE COLBERT REPORT (Comedy Central) - 1.13 million viewers tuned into Monday's premiere of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" spin-off, including a 1.0 household rating 0.63 rating among adults 18-49. Said numbers in the key demographic were literally double (up 103%) those of previous "Daily Show" lead-out "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" a year ago not to mention up 47 percent from the network's 11:30/10:30c time period average for the past four weeks.

DAISY DOOLEY DOES DIVORCE (ABC, New!) - Ben Wexler ("Still Standing") and Anna Pasternack are developing a new dramedy at the Alphabet about the post-divorce love lives of an ensemble cast. The project, which is based on a series of columns from the U.K. newspaper The Mail, is set up at Touchstone Television, 20th Century Fox Television and Katalyst Television with Michael Engler ("Sex and the City") already attached to direct and executive produce. John Peters will also serve as an executive producer, as will Katalyst's Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Karey Burke.

A DAY IN THE LIFE (ABC, New!) - Writer/producers Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa ("The King of Queens") have snagged a pilot order from ABC and Sony Pictures Television for a new "real-time" comedy about a young couple's wedding day. Future seasons would then track other events, such as the birth of the couple's child or a family cruise held in honor of the parents' wedding anniversary. The pair, who were behind last year's failed comedy pilot "Stroller Wars," will write and executive produce the project.

GENETICALLY CHALLENGED (FOX, New!) - Writer Steve Leff ("Good Morning, Miami") and "Two And A Half Men" executive producers Eric and Kim Tannenbaum are set to team for a new comedy about a young attorney who battles mightily to overcome the quirks and tics passed down to him by his parents. Coby Ryan McLaughlin (MTV's "Undressed") has already been cast in the lead role of the project, which is set up at Warner Bros. Television. "Genetically" is understood to have previously received a cast-contingent order with McLaughlin's involvement lifting said component on the pilot's production. Leff will write the pilot script with the Tannenbaums and Kell Cahoon ("Method & Red") executive producing.

HOLES (New!) - The Hatchery and Walden Media reportedly are developing a small screen version of Louis Sachar's young adult novel-turned-2003 feature film "Holes." It's understood the pair plan to pitch the project as a single-camera comedy series to the broadcast networks next week. The TV version, like the book, will revolve a young boy who lands in a juvenile detention camp in Texas - where the kids are forced to dig holes by the camp's warden - after being wrongly accused of theft. The Hatchery's Margaret Loesch, Bruce Stein and Dan Angel will all serve as executive producers, along with Douglas Love and Ronda Berkley.

HOMEWRECKER (MTV) - The cable channel has confirmed the Ryan Dunn-hosted series will launch on Sunday, October 30 at 10:30/9:30c following the sixth season premiere of "Punk'd." Here's how MTV describes the project: "Homewrecker is the ultimate in anti-makeover reality shows. Your host Ryan Dunn, helps an aggravated roommate get back at their roommate, who has done them wrong."

NIP/TUCK (FX) - The show's October 11 installment drew a strong 3.42 million viewers, good enough to finish as the 10th most-watched program on cable last week, ahead of MTV's "Laguna Beach" (3.3 million) and "The Real World" (3.1 million). Among adults 18-49, "Nip/Tuck" averaged a 1.8 rating/5 share.

ONE SUNDAY MORNING (New!) - Amy Ephron's jazz age novel "One Sunday Morning" is set to be the focus of a new one-hour drama. "Ray" producers Howard and Karen Baldwin have optioned the rights to the novel with Ephron herself attached to write the pilot script. "Morning" revolves around the romances and scandals surrounding a quartet of young 1920s society women and the men in their lives. No studio or network is currently attached. The Baldwins will executive produce through their Baldwin Entertainment Group banner should it go forward.

PARENTEEN (FOX, New!) - Fox 21-based Katalyst Television has set up an unscripted project at FOX which aims to help parents struggling with their teenagers. FOX has given a pilot commitment to the project, which Katalyst principals Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Karey Burke will executive produce. No other details were given.

UNTITLED JIM HERZFELD PROJECT (NBC, New!) - Feature writer Jim Herzfeld ("Meet the Fockers") and Imagine Television's Brian Grazer and David Nevins have scored a put pilot commitment from the Peacock for a new comedy set at a Los Angeles country club. Herzfeld will write the pilot script and executive produce along with the 20th Century Fox Television-based Grazer and Nevins. As for plot specifics, one of the characters is understood to be a Midwestern transplant who ends up working at the club, giving an outsider's perspective on L.A. and L.A. society. Herzfeld will also incorporate his own experiences as he worked at the Bel-Air Country Club while attending film school at UCLA during his 20s.

UNTITLED LYNNE KOPLITZ PROJECT (New!) - Tom Werner, Eric Gold and Jimmy Miller's newly formed Warner Bros. Television-based Werner-Gold-Miller banner has inked comedian Lynne Koplitz ("Life & Style") to a six-figure talent holding deal. The pact calls for the company to develop a project around Koplitz. The news marks the company's second talent deal as of late, the other being with comedian Russell Peters.

UNTITLED MARK LORD PROJECT (ABC, New!) - Writer Mark Lord has scored a script order from ABC for a new drama about a fictitious community where single parents and kids go after the parents divorce. There the teens, who operate without strong parental units, form a loose urban tribe of their own. The project is set up at Katalyst Television with the company's Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Karey Burke executive producing.

UNTITLED TRENT JONES PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Writer/producer Trent Jones ("Threat Matrix") has booked a script order at FOX for a new semi-autobiographical drama about a man with seven siblings who marries a woman with an even larger family. Said project, which is based at Ashton Kutcher, Jason Goldberg and Karey Burke's Katalyst Television, is loosely based on Jones' own experience with wife Francie Calfo, ABC's head of development.

WHAT ABOUT BRIAN (ABC) - Sarah Lancaster ("Everwood") reportedly has joined the cast of the midseason drama, about the last single guy (Barry Watson) in his group of friends. It's understood Lancaster will take over for Polly Shannon as Marjorie, the female lead and the chief love interest of Watson's character - who just happens to be dating his best friend (Matthew Davis). No reason for the change was given.

Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, TV Guide





  [october 2005]  
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· 10.5 (NBC)
· 10.5: APOCALYPSE (NBC)
· 30 YEAR OLD GRANDPA (FOX)
· BASKETBALL WIVES (FOX)
· BIG DAY (ABC)
· DAISY DOOLEY DOES DIVORCE (ABC)
· DREW CAREY SHOW, THE (ABC)
· EVERWOOD (WB)
· GENETICALLY CHALLENGED (FOX)
· GOOD MORNING, MIAMI (NBC)
· HOMEWRECKER (MTV)
· KING OF QUEENS, THE (CBS)
· KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL (FOX)
· LIFE & STYLE (SYNDICATION)
· MEDICAL INVESTIGATION (NBC)
· METHOD & RED (FOX)
· NEWPORT HARBOR: THE REAL ORANGE COUNTY (MTV)
· NIP/TUCK (FX)
· PARENTEEN (FOX)
· PUNK'D (BET)
· REAL WORLD, THE (FACEBOOK)
· SEX AND THE CITY (HBO)
· STILL STANDING (CBS)
· STROLLER WARS (CBS)
· THREAT MATRIX (ABC)
· TWO AND A HALF MEN (CBS)
· UNTITLED JIM HERZFELD PROJECT (NBC)
· UNTITLED MARK LORD PROJECT (ABC)
· UNTITLED TRENT JONES PROJECT (FOX)
· WHAT ABOUT BRIAN (ABC)





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