ABC joined NBC, The CW and Fox and got into the series pickup game Thursday, ordering its most high-profile drama -- Shonda Rhimes' How to Get Away With Murder -- to series. The network also added a drama from 12 Years a Slave's John Ridley and Anthony Anderson comedy Black-ish to series. Also joining the schedule is alien drama The Whispers -- previously known as The Visitors.
From exec producers Rhimes and Betsy Beers, Murder has been a frontrunner heading into this week's pickups. Murder, a sexy and suspense-driven legal thriller starring Viola Davis as a brilliant and mysterious criminal defense professor who becomes entangled in a murder plot, rated as one of the buzziest dramas this season.
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The series pickup gives the Grey's Anatomy and Scandal producers three shows on the air for the second time following the end of Private Practice. Rhimes has tremendous clout at the network -- she rarely, if ever, receives notes on Scandal -- and is incredibly valuable to ABC. From ABC Studios, Peter Nowalk penned the pilot and will executive produce the Shondaland drama. The series becomes the latest African-American-led show to join the broadcast networks' schedules this season. Dramas starring Octavia Spencer (Fox's Red Band Society), Taraji P. Henson (Fox's Empire) and Alfre Woodard (NBC's State of Affairs) were picked up to series this week.
American Crime, written, exec produced and directed by 12 Years a Slave's John Ridley and former ABC Studios head of drama-turned-producer Michael McDonald, examines the personal lives of the players involved in a racially charged trial as their worlds are turned upside down. Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman star in the ABC Studios drama, which marks Ridley's return to TV after The Wanda Sykes Show and HBO's passed over boxing drama Da Brick.
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Blackish, loosely based on the life of showrunner Kenya Barris (The Game) stars Anthony Anderson as an upper-middle-class black man who struggles to raise his children with a sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions from his liberal wife, old-school father and his own assimilated, color-blind kids. Laurence Fishburne recurs in the single-camera comedy and exec produces alongside Barris and showrunner Larry Wilmore, Helen Sugland, Tom Russo, Peter Principato, Paul Young and Brian Dobbins. Sources tell THR that the comedy tested extremely well and helped push the entry over the similarly themed Kevin Hart comedy Keep It Together, which was the early front-runner.
Whispers -- previously known as The Visitors -- hails from Under the Dome's Soo Hugh, is an alien invasion drama that stars Lily Rabe, Barry Sloane, Milo Ventimiglia and counts Steven Spielberg among its producers. The ABC Studios drama was produced by Amblin TV's Spielberg, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank and Dawn Olmstead and marks a big sci-fi swing for the network.
Galavant, from The Neighbors boss Dan Fogelman, is a fairy-tale musical that centers on Prince Galavant (Rogue's Joshua Sasse) and his quest for revenge against the king (Psych's Timothy Omundson) who stole his one true love (Mallory Jansen). The high-concept single-camera comedy features original music from Oscar winner Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas) and lyrics from Glenn Slater (Tangled. Chris Koch exec produces and directed the pilot for the U.K.-based Abbey C Studios and Rhode Island Ave. Productions. The pickup, which comes after Fogelman inked an overall deal with ABC Studios, likely will edge out the showrunner's Friday night bubble comedy Neighbors, sources tell THR. For their part, Fogelman, Menken and Slater recently teamed to produce a musical episode of Neighbors. The pickup will likely inject some additional revenue streams into ABC's bottom line from the original music featured on the series. Galavant becomes the second musical ordered this season and fourth on the broadcast networks overall, joining ABC's country drama Nashville, Fox's hip-hop entry Empire and aging veteran dramedy Glee.
The new series joins previously ordered dramas Astronaut Wives andThe Club at the network. More are expected to come tonight.
