Jace Lacob and Maria Elena Fernandez take a look at the 35-plus new series and counting that are coming to television next season, as the network upfronts get underway this week.
CBS has ordered four dramas, including modern-day Sherlock Holmes drama Elementary, and 1960s Vegas cop drama Vegas, as well as two comedies.ABC has ordered Shawn Ryan's nuclear sub drama Last Resort, supernatural drama 666 Park Avenue, and global conspiracy adventure drama Zero Hour, as well as a handful of comedies. Fox has ordered Kevin Williamson's The Following, a mob doctor drama, and several comedies, including one from The Office's Mindy Kaling. NBC has ordered ten new shows and counting, including Matthew Perry comedy Go On, the Dick Wolf-executive produced workplace drama Chicago Fire, Jekyll and Hyde update Do No Harm, soapy drama Infamous, and J.J. Abrams action drama Revolution. The CW ordered five new dramas, including Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, Arrow, Beauty and the Beast, and Cult.
Keep checking this space for the latest updates as the broadcasters prepare to unveil several dozen new shows for the 2012-13 season.
Hands down one of the best pilot scripts of the season, Vegas (formerly known as Ralph Lamb), created by Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas) and Greg Walker (Three Rivers) and directed by James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) tells the real-life story of Ralph Lamb (Dennis Quaid), a rancher who became known as the "cowboy sheriff" of Las Vegas in the 1960s. Under his leadership, he merged the police force and sheriff's department into one law-enforcement agency, tangling with local thugs, Hell's Angels, and mobsters, each of whom was looking for a piece of the Vegas dream. Quaid is joined by Jason O'Mara, Carrie-Anne Moss, Michael Chiklis, Taylor Handley, James Russo, Michael Reilly Burke, and Michael O'Neill.
Lorey Sebastian / CBS
Yes, there's already a fantastic take on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in PBS/BBC's superlative Sherlock, but CBS and creator Robert Doherty (Ringer) have crafted an intriguing and compelling take on the consulting detective with Elementary, which stars Jonny Lee Miller (Dexter) as Holmes, portrayed here as a recovering addict newly transplanted to Manhattan, and Lucy Liu (fresh off a tour de force perfomance on TNT's Southland) as Jane Watson, his sober companion and addiction specialist. While their partnership isn't based entirely on friendship (and, thankfully, so far not on sexual tension), they find that teaming up to solve crimes that baffle the NYPD is perhaps more advantageous than they expected.
Craig Blankenhorn / CBS
Legal drama Made in Jersey (formerly known as Baby Big Shot), from creator Dana Calvo (Covert Affairs), showrunner Kevin Falls (Journeyman), and director Mark Waters (Mean Girls), follows Martina Garretti (Janet Montgomery), a female attorney from a blue collar background in New Jersey, who uses her street smarts and savvy to battle her more polished legal colleagues in Manhattan. The rest of the cast includes Erin Cummings, Kyle MacLachlan, Stephanie March, Pablo Schreiber, and Toni Trucks.
David Lee / CBS
Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick reteam for multi-camera comedy Partners, which revolves around Louis and Charlie, two male architects (Michael Urie and David Krumholtz)--one gay, the other straight--whose lifelong friendship resembles a platonic marriage than that of business partners. But when Charlie decides to propose to his girlfriend, Louis' efforts to remain supportive almost lead to the breakup of his own relationship. The rest of the cast includes Brandon Routh, Molly Shannon, Sophia Bush, and Tracy Vilar. Comedy legend James Burrows directed the pilot episode.
Matt Kennedy / CBS
In drama Golden Boy, from creator Nicholas Wootton (Chuck), director Richard Shepard (Ringer), and executive producer Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Sisters), a young police officer, Walter William Clark, Jr. (Downton Abbey's Theo James) becomes an overnight hero when he becomes a detective after breaking up a drug ring. But his success comes at a price: his colleagues at the Manhattan North Precinct have made it their mission to take him down, while he is willing to do anything possible to climb the ladder, regardless of how many enemies he makes along the way. The show's cast also includes Kevin Alejandro, Stella Maeve, Chi McBride, Holt McCallany, and Bonnie Sommerville. (In a late recast, James replaced original series lead Ryan Philippe.) What they're not telling you: The plot takes place in two timeframes: the present day and the year 2019, depicting the story from Clark's dual perspectives.
Dan Steinberg / AP Photo
In Friend Me, Evan (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and Rob (Nicholas Braun), two twenty-something best friends move from Bloomington, Ind., to Los Angeles for exciting jobs at Groupon. But their friendship is put to the test when Evan wants to stay in and play online poker with his friends back home, and Rob is determined to drag his best friend out of the house to meet people. Created by Alan Kirschenbaum (Yes, Dear) and Ajay Sahgal, the show stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) and Nicholas Braun (10 Things I Hate About You), as well as Parvesh Cheena and Tim Robinson. Pamela Fryman (How I Met Your Mother) directed the pilot.
Eric Charbonneau, WireImage / Getty Images
Former Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton is back on TV and not as one of American Horror Story's ghosts. In family soap Nashville, created by Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise) and is executed produced by RJ Cutler (The September Issue), Britton plays country music chart-topper Rayna James, who is the center of the Nashville music scene. Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) plays Juliette Barnes, a newcomer to the industry. The two women share a stage as they go on tour together to try to lift Rayna's sagging career. The rest of the cast includes Eric Close, Powers Boothe, Sam Palladio, Clare Bowen, Jonathan Jackson, Robert Wisdom, and Charles Esten.
One of the most promising pilot scripts of the season, Last Resort centers on the crew members of a U.S. ballistic missile submarine who, after ignoring an order to fire nuclear missiles at Pakistan, wind up being hunted and fired upon, and hit. Declared enemies of their own country, they escape to a NATO outpost on an exotic island where they begin new lives, declaring themselves a sovereign nuclear state. Andre Braugher plays the sub's captain; the rest of the ensemble cast includes Scott Speedman, Daisy Betts, Autumn Reeser, Jessy Schram, Camille de Pazzis, Daniel Lissing, Dichen Lachman, and Sahr Ngaujau. It is created by Shawn Ryan (The Shield and The Unit) and Karl Gajdusek. What they're not telling you: Not everyone on this tropical island is happy to see them... and there's a conspiracy afoot back in Washington, as those orders to fire their nukes may not have been legitimate.
Based on the novel by Gabriella Pierce, 666 Park Avenue centers on a young Midwestern couple (Dave Annabele and Rachael Taylor), recently transplanted to Manhattan, that agrees to manage one of Manhattan's most historic apartment buildings, The Drake. Owned by the enigmatic Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn) and his sexy wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams), The Drake is home to residents who are unaware about the supernatural forces around them. Or some of them more than others, as Gavin has a way of making people's dreams come true and their troubles go away... for a price. 666 Park Avenue was created by David Wilcox (Fringe); the pilot was directed by Alex Graves (Fringe). Insider information: There's definitely something supernatural lurking in the corridors of The Drake, as shadows, ghosts, and spirits appear in the first episode, and something dark and powerful went down when the building was first built. Watch out for that dragon.
Patrick Harbron / ABC
In thriller Zero Hour, Anthony Edwards (ER) stars as Hank Foley, the editor of Modern Skeptic magazine who has spent 20 years debunking various conspiracy theories and urban legends. But when his wife Laila (Jacinda Barrett) is abducted from her antique clock store, Hank gets pulled into a centuries-old mystery, one that has roots in a Doomsday device coveted by the Nazis during World War II and kept secret by a clandestine group of priests. What is it about a set of seemingly innocuous clocks that has one man ruthlessly killing anyone he comes in contact with to obain? And just where does the treasure map he's unearthed lead? The far-flung adventure, created by Paul Scheuring (Prison Break), finds Hank teaming up with an FBI agent to track down Laila and get to a powerful force that could change the fate of humanity before his adversary does. Michael Nyqvist, Carmen Ejogo, Scott Michael Foster, and Addison Timlin also star. What they're not telling you: The man after the clocks? He could just be the Antichrist.
Based on a Dutch format, Red Widow (formerly known as Penoza) is a primetime soap about the widow of an assassinated criminal who must continue her husband's role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family. Staring Radha Mitchell as Marta, the cast also includes Lee Tergesen, Luke Goss, Rade Sherbedzija, Wil Traval, Suleka Mathew, Jaime Ray Newman, Sterling Beaumon, Jakob Salvati, Erin Moriarty, and Mido Hamada. The pilot script was written by Melissa Rosenberg and produced by Alon Aranya (The Naked Truth), Howard Klein (Parks and Recreation) and Jeremy Gold (Hell on Wheels).
Based on the British series of the same name (which has aired on BBC America and featured a pre-Fringe Anna Torv), Mistresses stars Alyssa Milano, Lost's Yunjin Kim, Rochelle Aytes, and Jes Macallan as four friends who are involved in some, well, complicated romantic circumstances. Meet savvy lawyer Savi (Milano), party girl Josselyn (Macallan), widow April (Aytes), and therapist Karen (Kim), as scandal, secrets, and sex spill over into one another's lives, as they navigate the choppy waters of illicit romances. The soapy series, originally developed to air in Summer 2013, could air in midseason. The project is overseen by K.J. Steinberg (Gossip Girl). The rest of the cast includes Jason Winston George, Brett Tucker, Cameron Bender, and Erik Stocklin.
Danny Feld / ABC
From creator Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love) comes this comedy, which takes a look at life in the suburbs, specifically the seemingly idyllic gated community of Hidden Hills, New Jersey. The community is gorgeous… and entirely made up of aliens. When the Weaver clan moves into their perfect community, they encounter the Zabvronians, who have been stationed on Earth and disguised as humans for 10 years. But it's up for grabs whether the Weavers have more to teach the Zabvronians about life on Earth or vice-versa. The project stars Tyler Christopher, Isabella Cramp, Jami Gertz, Tim Jo, Toks Olagundoye, Simon Templeman, and Lenny Venito.
Reba McEntire (Reba) returns to television in Malibu Country, a multi-camera comedy about a woman, Reba Gallagher, who discovers her country music legend husband has been cheating on her. After putting her own singing career on hold for her family, Reba packs up her kids and her fiery mother Shirley (Lily Tomlin) and moves to California to start from scratch. But, as this Southern Belle learns, it's not so easy swapping Nashville for Malibu. Created by Kevin Abbott (My Name is Earl), the show is produced by McEntire, and also features Sara Rue, Julietta Angelo, Justin Prentice, Jai Rodriguez, Owen Teague, and Jeffrey Nordling.
Karen Neal / ABC
A recently divorced mom moves in with her eccentric parents temporarily in How To Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life). Sarah Chalke plays uptight Polly, who has been divorced for a year and has been living with her parents because of the tough economy. Brad Garrett and Elizabeth Perkins play Polly's parents, Max and Elaine, who are sexually adventurous and like to live on the wild side. The single-camera comedy, created by Claudia Lenow (Less than Perfect) and produced by Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, also features Orlando Jones, John Dore, Rachel Eggleston, and Rebecca Delgado Smith.
The Family Tools is about a man who is the King of Epic Fails. Kyle Bornheimer plays the hapless central character, Jack Shea, in this single-camera comedy. How much of a failure is he? He shot someone accidentally in the army; in the police academy, he accidentally shot himself. The series follows Jack as he goes home to collect himself and winds up running his father's handyman business. Created by Bobby Bowman (Raising Hope) and produced by Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy), it is based on a British format. The rest of the cast includes J.K. Simmons, Leah Remini, Edi Gathegi, Johnny Pemberton and Danielle Nicolet.
From creators Josh Berman (Drop Dead Diva) and Robert Wright (Knight Rider) comes this medical drama, which revolves around a young female thoracic surgeon (My Boys' Jordana Spiro) who juggles her workload with another job: she's secretly a mob doctor who is working off a debt incurred by her ne'er-do-well brother. The pilot episode was directed by Michael Dinner (Justified), who also serves as an executive producer on the drama, which also stars Jaime Lee Kirchner, William Forsythe, Zach Gilford, James Carpinello, and Jesse Lee Soffer. What they're not telling you: Spiro's character, Grace Devlin, has a deeper personal connection to organized crime than just her brother.
FOX
Taut and twisty psychological drama The Following, from creator Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries), features a high wattage cast that includes Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy, Natalie Zea, Shawn Ashmore, Maggie Grace, Jeananne Goossen, Nico Tortorella, Adan Canto, and Valorie Curry. Bacon plays an alcoholic former FBI agent who is called back into the field when the serial killer (Purefoy) he captured years before escapes from a prison and embarks on a killing spree. This time, however, Purefoy's Joe Carroll is using social media and the Internet to indoctrinate a cult of would-be killers... and anyone can be one of his followers. Bacon would only commit to starring in 15 episodes for his first series regular gig on television, so it's likely that this will be saved for midseason. Insider information: Some of the gruesome murders within the pilot script are so meticulously executed that just reading about them created a charged, eerie atmosphere of dread.
FOX
The Office's Mindy Kaling created and stars in this sharp and witty single-camera comedy (formerly—and briefly this week--known as It's Messy) as Mira, a 31-year-old single female ob/gyn who is attempting to juggle her personal and professional lives and undo the damage that countless romantic comedies have done to her psyche. The project—which desperately needs a new title—also stars Anna Camp, Ed Weeks, Dana DeLorenzo, Chris Messina, and Zoe Jarmon, and features guest stars Ed Helms, Bill Hader, and Richard Schiff in the pilot episode. Insider information: The pilot script featured what might be the most painful wedding reception toast ever on screen... and a talking Minnie Mouse toy.
FOX
Dana Fox (Couples Retreat) has landed her first TV show, the single-camera comedy Ben & Kate. Based in part on her own brother, Ben Fox, the series revolves around an uptight single mother (Dakota Johnson) whose aimless but well-intentioned brother (Nat Faxon) moves in to help her raise her 5-year-old daughter and get back out into the world again. The cast includes: Lucy Punch, Maggie Jones, Echo Kellum, and Austin Stowell. The pilot was directed by Jake Kasdan (Bad Teacher).
FOX
This single-camera high concept comedy, from How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas and Chris Harris, revolves around three siblings--uptight, overachieving surgeon Henry (Scott Foley), down on her luck bartender and former nerd Coney (Becki Newton), and child-like ex-con Jimmy (Jake Lacy)—who are forced to follow the highly specific and deeply idiocyncratic terms of their mathematician father's will—forcing them to participate in a series of games—in order to determine which one of them will inherit the $23 million fortune he left behind. Just between us: The pilot script contained flashbacks, younger versions of the Goodwin siblings, and a fourth competitor for the fortune.
FOX
NBC gets into the sprawling serialized drama game with Revolution, from creator Eric Kripke (Supernatural), director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and executive producer J.J. Abrams (Lost), which imagines a world in which all forms of energy have ceased to exist. Set years after a destructive incident in which the entire planet went dark, the dystopian drama revolves around a group of characters who set out to reunite with missing loved ones and solve a global mystery: what caused the blackout and who was behind it? Boasting a large ensemble that includes Billy Burke, Giancarlo Esposito, Andrea Roth, Tim Guinee, David Lyons, Anna Lise Phillips, J.D. Pardo, Maria Howell, Tracy Spiradakos, and Zak Orth, Revolution strives for an epic and mysterious vibe, but NBC has struggled with this type of show (The Event, anyone?) in the past. What they’re not telling you: the blackout is man-made and much of the action centers on the nature of the conspiracy: the reasons behind it are up for grabs even more than who carried it out.
Nino Munoz / NBC
Recalling perhaps its success years ago with Third Watch (or at least the fire house aspects of the John Wells show), NBC has ordered workplace drama Chicago Fire, which--not surprisingly from the title--revolves around the men and women of the Chicago Fire Department. The action revolves around battling blazes and also the workaday atmosphere at the station, including sitting around the table and hazing the new guy. The project, from executive producer Dick Wolf (Law & Order) and creators Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (who previously collaborated on 3:10 to Yuma), features an ensemble cast that includes Jesse Spencer, Taylor Kinney, Monica Raymund, Lauren German, David Eigenberg, Eamonn Walker, Merle Dandridge, and Teri Reeves. Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Homeland) directed the pilot. Insider information: There's a character nicknamed Otis who works the firehouse elevator within the pilot script; his sobriquet comes from the ubiquitous OTIS Elevator Company.
In this twisty psychological thriller, based on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, gifted Boston neurosurgeon Jeffrey Kohl (Steven Pasquale) tries to contain his violent and maniacal alter ego, who threatens once again to throw his professional and personal life into chaos. After five years of successfully containing "Ian Price," Kohl learns that his alter ego has build up a tolerance to the drug treatment that has kept him in check... as Ian unleashes his revenge on Kohl. The project, from creator David Schulner (The Event), also stars Alana De La Garza, Phylicia Rashad, Michael Esper, Ruta Gedmintas, and Mousa Kraish. Insider information: The last time this happened, Ian nearly killed Kohl's girlfriend Olivia (Gedmintas), who is keeping a secret of her own.
Matthias Clamer / NBC
In this soapy drama (formerly known as Notorious), female detective Joanna Locasto (Meagan Good), who grew up as the maid's daughter side-by-side with her employer's wealthy children, goes undercover within the Lawson family in order to solve the murder of the high-flying heiress who used to be her best friend. The project, from creator Liz Heldens (Mercy), also stars Tate Donovan, Victor Garber, Neil Jackson, Katherine LaNasa, Laz Alonso, and Ella Rae Peck. It has the potential to be NBC's answer to the addictive pleasures of ABC's Revenge, if there's enough yarn to keep this skein going for a while. Just between us: Let's just say that Joanna and Lawson scion Julian (Jackson) used to be more than just friends.
Will Hart / NBC
From the mind of Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) comes this psychological thriller--based on the characters from Thomas Harris' Red Dragon--which pits young FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), a profiler with an innate gift of empathy, against his mentor, the secretly cannibalistic serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. One of the best pilot scripts of the season, this is a disturbing and electrifying thrill ride, which depicts the first meeting between Graham and Lecter, a brilliant professor brought in to assist Graham stop a serial killer on a terrifying rampage. The pilot for Hannibal has yet to be shot, while Dancy remains the only casting attachment to date. Fuller will serve as executive producer, alongside Martha De Laurtenis, Sara Colleton, Jesse Alexander, and Katie O'Connell. David Slade (Awake), another executive producer, will direct the first episode. What they're not telling you: The elaborate tableaux utilized by the serial killer in the pilot are gorgeously described and evocative... plus they use deer antlers in ways you may not expect.
Charles Sykes / AP Photo
Following a fantastic recent turn on CBS’ The Good Wife, former Friends star Matthew Perry returns to his NBC comedy roots with single-camera comedy Go On. Perry stars as a cocky sportscaster who tries to regain balance in his life after the devastating and unexpected loss of his wife, and who encounters surprising encouragement from the members of a support group he's forced to attend at a local community center. Perry is joined by Allison Miller, Laura Benanti, Suzy Nakamura, Khary Payton, and Julie White. Whether this will return Perry to the heights of Friends or wind up becoming a Mr. Sunshine redux remains to be seen.
Paul Drinkwater / NBC
Glee’s Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler are behind this single-camera comedy, which revolves around a modern blended family: a gay couple, the surrogate mother who helped them have a child, her precocious eight-year-old daughter, and her bigoted and highly vocal grandmother. Murphy, whose last work was American Horror Story for FX, directed the pilot, which stars Justin Bartha, Jayson Blair, Andrew Rannells, Ellen Barkin, NeNe Leakes, Bebe Wood, and Georgia King. Insider information: Real Housewives cast member NeNe Leakes’ character, assistant Rocky, was originally written as a six-foot tall Nordic blonde in Adler and Murphy’s pilot script.
Robert Trachtenberg / NBC
From The Sitter writers Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka and brother directors Joe and Anthony Russo (Community) comes this single-camera comedy set in an animal hospital. Weeds’ Justin Kirk plays Dr. George Coleman, a misanthropic veterinarian who has a soft spot for his animal patients, but who hates their owners, and tends to apply animal behavior to human interaction. When the girlfriend he walked out on two years ago, Dorothy, returns to become the new director of the hospital, they’ll have to put aside any residual animal magnetism—or outright tension—to work side by side. Animal Practice also stars Bobby Lee, Kym Whitley, and Tyler Labine. (Note: the role of Dorothy, played by Amy Huberman in the pilot, is being recast.) What they’re not telling you: The pilot script had a chimpanzee character named… Dr. Zaius.
Chris Haston / NBC
This multi-camera comedy, from creator Charlie Grandy (The Office) and executive producer Jimmy Fallon, revolves around three 30-something dads--recently divorced lawyer Chris (Jesse Bradford), computer programmer Nick (Zach Cregger), and sad-sack stay-at-home dad Gary (Anthony Anderson)--who struggle with taking care of themselves, much less their children. Yet somehow when it comes to changing a baby's diapers without missing a crucial moment during a Yankees game, these guys have got it figured out. Our little secret: The project was formerly known as DILFs, as in Dads I'd Like to... Well, you get the idea.
From creator John Scott Shepherd (The Days) comes this single-camera comedy about Beth (Anne Heche), a suburban housewife who, after a brush with death when she chokes on a sandwich and hits her head on the floor, awakens believing that she is a prophet of God and sets out to transform her life as well as that of everyone around her, from her philandering husband to her pot-smoking teenage daughter. Is she insane, brain-damaged, or really attuned to the word of God? Marking Heche's first television role since ABC's Men in Trees, Save Me also stars Michael Landes, Alexandra Breckenridge, Heather Burns, Madison Davenport, and Lamman Rucker. The Sony Pictures Television-produced pilot was directed by Scott Winant, best known for his work on Breaking Bad and True Blood.
Robert Trachtenberg / NBC
Dysfunctional families have been ripe for comedy since time immemorial, so on the surface, single-camera comedy 1600 Penn might feel repetitive… except that the family in question is the First Family of the United States. When the family’s eldest son, perpetual screw-up Skip (The Book of Mormon’s Josh Gad), returns home, it pushes the already tenuous bonds of the First Family to their breaking point. Oh, did I mention that the POTUS is played by Bill Pullman? The project, from writer Jon Lovett and director Jason Winer (Modern Family), also stars Jenna Elfman, Martha MacIsaac, Andre Holland, and Amara Miller, and recalls the feel and rhythm of ABC’s pilot for Modern Family. What they’re not telling you: The character model for the First Family’s maid/ confidante Esmeralda would appear to be Flipping Out’s Zoila Chavez.
Chris Haston / NBC
Set in the office of a satellite radio television station, Next Caller is a workplace single-camera comedy by Stephen Falk (Weeds) in which alpha male Cam Doherty (Dane Cook) and feminist Stella Hoobler (Collette Wolf) face off. A former boy-band member in the 90's, Cam has met his match in Stella, a blogger/podcaster as they co-host a relationship call-in-show. Jeffrey Tambor guest stars in the pilot. The rest of the cast includes: Joy Osmanski, Ryan Devlin, and Wole Parks. Insider information: NBC has only picked up Next Caller for six episodes.
It turns out that being in medical school is a lot like being in high school. At least, that's the premise for Emily Owens, M.D. (formerly known as First Cut), which revolves around the first year for nerdy and love-lorn Emily Barnes (Mamie Gumer) as an intern in a big hospital, which is just as imposing and cliquish as any high school. Written by Jennie Synder Urman (90210) and produced by Dan Jinks (Pushing Daisies), it also stars Justin Hartley, Michael Rady, Jack Coleman, Kelly J. McCreary, Aja Naomi King, and Necar Zadegan. Insider information: Mamie Gumer is immediately recognizable to viewers of CBS' The Good Wife, but her character here, Emily, is nowhere near as conniving and manipulative as Nancy Crozier.
Kharen Hill / The CW
Based on the DC Comics property Green Arrow, the CW's Arrow revolves around billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Steven Amell) who becomes a vigilante superhero. Oliver is presumed dead when a boat containing him, the sister of his girlfriend, his tycoon father, and their crew goes down in the ocean, and he manages to survive on a desolate island, teaching himself how to survive and learning how to craft a bow and arrow. (And, more importantly, how to use them.) Rescued by a passing ship, he returns to his old life to discover that everyone has moved on: his mother has remarried, his ex-girlfriend Dinah Lance (Katie Cassidy) won't forgive him for the death of her sister, and his own sister has become a teenager. But his city needs him and his skills, forged in the fires of desperation and self-survival, come in handy when battling criminals. Arrow also stars Paul Blackthorne, Colin Donnell, Willa Holland, David Ramsey, Colin Salmon, and Susanna Thompson. What they're not telling you: Maybe everyone isn't so happy to see Oliver return from the dead...
Jack Rowand / The CW
Very loosely inspired by the 1980s CBS drama series that starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman, the CW's Beauty and the Beast comes from writers Jennifer Levin and Sherri Cooper, both of whom previously worked on Unforgettable and Brothers & Sisters). But put the emphasis on the "very loosely": their take revolves around a police detective who solves crimes with a genetically altered Afghanistan war veteran. (So far, in the pilot script at least, there's no mention of an underground city filled with subterranean inhabitants to be found here.) A mix of romance, police procedural, and semi-science fiction, the CW's Beauty & the Beast offers a very different take on the story than either the fairy tale or ABC's attempt at creating a fantasy-action-adventure based on the characters. The series stars Kristin Kreuk, Jay Ryan, Austin Basis, Bryan White, Max Brown, Nicole Gale Anderson, and Nina Lisandrello. Insider information: The "beast" here is named Vincent Koslow, a reference to both Ron Perlman's character and that show's creator, Ron Koslow.
Jan Thijs / The CW
The Carrie Diaries brings you Carrie Bradshaw as you've never seen her: going through puberty and her adolescent rebellious years. In the pilot, Carrie (AnnaSophia Robb), reeling from the recent death of her mother, gets her first taste of Manhattan and her life changes completely when she's awakened to the fashion and nightlife of the city. Based on Candace Bushnell's novel chronicling Carrie's high school exploits and her coming-of-age, this is a prequel to Sex and the City. Executive produced by the Gossip Girl team of Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the pilot was written by Amy B. Harris, a writer and producer on Sex and the City and Gossip Girl. The rest of the cast includes Austin Butler, Brendan Dooling, Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman, Stefania Owen, Katie Findlay, Ellen Wong, Matt Letscher, and Chloe Bridges. What they're not telling you: Carrie isn't the fashion savvy Manhattanite we know from Sex and the City. And she's a virgin.
Mathieu Young / The CW
It's hard to describe the CW's psychological thriller Cult, from creator Rockne S. O'Bannon (Farscape) and executive producer Josh Schwartz (Chuck), because the premise is pretty trippy in itself. There's a show-within-the-show which is also called Cult, and which may be linked to the deaths and disappearances of several people who watch the show, viewers who become obsessed with the show's Lost-like mythology and the central figure, Billy Grimm (Robert Knepper). But Billy Grimm is just a character, played by actor Roger Reeves. Right? Or he is a disembodied boogeyman? Or are people preying on Cult viewers and driving them insane? These are some of the questions raised within the pilot episode, in which blogger Jeff Sefton (Matthew Davis) investigates the disappearance of his Cult-obsessed brother and teams up with a production assistant (Jessica Lucas) who works on the show in order to uncover just what is going on. Alona Tal (Veronica Mars) also stars. Insider information: Cult was previously set up at ABC before moving to the CW. The fictional creator of the show-within-a-show Cult is an Oz-like figure who may not be who he claims... if he even exists at all.
Laine Hentscher / The CW
