ABC Gives Series Orders To ‘The Rookie: Feds’, ‘Alaska’ & ‘Not Dead Yet’
ABC has handed series orders to three of its pilots – spin-off ‘The Rookie: Feds‘, Hilary Swank drama ‘Alaska‘, and comedy ‘Not Dead Yet‘.
From the team behind ‘The Rookie’, ‘The Rookie: Feds‘, stars Niecy Nash-Betts (‘Selma’, ‘When They See Us’, ‘Never Have I Ever’) as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The character was first introduced in episodes 19 and 20 as a backdoor pilot during the current fourth season. For the UK audience, the first of those episodes air in two weeks’ time.
Alongside Nash-Betts, the series also stars Frankie Faison (‘The Wire’, ‘Banshee’) as Christopher “Cutty” Clark, Simone’s father, and Felix Solis (‘Ozark’) as Matthew Garza, another FBI agent. The character of Special Agent Casey Fox, played by Kat Foster in the backdoor pilot episode, will not be transitioning to the full series.
The series comes from ‘The Rookie’ creator/EP, Alexi Hawley, and ‘The Rookie’ writer/EP, Terence Paul Winter. Mark Gordon, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nathan Fillion, Michelle Chapman, Bill Norcross and Corey Miller also exec produce. Whilst the show is on Disney-owned ABC in the USA, like the main series, Entertainment One (eOne) is the lead studio, so it doesn’t automatically get sucked onto Disney+ internationally. We obviously don’t have a UK broadcaster yet, but seems likely to land on Sky if it’s going to land anywhere here.
‘Alaska‘ stars Hilary Swank as Eileen Fitzgerald, a recently disgraced reporter who leaves her high-profile New York life behind to join a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage on a journey to find both personal and professional redemption.
Alongside Swank, the series stars Jeff Perry (‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Dirty John’) as Stanley Cornik, Matt Malloy (‘Here and Now’, ‘Perry Mason’) as Bob Young, Meredith Holzman (‘The Loudest Voice’, ‘Law & Order: SVU’) as Claire Muncy, Grace Dove (‘The Revenant’, ‘How It Ends’) as Rosalind “Roz” Friendly, Pablo Castelblanco (‘Room 104’) as Gabriel Martin, Ami Park (‘This Is Us’) as Jieun Park and Craig Frank (‘Silicon Valley’, ‘Sideswiped’) as Austin Greene.
The series comes from Tom McCarthy, the director behind the films ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Stillwater’, who wrote and directed the pilot. McCarthy and Swank exec produce alongside Melissa Wells and Bert Salke, with Anchorage Daily News’ Kyle Hopkins and Ryan Binkley. 20th Television serves as the studio.
‘Not Dead Yet‘ stars Gina Rodriguez (‘Jane The Virgin’) as Nell Stevens, a broke and newly single self-described disaster, working to restart the life and career she left behind 10 years ago. When she lands the only job she can find – writing obituaries – Nell starts getting life advice from an unlikely source… The series is based on Alexandra Potter’s novel “Confessions of a 40-something F**k Up.”
Joining Rodriguez in the comedy are Joshua Banday (‘Upload’), Angela Gibbs (‘Hacks’, ‘The Fosters’), and Rick Glassman (‘Undateable’, ‘As We See It’).
The series is created by David Windsor and Casey Johnson, whose previous work includes ‘This Is Us’ and ‘The Real O’Neals’, both of whom exec produce alongside Rodriguez, McG, Mary Viola and Corey Marsh. 20th Television are the studio.
All three of these series obviously do not officially have a UK broadcaster yet but will air on ABC in the USA. However, as ‘Alaska‘ and ‘Not Dead Yet‘ are both 20th Television series, they will likely go to Disney+ internationally. ‘The Rookie: Feds‘ (produced by eOne) could technically land anywhere, but Sky seems the most likely bet, given they have the main show.
If you want to keep track of these or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
