CBS brass took extra time to deliberate between Joan Rater and Tony Phelan’s two drama pilots for the network, legal drama Doubt and cop show Drew, a contemporary take on the character from the Nancy Drew books In the end, Doubt, which had had the edge heading into the final stretch, was picked up to series on Saturday.
Drew is not going forward at CBS but is being shopped to other outlets by CBS TV Studios. I hear the pilot tested well but skewed too female for CBS’ schedule. In the end of the day, I hear the network had no 8 PM or 9 PM slot available.
Written/executive produced by Rater and Phelan, Drew stars Sarah Shahi as Nancy — now in her 30s — a detective for the NYPD where she investigates and solves crimes using her uncanny observational skills, all while navigating the complexities of life in a modern world. Anthony Edwards, Felix Solis and Rob McClure co-star in the project, also executive produced by Dan Jinks.
With that, there are no more CBS drama pilots up in the air, with all picked up to series or canceled. There is one exception, medical drama Sensory, which was pushed to the offseason because of difficulties casting.
Sarah Shahi is amazing I hope this finds a home.
This show is a bad idea. The essence of Nancy Drew is that she’s a teenage detective. A show featuring an adult Nancy working for the NYPD is simply another police procedural.
It would only work as an adult character if Nancy drew is a nosy meddling neighbor
sort of like bewitched and I dream of genie
character add some Dallas glamour and desperate housewives.
The Disney channel is loaded with great teen shows. Who knows why the shows couldn’t also be on network primetime.happtdays was teenage/family show.
Why the h k do we need more dramas misery crime and cops shows . It’s enough to drve the viewer to youtube stunts and cats, streaming live tourist cams around the world,
anything but another crime/badguys show
It tested well with viewers, so it clearly WASN’T a bad idea.
#ShowKillerShahi
“I hear the pilot tested well but skewed too female for CBS’ schedule.”
F* you, CBS! Pretty much confirming yourself to be the male+old Network! I’ll enjoy watching your demo ratings go down and down next year!
Is there any chance ABC can pick up Drew (and change somethings in the script)? ABC and CBS have some sort of deal for Criminal Minds, maybe they can arrange one for Drew? Cause, I always thought this series fits ABC much better (but, honestly, anywhere far away from CBS’s conservative eye will be great).
It doesn’t work that way. “Changing something in the script” isn’t a quick thing to do and re-shooting to fix things isn’t cheap. This late in the game brand new pilots that don’t have a proven audience aren’t interesting to other Nets because if they fail at the new Net it’s easy to say, “It wasn’t good enough to run on the other Net. Why’d you buy it?”
I agree with above comment. Also note that the negotiations between networks and production houses over pilots and series are more complex these days because of streaming rights and revenue dollar streams, and who gets what income from the shows streamed, and for how long. That takes time to figure out… the production houses can only keep the actors under wraps for so long (I think it is until end of June?), and then everyone disbands and the pilot property is then officially dead.
Could the show concept be redeveloped for next pilot season? Sure, but why bother? There will be I’m sure many, many more warmed-over pilot concepts of old books, movies and TV properties for next pilot season to mull over… originality is all but dead now in Hollywood.
Shahi will be back – with a better concept next time. Nancy Drew – RIP. For anyone who wants their Nancy Drew TV-fix.. see the Pamela Sue Martin series from 40 years ago. It wasn’t great, but better than nothing. :)
I wanted some changes in the script so they can take away the “CBS approves” stupid parts.
I’m a huge fan of Sarah, and I know that if this doesn’t work, she will get a new role soon. But the thing is, I was actually very interested in this take of an older Nancy Drew, and even more to see a woc playing Nancy, and to see George as queer. I think this show had the potential to be a very strong series about female/diversity empowerment (which is why I think would work great on ABC).
And, of course, I’m even more pissed at CBS than usual. All that talk about female lead shows, and the importance of diversity, and, in the end, what they have? Only 2 female-lead drama series and only one with a man of color as the lead. Hypocrites, as usual!
But, thank you very much for your answer, both of you. I know its unrealistic, but I’ll wait to see if something happens.
Have a good day.
Unfortunately, the capsule summary for the Drew lead character reads disturbingly like a fusion of Rick Castle (uncanny observational skills) and Kate Beckett (detective for the NYPD). This does not strike me as boding well for either its chances at ABC, or its chances to win viewer approval as an actual Nancy Drew series.
If something can skew too male, it can skew too female. You easily triggered SJWs can’t have it both ways.
Nice little bit of antisemitism you dropped in there.
Huh? I have a hunch you don’t know what SJW means. (Hint: The J does not stand for “Jew.”)
Huh? SJWs means social justice warriors and has no anti-Semitic connotations.
No show has ever been refused for skewing too male, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
Also, do you REALLY think the phrase SJW makes you sound clever? What exactly is WRONG with being a warrior for social justice? What are YOU a warrior for social INJUSTICE?
An SIW?
Was so looking forward to watching Sarah Shahi too
“Skewed too female.” Really, CBS? Really? Shame on you.
I would have taken this over Doubt. At least this had an interesting cast and sounded fun.
Rerun former comments about drew.
If you know your demo and a show skews outside that demo, should you be obligated to pick up the show? If you have a store and most of the shoppers are sixteen year old girls, do you stock clothes that appeal to fifty year old women?
There are NO stores with clothes for 50
yrold women.
Cue laughter…you are entirely right about that.
Sears, Macy’s, JC Penney, Land’s End…
So their demo is men?
Fair enough.
I hope that this show does find a home somewhere because it sounds intriguing (kinda like a female Shawn Spencer from Psych) and I have loved Sarah Shahi in everything I’ve seen her in (ex. Fairly Legal, Person of Interest)! Also the fact that all my favorite cop procedurals (Forever, Castle, Mysteries of Laura, Rizzoli & Isles) are gone after this summer I would love to fill that void with this show!
I would love to watch this show too! As I said above, I’m aware it’s nearly impossible, but I’ll keep my hope someone else picks it.
(btw, if you haven’t watch Life (NBC) yet, I strongly recommend it. It’s only two seasons (da*n it, NBC!), and it’s Sarah’s best job so far, and her character is very well written there!)
Can you imagine a network ever saying a show ‘skewed too male’?
Given how Glenn Geller is shoving b-grade ‘guy shows’ on CBS as fast as he can, I think we know how CBS is going to ‘skew’ for the foreseeable future. Spike TV, here we come.
I think we all know the real reason for CBS dropping Supergirl wasn’t cost. It was those icky girl viewers.
Human Target and Breaking In are examples of this. They skewed “too male” in the first seasons so they added female characters and changed the dynamic of the shows for their second seasons. Both got cancelled because they failed to attract a large female audience.
OTOH, adding women to BIG BANG THEORY doesn’t seem to have hurt it.
Actually, ABC had trouble developing Last Resort, and ended up easily canceling it, because it “skewed too male”.
All the shows that skewed male got a chance on air though…
This never even got picked up.
Does anyone think that possibly USA Network, A&E, TNT, or Lifetime, would pick this up? I thought maybe USA would because they have had a relationship with Shahi before and procedurals have been their thing in the past. Same with TNT. And I figured A&E picked up “Unforgettable” before, so why not this?? Also with Lifetime, they skew female and picked up “Devious Maids” when it was a pilot. Idk, I’m just trying to be positive because I want to see this on the air sooooo bad!
“Too female” for CBS. That apparently applies to me, as well.
‘ I hear the pilot tested well but skewed too female for CBS’ schedule.’
Too bad there’s no room on the CW…wait,do they even have Female viewers anymore?
So, just what exactly is “skewed too female” supposed to mean, anyway? And who exactly did the writer you hear this from?
I’m at least open to the possibility that the pilot just wasn’t very good and someone has an axe to grind.
If this is accurate, though, someone needs to think about retirement. This is 2016, we’ve had women in senior roles in the workplace for a couple of generations; I think we can just about handle a female main character in our police procedurals by now.
*Cough*stepupnetflix*Cough*
This show will get picked up somewhere, maybe Netflix. It’s just strange how the writing switches to “I hear” as if the writer or Deadline is afraid of getting sued because there’s no physical evidence to back it up. Quite frankly, without the “I hear” hearsay, it’s not even a story, just a show to go to another network.