CW Picks Up ‘Carrie Diaries’, ‘Arrow’, ‘Cult’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘First Cut’ To Series
The CW has made five new drama series pickups, with all early standouts making the cut. That includes the Sex And The City prequel The Carrie Diaries, the Green Arrow-themed Arrow, the contemporary reboot of the 1980s series Beauty and the Beast, mystery Cult and medical drama First Cut starring Mamie Gummer.
Picking up five new scripted series is a record for the CW which, under new topper Mark Pedowitz, has vowed to increase the amount of originals on the air at any time, avoiding long spells of repeats. The CW also has been planning to employ the cable model of shorter seasons with some of its series, including Cult, which had been envisioned from the get-go as doing 13 episodes a season. There had been speculation that the CW would pick up as many as 5-6 of its eight pilots to series. The sixth drama pilot that had been in serious contention but did not get a nod today was the book adaptation The Selection whose chances were boosted by its similarities to the blockbuster Hunger Games movie franchise. Were those similarities too close for comfort?
The large number of new series pickups does not bode well for the CW many bubble series but a couple, like Hart of Dixie, Gossip Girl and maybe Nikita, would likely make the cut. Studio-wise, three of the five new CW series, Carrie Diaries, Arrow and Cult, hail from Warner Bros. TV, the other two from CBS TV Studios. Two of the series are co-produced by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s WBTV-based Fake Empire, while Arrow is with Berlanti Prods.
Based on the novels “The Carrie Diaries” and “Summer and the City” by Candace Bushnell, The Carrie Diaries was written by Amy B. Harris who is exec producing with Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, Len Goldstein and Candace Bushnell. Miguel Arteta directed the pilot. First Cut is executive produced by Jennie Snyder Urman, Dan Jinks and Bharat Nalluri who directed the pilot. Cult was written by Rockne S. O’Bannon who is exec producing with Schwartz, Savage, Goldstein and Jason Ensler who directed the pilot.
Based on characters appearing in comic books and graphic novels published by DC Comics, Arrow is executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and David Nutter. Melissa Kellner Berman is co-exec producer. The pilot was directed by David Nutter from a script by Kreisberg & Guggenheim, story by Berlanti & Guggenheim. Beauty And The Beast is exec produced by Jennifer Levin, Sherri Cooper, Bill Haber, Paul J. Witt & Tony Thomas, Ron Koslow and the pilot’s director Gary Fleder.
Yay Kristin Kreuk I miss u on my TV!
Props to Guggenheim!
Great choices. Saw the CD pilot, and it’s beautiful. Looking forward to these new shows!
Yey for the CW.
I wonder that in the event that ABC could also pick up to series their own B&B, either theirs or the CW’s is bound to have a name change.
The B&B at ABC is dead, no worries.
Is there any hope for The Selection? Maybe CW is holding it off to create some buzz?! I’m excited for Beauty and The Beast
Word is, The Selection pilot didn’t look good. I thought it was a good sounding premise, don’t care if it rips off The Hunger Games, but if it’s bad, then I hope CW will spare us. Any of these premises could just come in bad.
Nikita’s been renewed.
I just hope that this many pickups is not going to mean that “Secret Circle” will be axed.
Although I absolutely love “Ringer” and am totally rooting for it to return, getting both “Arrow” and Kristin Kreuk in “Beauty and the Beast” would almost be worth losing that chance.
If the goal is to reduce repeats, then we should see some shared time slots. Also CW would be wise to start season on time and not early. Order 24 of hits and 16 of a couple of new series – if they take off expand order in following season. The network has to have fresh content at least 32 out of 36 weeks. (skip December – put specials, movies etc.)
@DenverDean: I think the network have been teasing us with their increasing frequency of specials and movies during the December-January winter break, including their usual secondary carriage of a few CBS specials. Hopefully, they’d continue with that/
What happened to Joey Dakota???
I was dying to see that.
Everyone said it was awesome.
I wanted to see it too but I heard it was DOA to CW executives so it fell out of consideration.
We know that Kristin Kreuk is the “Beauty” but when are they going to announce who the “Beast” is going to be? Any fan of the original knows that Vincent is as integral to the show (and perhaps more so since it went on after the Beauty died) as Catherine.
New Zealand actor, Jay Ryan is the Beast