Magnum P.I. is officially returning to CBS. The network has picked up the reboot of the classic 1980s show, one of four drama pilots to get series orders by the network today, along with God Friended Me and the Noah Wyle starrer The Red Line. They join Dick Wolf’s F.B.I. and The Code.
Two of the new series, God Friended Me and The Red Line, come from Warner Bros. TV-based Berlanti Prods. in the company’s return to CBS after launching Supergirl there.
The new Magnum P.I., starring Jay Hernandez in the title role played by Tom Selleck in the original, was the big frontrunner among CBS’ drama pilots this season. It will mark the third consecutive reboot by Peter Lenkov to successfully land on the CBS schedule, joining Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver.
The pilot’s director Justin Lin previously directed the pilots for the CBS series S.W.A.T. and Scorpion and serves as an executive producer on both series. Woodrow is an exec producer on S.W.A.T.and co-exec producer on Scorpion.
None of the two female-lead cop drama pilots, Chiefs or Cagney & Lacy, made the cut. Meanwhile, period drama LA Confidential was well received and is considered a possibility for a streaming platform, like CBS All Access or Netflix.
Here are descriptions of CBS’ newly picked up drama series.
GOD FRIENDED ME
EPs/Writers: Steven Lilien & Bryan Wynbrandt
EPs: Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter (Berlanti Productions)
EP/Director: Marcos Siega
Studio: Warner Bros. Television
Logline: Questions of faith, existence and science are explored in this humorous, uplifting series about an outspoken atheist whose life is turned upside down when he is “friended” by God on social media. Unwittingly, he becomes an agent of change in the lives and destinies of others around him.
CAST:
Brandon Micheal Hall, Violett Beane, Suraj Sharma, Javicia Leslie, Joe Morton
EPs/Writers: Peter Lenkov, Eric Guggenheim
EPs: John Davis and John Fox (Davis Entertainment); Danielle Woodrow
EP/Director: Justin Lin (Perfect Storm Entertainment)
Studio: CBS Television Studios/Universal Television
Logline: An update of the classic television series set in Hawaii, MAGNUM P.I. follows Thomas Magnum, a decorated ex-Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator.
CAST:
Jay Hernandez, Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill
THE RED LINE
Co-Eps/Writers: Caitlin Parrish, Erica Weiss
EPs: Ava DuVernay, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter
Director: Victoria Mahoney
Studio: Warner Bros. Television
Logline: After a white cop in Chicago mistakenly shoots and kills a black doctor, we follow three vastly different families that all have connections with the case as the story is told from each perspective.
CAST:
Noah Wyle, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Aliyah Royale, Noel Fisher, Michael Patrick Thornton, Vinny Chhibber, Howard Charles, Elizabeth Laidlaw.
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