HEALTHY SLATE OF FALL TV
New shows readied, but no action on the sets yet
Despite the havoc the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked on television production, fall TV marches on.
Here’s a look at the shows booked for the 2020-21 season, though it’s not clear when — or whether — actors will be able to return to their respective sets.
ABC
“The Big Sky”
“Pitch” alum Kylie Bunbury takes off the baseball uniform and puts on a cop’s outfit in “The Big Sky,” David E. Kelley’s drama about private detective Cassie Dewell (Bunbury), who partners with ex-cop Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) on a search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. As it turns out, these two are not the only missing girls.
Who: Kylie Bunbury, Katheryn Winnick, Ryan Phillippe, Brian Geraghty, John Carroll Lynch, Dedee Pfeiffer and Natalie Alyn Lind
CBS
“B Positive”
Chuck Lorre just can’t stay away from CBS, this time bringing a comedy about a therapist and newly divorced dad (Thomas Middleditch) who is struggling to find a kidney donor when he runs into a “rough-around-theedges woman from his past” (Annaleigh Ashford) willing to volunteer her own.
Who: Thomas Middleditch, Annaleigh Ashford, Kether Donohue, Sara Rue and Kamryn Kunody “Clarice”
Six months after “Silence of the Lambs,” “Clarice” picks up with everyone’s favorite FBI agent, Clarice Starling (Rebecca Breeds, “Pretty Little Liars”), for a more personal look at Hannibal Lecter’s almost-victim as she goes back into the field.
Who: Rebecca Breeds, Kal Penn, Nick Sandow, Michael Cudlitz, Lucca De Oliveira and Devyn A. Tyler
“The Equalizer”
Based on the 1980s series of the same name, “The Equalizer” stars Queen Latifah as “an enigmatic woman with a mysterious background who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn.” In the original series, that meant a retired intelligence agent who helped helpless people exact revenge. In the 2014 movie starring Denzel Washington, the bad guys were bad cops. But CBS is playing coy for now.
Who: Queen Latifah, Chris Noth, Lorraine Toussaint, Tory Kittles, Liza Lapira and Laya DeLeon Hayes
Fox
“Filthy Rich”
Originally a midseason 2019 series that kept getting pushed back, “Filthy Rich” is back on the schedule. Kim Cattrall stars as the wife of a megarich founder of an ultraconservative Christian television network who dies suddenly in a plane crash. His death brings out a will, which includes three illegitimate children, all of whom want a part of his fortune.
Who: Kim Cattrall, Gerald McRaney, Aubrey Dollar, Corey Cott, Mark L. Young and Aaron Lazar
“neXt”
Another show that’s been shuffled from season to season, “neXt” finds a Silicon Valley whiz (John Slattery) trying to stop his own AI