Soon, American networks will unveil the new series they’ve picked for the autumn 2016-2017 season in a week of TV-industry “upfronts”.
Here’s a look at 10 of the familiar actors hoping for a place in the autumn schedules if their series pilots are picked to run on one of the major networks.
Helen Hunt
Over 15 years since Mad About You ended, the Oscar-winning actress is preparing to make a small-screen comeback. Helen Hunt is expected to return to TV before the end of the year in Fox’s Shots Fired, a limited series that examines the fallout of a racially motivated shooting in a small town in North Carolina in the US. Richard Dreyfuss and Stephen Moyer (True Blood) are also on the cast.
Will 2016 mark Helen Hunt’s big return to television?
Courteney Cox
After wrapping up Cougar Town, this one-time Friends star has been signed up to a Fox comedy pilot called Charity Case. This series, penned by a former The Office screenwriter, sees the actress star as Hailey, a woman who inherits a charity from her late billionaire husband. However, changing the world soon turns out to be much less glamorous than she expected.
Matt LeBlanc
Courteney Cox’s former Friends co-star has stepped into the lead role of CBS pilot I’m Not Your Friend. The comedy, created by the pair behind That ’70s Show, sees the actor play a contractor who discovers that raising kids is trickier than he thought when his wife goes back to work. If the show goes ahead, the actor will continue working on Episodes in parallel, with the fifth and final season coming to Showtime next year.
If both Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc’s TV shows get the green light, it would be like a tiny Friends reunion!
Anna Paquin
After playing a vampire-loving telepathic waitress in True Blood, the actress is stepping into the lead role in Broken for ABC. The star plays a ruthless attorney whose life starts to unravel when her sister resurfaces. T.R Knight from Grey’s Anatomy and Blair Underwood (Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) are also on the cast.
Kiefer Sutherland
The Canadian actor is now sure to be heading to ABC this autumn in a new series called Designated Survivor, turning the page definitively on his 24 days. After a disaster strikes the White House, killing everyone above him in the presidential line of succession, his character, a lower-level US Cabinet member, suddenly finds himself promoted to the Oval Office.
Be afraid, young stars. Older actors like Geena Davis are making their way to television.
Geena Davis
The Thelma And Louise star has joined the cast of Fox’s The Exorcist TV remake. The actress, recently seen in Grey’s Anatomy, will play a mother at the center of one family’s case of demonic possession.
Andie MacDowell
This American former model was a natural fit for the lead role in Model Woman, a series based on the world of fashion in the 1970s, currently in development. Her character is based on Eileen Ford, co-founder of the model agency Ford Model Management, who notably discovered Sharon Stone, Kim Basinger and Naomi Campbell.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
A small-screen regular since her vampire slaying days, the former Buffy star is stepping back into a role she played in the 1999 movie Cruel Intentions. NBC has signed her up to star in the TV adaptation, playing the devilish Kathryn Merteuil.
Vanessa Hudgens
The High School Musical star is set to return to the small screen, stepping into the world of DC Comics superheroes. In NBC’s Powerless the actress and singer plays Emily Lockie, who works at one of the worst insurance companies in the US. She becomes increasingly exasperated with the superhero antics going on in her city.
Kristen Bell
After starring in Showtime’s House Of Lies, this actress is heading to a new series called The Good Place. Already ordered by NBC, the drama follows Eleanor, a New Jersey woman on a mission to become a better person. Ted Danson (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Fargo) stars as her guide on the road to self-improvement. – AFP Relaxnews
