This pilot season, it’s all about international flavor at American networks. Of 50 pilots in contention at ABC, CBS and Fox to become series for the next TV season, 10 hail from foreign formats. NBC has two foreign adaptations in its fall lineup, which it already announced.
Here is how the competition is shaping up. And, as a bonus, RedEye will grade each show’s premise on its potential.
ABC
Life on Mars
A BBC series about a 21st-Century detective who mysteriously is transported back to the 1970s.
STARS: Jason O’Mara, Colm Meaney
GRADE: A
Good Behavior
A New Zealand dramedy centering on a family of burglars whose matriarch mandates that they go straight after the father is jailed.
STARS: Patrick J. Adams, Mae Whitman
GRADE: B+
Never Better
A single-camera comedy and British import about a recovering alcoholic who tries to be a good husband and father.
STARS: None attached yet
GRADE: C+
Roman Empire
A single-camera comedy based on the BBC series about a family man and self-made millionaire who is as possessive about his businesses as he is about his three daughters.
CO-PRODUCER: Ashton Kutcher
GRADE: C-
CBS Ny-Lon
An epic romance based on the British series about a passionate love affair spanning 3,000 miles between a New York woman and a London man who have a chance meeting on the streets,
STARS: Elisha Cuthbert (right), Will Kemp
GRADE: B
Mythological Ex
A dramatic series based on an Israeli format about a woman who tracks down all of her exes after a psychic tells her that she has already met the man she is going to marry.
STARS: Elizabeth Reaser, Rachel Boston
GRADE: B
Worst Week
A single-camera comedy series based on the British limited-run series about a couple’s nightmarish week before their wedding.
STARS: Kyle Bornheimer, Erinn Hayes, Kurtwood Smith
GRADE: B
Eleventh Hour
Based on a four-part British miniseries, the drama follows a scientific adviser to the government who troubleshoots threats stemming from or targeting a scientific endeavor.
STARS: Rufus Sewell, Marley Shelton
GRADE: ‘SCIENTIFIC ENDEAVOR’? D
FOX
Spaced
A British import, this comedy series is about two twentysomethings who meet by chance while apartment hunting.
STARS: Sara Rue, Josh Lawson, Will Sasso (right)
GRADE: B-
Outnumbered
A comedy based on the BBC series about a family in which the parents are “outnumbered” by their three children. The parents follow scripts; the children improvise.
STARS: None yet attached
GRADE: F
