NBC
has ordered four pilots -- Whitney, Prime Suspect, Up All Night and Smash -- to
series as the pick-up frenzy continues in advance of upfronts next week.
Smash,
from executive producer Steven Spielberg, is about the staging of a Broadway
musical starring Debra Messing and has been considered a shoo-in since it was a
project that new NBC topper Bob Greenblatt brought with him from Showtime. Also
nabbing an order is drama Prime Suspect, a revamp of the British procedural
series starring Maria Bello as a detective.
In
comedy, the Peacock picked up two projects from Universal Media Studios. Whitney,
is a multi-cam rom-com created by and starring comedian Whitney Cummings as one-half
of a young couple. Also
a go is Up All Night, a single-camera comedy that stars Christina Applegate as
prickly working mother who never thought she'd be a parent. Will Arnett has
signed on as Applegate's stay-at-home husband and the series is executive
produced by Lorne Michaels and co-stars Maya Rudolph.
NBC will formally announce its fall schedule at its upfront presentation in New York next Monday.
