SALES & PICK-UPS
ABC has picked up to pilot the UNTITLED ELLEN DEGENERES COMEDY PROJECT, which sparked a bidding war back in September. Portia de Rossi plays one of two dueling sisters, a brilliant and successful woman who has to go to work for her less brainy but more popular sister.
FOX has picked up two comedy pilots: LET IT GO from writer/executive producer DJ Nash and MUST HIRE written by Reed Agnew. “Let it Go,” is an ensemble comedy about a married couple, his best friend, and her sister as they try to navigate, negotiate, and sometimes manipulate society’s unspoken rules. “Must Hire” centers on an uptight, young executive who hires his dad for an entry level position and is shocked to discover that his new hire is a disruptive office clown.
NBC has given a late pilot order to 1600 PENN, a White House family comedy from Josh Gad, Jason Winer and former speechwriter to President Barack Obama, Jon Lovett.
HBO is in business with “Training Day” scribe David Ayer and producer John Lesher. The cable giant has tapped Ayer to write, direct and executive produce the UNTITLED AYER/LESHER POLITICAL THRILLER PROJECT, which will focus on U.S. Special Forces Soldiers who take on new lives undercover inside the LA underworld, blurring the line between the war on terror and the war on drugs. Lesher will also executive produce.
RENEWALS
FX’s highest-rated show SONS OF ANARCHY has been renewed through season six, though those involved with the show assume a seventh and likely final season will be part of creator Kurt Sutter’s plan.
DEALS
Kurt Sutter has inked a three-year overall deal with Twentieth Century Fox TV and FX Productions, which jointly produce the highest-rated series in FX history, “Sons of Anarchy.”
