Primetime Pilot Panic: ABC Sends Shonda Rhimes' 'In The Box' Into Redevelopment

If ABC had ordered INSIDE THE BOX from its ABC TV Studios, the network would have made it three series on the air for Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice showrunner Shonda Rhimes. Alas, I’m told this morning that the network has sent Inside The Box into “redevelopment” — but there’s no word on whether the busy Rhimes even wants to do that. “Too bad, it was a great pilot,” my source says. It’s about a guy who works in a Washington DC newsroom penned by a former journalist (who’s also ex-NBC Universal TV exec Katherine Pope’s husband). Rhimes has been trying to get a journalist-centric TV series on the air for some time: years ago, she wrote a pilot about women war correspondents that prompted Disney to hire her and led to Grey’s Anatomy.

ABC DECISIONS… Orders ‘The Associates’, ‘Eastwick’, ‘The Forgotten’, ‘Awesome Hank’, ‘The Middle’, ‘Cougar Town’, ‘Happy Town’, Renews ‘Scrubs’, ‘Castle’, ‘Better Off Ted’; Wants 6 Eps Of ‘V’ But Warner Balks (For Now)