EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, ABC has given a put pilot commitment to Backlash, a drama examining the aftermath of a child rescue from Switched at Birth creator Lizzy Weiss, Jon Feldman and Jennifer Gwartz’s Random Hill Production and ABC Studios.
Written and executive produced by Weiss, Backlash is set in a working-class town after the high-profile rescue of a child. As the rescue workers and family are deluged with praise, suspicions begin to mount that the accident was something quite different than it seemed. Unpeeling the truth of what happened that day will uncover the town’s many secrets and, in the process, explore hero worship, the media, celebrity culture and the lengths we will go to in order to be seen.
Feldman and Gwartz executive produce via Random Hill, which is under an overall deal at ABC Studios, a division of Disney TV Studios.
Weiss created the Peabody-winning Switched at Birth, which ran for five seasons at ABC Family/Freeform. She also was the showrunner for the breakout first season of Facebook’s Watch’s Sorry for Your Loss and wrote the surfer-girl movie Blue Crush.
Weiss also has comedy series Life and Deaf, starring and executive produced by Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, in development deal at Disney+, with Patricia Heaton and David Hunt’s Four Boys Entertainment and CBS TV Studios producing.
Under Randon Hill’s ABC Studios pact, the company landed a pilot order at ABC for sci-fi drama Triangle last season.
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