Stacey Abrams-Produced Drama ‘Never Tell’ Based On Her Book In The Works At CBS With PatMa Productions

CBS has put in development Never Tell, a drama based on the book of the same title by Selena Montgomery (nom de plume for Stacey Abrams), from writer Talicia Raggs (NCIS: New Orleans) Abrams and Nina Tassler and Denise Di Novi’s Pat Ma Productions, in which CBS has an ownership stake and PatMa has a first-look deal. Abrams is attached as an executive producer. CBS TV Studios is the studio.

Written by Raggs, Never Tell, based on the book, revolves around a star linguistics professor with a complicated past who joins forces with a charismatic online investigative journalist following the discovery of a cryptic message that is the only clue in a missing persons case, setting them off on a partnership working cases with the New Orleans Police Department.

Raggs executive produces with Tassler and Di Novi for PatMa and Abrams.

Raggs has worked on NCIS: New Orleans since Season 4, currently serving as co-executive producer. Her other writing-producing credits include The Originals, Switched At Birth and Ironside. She’s repped by Verve, Sheree Guitar, and Hansen Jacobsen.

Abrams is the former Georgia House Minority leader, the first African American to lead in the House of Representatives, and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate. In addition to Never Tell, Abrams (under the pen name Selena Montgomery) is the author of romance suspense novels including Hidden Sins, Secrets and Lies, Reckless and Deception. She won both the Reviewer’s Choice Award and the Reader’s Favorite Award from Romance In Color for Best New Author, and was featured as a Rising Star. Abrams is also the author of Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change, published by Henry Holt & Co. in April 2018, and she has published articles on public policy, taxation and nonprofit organizations.

Tassler and Di Novi, who had previously worked together on CBS drama The District, set up PatMa at in 2018 with a focus on amplifying diverse voices. The company also is adapting Joyce Carol Oates’ abortion novel A Book of American Martyrs for Showtime.