EXCLUSIVE: In his first regular series gig, Tropic Thunder co-star Brandon T. Jackson has been tapped as the male lead opposite Minnie Driver in  CBS’ buddy P.I. pilot Hail Mary. Penned by  Jeff Wadlow, the project centers on Mary Beth Baker (Driver), a suburban single mom in Atlanta who, after her teen son gets…

Former Friends executive producer Adam Chase has joined CBS’ comedy pilot How To Be A Gentleman, written by and starring It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s David Hornsby. Chase will serve as executive producer/co-showrunner on the pilot alongside Hornsby. If the pilot goes to series, for Chase it would be in second…

Feature and Broadway actor Patrick Wilson is making his first foray into series TV as the star of CBS’ untitled Susannah Grant drama pilot. Jonathan Demme is directing he supernatural medical drama, from CBS TV Studios and studio-based Timberman/Beverly Prods., which centers on an ultra-competitive surgeon (Wilson)…

Kat Dennings has signed on as one of the two leads in CBS’ multicamera comedy pilot Two Broke Girls, co-written and executive produced by former Sex and the City showrunner Michael Patrick King and comedian Whitney Cummings. Dennings is the first actor cast in the project, which centers on two girls from very…

EXCLUSIVE: Home Game has won the Rob Riggle sweepstakes. Riggle is set to star in the CBS multicamera comedy, from Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson’s Leverage. The project, loosely based on the experiences of former NFL star Mark Schlereth, centers on Mark (Riggle), a retired NFL player who returns home to his wife…

The L Word co-creator/executive producer Ilene Chaiken has joined CBS’ private eye drama pilot Hail Mary as executive producer/showrunner. The project, created by Jeff Wadlow, is a buddy P.I. show set in Atlanta that focuses on a suburban single mom who teams up with a streetwise hustler to solve crimes. Wadlow…

CBS has given the green light to two family comedy pilots, an untitled project starring Rob Schneider and Home Grown, from That ’70s Show alums Jeff and Jackie Filgo. This marks the second pilot for the Filgos, who have also come on board Marisa Coughlan’s multicamera comedy pilot for ABC Lost and Found as executive…

Richard Shepard, who won an Emmy for directing the pilot of ABC’s Ugly Betty, has come on board to direct another hourlong pilot with a female lead, CBS’ Ringer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ringer, written on spec by Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder, centers on a troubled young woman (Gellar) who, while on the run…

CBS is back in business with Tucker Cawley, former executive producer of the network’s hit Everybody Loves Raymond. CBS has greenlighted to pilot Cawley’s multicamera comedy The Assistants, a young ensemble about four assistants who work for a celebrity couple. CBS TV Studios  and studio-based Tannenbaum Co. are…

EXCLUSIVE: CBS’ untitled Ed Redlich/John Bellucci drama pilot, which was rolled over from last season, has been given a formal green light, with Niels Arden Oplev, director of  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, on board to direct. The project, co-produced by Sony Pictures TV and CBS TV Studios, centers on a female NYPD…

EXCLUSIVE: Spec scripts continue to be red-hot this January. CBS just snatched one from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia writer/co-executive producer/recurring guest star David Hornsby, which has been greenlighted to pilot. Hornsby wrote the project, How To Be a Gentleman, and is attached to star. Loosely based on…

The pilot pickup season is just starting in earnest, but we already have an unusually large number of creators with multiple pilot orders. Peter Tolan, Whitney Cummings, Michael Patrick King and the duo of Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen have each received two pickups. Tolan wrote and is executive producing Fox’s comedy The…