NBC orders 'The Event,' 'Outsourced,' 'Love Bites'

New shows feature Jason Ritter, Becki Newton and Jordan Spiro

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, May 7, 2010 1:41 PM

Jason Ritter of 'The Event'

Credit: NBC

With upfronts still 10 days away, other networks continue to shuffle through development season pilots, but NBC has officially ordered four new scripted shows this week.

NBC formally announced series pickups for "The Event," "Outsourced" and "Love Bites" on Friday (May 7), just days after sending J.J. Abrams' "Undercovers" to series for the fall.

"Each of these three series reflects a unique point of view and distinct style of quality that fits perfectly with NBC's dedication to rebuilding the schedule," states Angela Bromstad, NBC's Primetime Entertainment President. "These series showcase excellent writing and casting, and represent the kind of scripted programming our network and studio are committed to producing."

The network's three pickups cover very different terrain for NBC.

"The Event" is a conspiracy thriller focusing on a normal guy (Jason Ritter) whose search for his missing fiancee (Sarah Roemer) pushes him deeper and deeper into one of the biggest cover-ups in American history. The ensemble drama features Blair Underwood as the President of the United States and co-stars Laura Innes, Scott Patterson, Ian Anthony Dale and Zeljko Ivanek.

The "Event" pilot was created by Nick Wauters and directed by Jeffrey Reiner ("Friday Night Lights," "Trauma").

A comedy, "Outsourced" stars Todd Dempsy as a Midwestern guy who learns that he's being transferred to India to head up his company's new call center. The series comes from Robert Borden ("The Drew Carey Show") and Ken Kwapis ("The Office") and co-stars Rizwan Manji, Sacha Dhawan, Rebecca Hazlewood, Parvesh Cheena and Anisha Nagarajan, plus Diedrich Bader and Jessica Gower.

The most innovative of the new NBC projects may be "Love Bites," from "Sex and the City" Emmy winner Cindy Chupack.

"Love Bites" is an hour-long romantic-comedy anthology series, anchored by Becki Newton and Jordana Spiro as two single gals who make up the show's only recurring element. The series tells multiple weekly vignettes about romance, sex, dating and marriage.

In addition to Spiro and Newton, the "Love Bites" pilot features guest appearances by Greg Grunberg, Craig Robinson, Jason Lewis, Lindsay Price, Charlyne Yi, Pamela Adlon, Kyle Howard and, playing herself, Jennifer Love Hewitt.

As Bromstad noted, NBC has some hefty schedule rebuilding to do, so even after a week with four pickups, it's doubtful that the network's rebuilding work is through. The additions of "Undercovers," "The Event," "Outsourced" and "Love Bites" doesn't mean that NBC isn't going to pick up additional pilots, nor that things are bleak for NBC bubble shows like "Chuck," "Mercy" and "Trauma." [OK. To be fair, things are bleak for "Mercy" and "Trauma."]

Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

Related Searches: NBC, Pilots, pickups, series order, The Event, Outsourced, Love Bites

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Allen24

Chuck's now been on the air for three seasons - and still struggles in the ratings

Here's a really interesting - and very controversial piece - from a guy who argues it's time to cancel the show. Definitely worth reading if you're a Chuck fan!

http://www.remotepatrolled.com/2010/05/chuck-it-out/

May 8, 2010 at 10:43AM EST Reply to Comment
- dan Allen24 - This is now the second time you've linked to this same post here on the site and at least once or twice to other posts from that blog. Plus, I've seen the exact same posts from you (or an entirely unrelated "Allen") on other blogs. I get that you're a "fan" (or, you know, the author of the blog). When people join the discussion, we have no problems at all with occasional linking out. None. But you're now dangerously close to spam... Just wanted to let you know. - Daniel
  May 8, 2010 at 11:42AM EST