ABC has ordered two drama series to pilot in some of its first pilot pickups of the 2021 pilot season.
The broadcaster has given out pilot orders to the one-hour shows “Queens” and “Epic.” Both will be produced by ABC Signature. They join the previously announced ABC drama pilot “Acts of Crime,” which hails from Sam Esmail.
“Queens” is written and executive produced by Zahir McGhee and executive produced by Sabrina Wind. In the show, four estranged and out-of-touch women in their 40s reunite for a chance to recapture their fame and regain the swagger they had as the Nasty Bitches – their ’90s group that made them legends in the hip-hop world.
“Epic” hails from writer and executive producer Brigitte Hales and executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis. Horowitz and Kitsis previously created the ABC series “Once Upon a Time,” with Hales having served as a writer on that show. “Epic” is described as a romantic anthology series that reinvents fairy tales for a new audience.
Just like last year, the pandemic has upended the traditional pilot season at the broadcast networks, with most of the networks still working through the shows they had ordered to pilot last year. ABC still has the comedies “Work Wife” and “Adopted” in contention, along with the drama “Triage.” It was announced in November that ABC had given a series pickup to an untitled multi-cam comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer that hails from “Modern Family” co-creator Chris Lloyd and executive producer Vali Chandrasekaran.