Katherine Heigl’s CIA Pilot Picked Up By NBC
After snagging headlines for being difficult on film sets, pet advocate and celebrity Katherine Heigl might be making the shameful walk back to television as NBC picked her CIA drama up for pilot season. Not that television is a shameful medium in the arts, these days it has the most exciting storytelling, but because of Heigl’s involvement this has a bit of irony.
When Heigl broke her contract with the ABC hit drama Grey’s Anatomy it wasn’t on the best of terms. It was on the heels of her pulling her name for Emmy consideration, because at the time the actress said she didn’t feel like she had great material written for a nomination. In addition she also famously complained about the long hours on television, and how they didn’t jive with her.
It sounds like Heigl, who ended her run on Grey’s Anatomy in 2010 is ready to play nice by returning to NBC as CIA agent. The procedural show was pitched to a bunch of networks, but in the end NBC bought it to consider for pilot season. Now that three months has passed it looks like NBC is interested in the Katherine Heigl vehicle, which she’s also producing with her mother Nancy. The network recently announced that it ordered a pilot that Heigl and co will film in hopes to get picked up for a full season at the network.
The drama, State of Affairs, is said to be produced by Alexi Hawley of the FOX hit The Following, and will center around Heigl, a CIA analyst who will debrief and strategize with the commander-in-chief on global and national issues. Whether or not there’s more of a fast-paced action vibe to the show remains to be seen, but it still seems like a high stakes drama for Heigl. Currently it’s being described as Scandal mixed with The West Wing.
While Katherine Heigl’s return to television may surprise a few people, it isn’t too shocking giving how poorly her film career stalled after the Emmy winner left her hit show Grey’s Anatomy. Her Grey’s co-star Ellen Pompeo called Heigl’s departure “tough” and explained, “You could understand why she wanted to go — when you’re offered $12 million a movie and you’re only 26. But Katie’s problem is that she should not have renewed her contract. She re-upped, took a big raise and then tried to get off the show. And then her movie career did not take off.”
Hopefully Katherine Heigl won’t get cold feet about her new NBC drama if the show goes to order.
