Mark Pedowitz - H 2015
AP ImagesThe CW has given marching orders to Valor.
The younger-skewing network on Thursday handed out a pilot pickup to a military drama from playwright Kyle Jarrow, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Here’s how the Valor pilot is described: “The boundaries between military discipline and human desire are tested on a U.S. Army base that houses an elite unit of helicopter pilots trained to perform clandestine international and domestic missions. The drama unfolds in the present as well as in flashbacks to a failed mission involving one of the first female pilots in the unit, ultimately uncovering layers of personal and government/military secrets, and leading to a season-long plan to rescue a group of MIA soldiers.”
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Jarrow will pen the script and executive produce alongside Bill Haber (Rizzoli and Isles). The drama hails from CBS Television Studios, marking its third pickup of the season at the network.
Thursday’s pickup brings The CW’s pilot season tally to five. Valor joins Dynasty and Insatiable from CBS Television Studios as well as Life Sentence and Searchers from Warner Bros. Television. Last year, the network had six total. The CW president Mark Pedowitz told THR in January that he expected the network’s pilot tally to match last season’s haul. Missing from the list is The CW’s high-profile Charmed reboot, which also hails from CBS Television Studios. The network, a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros. Television, would seemingly have one pilot slot left this season that could be earmarked for something from WBTV.
Valor is the fifth military-themed pilot to score a formal pickup this season. It joins CBS’ untitled Navy SEALs project, NBC’s For God and Country, Fox’s Behind Enemy Lines reboot and ABC comedy Charlie Foxtrot. The wave of military-themed pilots comes as broadcast networks have been re-evaluating their programming in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential victory, questioning whether their content appealed to middle America. ABC Entertainment chief Channing Dungey, for example, recently acknowledged that the rise of Trump and his blue-collar support forced her to question whether her programming was too focused on upper-income brackets.
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