Fox is adding another cop drama to its development roster.
The network has given a script commitment with penalty to Saturday Night Special, a project about police officers in Washington. It comes from writer Robert Specland, who will executive produce with Marc Platt (La La Land, Fox’s Grease Live and upcoming Rent Live) and Adam Siegel.
The project is set up at 20th Century TV and Platt’s eponymous production company.
Saturday Night Special is described as a grounded police soap that follows a group of tight-knit D.C. officers as they work Saturday nights, the wildest, most dangerous shift of the week. It will look at the police force from lieutenants to rookies and how the job affects their lives and vice versa.
Specland is repped by UTA, Pacific View Management and Felker Toczek.
Saturday Night Special is the third crime drama Fox has put into development this year, joining projects from Greg Berlanti and Howard Gordon. The Berlanti effort, Prodigal Son, comes from writers Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver and Warner Bros. TV, while 20th-based Gordon is exec producing Connect from writer Rashad Raisani.
As the network transitions to “New Fox,” a focus on crime dramas makes some sense as the mandate is for broad-appeal shows. It currently has just one police procedural, 911, on its schedule, which is among Fox’s highest-rated series.
