New Shows Windfall for Prime

Prime’s output deal with CBS Studios International looks like landing it with a bumper slate of new series next year.

CBS Television Studios is one of the biggest winners of the new TV season in the US, with the networks commissioning nine of its pilots as series.

The only production house to win more orders was 20th Century Fox Television, which saw 12 of its projects greenlit.

Whereas Fox’s shows will be spread across TV2, TV3 and Prime, most of CBS Studios’ will be exclusive to Prime, subject to a couple that are co-productions and may not be distributed here by CBSSI.

Moreover, those most likely to fare best on Prime are those commissioned by the CBS network, which appeals to a similar demographic, whereas two –  No Tomorrow, Riverdale — are destined for the younger-skewing CW network.

The one with the biggest built-in recognition factor is a reboot of MacGyver, which stars X-Men’s Lucas Till as the super-resourceful undercover agent, under the stewardship of Hawaii Five-O showrunner Peter Leskov.

Katherine Heigl returns to network TV as a lawyer who falls for a questionable client in Doubt, The Great Indoors concerns an adventure reporter overseeing millennials at a digital magazine, and Man With a Plan stars Matt LeBlanc as a contractor who’s forced to spend more time with his kids after his wife goes back to work.

Pure Genius is an odd-couple hospital drama, Bull stars NCIS’s Michael Weatherly as a jury consultant, Kevin Can Wait is a Kevin James comedy about a retired cop, Riverdale is a subversive dramatisation of the Archie comic books (which may wind up on TV2 because it’s a co-pro with Warner Bros) and No Tomorrow is a bucket list drama from Jane the Virgin writer Corinne Brinkerhoff.