‘This Is Us’ Executive Producer Kay Oyegun Scores ABC Drama Pilot Order

Milo Ventimiglia has potentially found his next starring vehicle.

Milo Ventimiglia is taking on a new role!

Joe Otterson TV ReporterABC has ordered the drama pilot “The Company You Keep” with Milo Ventimiglia attached to star, Variety has learned.The pilot is based on the Korean format “My Fellow Citizens.” A night of passion leads to love between con-man Charlie (Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA officer Emma, who are unknowingly on a collision course professionally. While Charlie ramps up the “family business” so he can get out for good, Emma’s closing in on the vengeful criminal who holds Charlie’s family debts in-hand – forcing them to reckon with the lies they’ve told so they can save themselves and their families from disastrous consequences.The pilot keeps Ventimiglia in the broadcast TV business.

EXCLUSIVE: This is a surprise. Demi Lovato, who had been attached as star in NBC’s multi-camera comedy pilot Hungry for a year, has stepped down from acting duties in the project just as it was about to start production. Lovato, along with their manager Scooter Braun, remain executive producers.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMia Katigbak has been cast in the upcoming ABC comedy pilot “Josep.”Katigbak will appear opposite previously announced series lead Jo Koy and Rory O’Malley. The show follows a recently divorced Filipino American nurse (Koy) attempting to navigate dating, fatherhood and a very Filipino mother who loves to “help.”Katigbak will star as Lorna, Jo’s mom. She is described as a little Filipino force of nature.

NBC has put in development Delia Graves and the Order of Merlin, a drama from Sleepy Hollow co-creator Phillip Iscove, Justin Lin and his Perfect Storm Entertainment and Universal Television, where Lin is under a deal.

EXCLUSIVE: Rory O’Malley is set as a lead opposite Jo Koy in Josep, ABC’s single-camera comedy pilot from 20th Television.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorRachel Brosnahan is set to star in and executive produce podcast drama series “Listening In,” in which she will play a woman whose home sound system inexplicably lets her eavesdrop on people living in her apartment building.Audio content studio QCode will finance and distribute the podcast, producing “Listening In” alongside Automatik and Brosnahan’s production banner, Scrap Paper Pictures. The eight-episode first season of the series is slated to debut this spring.

Mary J. Blige has re-teamed with Lifetime to executive produce Real Love, a new original film inspired by her hit ’90s song of the same name. Blige will executive produce via her Blue Butterfly production banner, alongside Ashaunna Ayars and Nicole Jackson.

Oscar and Emmy winner Barry Levinson has been tapped to direct David E. Kelley’s The Missing, Peacock’s eight-episode series based on Israeli crime writer Dror A. Mishani’s international bestselling novel The Missing File. Levinson will direct multiple episodes, including the first, and executive produce the series from Kelley, Keshet Studios and Universal Television

Joe Otterson TV ReporterCallum Greene and Sara Greene’s Bright Greene production banner has entered into a first-look deal with Amazon, Variety has learned.Callum is an executive producer on Amazon’s highly-anticipated TV series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.” Under the deal, Bright Greene will develop and produce new projects for Amazon’s streaming platform. UTA brokered the deal on behalf of Bright Greene.\“After the epic journey of Season One we couldn’t be more excited to continue our work with Amazon,” said Callum Greene.

EXCLUSIVE: Revelations Entertainment’s Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary have boarded Kamilla Blanche’s upcoming documentary 2 Richards! The African Company as EPs.

Selome Hailu Netflix announced that “Chappelle’s Home Team,” a series of stand-alone comedy specials featuring comics chosen by Dave Chappelle, who serves as executive producer. The series will debut on Feb.

Dave Chappelle will executive produce four new stand-alone comedy specials featuring comics personally selected by him as part of his Chappelle’s Home Team series for Netflix.

A Fort Worth, Texas jury has found former Los Angeles Angels communications director Eric Kay guilty of distributing fentanyl and causing the death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019.

Manori Ravindran International EditorEntertainment One has hired Left Bank executive producer Sharon Hughff to serve as creative director of scripted television out of the U.K.In her new role, she will oversee the scripted team and pipeline from the U.K., while spearheading efforts to expand the slate into buyers in the U.K. as well as Europe and Asia.

Quiana Burns’s leadership role at Tamron Hall is becoming permanent. The Good Morning America Weekend executive producer joined the syndicated daytime talk show as interim executive producer in October, shortly after Tamron Hall moved from ABC Entertainment to ABC News where it is overseen by the team of ABC News President Kim Godwin. It was Godwin who announced Burns’ official appointment today.

Zoe Saldana is headed to Paramount+.

It’s a busy morning of pilot pickups at ABC.

ABC has ordered a drama pilot about a group of therapists in Philadelphia from This Is Us writer/director Kay Oyegun.