Image Credit: Frank Ockenfels/NBCTHIS JUST IN: NBC has picked up its first new series for fall, and it’s pretty much a no-brainer. The Peacock net has given the green light to Undercovers, the highly anticipated new spy drama from J.J. Abrams and Josh Reims.
Undercovers stars Boris Kodjoe (Soul Food) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Doctor Who) as married ex-CIA agents who get pulled back into the spy biz.
“We have tremendous confidence in this promising series and feel this is a great way to kick off our upcoming Upfront development announcements,” said NBC Chairman Jeff Gaspin in a statement. “J.J. has delivered another signature series along with our partners at Warner Bros and we couldn’t be happier.” Added NBC Prez Angela Bromstad: “Having J.J. on our creative team is a great reason for celebration. In Undercovers, he’s found a breakout couple that is rich in character and brimming with romance and action. We feel he’s found the perfect cast.”
In addition to serving as co-writer, exec producer, and co-creator, Abrams directed the Undercovers pilot.
The official pilot synopsis is below:
“Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Kodjoe) and his wife, Samantha (Mbatha-Raw), are a typical married couple who own a small catering company in Los Angeles and are helped by Samantha’s easily frazzled younger sister, Lizzy (Jessica Parker Kennedy). Secretly, the duo were two of the CIA’s best spies until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and friend Nash (Carter MacIntyre) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney) to locate and rescue Nash. The pair is thrust back into the world of espionage as they follow leads that span the globe — and Steven and Samantha realize that this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing.”
Thoughts? Excited Abrams is returning to his spy roots? Does Undercovers have the potential to be as good (if not better) than Alias? Sound off below?
Can someone say CHUCK ripoff?
Can someone say CHUCK is about the eighty zillionth spy show on TV, not the first ever?
Thank you, ellie. I love Chuck (I REALLY love Chuck), but it’s a slacker goof on many, many spy shows that have gone before.
LEGEND OF THE SEEKER trumps them all
Chuck is almost complete copy of “Jake 2.0″ especially after the intersect upgrade
I can’t believe someone mentioned Jake 2.0…and yeah, now that I think about it, the 2 shows are really alike (Sorry Chuck!). Anyway, I’m a sucker for spy shows, so I’m def tuning in.
Give it up already, Zed. Your lame show is kaput!
Can anyone say Chuck is going to be canceled?!!
^^^burn! lol
harsh, man.
dem dere is fightin’ word2! >:-O
Can anyone say it’s going tp be paired with chuck?
Community has better espionage than Chuck. Unles we’re talking about Charles ‘Chuck’ Finley. Burn Notice all the way
Can someone explain to me why everyone is talking about Chuck???
Right, because Chuck was the first spy show ever…
can we say chuck is basically an alias ripoff??
Or riff/parody?
Okay this is as out of wack as someone calling this a Chuck rip off. How is Chuck and Alias at all alike? God gosh comments here really are crazy sometimes.
Can we say Alias was a La Femme Nikita ripoff?
Couldn’t we say that Chuck is a Get Smart rip off???? Isn’t that the original bumbling spy tv show?
Hit the nail on the head, TVObsessed.
This is more a ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ rip off but watching Boris Kodjoe every week certainly doesn’t suck;-)
thank you KRG! Finally someone mentioned that this new show “Undercovers” is totally similar to Mr. & Mrs. Smith! It’s almost Mr. & Mrs. Smith the televised series! How cool is that tho?!
Um…I’m sure all the Chuck audience knows this, but the whole point of Chuck is a spoof of all the entire spy genre. And this show was picked up automatically because its a J.J. Abrams, aka they expect it to be a conventional but amazing twist-and-turn spy show.
BLUCK
Can anyone say Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Spy Kids ripoff?
Can someone say Chuck sucks!
Nope.
Chuck sucks! Seriously, it does!
Can anyone say “Gugu Mbatha-Raw” without cracking up?
This can’t compare to Burn Notice!
Pair it up with “Chuck” and have a great night for TV.
Absolutely! Chuck + Undercovers = “NBC Spy Night Done Right”
haha… that’s perfect! Mike they should totally buy that line from you and use it in their commercials!
Genius! Royalties if NBC use that. That would be one awesome night of TV, Josh Schwartz and JJ in one night, it doesn’t get better!
exactly! this and chuck would be a great combo.
I read/heard somewhere that that’s the plan!!! so I hope this means that chances of Chuck getting cancelled are now more reduced still!
Hmm. Sounds like “ALIAS” the Sequel.
Since Alias was amazing until JJ stopped paying attention to it to go start Lost, I would welcome that wholeheartedly.
Totally agree. JJ handed off Alias to the wrong guys!
I forgive JJ for neglecting Alias for Lost. Do I forgive JJ for neglecting Lost for Fringe or this?
JJ hasn’t actually had a finger on Lost since the pilot (besides the season 3 premiere).
Yeah, onlytime, that’s coming to be my big concern with getting onboard JJ Abrams’ shows. He starts them off going somewhere and then drops them to go start something else, and the people he leaves behind don’t have his vision.
good to know Johnification. I was under the assumption that JJ was in Lost for the entirety (word?) of Season 1 of Lost.
I think I’ll wait and see if this lasts 3 seasons and then pick up the DVDs. I hate getting attached to shows that are promptly cancelled (RIP Pushing Daisies)
Exactly what I was thinking. Sounds like that would happen if Syd and Vaughn got pulled back into the spy game.
It’s almost Alias the movie in TV form. Though, I’d still love an Alias movie, you can’t beat Michael and Jen!!
Exactly. It sounds like it picks up the thread where “Alias” left off, with a few minor variations…
I hope this doesn’t mean Chuck is out
From your keyboard to NBC execs eyes!
Well Chuck is a comedy, so this shouldn’t rule it out.
This sounds exactly like… CHUCK.
No it doesn’t, unless Chuck is the only “spy” show you’ve ever watched.
Chuck is a parody on every spy drama ever, of which there are hundreds of tv shows.
sure, but those tv shows are nowhere NEAR as entertaining as Chuck is.
How does this sound like chuck other that it is a secret agent show?
Chuck is a slacker who had a computer shoved in his brain and became a reluctant bumbling spy.
This show is about ex married super spies getting back into it to save a friend and then sticking with it because it brings back what they were missing.
Not the same at all.
This is far and away my most anticipated show of fall. Can’t wait to see it!
Right? I KNEW it would be picked up as soon as EW mentioned the pilot a few months ago!!
I CAN’T wait!
I can’t wait either. BLACK PEOPLE ON TV!!!!!!!
Yeah, right ? It’s one of the reason I’m going to watch (the other is because I love Lost and Fringe which are both J.J.Abrams’ creations and I know he can make good TV even though I’m not a fan of the secret agent genre and never watched Alias)
I KNOW!! It’s been a while!! Remember a few years back when there were shows like Girlfriends, My Wife And Kids, One On One, Cuts, The Game, Half And Half etc… I was just wondering where all those great shows went when I heard about this… And Damon Wayans is doing a pilot for the 2010-2011 season too in which he also stars, wonder if that’ll be picked up.
Not just black people on TV, but on a real network too! (sorry but WB/CW? when has that ever been a real contender?) I’m almost afraid the sky will fall.
What’s even better is that the two leads color wasn’t even mentioned in the story. When no one cares about black/white/brown or other is when we truly turn a corner in this country.
chuck is a terrible show. this show is supposed to be something like mr. and mrs. smith
you have it all backwards Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a terrible movie and Chuck is a great tv show
vic has it right: Mr. & Mrs. Smith was and remains one of the best of its genre.
Chuck, on the other hand, is nothing short of a waste of a TV hour that has no redeeming characteristics except for what some may construe as humor.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith was sexy and the action scenes were good, but the writing was bad. I could watch it again if I muted the entire movie though.
Which is why Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a blockbuster and Chuck fans hold their collective breaths every year at renewal time, right? If NBC weren’t struggling so much, Chuck would’ve been axed long ago.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a good spy show on television with Scott Bakula and Maria Bello before it became the Brangelina movie.
I agree with Vic. Now why don’t we talk about gettin you into this house today.lol
You Chuck haters sound like a bunch of jelous OTH fans.
Always glad to hear about a show I won’t be tempted to watch. More time for useful stuff.
Always glad to hear from posters who contradicts themselves. More time for fun criticism of morons.
like commenting on internet articles that are supposedly of no interest to you.
Lol, ellie with a small e. Almost snap!
NBC will probably pair it with Chuck and call it their “Night of Spies.”
Awesome. I love that the leads are sexy and black as well.
Yeah, that’s a welcome change. Hopefully, this will inspire more diverse casting all around.
We’re slowly moving towards the point where it just doesn’t matter what background someone is, but hopefully whether or not they can act in the part.
Shonda Rhimes is good at this too on her shows.
MTE. Good job, JJ Abrams.
If you have been watching CHUCK, an amazing show mind you, you would know that it is now like Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
It really isn’t. There’s a lot more tonal difference between Mr & Mrs Smith than having the two leads together romantically.
Sorry, a lot more tonal difference between Mr & Mrs Smith *and Chuck* than having the two leads together romantically.
Well, we don’t know what the tonal difference is until we see it.
We know that Chuck is not like Mr and Mrs Smith because both are out. When you say that Chuck is now like Mr and Mrs Smith, I can say that they’re very different shows because I have seen both.
So excited to hear about this! It’s been a while since we got a decent, hopefully well-written show with black leads. I hope it lives up to expectations and last a while. And doesn’t get weird like Alias did.
I’m excited too! Boris Kodjoe is mighty fine.
Amen to that.
Please, I have NO faith in NBC anymore, if its good they’ll just cancel it after a year so why bother?
I was just thinking the same thing! It seems like an awesome show but NBC will probs cancel it! I am waiting for the verdict on Parenthood too! As the saying goes – a good show, will not last long on NBC and Fox.
PMD, Parenthood has already been renewed.
Parenthood is not a good show.
Fringe rocks and Fox hasn’t canceled them … yet. Knock on wood.
They will cancel you way before a year..thats for sure. Coco was fired only after 6 months.