By Bel Hernandez
Eva Longoria is a true Hollywood powerhouse. She just recently starred alongside Oscar nominated Ed Harris and award winning actor Michael Peña in the indie film Frontera, she is executive producing the ALMA Awards which will be telecast live on MSNBC on October 10th, she was at the 8th Annual Clinton Global Citizen Award presenting to farmworkers depicted in her documentary Food Chains. Earlier this year she found time to executive produce and make her directorial debut on Lifetime’s Devious Maids, and this TV development season she is considering making a come back to the small screen, as an executive producer and, yes maybe starring in one of the four TV shows she has sold to ABC and NBC.
Last week deadline.com reported that Longoria has sold two pilots to two different networks as possible vehicles for her return to the small screen. Both ABC and NBC are vying for Longoria’s participation as the lead and/or executive producer of the projects.
Eva Longoria (center) directing Roselyn Sanchez in a scene on Devious Maids
NBC (the network that helped launch her production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment) has given her Telenovela script a 13-episode order if Longoria commits to star or just a pilot order if she only produces.
Telenovela is a concept Longoria has been kicking around for a few years. It is set behind the scenes of a telenovela production. With the opportunity to tap into NBC’s sister network Telemundo, the plan is to film selected scenes for a fictional telenovela that would air on the Spanish-language network. The scenes would then air as promos on the Spanish-language network.
Telenovela which centers around a telenovela actress struggling to stay on top of her game, will be produced by Longoria and Ben Spector for UnbeliEVAble Entertainment with Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein (Cougar Town) co-executive producing for Universal TV.
The untitled half-hour comedy at ABC was written with Longoria in mind. The comedy centers on Mia, a successful home renovator who can’t stop problem solving. Her problem solving continues into her home life with her boyfriend, her family, a delivery guy, basically everyone she comes into contact with. Co-Creators are Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins will executive produce for ABC Studios along with Trophy Wife exec producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Longoria and Spector will only executive produce if Longoria agrees to star. The script is said to be fast-tracked for a pilot with a 13-episode penalty.
Longoria has also sold two other TV pilot this season, a medical drama entitled Critical to NBC which was announced earlier this year about a Latina doctor who returns to her hometown to work at a prestigious hospital. And last week it was announced that she had sold ABC on a script about the Texas political/family drama Pair of Aces loosely based on Julian and Joaquin Castro political exploits.
It is rare for two different networks to be developing a project at the same time for the same actor. Considering the obstacles of getting a show on the air, it would be an incredible feat if Telenovela and the untitled ABC comedy where she might be making her on-camera comeback, would get picked up (or her other two pilots for that matter), but then again we are talking about the unbeliEVAble Eva Longoria.
Longoria is repped by CAA.
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