{"id":51157,"date":"2025-09-29T18:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/51157\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:48:07","slug":"abc-picks-up-scott-speedman-pilot-rj-decker-to-series-for-midseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/51157\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC Picks Up Scott Speedman Pilot ‘RJ Decker’ To Series For Midseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tABC<\/a> has given a series order to hourlong pilot RJ Decker<\/a> (working title), starring Scott Speedman<\/a>, for the current 2025-26 season. The project, from Elementary creator Rob Doherty based on the 1987 novel Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen, will premiere in midseason.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to Speedman in the titular role, RJ Decker stars Kevin Rankin as Aloysius \u201cWish\u201d Aiken, Adelaide Clemens as Catherine Delacroix and Bevin Bru as Melody \u201cMel\u201d Romero. The series-regular role of Shay Bennett, played by Weruche Opia in the pilot, will be recast.<\/p>\n

\n\tDelivered to the network earlier this month, the pilot, from 20th Television, was well received with Speedman\u2019s performance getting high marks. In mixing crime procedural drama with humor and a compelling lead character, RJ Decker fits into ABC\u2019s sweet spot of hits like High Potential, The Rookie and Will Trent. Reinforcing the spiritual connection, Paul McGuigan, who directed the Will Trent pilot, was also brought in to helm the RJ Decker pilot.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: 2025 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tWritten by Doherty, the series centers on RJ Decker (Speedman), is a disgraced newspaper photographer and ex-con who starts over as a private investigator in the colorful-if-crime-filled world of South Florida. The series follows him tackle cases that range from slightly odd to outright bizarre with the help of his journalist ex, her police detective wife, and a shadowy new benefactor, a woman from his past who could be his greatest ally\u2026 or his one-way ticket back to prison. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe pilot was shot in North Carolina, the filming location for the series is TBD. Doherty executive produces alongside Hiaasen, Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman and McGuigan, with Speedman serving as a producer. 20th Television, a part of Disney TV Studios, is the studio. <\/p>\n

\n\tSpeedman also has been recurring on 20th TV\u2019s long-running ABC medical drama Grey\u2019s Anatomy. <\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the second TV series based on the works of Florida native Hiaasen, who started his career as a newspaper reporter, joining Bill Lawrence\u2019s Bad Monkey starring Vince Vaughn for Apple TV+, which has been renewed for a second season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRJ Decker is the only drama pilot ordered by ABC so far this year. (The network\u2019s new fall 2025 drama, 9-1-1: Nashville, received a straight-to-series order.) Waiting in the wings is The Rookie spinoff The Rookie North, which has not been formally greenlighted yet, with creator Alexi Hawley looking at a late-winter pilot shoot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tABC and 20th TV brass are taking their time casting the lead, looking to take a page from the RJ Decker (and The Rookie) playbook by landing a TV star of the caliber of Speedman and Nathan Fillion for The Rookie offshoot.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the comedy side, ABC recently gave a straight-to-series order to the Scrubs reboot<\/a> and picked up to pilot<\/a> the Rachel Bloom starrer Do You Want Kids?. That pilot is also expected to take its time finding the male lead opposite Bloom; it\u2019s targeted for 2026-27 season. The network\u2019s other comedy prospect<\/a>, Mittens, which revolves around a neighborhood cat, will be in consideration for the next pilot cycle.<\/p>\n

\n\tDoherty is repped by UTA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC has given a series order to hourlong pilot RJ Decker (working title), starring Scott Speedman, for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2976,93,61,60,37059,37060,37061,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-51157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-pilot-orders","13":"tag-rj-decker","14":"tag-scott-speedman","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}