Dick Wolf apparently isn't holding a grudge against NBC over the cancellation of "Law & Order: Trial by Jury."
The creator of the hugely successful "Law & Order" brand has teamed up with the network again for a midseason series called "Conviction." The show, which won't carry the "L&O" moniker, will follow a group of young district attorneys working in New York.
"This new drama series from Dick Wolf is a high-octane rush that will take the popular legal genre to the next level and offer stories crafted by a veteran storyteller and his creative team," says Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment.
The network says the show, which has a 13-episode order, will be "character-oriented" -- a departure from the "Law & Order" series, where plot is king and character development is doled out in small bits. It will follow the young prosecutors as they work on high-profile cases that test their limited experience. "Law & Order" vet Walon Green and Rick Eid ("The Guardian," "Trial by Jury") are writing the pilot and will executive produce with Wolf and Peter Jankowski.
"Conviction" will use some of the sets from "Trial by Jury," which debuted in March but failed to deliver the ratings of its "L&O" predecessors. It became the first "Law & Order" series not to earn a second season after averaging about 10.7 million viewers for its springtime run.
That number, however, is better than any of NBC's three new dramas have done so far this season. While "Surface" has fared reasonably well, drawing 10.1 million viewers per week, both "E-Ring" (8.5 million viewers) and "Inconceivable" (5.4 million) are scuffling.
In addition to "Conviction," NBC also has the dramas "Book of Daniel" and "Windfall" lined up for midseason. |
