ABC is scuttling its series Avalon, taking the series from David E. Kelley off its 2022-23 slate.
The drama, produced by A+E Studios and Disney’s 20th Television, was to have starred Neve Campbell as the L.A. Sheriff’s detective who leads a small office on Catalina Island off the Southern California coast. The show, based on a short story by Michael Connelly and created for television by the prolific Kelley, scored a straight to series order in February.
Dana Calvo (Good Girls Revolt, Narcos) came aboard as showrunner in April. Campbell heads a cast that also includes Steven Pasquale, Alexa Mansour, Demetrius Grosse and Roslyn Ruff.
Sources say that the show’s first episode had finished filming, but nothing beyond that. A+E Studios is said to believe in the show’s auspices and will explore options to find Avalon another home.
Campbell, who also stars in Kelley and Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer at Netflix, plays Nicole “Nic” Searcy, who heads the sheriff’s outpost in the titular city on Catalina. With a permanent population of about 4,000 and more than a million tourists each year, the island sees hundreds of potential stories arrive by ferry each day. Searcy is pulled into a career-defining mystery that will challenge everything she knows about herself and the island.
Calvo, Kelley and Connelly executive produce with Ross Fineman of Fineman Entertainment and A+E Studios’ Barry Jossen and Tana Jamieson.
ABC will bow dramas Will Trent and The Company You Keep in the first quarter of 2023, along with the final season of A Million Little Things and the Gina Rodriguez-led comedy Not Dead Yet. First-year dramas The Rookie: Feds, which has a full-season order, and Alaska Daily are also set to continue in the second half of the season.
