Report: Sarah Michelle Gellar’s CBS pilot ‘Ringer’ bounces to The CW

“Buffy” fans rejoice!

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Sarah Michelle Gellar is heading back to primetime as Deadline.com reports that her CBS drama pilot “Ringer” has been picked up…but not by CBS.

In a surprising move, “Ringer” is headed to CBS’ sister network CW, where execs think the youth-oriented show will play better. ABC Studios, who co-produced the pilot, are apparently pulling out of the project, unsure of whether the show will be viable within the inherently cheaper framework of a smaller network like The CW.

All indications are that while this may not be quite the done deal Deadline is reporting it to be, it’s a strong possibility, which it clearly wasn’t yesterday, when “Ringer” was buried in a sea of drama prospects at CBS.

The move would sort of reunites Gellar with “Buffy’s” two home networks, the WB and UPN, which merged to form The CW in 2006.

In “Ringer,” Gellar will play a woman on the run from the mafia and the feds who reunites, and eventually trades places with, her estranged twin sister. Things get more complicated when it turns out that sis wasn’t exactly leading the good life, and was also being chased by some relentless baddies.

The pilot was directed by Richard Shepard (“The Matador”).

Gellar can be seen battling zombies, in a videogame version of herself, in an expansion pack titled “Call of the Dead” for “Call of Duty: Black Ops.”

Deadline also reports that CBS also picked up the comedy “Two Broke Girls,” from Michael Patrick King and Whitney Cummings. The latter also has a new comedy series at NBC. Meanwhile, King’s NBC drama pilot “A Mann’s World” didn’t go forward, so he’s expected to be full-time on “Girls” as a showrunner.

 

×