While AMC has racked up awards and hashtags and FX the adoration of the comedy and biker gang worlds, one cable network is feeling left out of the love: USA. Nearly all of their shows come with the same disclaimer: “Burn Notice/Suits/Royal Pains/Necessary Roughness is kind of dumb but still fun,” which is a reasonable backhanded compliment when you name your show Suits. But according to the New York Times, USA thinks they’ve found their very own Breaking Bad: a high-concept action series called…Dig.
On Wednesday, USA is to announce a deal for the most expensive and ambitious drama the network has ever commissioned: Dig, an action series set (and shot) in Jerusalem and based in the world of archaeology. The network hopes it will be, in the words of Jeff Wachtel, the chief content officer for NBCUniversal’s cable networks, “the big, buzz-worthy project” that USA has been looking for.
The show [from Homeland‘s Gideon Raff and Heroes‘ Tim Kring], which the network is calling an “event series,” will start as a six-episode season, probably next fall. The plan is to expand to 13 episodes for a second season. The series is broadly described as a murder mystery at a dig site in the Old City of Jerusalem that eventually uncovers a conspiracy extending back 2,000 years.
A show on USA NETWORK shot in JEWrusalem? The gall. Next thing you know, the American Broadcasting Corporation will hand over their keys to the Chinese. Give me America’s Funniest Home Videos or give me death, because if there’s one thing we as Americans know, it’s how to film a baby kicking a dude in the nuts.
