Fox Orders New Pilot from Lee Daniels Plus Two Others

2005 Television Critics Winter Press Tour
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
The Fox Network logo is displayed during the 2005 Television Critics Winter Press Tour at the Hilton Universal Hotel on January 17, 2005 in Universal City, California.

Lee Daniels’ working relationship with Fox is about to grow. Besides his two hit shows—Empire and Star—currently airing at the network, Fox has ordered a pilot for his new comedy tentatively called Our People.

The details were released from the network as follows:

Our People
Studio: Lee Daniels Entertainment and Endemol Shine in association with 20th Century Fox Television
Format: Single camera comedy
Order: Pilot
W/EP: Vali Chandrasekaran
EP/NW: Lee Daniels, Pam Williams, Marc Velez, Yossi Vassa, Shai Ben-Atar and Liat Shavit
Logline: Based on the Israeli format “Nevsu: A Young Multi-Cultural Couple” – a man from a bombastic African family who doesn’t have a word in their native language for “privacy” and his fiancée from a mid-western family try to build a normal life together. Though nobody can agree what that “normal” means.

Plus, a relationship comedy from The Simpsons‘ Mike Scully.

Rel
Studio: 20th Century Fox Television
Format: Multi-camera comedy
Order: Pilot
W/EP: Kevin Barnett & Josh Rabinowitz
W/EP/Star: Lil Rel
EP/Showrunner: Mike Scully
EP/NW: Jerrod Carmichael
Logline: Lil Rel, a prideful, self-made success who lives by the code to “always believe in yourself and great things will come,” finds that attitude put to the test when he learns his wife is having an affair with his own barber. He tries to rebuild his life post-divorce as a long-distance single father on the South Side of Chicago who’s on a quest for love, respect and a new barber. Inspired by Lil Rel’s real life.

And a romantic musical drama is coming from Quantico‘s Josh Safran.

Mixtape
Studio: Annapurna Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television
Format: One-hour drama
Order: Pilot
EP/W: Josh Safran
EP/NW: Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle
Co-EP: Ali Krug
Logline: A romantic musical drama that looks at a disparate group of interconnected people in contemporary Los Angeles through the lens of the music that defines who they are. MIXTAPE captures the different stages of love, exploring if time can heal a broken heart and if love can withstand life’s tragedies.

Not to be outdone, ABC also announced their new pilot set in the 1970s.

Untitled Tim Doyle Project
Studio: ABC Studios
Single Camera
Writer/EP: Tim Doyle
Logline: Set in the 1970s, an Irish-Catholic family with a working-class dad, traditional mom and eight boisterous sons navigates changes big and small during one of America’s most turbulent decades.