TNT Greenlights Pilot for Chelsea General, New Medical Drama

TNT Press Release
Release Date: 12/6/2011

TNT Greenlights Pilot for Chelsea General, New Medical Drama Series from Award-Winning Producer David E. Kelley and CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Project to be Based on Gupta’s Upcoming Novel Monday Mornings

TNT has ordered a pilot for Chelsea General (working title), a new medical drama series from award-winning producer David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope) and practicing neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, M.D. Kelley and Dr. Gupta will executive-produce. Kelley wrote the pilot script for the series, which is based on Gupta’s upcoming novel Monday Mornings.

“Chelsea General promises to be a smart, witty and extremely powerful medical drama, the kind of series David E. Kelley is renowned for making,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “We look forward to working with David and Sanjay in bringing the doctors’ fascinating stories and characters to television.”

Set to be published in March 2012, Gupta’s Monday Mornings follows the lives of five surgeons as they push the limits of their abilities and confront their personal and professional failings. The book uses as its backdrop their hospital’s weekly morbidity and mortality conference, when doctors gather with their peers for a confidential review of complications and errors in patient care. The book provides a unique look at how surgeons come to terms with mistakes and try to learn from them.

Chelsea General joins two other recent pilot orders from TNT. Gateway, from Warner Horizon Television, is a Western saga revolving around three brothers who step in to save their town when their father, the town sheriff, is murdered. The brothers are pitted against a corrupt cattle baron who is determined to make the town his own. The cast includes Cam Gigandet, Keir O’Donnell, David Denman, Karen Allen, Ana De La Reguera, Keith Carradine, Donal Logue, Shanno Lucio, Eric Lang, Anthony Lapaglia and Bill Sadler. TNT has also ordered a pilot for Scent of the Missing fromCBS Television Studios.Based on Susannah Charleson’s book about an adrenaline junkie who leads a canine search-and-rescue team, the pilot stars Tricia Helfer, Gerald McRaney, Eric Winter and Summer Glau.

About TNT
TNT, one of cable’s top-rated networks, is television’s destination for drama. Seen in 99 million households, the network is home to such original series as The Closer, starring Emmy® winner Kyra Sedgwick; Rizzoli & Isles, starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander; Falling Skies, starring Noah Wyle; Franklin & Bash, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer; Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; and Southland, from Emmy-winning producer John Wells, as well as the upcoming series Major Crimes, Dallas and Perception. TNT also presents compelling original movies, including a slate of thrillers in the TNT Mystery Movie Night showcase. TNT is the cable home to powerful dramas like The Mentalist, Bones, Supernatural, Las Vegas, Law & Order, CSI: NY, Cold Case and, starting next year, Castle; primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards®; blockbuster movies; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR, the NBA and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. TNT is available in high-definition.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news; entertainment; animation and young adult; and sports media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

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