Scott Bakula is set to return to CBS in an untitled detective drama that is now in early development, with the actor attached to star in and executive produce the project. The high-concept procedural is being developed by Electric Entertainment and would put Bakula back on the network before CBS has decided whether to take the show any further.
The timing matters because Bakula has spent much of his career in long-running broadcast roles, and this would be another chance to make that formula work again. He is known for seven seasons on NCIS: New Orleans, as well as earlier turns on NBC’s Quantum Leap and UPN’s Star Trek: Enterprise, and he has five Emmy nominations, including four for Quantum Leap and one for Behind the Candelabra.
The new drama also links Bakula with Michael Sussman, who wrote and executive produced the project after working with him on Star Trek: Enterprise. That connection gives the series a built-in creative shorthand, but the show itself is still only a concept, not a confirmed CBS order. In practical terms, the next step is simple: CBS has to decide whether this detective procedural becomes a series or stays a development project.
Electric Entertainment would be making its first broadcast show if the project moves forward, which raises the stakes for a company better known for other work. Bakula, meanwhile, is not waiting on this alone. He will next be seen in Netflix’s hockey drama The Sticks, keeping his schedule active even as CBS weighs whether to bring him back into primetime.
