USA Starts Up Messing Series
Actress Returns As Net Orders 10 Episodes Of ‘The Starter Wife’
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 10/17/2007 6:08:00 AM
Debra Messing is back in series television.
The former Will & Grace star will reprise her role as Molly Kagan in a USA Network series version of The Starter Wife. The characters network, which has ordered 10 installments of the show, presented a six-hour Starter Wife miniseries early last summer, which was based on the novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer.
The project was well-received, averaging 5.4 million viewers for its two-hour May 31 debut and 4.5 million overall for its initial airings. It also notched 10 Emmy nominations, including one for best miniseries and a nod for Messing, who portrayed a women trying to right her life after being severed from the Hollywood community following the divorce from her studio head husband, who traded her in for a younger model.
In addition to Messing, who will executive produce the project from Universal Media Studios, the writing team of Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott also are set to return as executive producers, as is Grazer.
USA, which recently renewed freshman series Burn Notice and Psych, has not announced a time frame for when the Starter series will come out of the starter’s gate. No other casting announcement were made, including whether Judy Davis, who earned an Emmy nomination for best supporting actress for her role as Kagan’s recovering alcoholic friend, Joan McAllister.
The network has yet to make renewal calls on veteran series Monk, Dead Zone and The 4400.
