LA Screenings 2011: Fox picks up drama and comedy series

Fox has become the first US broadcast network to pick up new pilots as it launches a raft of drama and comedy series.

The network has picked up JJ Abrams’ Alcatraz, Bones spin-off The Finder, Zooey Deschanel-fronted comedy New Girl and I Hate My Teenage Daughter, which stars Jamie Pressly.

However, it has cancelled Human Target, Lie To Me, Breaking In, The Chicago Code and Traffic Light, but renewed sci-fi series Fringe for a fourth season.

Series including Locke and Key, the graphic novel adaptation from Star Trek alumni Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and Ethan Hawke-fronted action series Exit Strategy, however, look like they have not been picked up. Separately the pilot for Tim Kring’s Touch, which stars Keifer Sutherland, has not yet been filmed.

Alcatraz, which is produced by Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros Television and was created by Bryan Wynbrandt, Steve Lilien and Elizabeth Sarnoff, follows a group of FBI agents trying to piece together a prison breakout.

Bones spin-off The Finder, which is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, stars Geoff Stults and Michael Clarke Duncan and was set up in a recent episode of Bones.

New Girl is a 20th Century Fox Television-produced comedy starring Almost Famous star Zooey Deschanel as a midwestern girl that moves to New York, while I Hate My Teenage Daughter, which is produced by Warner Bros Television, follows two divorced women dealing with their teenage daughters.