We have a broadcast pickup — but not the kind one would expect the week before the upfronts. ABC has given a pilot order to RJ Decker, a drama from Elementary creator Rob Doherty based on the 1987 novel Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen.
While atypical for the traditional broadcast development cycle, the timing is consistent with ABC’s own model, which involves 1-3 spring pilot pickups for midseason consideration. This marks the network’s first pilot greenlight in 2025 so far. As Deadline reported in our Pilot Season 2025 report in March, RJ Decker had been a leading drama contender at ABC.
Paul McGuigan (Will Trent) has come on board to direct the RJ Decker pilot from a script by Doherty. The drama centers on the eponymous RJ Decker, a disgraced newspaper photographer and ex-con who starts over as a private investigator in the colorful-if-crime-filled world of South Florida, tackling cases that range from slightly odd to outright bizarre with the help of his journalist ex, her police detective wife, and a shadowy new benefactor, a woman from his past who could be his greatest ally… or his one-way ticket back to prison.
Doherty is executive producing RJ Decker alongside his Elementary executive producers Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman of Timberman-Beverly Productions as well as McGuigan and Hiaasen. 20th Television is the studio.
The works of Florida native Hiaasen, who started his career as a newspaper reporter, have become a hot commodity. The pilot order for RJ Decker follows the first Hiaasen series adaptation, Bill Lawrence’s Bad Monkey, starring Vince Vaughn, for Apple TV+, which has been renewed for a second season. Lawerence also has a series based on Hiaasen’s Skinny Dip in the works at Max. Hiaasen is repped by CAA.
Doherty was creator, executive producer and showrunner of CBS’ modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation Elementary, which aired for seven seasons. Before that, he served as co-showrunner and executive producer of Medium. Doherty is repped by UTA and attorney Ken Richman at HJTH.
McGuigan has a strong track record as pilot director for such hit ABC dramas as Will Trent and Scandal as well as the opening episodes of Marvel’s Luke Cage for Netflix, Lifetime’s Devious Maids and ABC/Netflix’s Designated Survivor. He is repped by WME and Curtis Brown in the UK.
Timberman and Beverly are repped by UTA, manager Adam Berkowitz and attorneys Bruce Gelman and Jeff Finkelstein.
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