Just when you were thinking Shonda Rhimes was plenty busy working on her two ABC shows, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice,” she has managed to find the time to create and sell two more shows to the network.
Straying from her familiar combination of surgery, sex and scandal, Rhimes’ two new shows won’t take place in a hospital:
“The Circle”
Ten friends, adopted as children by a billionaire philanthropist, begin to question their past when one of their own is murdered. The project is billed as part soap, part conspiracy thriller.
“Scandal”
Employees at a crisis management firm handle PR disasters that rival those of Tiger Woods or Charlie Sheen. The show promises to deliver plenty of what makes for juicy drama — sex, power and politics.
Feature film actress Kerry Washington stars in “Scandal” as Olivia Pope, the head of the firm and a former media consultant to the president of the United States. Washington says she was not looking to return to television, “… but I read this amazing script with this amazing woman named Olivia Pope, and it happened to be for TV and so I thought maybe I want to do something different,” Washington said. “Once I read it, I wanted to do whatever I had to do to be a part of it.”
Columbus Short co-stars as a lawyer on Pope’s team.
If Rhimes’ Midas touch remains in full effect, these two shows will attract a large and diverse audience.
