I am – Hercules!!
Jason Katims is now the man in charge of the writers’ room at “Bionic Woman,” according to a knowledgeable source deep inside NBC Universal.
“As of right now, the show is being entirely run by Katims,” the insider tells Ain’t It Cool. “Make of that what you will.”
Big-deal writer-producers Glen Morgan, Laeta Kalogridis and Jason Smilovic are all apparently no longer actively involved with the show creatively.
Katims, who created the TV version of the sci-fi drama “Roswell,” is also currently showrunner of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” now in its second season. A Sept. 10 TV Guide story revealed that Katims had joined “Bionic” as a “consultant.”
David Eick, the producer who has long shepherded the new “Bionic,” is currently busy producing also the fourth season of SciFi’s “Battlestar Galactica” and the Lifetime miniseries “The Gathering,” which premieres Saturday. He maintains a supervisory role on “Bionic.”
Kalogridis (“Alexander,” “Battle Angel”), who wrote the original pilot script for the “Bionic” remake, has not been actively involved creatively with the series since the pilot, according to the insider, who also noted Kalogridis’ pilot was rewritten by an uncredited Jason Smilovic (“Karen Sisco,” “Kidnapped”).
NBC announced Sept. 6 that Morgan (“The X-Files,” “Willard,” the “Final Destination” series) had left “Bionic.” Insiders cited “creative differences.”
Smilovic apparently left “Bionic” last month, around the time Katims came aboard.
“Originally, Smilovic was supposed to showrun Bionic for a 12-week period, to help it get off the ground, with the possibility that he'd stay on longer if the show was doing well,” said the insider. “However, when people started getting fired and Jason Katims was brought on, Smilovic left after the 12-week period ended.”
Katims’ name did not appear in the credits of the first two “Bionic” episodes NBC aired, and it’s unclear with which episode Katims began steering the show’s scripting.
The day of the Sept. 26 “Bionic” premiere two weeks ago, Katee Sackhoff told KUFO radio hosts “Cort and Fatboy” that she was currently shooting her fifth episode of “Bionic.”
The third episode of “Bionic Woman” airs Wednesday 9 p.m. on NBC.
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