August 08, 2023
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'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' star Kaitlin Olson will play the lead role in 'High Potential,' an upcoming ABC series based on the French crime comedy 'HPI.'
The pipeline of upcoming TV shows and movies may be in a precarious place with the ongoing writers and actors strikes, but that''s not stopping networks from lining up future projects they plan to develop.
Among them will be ABC's "High Potential," a crime comedy that will put "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" star Kaitlin Olson in the lead role.
The show is an American remake of the hit French series "HPI," which follows a single mother who works as a custodian for a police department. She stumbles across key evidence that helps crack a puzzling case, prompting the department to offer her a job as a consultant. And although she has a high IQ and a knack for investigation, she also has a problem with authority.
The French show debuted in 2021 and has concluded three seasons. Its success with European audiences caught the attention of Disney Television Studios’ ABC Signature, which announced last year it planned to remake the show for an American audience. The pilot was picked up by ABC in late July, Deadline reported.
Olson, who stars as Sweet Dee on "It's Always Sunny," previously starred in the short-lived FOX sitcom "The Mick," which was canceled in 2018 after two seasons. The show was recently added on Netflix.
"High Potential" will be executive produced by Drew Goddard, the showrunner and writer behind the Netflix series "Daredevil" and the sci-fi "Cloverfield" franchise.
Olson is expected to be joined by Daniel Sunjata, Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz and Judy Reyes, among other cast members.
Newen Connect, the distributor for the show in France, said the first season of "HPI" is the third most-watched show in French TV history.
“We are building a global brand,” Newen Connect CEO Rodolphe Buet told Deadline. "Some shows don’t travel so well but HPI feels like it is in the territory of 'House' or 'Sherlock.' I am convinced that the U.S. version will help with this."
It's unclear how soon production on the show will begin due to the ongoing strikes. TV audiences in the U.S. will likely need to brace themselves for heavy doses of reruns and old movies. The longer the strikes continue, the longer it will be before new seasons of popular shows premiere and new series debut.
“The consequence for the wider TV industry is going to be a very prolonged downturn in output,” Richard Broughton, the executive director of research firm Ampere Analysis, told The New York Times in July.
