Interested in a TV drama about a TV reporter in the 1970s who’s hired to be one of the first on-air female sportscasters in New York City? Olivia Munn and the CW network hope you are.
Munn will be the executive producer of the as-yet-unnamed project currently in development. Here is a description of the show, via The Hollywood Reporter:
“Set in 1974, the drama revolves around a young journalist who gets hired by an ambitious New York news programming chief as a publicity stunt to be one of the first female on-air sports reporters. She then has to learn to navigate gender politics in front of and behind the camera at a time when women were literally not even allowed in the press box.”
As THR‘s Lesley Goldberg points out, Munn does have TV news and sportscasting experience, having interned at a Tulsa, Okla. NBC affiliate before beginning her acting career. She also worked as a sideline reporter for Fox Sports Net, covering college football and women’s basketball. So Munn arguably knows something about the profession, though she obviously didn’t work in the 1970s, when women in the press box and locker room weren’t a regular occurrence.
But that isn’t necessarily relevant, either. Munn is a producer on this show; she’s not going to be appearing on screen, which may disappoint many of you reading this article (and those writing it as well). She’s busy slinging swords and kicking people in the next X-Men movie and will be seen next in Ride Along 2.
This is the first project Munn has been attached to as a producer, along with Ted Humphrey and Stacia Peters. Humphrey, who has previously written for CBS’ The Good Wife, will write the pilot and join Munn as an executive producer. Peters worked with Munn as part of the production staff on HBO’s The Newsroom, and runs Munn’s production company based at CBS Television Studios.