David Shore, Creator of House M.D. and host of Showrunner participants in 2005 and 2006, has a new NBC pilot, Winters - co-created with Peter Blake and starring Famke Janssen as Detective Christine Winters.  We look forward to the US broadcast network’s upfronts and news of which pilots have been greenlit to series.

ABC has committed to a second season of their latest, successful, one-hour drama, Brothers and Sisters created by playwright Jon Robin Baitz, who was a first-time host of our 2007 Showrunner participants in March.  Lost Executive Producer Carlton Cuse contributed to our Showrunner Exchanges in 2005 and 2006, will also return to ABC next season.

Shawn Ryan will again do double duty on his shows The Unit (CBS) with David Mamet and The Shield (FX).  Whilst the sixth season of The Shield debuted at the beginning of April, production of this season has already been completed and writing has already begun on the seventh and final season.

Bob Cochran and Joel Surnow (of 24 fame) have branched into new series.  Teaming up with their 24 colleague, Howard Green, Kitchen Confidential creator David Hemingson and Twentieth Century Fox Studios on the ABC comedy, The Call.  As well as The Reveille team and Showtime successfully premiered The Tudors on the first weekend in April with an armful of complimentary press coverage.

Great news from the MediaXchange Writers' Room programme…

Production company Action Image (Writers' Room client) has teamed up with German commercial broadcaster ProSieben for a new TV drama pilot about urban street racing. From Writers' Room to Pilot completion was 12 months.

Fast Track: No Limits has completed filming in Germany, coproduced by Action Concept subsidiary Action Image and ProSieben, and distributed by both And Action Distribution, the Los Angeles outfit headed by GRB veteran Gavin Reardon, and ProSieben's sales arm SevenOne International.

The English-language action drama is written and executive produced by Lee Goldberg (Monk, Baywatch), who MediaXchange brought to Germany to work with Action Concept. The plotline centers around a rookie cop, his trophy wife, a fugitive getaway driver and a young female mechanic, racing through Germany's city streets.