Fox has seen one of its biggest success stories in years recently, thanks to the ratings extravaganza that is Empire, a show that mixes extreme soapy drama with slamming tunes created in part by music producer Timbaland. The network is perhaps trying to make lightning strike twice with their upcoming musical drama pilot Studio City, and they’ve hired the former American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry for not only a recurring role, but also for some behind the scenes work.
Daughtry is set to take on the role of Keith Rhodes, a rock star who (you guessed it) also happens to be a drug addict, because why not? Arguably more interesting that that potentially stereotypical role is that he’ll also be writing original music for the show, according to Variety. We’ll presume that it’ll mostly be for his own character, but it’s possible he’ll work on other characters’ songs as well. Maybe a spoof of “Hair” called “Hair-oin?” Is that too much?
The main character in the coming of age story is a young singer named Cat, played by The Falling’s Florence Pugh, who is trying to achieve her dreams of being a successful and famous musician. She’s living with her father Rob (Will McCormack), who is a singer-songwriter that also happens to sell drugs to celebrities. (I think I’m snorting seeing a connection here.) The series will also star Heather Graham, former So You Think You Can Dance contestant Jeanine Mason, former 90210 star Riley Smith, and more.
The pilot was written by Shameless executive producer and former Grey’s Anatomy writer/showrunner Krista Vernoff, based on her own real-life experiences. Directing will be Sanaa Hamri, who also directed episodes of Empire, Shameless and Nashville.
Daughtry was a finalist on Season 5 of American Idol, losing out to Katharine McPhee in the finale. Not that winning would have made him any more initially successful, as his eponymous band Daughtry’s self-titled first album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and became the fastest selling rock album debut in Soundscan history, staying in the top 200 for a whopping 176 weeks. It was nominated for a Grammy, as was the group and the song “It’s Not Over,” though no awards were won there. The band has released three more albums and Daughtry himself has written and sang with a variety of different musicians over the years.
As for serious acting, though, he’s pretty much been limited to a role in a 2008 episode of CSI: NY, which you can watch a clip of below. Don’t mind the subtitles.
It’s unclear at this point when Fox will be moving forward on production of the Studio City pilot, but our guess is that unless there’s a really sour note, we’ll be seeing this show getting picked up and hitting the fall schedule.
