It’s been two years since Eva Longoria graced network television with her presence. In the time since Desperate Housewives ended its lengthy run, she’s been in pretty high demand, headlining her own streaming series for Hulu, executive producing Devious Maids and appearing in a few indie flicks. Now, the actress is ready to return to network television full-time, and both ABC and NBC want a piece of the action. Both networks have projects in the works set to star the popular actress, and she'll barely have to lift a pinky finger to decide which is a better fit.
If Longoria heads to ABC, she’ll get to play Mia, a woman who works as a home renovator. The character was actually conceived for Longoria, and will follow her antics in and out of the workplace. Apparently, she will have a problem-solving personality that will affect her life in both good and bad ways.
The ABC project automatically seems like a good fit for Longoria. She’s worked with the network before on Desperate Housewives. While the currently untitled project would be a comedy rather than an hour-long endeavor, we already know Longoria is capable of being funny. Desperate Housewives was often funny. Her Hulu comedy, Mother Up! is funny. If she does decide to roll with the ABC project, she’ll be teaming up with The Trophy Wife’s Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who are all funny. If Longoria commits to star, the project will go to pilot with a 13-episode penalty. It seems like a win-win.
But don’t discount NBC in this equation. Longoria has also worked on the producing end with NBC in the past. NBC’s project does have a title, Telenovela, and would star Longoria as an “ambitious” TV star whose real life will apparently be more dramatic than her TV life. According to Deadline, Telenovela has been developed by Longoria and her production company, UnbeliEVAble, for some time and would be executive produced by Cougar Towns Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein, along with Universal TV. That project will get a 13-episode order if Longoria just says “yes.”
Still, if she wants to head back to ABC, NBC is still willing to give Telenovela the benefit of the doubt, giving it a pilot order and signing a different star. It sounds like a show NBC really wants, regardless, as the network has talked to Telemundo about actually airing episodes of the fake soap Telenovela will be based around.
No matter what happens, it looks like audiences will get to see Eva Longoria in her natural network television habitat next season. The actress has a big decision ahead of her, and we’ll let you know which project she chooses to move forward with. Hopefully, she chooses the project she is the best fit for and not the project that gives her the best deal. Both ABC and NBC really seem to want the actress, and the bidding war is already starting to get crazy.
