Deception

HANDICAPPING THE NEW NBC MIDSEASON SERIES

After a famous socialite is found dead, a female detective (Meagan Good) who grew up as the same house – as the maid’s daughter – returns to help solve the murder. Victor Garber, Laz Alonso, Wes Brown, Tate Donovan, Marin Hinkle, Katherine LaNasa and Ella Rae Peck round off the ensemble cast.

-Time Period: Monday 10 p.m. ET
-Lead-in: The Biggest Loser
-Competition: Castle (ABC), Hawaii Five-O (CBS)

-The Scoop:
Executive producers Liz Heldens and Gail Berman on the genesis of Deception:

Liz Heldens: “Two of my favorite movies are Donnie Brasco and The Departed, and then I was sort of thinking about how you could do an undercover show with a female protagonist, and at the same time NBC was looking for a soap. And so then I sort of thought could Donnie Brasco and the movie Sabrina have a baby? And so they did. So that was how it happened.”

Gail Berman: “Notorious is a favorite movie of mine, and so it all sort of fell into place based on the fact that what Liz was talking about and what I was thinking about in terms of Hitchcock really fell into place in the kind of thriller that we thought NBC might be looking for.”

-The Reality:
With fall frosh entry Revolution slated to return to the Monday 10 p.m. hour in March, you could refer to Deception as time period filler. And lead-in The Biggest Loser (which could benefit by taking a rest) is not The Voice, so there is no reason to believe the overall ratings for Deception will match, or even come close to, Revolution. While facing proven entries Castle on ABC and Hawaii Five-O on CBS is not the most competitive hour in primetime, it is no easy feat either.

-Odds of Survival for Deception (Based on 1-1 to 10-1 odds): 5-1