ABC Family Continues to Line Up Originals

BURBANK: ABC Family has greenlit production on three pilots, all of which are dramas.

The one-hour drama Nine Lives follows a girl who starts developing heightened abilities—super speed, agility, hearing, etc–on her 16th birthday. She is also being pursue by a mysterious figure, and learns that she is part of an ancient race who have been hunted by human assassins for many years. The series is based on the book series The Nine Lives of Chloe King by Celia Thomson.

Switched at Birth is an hour-long scripted drama that tells the story of two teen girls who discover that they were switched at birth. One grew up in a wealthy family with two brothers and the other lost her hearing as a child and grew up in a poor neighborhood with a single mother. Both families meet and struggle to learn how to live together for the sake of the girls.

The third pilot, Strut, is cast-contingent. The one-hour scripted drama follows a showgirl who marries a stranger after a wild evening. Overnight she finds herself living in a small town in Texas and reinventing the high school’s drill team.

These originals join the lineup powered by Pretty Little Liars and Melissa and Joey, as well as returning favorites The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Make It or Break It.

“ABC Family is coming off another summer of record ratings,” said Michael Riley, the president of ABC Family. “Adding depth to the network’s original programming slate is one of our biggest priorities going into next year. The network’s programming team, led by Kate Juergens, has done a brilliant job developing shows that have come to define ABC Family as a destination for quality original series.”

"We want to continue to concentrate on programming that speaks to our Millennial viewers,” added Kate Juergens, the executive VP of original programming and development at ABC Family. “These pilots offer a great mix of heartfelt and compelling storytelling that our audience has come to expect from us.”