Sophia Bush to star in CBS pilot Surveillance

Chicago PD alum Sophia Bush will star in her own pilot for CBS, as part of the talent holding deal she signed after leaving Chicago PD last year.

Sophia Bush is front and center in a new TV project, which if it moves forward would also be her first series regular role since her departure from Chicago PD.

Through the development contract she signed with 20th Century Fox last year, Bush has been cast as the star of Surveillance, a new thriller that 20th is producing for CBS.

Bush’s as yet unnamed character serves as the Head of Communications at the National Security Agency (NSA), and per Deadline, has to protect both the government’s secrets and her own.

The project is executive produced by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes, the co-creator of Felicity, and FOX’s upcoming drama The Passage).

More from One Chicago Center

• Chicago Med star on 2024 cast changes: ‘Nice to have new faces’
• Here’s the perfect Chicago Fire episode to watch on Thanksgiving
• Ranking the 8 NCIS Thanksgiving episodes from worst to best
• Mark Harmon does NOT have plans to reprise Gibbs on NCIS
• One Chicago stars tease new seasons on IG: ‘Here we come’

It’s only in the pilot stage, meaning that there will be a pilot shot this fall before CBS decides if they want to order a full first season or not.

But if you’re a Sophia Bush fan, this is big news.

It’s in a similar thematic vein to her work on Chicago PD, in that both are about government agencies; one was local and this one is federal.

Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

Bush is also the female lead in both projects, though in Surveillance she would be the main star, whereas on Chicago PD she was the second most prominent performer behind Jason Beghe.

And of course, if this goes to series next year—with the pilot being filmed this fall, the earliest it could air would be next spring—we could have Sophia Bush back as a series regular on a TV show roughly two years after she left One Chicago. That’s a relatively quick turnaround.

The question is, what kind of show will Surveillance be and how will it differentiate itself in a very crowded area of TV? We’ve seen shows with similar premises before; NBC had State of Affairs, which starred Katherine Heigl as a high-level CIA officer and only lasted one season. But that was another show centering on a female federal operative whose personal and professional lives were intertwined.

Sophia Bush still has a following, though, not only from Chicago PD but from One Tree Hill before that. If she gets a great script to set her show apart from other dramas (and to differentiate this role from the four years she spent playing Erin Lindsay), this could catch on.

We’ll let you know if this pilot moves forward to series later this year.

For more on what Chicago PD actors are doing now, be sure to follow the Chicago PD category at One Chicago Center.