Ash
“Smash” star Katharine McPhee is returning to the small screen, landing the female lead in CBS’s drama pilot “Scorpion”, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
McPhee will play Paige, a working-class diner waitress who works together with eccentric genius Walter O’Brien (Elyes Gabel) and his international team of super-geniuses as they form the last line of defence against the threats of the modern age. Paige understands the world of the genius and becomes a translator of sorts for Walter and his band of socially challenged masterminds.
McPhee joins a cast that already includes Gabel, Robert Patrick and Eddie Kaye Thomas. Justin Lin will direct the pilot which Nick Santora and Nicholas Wootton will write.
“Scorpion” sees McPhee return to series television for the first time since her two-season stint on NBC’s Broadway drama “Smash”. The “American Idol” runner-up starred as Karen Cartwright, a young, likable, working-class singer-actress from Iowa who moves to New York hoping to make it big on Broadway.
She follows her “Smash” co-stars, many of whom have recently booked their own pilots. Jack Davenport will co-star in “Sea of Fire” while Debra Messing will go to “Mysteries of Laura”. Christian Borle is set for “Lifesaver” and Krysta Rodriguez will co-star in “How I Met Your Dad”, CBS’s much talked about “How I Met Your Mother” spinoff.
