As the saying goes — if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
In television, each pilot season brings the chance to start anew for stars whose series suffered a quick death at the hand of the Nielsen ratings.
And with casting nearly complete on most of the projects battling for contention on your TV sets next season, there are plenty of familiar faces that will try again to pick a winner.
Here’s a look at 10 stars attempting a prime-time comeback.
Geoff Stults
Stults saw the “Bones” spinoff “The Finder” fizzle in 2012, and now his ratings-challenged Fox comedy “Enlisted” is on the bubble despite critical praise. If Fox pulls the plug on that, Stults has lined up a Plan B on another network — the CBS comedy “Cuz-Bros.” The pilot centers on a successful and suave ladies man whose perfect life is turned upside-down when his mess of a cousin needs a place to stay.
Katharine McPhee
The stars of NBC’s “Smash” saw the curtain come down on their musical drama after two seasons, but several main cast members are set for a prime-time return in 2014-15. Katharine McPhee will star in the CBS drama pilot “Scorpion,” playing a diner waitress who understands geniuses. Debra Messing is attempting her own small-screen return as a quirky homicide detective juggling high-stakes crime, as well as her ex-husband and twin boys, in the NBC drama pilot “Mysteries of Laura.” The men are booked, too, with Christian Borle cast in the NBC odd-couple comedy pilot “Lifesaver,” in which two polar opposites (Borle and Jonathan Ryland) become inextricably linked after one donates the other his kidney. And Jack Davenport, who played the suave director in “Smash,” will co-star in the ABC drama pilot “Sea of Fire” as a small-town sheriff looking into the disappearance of three girls who starred in a pornographic film.
Matthew Perry
Perry is hoping the third time’s the charm for his comedy comeback after 2011’s “Mr. Sunshine” and last season’s “Go On” proved non-starters. The “Friends” alum is set to star in a CBS reboot of “The Odd Couple” opposite Thomas Lennon, where he plays the Oscar Madison character in the half-hour comedy pilot based on Neil Simon’s Broadway play. And he’s in good company: The cast represents a veritable graveyard of failed NBC sitcoms — co-stars include Georgia King (“The New Normal”), Sarah Baker (“Go On”) and Wendell Pierce (“The Michael J. Fox Show”).
JoAnna Garcia Swisher
Garcia Swisher has been cast in the ABC drama “Astronaut Wives Club” — which has a 10-episode order for this summer — likely guaranteeing her more screen time than she got in NBC’s short-lived 2012 comedy “Animal Practice.” The 1960s-set drama tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race.
Dylan McDermott
CBS’ “Hostages” may not be coming back, but Dylan McDermott could return on the network in a Kevin Williamson drama pilot that centers on a pair of detectives (Maggie Q co-stars) who handle stalking incidents for the Threat Management Unit of the LAPD.
Leslie Bibb
Bibb, who starred in 2012’s “GCB” and guest-starred on the new NBC comedy “About a Boy,” is sticking with NBC for her next project, the comedy pilot “Love Is Relative.” She plays half of a couple (with Jason Jones) who starts to see their marriage in a whole new way when her newly divorced brother moves in.
Maggie Lawson
Lawson, who toplined ABC’s canceled fall sitcom “Back in the Game,” is taking another swing at leading lady with the CBS comedy pilot “Save the Date.” She’ll play the newly single, 35-year-old Katie, who drunkenly books a wedding venue and is faced with the task of meeting the right man in the right time.
Michael Imperioli
After starring in ABC’s one-season cop drama “Detroit 1-8-7” in 2010-11, Imperioli is branching out for his next role — as a cop on ABC comedy pilot “Saint Francis.” The actor will play a blue-collar, no-nonsense, Long Island cop and family man who butts heads with the modern, liberal world when his 29-year-old unwed sister gets pregnant. Spencer Grammer — who starred in last fall’s canceled “Ironside” reboot on NBC — co-stars.
Ashley Judd
ABC’s 2012 drama “Missing” took Judd around the world looking for her son, but she’ll be staying closer to home in the NBC drama pilot “Salvation,” where she’ll star as Jennifer Strickland, who has to defend her children, church and religious beliefs after her husband dies under mysterious circumstances.
Meagan Good
Good, of last season’s “Deception,” is also sticking with NBC for the drama pilot “Babylon Fields,” set in Babylon, LI, where the dead are rising with newly regenerated bodies, prompting discussion that this might be the next step in human evolution.