Series starring African-American actresses are a big trend next season. Chalk it up to the popularity of ABC’s “Scandal” and the visibility of its glamorous star, Kerry Washington, or maybe a bolt of lightning that suddenly hit Hollywood after Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis got Oscar nominations in the same year for “The Help.” (Spencer won, for Best Supporting Actress.) Any way you look at it, sisterhood is powerful.
Spencer, who has had a recurring role on CBS’ “Mom” this season and was rumored at one point to star in a remake of “Murder, She Wrote,” gets her own show in “Red Band Society,” a Fox medical drama that involves many supporting teenage characters who live at the hospital where Spencer is a doctor.
Taraji P. Henson, who was killed off CBS’ “Person of Interest” this season, dusted herself off and will report for duty on “Empire,” a new, soap-style series about the world of hip-hop music from Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, who collaborated on the smash film “The Butler.” Henson plays Cookie Lyon, the former business partner and ex-wife of Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), a music mogul trying to stay relevant.
Veteran actress Alfre Woodard has played everything from a freed slave in “12 Years a Slave” to a desperate housewife. She’s on the upswing, career-wise. Woodard is going to play the president to Katherine Heigl’s crusading CIA agent in the NBC drama “State of Affairs.”
Finally, Rashida Jones has been cast as “Angie Tribeca,” a TBS satire on police procedurals that was created by Jones’ “Office” co-star Steve Carell and his wife, Nancy.