Scott Bakula is set to star in and executive produce an untitled detective procedural in early development at CBS. The project puts Star Trek: Enterprise back in the frame for a CBS return, but it is not yet a series order.
Bakula’s move comes after a seven-season run as the lead of NCIS: New Orleans, plus earlier turns on NBC’s Quantum Leap and UPN’s Star Trek: Enterprise. He has earned five Emmy nominations to date, including four for Quantum Leap and one for Behind the Candelabra.
Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment
The project comes from Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment, with Michael Sussman writing and executive producing. Sussman was a writer-producer of Star Trek: Enterprise, which gives the show a built-in creative link to Bakula’s earlier television work and makes the pairing feel less like nostalgia than a deliberate business move.
Electric Entertainment is also behind The Librarian and Leverage, and this would be its first broadcast show if CBS moves it forward. That makes the project more than a simple return vehicle for Bakula; it is a test of whether the company can convert its cable-and-streaming identity into a network procedural.
Los Angeles Detective Procedural
The untitled drama is described as a high-concept detective procedural set in Los Angeles. That narrow framing matters: the premise is being held at the format level, which usually means CBS can still reshape the hook before any series decision is made.
Deadline described Bakula’s character as quite a “leap” from the one he played on NCIS: New Orleans, a useful reminder that this is not a simple rerun of the same role. The project is only in early development, so Bakula’s CBS return is not yet a completed series order.
Five Emmy Nominations
Five Emmy nominations give Bakula a long TV résumé that still travels well with broadcast viewers, especially in procedural territory. Four came for Quantum Leap, and one came for Behind the Candelabra, which is a cleaner awards profile than most actors get when they return to network drama.
With CBS, the immediate question is whether the network wants another Bakula-led procedural enough to push the project beyond early development. For now, the business signal is simple: Bakula is attached, Sussman is writing, and the show is positioned as a return that CBS still has to buy into.
