SCANDAL: Shonda Rhimes Teases Her New Series

ABC has many shows debuting this midseason, but one of my favorites is the new drama, SCANDAL, which dives into the behind-the-scenes world of Olivia Pope (played by Kerry Washington), an infamous crisis manager in Washington, D.C.

And while SCANDAL executive producer Judy Smith worked as a crisis manager, that’s not to say you should expect to see “ripped-from-the-headline” cases of the week.

“I like to say some of it is ‘inspired by’ [real events] because it’s not necessarily a particular person or case that Judy told us about,” executive producer Shonda Rhimes told reporters during a set visit before production wrapped. “Sometimes it’s about a story that she’s told us about, it’s about a particular case, but then she’s told us about how she handled the case and what I take is how she handled the case, as opposed to the actual person or the event.  And some of it’s just stuff I made up in my head and I call Judy and go, ‘What would happen if this crisis happened?’ And Judy would talk me through sort of what would happen if that crisis happened.”

The series just got an April 5 post-GREY’S ANATOMY time slot for their seven-episode first season, and Rhimes said she was excited to tackle a shortened freshman season.

“I felt really strongly when we got our episode order that instead of going, ‘We’re doing seven [episodes] and we’re hoping for 13,’ or doing any of that stuff, what was the luxury of this for me, given that I’ve done 53, 54 episodes of television this year was that we could just look at these seven and say, ‘Let’s do this like British mini-series,'” she explained. “Like, let’s just…have a really great seven episodes that’s a complete and total story. And so it does have a beginning, middle, and an end. You do sort of come out of the seventh episode going, ‘Oh, that’s what’s happening. That’s what’s going on.’”

Intrigued by SCANDAL? Check out a trailer of the series…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMtTb3BqP7w[/youtube]

SCANDAL premieres April 5 at 10 PM on ABC. Will you be tuning in?

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