Nellie Andreeva

Brothers & Sisters alumna Emily VanCamp is returning to ABC as the star of a potential new primetime drama, Revenge. VanCamp has landed the lead in the project, written by Swingtown creator Mike Kelley and to be directed by Phillip Noyce. It is a contemporary re-imagining of The Count of Monte Cristo from a female perspective and centers on Emily Thorn (Van Camp), a mysterious woman who comes to the Hamptons to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family. VanCamp, who joined Brothers & Sisters midway through the first season, left the family drama last fall. The actress, repped by ICM and Thruline, previously co-starred on the WB’s Everwood.

Lights Out co-star Meredith Hagner has been cast as the second lead opposite Lucy Griffiths in in the CW’s zombie thriller Awakening. The project, from WBTV and Reveille, is about two sisters (Griffiths, Hagner) coming of age and facing off against one another amidst the beginning of a zombie uprising. The pilot is in second position to Lights Out, which has been struggling in the ratings. Hagner, repped by Abrams Artists and Suskin Management, also recurred on USA’s Royal Pains.

Mo Gaffney has been added to the cast of ABC’s comedy pilot My Freakin’ Family, which centers on young parents Anna (Ellen Woglom) and Raj (Ravi Patel), whose lives change after they have a baby and the four grandparents with very different cultural backgrounds descend upon their lives. Gaffney, repped by Stone Manners Salners, will play Anna’s opinionated mother.

Shane McRae has been cast in CBS’ untitled Jeff and Jackie Filgo comedy pilot (aka Homegrown) starring Becki Newton. It centers on a blue-collar guy who wrestles with how to parent his unmarried grown daughter (Newton) and her 12-year-old son while sharing a house with them as well as his wife and recently widowed mother. McRae, repped by Gersh and TNT Management, will play the boy’s father. He can be seen in The Adjustment Bureau.

Riley Smith (24) is set to co-star in CW’s pilot Cooper & Stone. The pilot, from writer Laurie Arent and CBS TV Studios, is about Jenna Cooper (Alex Breckenridge) and Stone, two smart young female detectives on Chicago’s North Side who are best friends, equally adept at discussing fashion, music and pop culture as they are solving homicides. Smith will play a hot-shot vice detective with the Chicago PD who is transferred to the Northside from the Southside after his cover is blown in a high-risk operation. He enjoys needling Stone, whom he competed against at the academy, and it seems they have a history of sexual tension as well as professional tension.

Chris Carmack and Robert Hoffman round out the cast of ABC’s dancing drama pilot Grace, which centers on famous choreographer and womanizer Michael Grace (Eric Roberts). Impression-repped Hoffman will play a hot dancer from his company; Carmack will play a musician.

Nancy Travis has joined the CW’s drama pilot Hart of Dixie as a guest star/recurring. The project, from writer Leila Gerstein, WBTV and Fake Empire, is a comedic drama centering on a young New York City doctor, Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson), who inherits a medical practice in a small Southern town inhabited by an eclectic group of characters. Gersh-repped Travis will play a no-nonsense nurse who becomes a surrogate mother to Zoe.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.