Joss Whedon

UPDATE: Word is that NBC may be done with its drama pickups, though there is no official confirmation on that and no calls have been made yet to the producers of the hourlong pilots that have not gotten a pickup yet, including Stephen Gaghan’s Metro, David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman and Michael Patrick King’s A Mann’s World.

PREVIOUS: NBC just kicked off its second day of pickups with orders to Kyle Killen’s Inception-style Awake (form. REM) and Chad Hodge’s 1960s The Playboy Club. Both hail from 20th Century Fox TV (Playboy in a co-production with Imagine TV) and have been widely expected to get the nod. Playboy has already zeroed in on a showrunner, Shark creator Ian Biederman. NBC seems to be going studio by studio, starting off with UMS’ Whitney, Up All Night, Prime Suspect and Smash yesterday, now adding 20th TV’s Awake and Playboy. NBC also just picked up another UMS pilot, the fairytale-themed Grimm, which didn’t make the cut yesterday but remained in contention.