‘Einstein’ Crime Drama Snags CBS Pilot Order
CBS is ramping up its development, handing out its first drama pilot order of the current cycle.
It’s for a procedural called Einstein, which centers on the (fictional) great-grandson of Albert Einstein and is based on a German series of the same name. Monk creator Andy Breckman wrote the script and will serve as showrunner, while Randy Zisk (also a Monk alum) is attached to direct and will also be an EP.
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The pilot order for Einstein follows news on two comedy projects at CBS: On Monday, the network placed a pilot order for a single-camera comedy called DMV from creator Dana Klein (Friends, 9JKL) and opened a development room for a vampire comedy titled Eternally Yours from Ghosts showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. All three projects are produced by CBS Studios and are part of CBS’ year-round development strategy, which embraces different tracks for different types of shows.
CBS has also already made one series pickup for the 2025-26 season in Sheriff Country, a spinoff of Fire Country.
As for Einstein, the pilot will follow the famed physicist’s great-grandson, who is a “brilliant but directionless” college professor, per the show’s logline. When he gets into trouble with the law, he’s pressed into helping a police detective solve her most puzzling cases.
The show is based on a German series that ran for three seasons on that country’s Sat.1 outlet. CBS has taken a couple of shots at developing an American version of the show in the past, including one with Breckman and Zisk in 2019. A year later, writer Lauren Gussis and EP Corinne Brinkerhoff developed a gender-swapped version of the show (NBC also had a take in development in 2018; like the others, it didn’t go forward).
Breckman and Zisk will executive produce Einstein with Tariq Jalil and Rose Hughes, Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia and Laura Beetz from Seven One Studios International.
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