Shondaland continues to expand. Variety reports — just one week after ABC picked up a new Shondaland comedy project about suburbanites banding together to raise their kids — that the network has yet another Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers-executive produced project-in-development: an ensemble drama about nuns! (It’s an underplayed genre that, between The Devils, Doubt, The Flying Nun and Sister Act — fine, those last ones don’t exactly fit — has proven to be a wellspring of the twisty, scandalous but politically relevant drama Shondaland does best).
The untitled show follows Catholic nuns who are in the midst of battling efforts to close their convent in the Bronx. The description teases that the arrival of three novice nuns “unearths long-buried secrets.” The series is written by Alison Schapker, and is supposedly inspired by the Australian miniseries, Brides of Christ.
Even before this announcement, Shondaland already, as Deadline points out, had four series lined up for this coming season on ABC: Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder and the upcoming show, The Catch, which follows a fraud investigator whose own fraudulent fiancé happens to be setting her up.