‘Bad Boys’ Spinoff ‘LA’s Finest’ May Get New Life at Charter Communications

L.A.’s Finest, the Bad Boys spin-off series starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba, might get a second life, as Charter Communications is reportedly in talk to revive it.

Sources told Deadline that Sony Pictures TV is in talks with Charter about reviving the police procedural drama. The agency’s sources stressed talks are in a “preliminary” stage, while reps for both sides did not comment.

Sony TV and the show’s other production companies — Jerry Bruckheimer Television, Primary Wave and 2.0 Entertainment — started the process of finding L.A.’s Finest a new home the moment NBC made the shocking decision to pass on it.

If Charter gets L.A.’s Finest, it would be the cable provider’s first big step in producing original content. According to Deadline, the company already signed deals with AMC Networks and Viacom to produce new series. Charter also hired veteran executive Katherine Pope to oversee its original projects.

Last week, NBC stunned Hollywood by passing on L.A.’s Finest, which was expected to be picked up to series before the network’s upfront presentation. On Sunday, NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt said the series just did not fit with NBC’s schedule for the 2018-2019 TV season.

“These are all tough calls,” Greenblatt told reporters on Sunday. “We did have an embarrassment of riches. And when we laid out the schedule and the calendar all season… it was a show that didn’t fit in the grand scheme of it.”

L.A.’s Finest starred Union as Special Agent Sydney “Syd” Burnett, the same role she played in 2003’s Bad Boys II. The series starts with her moving to Los Angeles to join the LAPD, where she is paired with Nancy McKenna, played by Alba. McKenna is a working mom, envious of Syd’s freedom off the job.

Alba and Union, two big-name movie stars, are both executive producers, alongside Jerry Bruckheimer. The expensive, $12 million pilot was written by Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier and directed by Anton Cropper.

While Union recently appeared on BET’s Being Mary Jane, this would have been Alba’s first TV role since Dark Angel ended in 2002.

Ryan McPartlin (Chuck) co-starred as Nancy’s husband, Dr. Patrick McKenna, a successful ER trauma doctor in Beverly Hills. Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Zach Gilford (The Purge: Anarchy) and Duane Martin (Scream 2) co-star. Zach McGowan (The 100) was cast as the villain in the pilot.

Although NBC passed on L.A.’s Finest, the network’s new drama slate includes Manifest, New Amsterdam, The Enemy Within, The Village and The InBetween.