Sophia Bush Returns as Lead in ‘Surveillance’ in First TV Role Since ‘Chicago P.D.’

Long gone from Chicago P.D., Sophia Bush has found a new TV home in the new series Surveillance, in which Deadline reports she will serve as the lead role.

Described as a “complex and timely spy thriller,” Bush will star in the CBS series as head of communications for the National Security Agency. However, her loyalty to the agency and her country will be tested by a need to protect her own deep, dark secrets of her past.

The new CBS drama will be executive produced by Matt Reeves (Batman, The Passage), written by David C. White (Sons of Liberty), directed by Patricia Riggen (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan) and co-produced by 20th Century Fox Television and CBS TV Studios.

Deadline reports that CBS is “in the process of hiring a casting director” and that a pilot will be filmed later this fall.

A similar version of the project from White and Reeves was set up last season at Fox for development but did not go to pilot as planned. Former Fox head of drama development Terence Carter, who brought the pitch to Fox, moved to 20th TV — so the script was rewritten and the studio brought Bush and Riggen on board.

Last fall, Bush signed an exclusive talent holding and development deal with 20th TV, explaining her involvement on the show.

The thriller series is a change for Bush, who was last seen acting as detective Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D., but considering her feelings toward NBC and the show near the end of her run on the police procedural, it was time for a change for the 36-year-old actress.

“For me, it felt like I was trapped in a burning building,” Bush told Refinery 29 of Chicago P.D. “I was just so unhappy, and it was my dream job, and I was miserable and I had to go.”

When Andy Cohen asked Bush if the rumors were true that she decided to leave the series in reaction to inappropriate behavior by co-star Jason Beghe, she gave a roundabout answer.

“It’s a complicated question to answer only because 99.9 percent of the people who are on that show are my family. And they are people who I would go to war for and they are people who I will protect and have chosen to protect very specifically and who I love very, very much,” she said.

“To have encountered two really terrible people over the course of my career is kind of a cakewalk,” she added. “For me, while I think that we have to look at the way that allow people to behave and anybody in any relative position of power period, again it’s not as simple as A-to-B. There is a whole life and a whole community and a whole tremendous group of people and I’ve worked with incredible crews over the years. I have never worked with a better crew, ever in my life, than my crew in Chicago.”

Before Bush played Det. Erin Lindsay on Chicago P.D. for four seasons, she starred on the long-running drama series One Tree Hill, which aired for nine seasons on the WB and the CW. She recently signed on as a lead in the indie movie Hard Luck Love Song. She also appeared in the movies Acts of Violence, Incredibles 2 and John Tucker Must Die.