Paramount Network continues to increase its scripted roster today. The cable network has just handed a series order to the original drama series Coyote starring Emmy winner Michael Chiklis (The Shield). The first season will produce 10 episodes, which will debut in 2020.
The drama follows agent Ben Clemens (Chiklis) who, on the day of his mandatory retirement from the United States Border Patrol, discovers an illicit tunnel used to mainline black market goods into the United States from Mexico. This soon puts Clemens in the crosshairs of the criminal mastermind he's spent his career trying to destroy.
David Graziano (Southland) will serve as showrunner on the drama and write alongside Michael Carnes and Josh Gilbert. Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad, The Deuce) has signed on to direct the premiere. All four will executive produce with Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg and Rebecca Hobbs. Sony Pictures Television, Dark Horse Entertainment and MacLaren Entertainment will produce.
"David Graziano, our whole creative team and I are excited to make a show with Paramount Network and Sony that will dramatize a conversation between Mexico and America," said MacLaren. "I have wanted to work with Michael Chiklis for a long time and am thrilled he is playing such a complex character whose journey will expose multiple points of view on this relevant and complicated issue."
"We're honored to work with Michelle MacLaren, Michael Chiklis, David Graziano and the rest of the gifted creative team on Coyote," said Keith Cox, President of Development, Paramount Network and TV Land. "The powerful, timely setting and complex characters are a perfect fit with the rest of our growing scripted slate. Coyote is befitting of the strong Paramount name."
