Beverly Hills, Calif. — The pilot of The Divide, the eight-episode legal drama premiering on WE tv on July 16, was originally sold to AMC.

However, parent AMC Networks eventually decided to have the show become sister network WE tv’s first scripted series, hoping that The Divide becomes to WE tv what Mad Men was to AMC.

Co-creator Tony Goldwyn recalled The Divide’s origins Friday at the network's panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour here. He said that he and co-creator Richard LaGravenese were excited for the challenge at WE tv, as long as they got to do the show they wanted.

That show is one focused on the criminal justice system, centering around the people and cased within The Innocence Initiative, a fictional version of the Innocence Project, the organization dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted.

“Everything in our show is based on something that happened,” Goldwyn said, “but it’s an amalgam of what happened.”

Marin Ireland, who plays a caseworker at The Innocence Initiative, did an internship at the Innocent Project. “It looked and felt different than any legal atmosphere,” she said.

Although there is a specific case whose arch stretches across the season, LaGravenese said that the characters’ journeys are open ended.

“There are no good guys and bad guys,” Goldwyn said. “Everyone is good and bad.”