Spader to Front Practice Spinoff

By Paige Albiniak
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

James Spader has agreed to star in David E. Kelley's spinoff of legal drama The Practice, which ends its eight-season run on ABC in May.

Next season, Spader's character, Alan Shore, will move to a high-priced civil law firm after having been fired as a defense attorney at the Boston law firm of Berlutti, Frutt & Young. The new show will also air on ABC.

What remains unclear is which of The Practice's other characters/cast members will join Spader. The current plot line would suggest Tara Wilson (Rhona Mitra); Jamie Stringer (Jessica Capshaw) and, perhaps, Ellenor Frutt (Camryn Manheim), though given show creator Kelley's penchant for odd twists and turns, he could be throwing in a red herring or two.

Last spring, Kelley jettisoned much of the show's high-priced cast after ABC cut its license fees in half. Spader was brought in to star and helped revive the show's ratings.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.