Why 2012 Will Be "The Year Of The Soap" (Part 3): Promising Fall Pilots

In Part 1 and Part 2 of our "The Year of the Soap" series, we looked at the massive number of new and returning serials in the television and internet landscape.   We are currently in pilot season and there are potentially dozens of new soaps that may be headed our way in primetime this Fall during the 2012-2013 TV season.

Some of our favorites (judging only by the descriptions made available to date):

NASHVILLE (ABC)
Logline: A family soap set against the backdrop of the Nashville music scene that follows one star at her peak and one on the rise.  (Hayden Panettiere, Eric Close and Jonathan Jackson have been cast in the pilot.)
From: Writer-EP Callie Khouri; EPs RJ Cutler, Steve Buchanan; Gaylord Entertainment, ABC Studios, and Lionsgate

GILDED LILLYS: Another Period Soap, And Another Shonda Rhimes Show

ABC has ordered production on the pilot for Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers' period drama, GILDED LILLYS.

Written by KJ Steinberg (GOSSIP GIRL) and set in 1895, GILDED LILLYS follows the opening of the first true luxury hotel built in New York City, along with the family who owns it, the staff who work it and those who stay there.

Rhimes soaps include GREY'S ANATOMY, PRIVATE PRACTICE and SCANDAL (coming in April).