Fox wins the battle for Oaks

Earlier last month Kevin Reilly, former NBC entertainment prez, landed the same gig over at Fox. Now the new chief has just landed his first major development deal after a serious bidding war with CBS.

Reilly's inaugural project is The Oaks by writer David Schulner, who has written for Everwood and Desperate Housewives. The high-concept drama will be helmed by Dexter director Michael Cuesta, with Cuesta, Schulner and Shield creator Shawn Ryan serving as the pilot's executive producers.

The show follows the lives of four couples over many generations who all occupy the same house -- which happens to be haunted by a restless spirit. According to The Hollywood Reporter, though these couples, whose stories span from the late '60s to modern times, are not related they are interconnected, with "the previous owners appearing to their successors as ghosts." Schulner says the idea came to him when he moved into his first home and began to wonder about its previous residents.

The Oaks, which begins filming in November, sounds like the perfect show on ABC, which is why it isn't too surprising that Fox and CBS both worked hard to snag it. The two networks need a serious one hour drama that can compete with the likes of Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and so forth. Right now Fox has House and CBS has only CSIs (and plenty of them), which both help with the ratings but I wouldn't say that they are concept dramas... unless medical mystery counts as a concept.