HBO Max has officially ordered a pilot for American Blue, continuing its momentum toward scalable, character-driven dramas modeled on the success of The Pitt. The project is being produced by Warner Bros. Television and the pilot is targeting a Spring 2026 shoot in Chicago.
The series is created, written, and executive-produced by Jeremy Carver, with Brian Udovich as executive producer. American Blue centers on Brian “Milk” Milkovich, a native son called back to his Illinois hometown to help stabilize a troubled police department while confronting his own need for redemption.
HBO Max executive Sarah Aubrey has described the project as very much in the vein of NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues. As part of development, Carver and Udovich traveled to Joliet to spend time with local officers, grounding the series in real-world experience and regional authenticity.
Carver brings deep genre and network television experience to the project. His career began in 2004 as a consulting writer on the ill-fated pilot Fearless, based on the novels by Francine Pascal. In 2006, he wrote an episode of CBS’s Waterfront, which was canceled before its premiere, leaving his episode unaired. His breakthrough came in 2007 when he joined Supernatural as a writer and story editor, ultimately contributing twelve scripts and rising to co-producer during the show’s fifth season.
The series even paid tribute to him through the character Chuck Shurley’s pen name, “Carver Edlund.” After three years, Carver departed to work on SyFy’s Being Human, before returning to Supernatural in 2012 as showrunner. In 2016, he left the long-running series to launch Frequency, based on the 2000 film, which ran for two seasons.
Udovich brings equally strong credentials and a personal connection to Illinois. Born in Joliet, he is an award-winning producer whose credits span film and television, including Hulu’s sci-fi anthology Dimension 404, The Wackness, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and Bad Turn Worse.
He holds a master’s degree in Producing from the American Film Institute, where his thesis film The Monster and the Peanut won an Emmy for Best Dramatic Student Film from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Udovich also served three years as committee chairman for the Independent Spirit Awards’ Piaget Producers Grant and currently programs AFI’s weekly screening series Reel Grit. He is based in Los Angeles.
Production plans for the pilot call for American Blue to film in Chicago, with Chicago Studio City, The Fields Studio, and Cinespace all bidding. Tentative dates shared with local partners indicate the pilot office opening in mid-February, cameras rolling in late April for a 14-day shoot, and wrap in late May. If the pilot moves forward to series, set construction is expected to begin in June, with season one prep running through the summer and production extending into early 2027.
For Chicago, American Blue represents another high-profile pilot with meaningful local ties, both in its setting and its producing team, reinforcing the city’s growing role in HBO Max’s evolving production strategy.
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