CBS Orders Asteroid Disaster Series Salvation for Summer 2017

CBS has made a straight-to-series order for an asteroid disaster series set to air during the summer of 2017. Salvation will focus on an MIT graduate student who makes contact with Pentagon officials after discovering a dangerous asteroid is six months away from colliding with Earth. Salvation will run for 13 hour-length episodes, and will air during the summer months of 2017 along side CBS series Zoo and Big Brother. The series will be executive produced by Alex Kurtzman (Fringe, Sleepy Hollow) alongside Heather Kadin (Scorpion) and Peter Lenkov (Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver). Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro (Extant) will be the main show writers, based on a story by Hawaii Five-O's Matt Wheeler. According to Deadline, Salvation was originally developed as a pilot for CBS back in 2013. “Salvation is the type of fast-paced, dramatic ride that viewers look for in a summer event series,” said Glenn Geller, president of CBS Entertainment. “We’re excited to launch another high concept, highly promotable show with great auspices that adds to our roster of year-round, original scripted programming.” An article in Encyclopedia Britannica states that there are currently an estimated 1,000 Earth-crossing asteroids larger than 1 km (0.6 mile) in diameter. If any object that size collided with Earth, the result would be an explosive force equivalent to several hydrogen bombs which could cause in global climate change or huge city-destroying tidal waves. The impact of an object about 10 km (6 miles) in diameter or larger is thought to be able to cause the end of most life on Earth. Salvation is far from the first film or television series to focus on a potential asteroid impact. Some well known asteroid disaster films include Meteor, Deep Impact, and Armageddon. In 2009 a two-night event miniseries, also called Meteor, aired on NBC. That series focused on the potential impact of real-life asteroid 114 Kassandra. No announcements was made about casting, series production, or any specific air dates for Salvation.