‘Valley of the Gods’ Drama From Joanna Coles and Pete Nowalk in Development at ABC

A new Silicon Valley drama series is in development at ABC from former Hearst Magazines chief content officer Joanna Coles and “How to Get Away With Murder” creator Pete Nowalk. Called “Valley of the Gods,” the potential series has a production commitment and would be produced by ABC Signature Studios where Coles is under a first-look deal. Nowalk would write and serve as executive producer with Coles. The network describes the series as a drama about “the most powerful people in Silicon Valley and the hungry, underestimated outsiders trying to claw their way in.” Coles is a media maven who broke into television after rising in the ranks of the journalism world. Her career began at the Daily Telegraph before joining the staff of The Guardian, where she became the New York bureau chief. She then went on to become the articles editor of New York Magazine, executive editor of More, editor in chief of Marie Clare and Cosmopolitan and later the first chief content officer of Hearst Magazines from 2016 to 2018. Her first TV project was co-creating and executive producing a reality series about Marie Clare interns called “Running in Heels.” She also executive produced “So Cosmo,” which followed magazine staff members, before going on to executive produce Freeform’s “The Bold Type.” She is also on the board of Snap., the parent company of Snapchat, and is the author of “Love Rules,” a guide to modern love in a digital world. Nowalk co-wrote “The Hollywood Assistants Handbook: 86 Rules for Aspiring Power Players” before becoming a writer for Shonda Rhimes’ “Grey’s Anatomy,” later rising to executive story editor and then supervising producer. He also co-executive produced and wrote for Rhimes’ ABC political thriller series “Scandal,” and created and executive produced the ShondaLand-produced ABC series “How to Get Away With Murder.”