Developments

CBS is looking at a pilot called Secret Fortune, which is more or less Deal or No Deal with envelopes instead of suitcases. The Beeb already has a version up and running in the mother country, as the picture demonstrates. The envelope in the screenshot turns out to be a four-thousand-pound number, not overly huge. (That's pounds as in British currency, not weight.)

Eventually all but one of the twenty-four envelopes is tossed aside, and the remaining amount goes to the lucky or unlucky contestants. Sound familiar, Howie? Sadly, no hot-looking models show up onstage. American Idol's Nigel Lythgoe is developing the CBS pilot.

In a somewhat related item, TV Guide speculates that ABC may ax two long-running and long-suffering soap operas, All My Children and One Life To Live. The note talks about a possible "reality show" (a.k.a. game show) replacing one of the imperiled sudsers. CBS looked at a Pyramid pilot when the network dumped As The World Turns last year. But the talk show with Les Moonves' wife predictably got the nod instead.