Damon Wayans Jr. coming to Atlanta to shoot NBC drama pilot ‘Puzzled’
Damon Wayans Jr. is starring in an NBC drama pilot “Puzzled” that will shoot in Atlanta next month.
The pilot is set to begin March 15 and wrap March 24, according to IATSE 479, the union representing most crew members in Georgia. It will be shot at Assembly Studios in Doraville.
Typically, broadcast networks will decide whether to give a pilot a season run by May. If “Puzzled” gets a green light, it could potentially run in the fall or spring of the following broadcast year.
The show is based on the “Puzzle Master” and “The Puzzle Box” books by Danielle Trussoni. Wayans will play Mike Brink, a once-promising college athlete who barely escapes a tragic fire but is transformed by a traumatic brain injury that gives him the ability to see the world in an unexpected way and helps him solve crimes with police.
Brink “makes his living by betting on sports and is uniquely equipped to do this because he developed Acquired Savant Syndrome as a result of a traumatic brain injury,” according to Variety. “This rare phenomenon gives him exceptional skills in puzzle-solving, higher math functions and pattern recognition.”
It’s unclear where the drama will be set.
Wayans Jr., 43, has starred in broadcast comedies such as ABC’s ‘Happy Endings” and Fox’s “The New Girl” and features including “Let’s Be Cops” and the upcoming “Scary Movie 6,” which filmed in metro Atlanta last year. His last TV comedy with his father Damon Wayans, “Poppa’s House,” lasted one season on CBS in 2024-2025.
“Puzzled” is by no means a stretch for NBC. Broadcast networks are now packed with crime procedurals like the “NCIS” and “Law & Order” franchises. In fact, NBC is shooting another police procedural pilot in Atlanta at the same time, a reboot of the 1970s show “The Rockford Files,” this time starring David Boreanaz.
Viewers have had a yen for quirkily smart detectives or detective wannabes for decades. Examples range from “Columbo” and “Monk” to “Psych” and “Bones” to current ABC dramas “High Potential” and “Will Trent,” the latter of which is set and produced in Atlanta.
