Members Only: Boris Kodjoe Joins the Cast

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Real Husbands of Hollywood star Boris Kodjoe has joined upcoming ABC drama Members Only. He’s reportedly set to play Deacon Jones, a retired football player who gets recruited to join the club by one of its most prestigious members.

Created by Susannah Grant (A Gifted Man) and director David O. Russell, the latter having already bowed out of the project, The Club is being described as an upstairs/downstairs drama set at a luxurious private country club filled with secrets. The series has already received a 13-episode commitment from ABC, though it remains unclear when and where it will be aired on the network.

ABC has 10 dramas in development this season, in addition to Members Only and crime drama Secrets & Lies, both already ordered to series. With the network’s freshman crop of dramas not doing so hot, Mind Games becoming the latest casualty of a rough time slot and viewer apathy, there’s a chance that ABC could order an inordinate amount of drama projects for 2014-2015 or, at the very least, what they do order will be on a longer leash. It would be hard for the network to sink lower in terms of launching new drama projects than they have this season and something like The Club reads as being right in ABC’s comfort zone, something its viewers have come to expect from the soap-friendly channel. But should the network put Members Only on in the fall and hope that it can stand out in the crowd? Or would holding it for midseason, despite the already promised 13 episodes, be more advantageous for both ABC and the series itself?

In addition to his role on the hit BET comedy, Kodjoe has appeared on the likes of Undercovers, Second Time Around, and Soul Food. He joins a cast that includes Betsy Brandt, Callie Hernandez, and Chris Conroy.

Will you be watching Members Only? Could this be the next breakout drama on ABC? Who else would you like to see join the cast?