Spike TV gets ‘A.M.P.E.D.’

Having closed the books on “Blade,” Spike TV is set to begin work on its next potential original series.

Production was scheduled to begin Monday on “A.M.P.E.D.,” a pilot from former “X-Files” executive producers Frank Spotnitz and Vince Gilligan about a team of cops assigned to deal with people who have genetic mutations that lead to destructive behavior.

Gilligan and Spotnitz created the show and will serve as executive producers. Craig Van Sickle and Steven Mitchell, co-creators of “The Pretender,” will serve as day-to-day showrunners, and Rob Lieberman (“Dexter”) will direct.

The cast is headed by Lee Tergesen (“Oz,” “Desperate Housewives”), who plays a Minneapolis homicide detective renowned in the department for his fearlessness. Tony Curran (“Flight of the Phoenix,” “Underworld: Evolution”) co-stars as another detective who frequently clashes with Tergesen’s character.

The pilot also stars Sarah Brown (“Cold Case”), Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Troy Winbush (“Medical Investigation”) and Josh Biton.

Spike TV is hoping “A.M.P.E.D.” can build on “Blade: The Series,” which drew solid ratings for its premiere in June but fell off as the summer progressed. The network has decided not to pick the show up for a second season.

‘Law & Order’ loves Liza

Oscar and Emmy winner Liza Minnelli will guest-star on a November sweeps episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” that puts a fictional spin on the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Minnelli, who had a recurring part on FOX’s “Arrested Development” the past few seasons, will play a woman named Beth Harner in the episode, which will air sometime in November. The character is a former beauty queen whose child-actress daughter was murdered 14 years ago.

The unsolved case returns to the spotlight when a pedophile confesses to the murder.

That storyline parallels events in the Ramsey case in August, when John Mark Karr, who was living in Thailand at the time, confessed to killing 6-year-old JonBenet, who competed in child beauty pageants, on Dec. 26, 1996. He was extradited to the United States, but the case fell apart after DNA tests could not place him at the crime scene

Minnelli won an Oscar in 1973 for her role in “Cabaret”; that same year, she took home an Emmy for her TV special “Liza with a Z” (a remastered version of which debuted on Showtime earlier this year). She’s also a two-time Tony and Golden Globe winner.

Her other credits include “New York, New York,” “Arthur” and, most recently, the indie film “The OH in Ohio,” which had a brief run in theaters this summer.