Upfronts: "Eleventh Hour" takes the e.p. prize

Unless Fox pulls out something at the last minute, it looks like CBS' "Eleventh Hour" wins the prize for the most exec producers on a new show this year.

The Jerry Bruckheimer Television/Warner Bros. TV drama, based on a British miniseries of the same name, has a whopping seven e.p.'s credited: Bruckheimer (natch), Jonathan Littman (head of Bruckheimer TV), Danny Cannon (who helmed the pilot), Cyrus Voris, Ethan Reiff, Mick Davis (who penned the pilot) and Paul Buccieri (head of programming for the U.S. arm of Granada, which produced the original Brit mini). NBC's Canadian import, "The Listener," set for a summer '09 run, is a close runner-up with six exec producers listed. Thursday ayem update: Fox also comes close with two series that have six exec producers: comedy "Do Not Disturb" and drama "Fringe."

Funnily enough, "Eleventh Hour" also boasts the smallest cast, at least at this point. CBS' press release info on the show only lists star Rufus Sewell. Sewell plays brilliant biophysicist and government advisor Jacob Hood, who's tasked with investigating "scientific crises and oddities" for the government. (Patrick Stewart tackled the role in the original version.) Hood's often called in "at the eleventh hour," hence the title.

Wonder if Hood will ever run in to the brilliant scientist and plucky FBI investigator from Fox's "Fringe," which mines a similar vein. The social circle for egghead gumshoes following in Scully and Mulder's footsteps can't be that big, can it?