'BrainDead' described as cross between 'Strain' and 'West Wing'

CBS says it has ordered 13 episodes of BrainDead, a one-hour, comic-thriller from Robert and Michelle King, the creators and executive producers of The Good Wife.

To be executive produced and written by the Kings, the series is to premiere next summer. No casting has been announced yet.

Ridley Scott, David Zucker and Liz Glotzer will serve as executive producers for CBS Television Studios, Scott Free Productions and King Size Productions. They all previously collaborated on The Good Wife. Judy Smith will serve as co-executive producer.

BrainDead follows "a young fresh-faced Hill staffer getting her first job in Washington, D.C. and discovering two things: 1. The government has stopped working, and 2. alien spawn have come to earth and eaten the brains of a growing number of congressmen and Hill staffers," a synopsis said.

"We wanted to do a show that was a mix of genre-pulp and high-brow politics -- The Strain crossed with The West Wing," executive producers Robert and Michelle King said in a joint statement Wednesday. "It seemed like the best way to address the news today -- not straight, but as the opening act of a horror movie."

"Robert and Michelle have developed an intriguingly original concept with layers of humor, suspense and the supernatural," added Nina Tassler, chairman of CBS Entertainment. "We look forward to launching it to U.S. viewers and a worldwide audience next summer."

The Kings will continue to serve as executive producers/showrunners of The Good Wife when it returns for its seventh season on Oct. 4.