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Will 'Sons of Anarchy' spin-off 'Mayans' be another cable winner?

Work on a pilot for a 'Sons' spin-off will begin in 2017. FX's 'Sons' became a huge hit for the network when it aired between 2008 and 2014.

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Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Kurt Sutter attends the FX Summer TCA Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Aug. 7, 2015, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

FX is returning to the world of the incredibly popular program “Sons of Anarchy” for a new show.

Kurt Sutter, the creator of "Sons," will direct a pilot for a program titled "Mayans MC," which would center on the Mayans Motorcycle Club that was depicted as a rival to the characters in the original "Sons" series. The script is written by Mr. Sutter and Elgin James, who directed and wrote the 2011 film "Little Birds."

The pilot will be filmed beginning in March. 

In previously discussing the creation of this show, Sutter had said he felt it was important to bring in someone else to work on "Mayans" with him because of the show's subject matter, telling the Hollywood Reporter, "I wanted to find a strong, unique Latino voice, because I didn't think a white guy from Jersey should be writing about Latin culture and traditions. Elgin is that voice." 

"Sons," which aired from 2008 to 2014 and stars Charlie Hunnam as the leader of a California motorcycle club, became a big hit for network FX. The premiere for the final season of the show, for example, "was also the top show in the 18-49 demo in both broadcast and cable," Deadline writer Dominic Patten wrote at the time.

When it was on, "Sons" was one of a few cable TV shows that became enough of a hit that they could draw more viewers than broadcast shows on that same night. When AMC’s "Breaking Bad" aired its series finale in 2013, the episode handily won the night over other entertainment programs. AMC’s "The Walking Dead," which is still on the air, also regularly wins Sunday nights when it airs.

"Overall, broadcast are still delivering, on average, higher numbers than cable," Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, told the Monitor earlier this year. "But there are more and more exceptions to that and I think there will be more and more as we go."

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