Jason Katims to consult on new series

NBC's "Bionic Woman" is bringing in a little outside help following the departure of one of its executive producers last week.

Jason Katims, an exec producer and showrunner of the network's critical darling "Friday Night Lights," will join the new show as a consultant, the showbiz trade papers report. He'll lend a hand to his counterparts, David Eick ("Battlestar Galactica") and Jason Smilovic ("Kidnapped"), in developing scripts for the show, which has already filmed several episodes.

The "Bionic" gig won't be his primary responsibility, however; Katims will continue to devote most of his time to the second season of "Friday Night Lights," which kicks off Friday, Oct. 5.

"Bionic Woman," which has a sizable buzz going into the fall season (it premieres Wednesday, Sept. 26), has gone through several behind-the-scenes changes since being picked up for the fall. Laeta Kalogridis, who initially teamed with Eick on the pilot and is credited as its writer, is no longer with the show. Smilovic reportedly reworked the pilot script some and has remained on board as an executive producer.

Eick also brought "X-Files" veteran Glen Morgan on as an executive producer and showrunner, but he left last week, citing creative differences. In a conference call with reporters last week, Eick said the turnover was par for the course: "I think this is really no different from, frankly, most of the genre shows I've done in that there's a lot of turnover early in the process. It's just the way it works."

Katims has fairly wide-ranging experience in television. In addition to "Friday Night Lights," his writing and producing credits run the gamut from "My So-Called Life" to "Roswell" to "Pepper Dennis."