Blair Underwood Playing US President in NBC Pilot

*Blair Underwood has been cast as the President of the United States on the upcoming NBC drama pilot “The Event.”

A thriller chronicled from multiple points of view, “The Event” follows a regular man (Jason Ritter) untangling a conspiracy to assassinate the president, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Writer Nick Wauters originally originally envisioned the president as “a poised Hispanic JFK,” but that was before the 2008 election of Barack Obama.

Underwood, who is about the same age as Obama, was a supporter of the former Illinois Senator in his presidential campaign and spoke at several Obama rallies.

The actor now becomes the second black president on a major U.S. TV series following Dennis Haysbert’s turn on the first season of Fox’s “24.” Underwood most recently co-starred on ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money.”