Devious Maids

Series overview

The series centers on a close-knit group of maids who are working for some of the most powerful families of Beverly Hills, California. The first season premiered on June 23, 2013. The pilot drew 1.99 million viewers, and in episode six, shot up 45 percent from the series premiere, to 2.90 million viewers. The first season finale would become its highest-rated episode, with 3 million viewers. In the pilot episode, maid Flora Hernandez was killed by an unknown person, and the lead character, Professor Marisol Suarez (played by Ana Ortiz) pretending to be a maid under the alias Marisol Duarte, investigates the murder after her son was accused of that murder. This season also introduces the four other central maids of the show: Rosie Falta from Mexico (Dania Ramirez), Puerto Rican singer Carmen Luna (Roselyn Sánchez), and senior maid Zoila Diaz (Judy Reyes), with her teen daughter Valentina (Edy Ganem). All of these maids are working in the homes of powerful characters, including emotionally unstable wealthy woman Genevieve Delatour (Susan Lucci) and her son, Remi (Drew Van Acker), socialite Evelyn and her husband Adrian Powell (Rebecca Wisocky and Tom Irwin), B-list movie actress Peri Westmore and her husband, daytime soap star Spence Westmore (Mariana Klaveno and Grant Show). The first season also featured newlywed couple Taylor and Michael Stappord (Brianna Brown and Brett Cullen), who worked with Marisol on her case. The season mystery "Who killed Flora?" was revealed in episode 13 and the season ended with a cliffhanger.

The second season premiered on April 20, 2014. The season centers on the mystery story of Opal, the new, 40-something maid, played by Joanna P. Adler. The character is described as "reminiscent of Mrs. Danvers from Hitchcock's Rebecca" and is seen as a threat to Marisol's new relationship with Nicholas. The second season also deals with Rosie working for an African-American family that is scheming to do harm to an elderly man she's hired to act as a caregiver, Zoila dealing with her estrangement from her husband Pablo while her daughter Valentina tries to distance herself from Remi and Zoila while trying to downplay the attention of pool boy Ethan, both of whom, along with a new body guard, Tony, are hired by Adrian and Evelyn Powell in the wake of a series of robberies that leads to deadly consequences for Alejandro, who is killed during their heist at his party, leaving Carmen, who signed a deal to ensure a recording deal in order to keep his homosexuality a secret, back to square one in her quest to become famous.

The third season premiered on June 1, 2015. Rosie wakes up in the hospital four months after Ty staged a drive-by shooting outside her wedding, having been shot along with the likes of Pablo who, unlike her, didn't make it. His kidney, however, did make it to Genevieve, who in the meantime helps Zoila deal with the fact that she's unaware who the father of her child is. After finding out that it's Pablo and not her fiancé Javier, she fears he may leave her... and he ultimately does, following the departure of Valentina and Remi for New York. At the wedding that never happens, Rosie's first husband Ernesto (Cristián de la Fuente) returns and, to Spence's dismay, she ends up reuniting with him. Carmen continues her affair with Sebastien (Gilles Marini) while Marisol, who starts a placement agency for maids after publishing a bestselling book, finds her a job with the Powells (where she doubles as Adrian's dominatrix for a while), who employ Sebastien as their realtor after a human leg ends up on their front lawn, belonging to murdered tennis pro Louie Becker. This is after the Stappords are revealed as having returned to Beverly Hills with a new daughter in town, Katy, and the maids' new friend Blanca (Naya Rivera) begins to work for them... until she's kidnapped after her discovery of a bloody scene on Taylor's couch. She is hanged and framed by an unknown assailant, and the Stappords' next maid, Rosie, makes it her mission to find out what really happened. She does this by snooping around Taylor's home and discovering Katy's origins. Aside from foregoing a doomed romance with Jesse Morgan (Nathan Owens), Marisol too does some snooping and learns that Olivia Rice (Valerie Mahaffey) set Taylor up to have an affair with the murderer. Zoila's friendship with Genevieve is fractured following the latter's relationship with Dr. Neff (John O'Hurley), who wants the maid gone, and the two end up in couple's therapy before Zoila goes into labor; there are complications. Carmen's affair gets out of hand when Sebastien's wife Jacklyn offers to sign her, eventually finding out and forbidding Carmen from making music ever again.

In September 2015, Devious Maids was renewed for a fourth season to air the following year. The fourth and final season aired from June 6 through August 8, 2016. With a special appearance by Eva Longoria in the season four premiere of "Devious Maids," murder and mayhem collide once again in the mansions of Beverly Hills' wealthiest and most powerful families. This season, Marisol finds herself acting as a support system to Evelyn (Rebecca Wisocky) in the wake of a big life change. Meanwhile, Rosie's positive and sunny disposition leaves much to be desired by her new boss, Genevieve (Susan Lucci) who is acclimating to a household without Zoila's honest and acerbic humor. Carmen continues to pursue her singing career until her daughter, Daniela (Sol Rodriguez), raised since birth, by Carmen's cousin, comes to town and shakes things up. Marisol also finds herself in a new relationship, which eventually becomes a complicated triangle when her old flame Jesse reappears.

Cast and characters

The show features an ensemble cast with female leads. In season one, Ana Ortiz, Dania Ramirez, Roselyn Sánchez, Judy Reyes and Edy Ganem play maid roles, and Susan Lucci, Rebecca Wisocky, Brianna Brown, Mariana Klaveno, Tom Irwin, Brett Cullen and Grant Show acted as rich Beverly Hills socialites. Drew Van Acker and Wolé Parks also had regular roles in season one. Several actors also appeared on a recurring basis in season one, including Emmy Award–winner Valerie Mahaffey as Olivia Rice, Stephen Collins as Philippe Delatour, Matt Cedeño as Alejandro Rubio, Melinda Page Hamilton as Odessa Burakov, Maria Howell as Ida Hayes, Alex Fernandez as Pablo Diaz, and Paula Garcés as Flora Hernandez.

For the second season, Klaveno, Brown, Cullen and Parks left as show regular performers. Also four actors were added to the regular cast, including Mark Deklin as Nicholas Deering, Joanna P. Adler as Opal Sinclair, Colin Woodell as Ethan Sinclair, and Dominic Adams as Tony Bishara. In recurring status Tricia O'Kelley joined the cast as Tanya Taseltof, and Klaveno, Cedeño and Hamilton returned. Academy Award–nominee June Squibb also was cast as Susan Lucci's character's mother, Velma, in two episodes of the second season. Also was added the African-American Family - the Millers, Tiffany Hines as Didi, Kimberly Hebert Gregory as Lucinda, Reggie Austin as Reggie, and Willie C. Carpenter as Kenneth Miller.

Brown and Cullen returned as a series regular in season three, with season two guest star Gilles Marini and newcomers Cristián de la Fuente and Nathan Owens added to the main cast. Newcomer Gail Flemming Julie Claire is one of Evelyn's friends. Gail Fleming is a drunk driving, verbally abusive mess. Javier Mendoza was also to still recur this season but only for a few episodes. John O'Hurley played a doctor and Genevieve's new love interest. Grecia Merino played the mysterious Katy Stappord. Since the Brown and Cullen came back for this season, the show decided to bring back Valerie Mahaffey. Mahaffey played Olivia Rice, a threat to the Stappord's marriage, in Season 1 and returned this season to be involved in the murder. Mariana Klaveno's Peri Westmore made an appearance in the season finale. Previous regulars Drew Van Acker and Edy Ganem were demoted to guest stars they both appeared in two episodes of the third series and then left the show.

Episode titles of the fourth season are cleaning puns. For the fourth season, series regulars Brianna Brown (Taylor Stappord), Brett Cullen (Michael Stappord) and Gilles Marini (Sebastien Dussault) are demoted, and will not appear in the season. Sol Rodriguez (Daniela Mercado) is promoted to the main cast. Christopher Hanke was added as Fabian. Sean Blakemore will play Reverend James Hamilton who is the creator of the annual Hamilton House charity.

Development

The plot is based on the Mexican TV series Ellas son la Alegría del Hogar, which translates in English as "They Are the Joy of the Home" and was heavily influenced by Cherry's previous series Desperate Housewives. The Mexican series is based on an original concept by Gloria Calzada, Juan Meyer, and Salvador Rizo. The American adaptation was to follow four maids with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, California. ABC ordered the pilot on January 31, 2012. Actress Eva Longoria was announced as an executive producer on March 26. She had worked previously with Cherry on Desperate Housewives, and was hired to add perspective to the Latina roles. ABC Studios gave Cherry permission to start making senior staffing offers for the show on May 1, which was perceived as an indication that the show would be picked up.

On May 14, 2012, the pilot was not picked up by ABC for the 2012–13 United States network schedule. However, on June 22, 2012, Lifetime picked up the pilot with a thirteen-episode order. In May 2012, Roselyn Sánchez made a cameo appearance in the final episode of Desperate Housewives, "Finishing the Hat", as her character Carmen Luna.

After a series of constant cliffhangers and ongoing drama, the season 1 finale became its highest-rated episode, with 3 million viewers. Season 2, on the other hand, averaged 1.8 million total viewers per episode. The premiere episode of season 3 drew in 1.5 million viewers.

Casting

Dania Ramirez was the first lead cast member to be cast, being announced on February 15. Ana Ortiz joined the cast as the central character on February 17. On February 23, both Sanchez and Judy Reyes were added to the cast. When Edy Ganem was announced in the cast on March 2 the show was still described as centering on the other four maids (Ortiz, Reyes, Sanchez, and Ramirez; Ortiz's character was later changed to a professor who posed as a maid).

Rebecca Wisocky joined the cast on February 23. Most of the other supporting roles were filled in in March: Brianna Brown (March 6); Susan Lucci, Drew Van Acker and Brett Cullen (all March 9); Mariana Klaveno and Grant Show (both March 12); and Tom Irwin (March 16).

After the pilot episode was picked to series by Lifetime, Wolé Parks was added to the cast in a regular role on November 21. Melinda Page Hamilton and Matt Cedeño were added to the cast in recurring roles with the promise of promotion if the show got picked up for a second season on November 26. Both were expected to appear in the pilot episode. Valerie Mahaffey also made cameo in pilot, and later had recurring role as Olivia Rice. Several actors from Desperate Housewives had roles in Devious Maids. Richard Burgi, Andrea Parker, Jolie Jenkins, Patrika Darbo, Dakin Matthews, Liz Torres who previously appeared in Desperate Housewives, have guest roles in this series.

For the second season, four new series regular actors were added for the show. Wolé Parks and Brett Cullen did not return for the second season, while Brianna Brown made a guest-appearance. Mariana Klaveno was reduced to recurring status in the second season. Stage actress Joanna P. Adler was cast in main role of a new mystery maid, Opal, in December 2013. Newcomer Dominic Adams was cast as Tony, the bodyguard, and Colin Woodell was cast as his son, Ethan Sinclair. Mark Deklin joined the cast as Nicholas Deering, Marisol's new love interest. Tricia O'Kelley joined the cast in the recurring role as Tanya.

For the third season, Gilles Marini was upped to series regular after appearing in the season two finale. Season one star Brianna Brown was announced to make her return to the series for its third season, as a series regular, with Brett Cullen also returning to play her husband. Valerie Mahaffey recurred as Olivia Rice for a few episodes. In February 2015, it was reported that Glee actress Naya Rivera had joined the season in the recurring role of Blanca; a maid to a seemingly ideal family, who learns of a life altering secret. Later that month, Days of Our Lives actor Nathan Owens was cast in the regular role of Jesse, a recently returned home military man. Cristián de la Fuente was also cast as a series regular in the role of Rosie's long-lost husband, Ernesto Falta, who had been believed to be dead. Actor Alec Mapa announced on a tweet in February his debut on the show in the recurring role of Jerry. In April 2015, it was reported the previous regulars Drew Van Acker and Edy Ganem (who had previously been one of the central characters, on the show) were demoted to recurring roles for the third season. They both appeared in the first two episodes of the season and then departed as their characters left for New York.

For the fourth season, filming started January 14, 2016 and episode titles will be cleaning puns. Brianna Brown, Brett Cullen, and Gilles Marini will not return as series regulars. In January 2016, it was announced the executive producer Eva Longoria would guest star in season 4 while Longoria's former Desperate Housewives costar James Denton had been tapped for the recurring role of Peter. Ryan McPartlin will make a debut this season by playing Kyle who is a sweet, sexy — and, most importantly, filthy rich — newcomer who falls for one of the core maids. However, he has an unusually close relationship with his mother, Frances who is played by Stephanie Faracy. Also, Julie Claire who was recurring as Gail Fleming in Season 3 will return in Season 4. In early February, Carlos Ponce was announced to play Ben who is the manager of a famous movie star, but also a dangerous-yet-handsome thirty-something who specializes in manipulating people. He's also described as charming and mysterious. Carter Birchwell was assigned to play Spence and Peri's son Tucker. Katherine LaNasa will play Shannon Greene, Peri's older sister. In addition, Argentinian actress Sol Rodriguez would recur as Daniela while Nathan Owens has been promoted as a series regular.

Filming

The pilot episode for ABC was filmed in Los Angeles. By March 21, filming had begun in Beverly Hills. After Lifetime picked Devious Maids to series, filming moved to Atlanta, Georgia. The pilot episode was directed by Paul McGuigan.