NBC Drama 'State of Affairs' Premieres November 17, Stars Katherine Heigl, Alfre Woodard

State of Affairs premieres November 17 on NBC.

NBC's highly touted drama State of Affairs will premiere on Monday, November 17 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. In the series, Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy) plays a CIA analyst who, faced with constant moral and political judgment calls, prioritizes the President's Daily Briefing.

Each day the President is faced with dozens of life and death decisions, and to prioritize the biggest international crises facing the country, one top CIA analyst - Charleston Tucker (Heigl) - assembles the President's Daily Briefing (PDB). This list of the most vital security issues facing the nation brings with it moral and political judgment calls for Charleston and her trusted group of brilliant analysts at the agency.

Chris L. McKenna

Aside from the political minefields she has to walk, Charlie has a close personal relationship with the President (Alfre Woodard, Desperate Housewives) because she was once engaged to her son before a tragic terrorist attack took his life. Charlie survived that attack and is now determined to bring the perpetrators to justice. Navigating a complex personal life and a pressure-cooker profession is, of course, a challenge, and Charlie sometimes engages in boundary-pushing behavior to avoid facing her grief. But when the clock strikes 2 a.m., she is all about her job - protecting her nation, serving her President and still trying to get to the bottom of her fiancé's murder that will reveal itself as a shocking mystery.

The cast also includes Adam Kaufman, Sheila Vand, Cliff Chamberlain, Tommy Savas and Leslie Odom, Jr. The Young and the Restless' Chris L. McKenna plays Nick Vera, a CIA operator who provides Charleston Tucker (Heigl's character) with her first taste of the ugly business of on-the-ground intelligence gathering. Nick's time in the field has had a strong impact on how he sees his work, politicians and the agency, adding that Nick has a complex relationship with Charlie.

Watch a sneak peek of the series below:







Writer-director Joe Carnahan (The Blacklist) serves as executive producer with Katherine Heigl, Nancy Heigl, Robert Simonds, Sophie Watts, Henry Crumpton, Rodney Faraon and Julia Franz. "State of Affairs" is a production of Universal Television, Bob Simonds Company and Abishag Productions.