While most of us are eagerly awaiting the start of May sweeps, the network suits are already thinking ahead to next fall and tinkering with the pilots of new shows. If you’re just a tiny bit nuts about television, like, ahem, some of us are, pilot season is a pretty exciting time to see what shows are in development and what might actually get picked up to air come September.

D.C. is, of course, well represented. It seems like every year the networks try and develop at least one show in and around the District, usually some drama about FBI officers who have unresolved sexual tension with their partners or a series about the miserable dedicated government employees that roam Capitol Hill. Industry trade paper The Hollywood Reporter keeps ongoing tabs on various pilots in development and tells us that this season it’s no different.

As concisely reported by USA Today there are four such shows in development:

The capital city spawns ‘Supreme Courtships’, [pictured at right] a Fox dramedy about court clerks; ‘The Hill’, a soapy congressional comedy; ‘The Thick of It’, ABC’s remake of another British series about the staff of a junior congressman; and CW’s ‘Paige Armstrong’ from ‘Commander in Chief’ creator Rod Lurie, about a naive congressional aide who runs against her former boss.

That’s quite a list of the exact same show being developed over and over again. Apparently, Hollywood hasn’t yet latched onto the idea that there’s more to D.C. then than politics, but who are we to argue. You’d think hot interns and catty young Congressional aides would make for some good prime-time TV, but out of this lame batch, we only have high hopes for the CW’s Paige Armstrong, which, if the network knows what it’s doing, could turn into a Felicty for the wonky crowd. The shows that do get picked up will be announced in mid-May when networks unveil their new schedules.

Lastly, readers, finish this sentence: “If they really wanted to make a show about D.C., they should focus on…” Leave your pilot suggestions in the comments!