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Nikita

10:08 AM CDT, June 29, 2012

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“NIKITA”

When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita (Maggie Q, “Live Free or Die
Hard,” “Mission Impossible 3”) was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency
known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a
second chance to start a new life and serve her country.  What they didn’t tell her was
that she was being trained as a spy and assassin.  Throughout her grueling training at
Division, Nikita never lost her humanity, even falling in love with a civilian.  When her
fiancé was murdered, Nikita realized she had been betrayed and her dreams shattered by
the only people she thought she could trust, so she did what no one else before her had
been able to do: she escaped.  Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking
retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose
and destroy their covert operation. 


 For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young
people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient
killers.  One of these new recruits, Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca, “Kick-Ass,” “Desperate
Housewives”), is a beautiful girl with a violent past and a story  not so different from
Nikita’s.   After her parents were murdered, Alex’s life completely derailed.  Haunted by
her horrific past, she ended up drug-addicted and homeless until Division “rescued” her
and brought her into the fold.


Division’s top authority, Percy (Xander Berkeley, “Kick-Ass,” “24”) spent years
being a good government soldier, taking his role as an insider and  using it to turn the
secret organization into a lucrative spy-for-hire shop.  With Nikita gone rogue, Percy will
do whatever it takes to destroy her and protect the empire he’s built, and he often turns to
his top lieutenant, Michael (Shane West, “ER,” Once and Again”), for help.  Michael
trained Nikita when she was a recruit and is now faced with the responsibility of tracking
down his renegade student.  At the same time, Michael is in charge of training Alex,
Nikita’s young replacement, along with other recruits, including Thom (Ashton Holmes,
“Boston Legal”), who has been at Division for a year and is anxious to prove himself, and
Jaden (Tiffany Hines, “Bones”), a beautiful and tough young woman who challenges
Alex at every turn. 

The recruits all spend part of their training with Amanda (Melinda Clarke, “The
O.C.,” “The Vampire Diaries”), a master manipulator who can turn any ugly duckling
into a swan and any bleeding heart into a killer.  Her use of psychological warfare and
strategy is key to Percy’s entire operation.  Amanda has only had one failure during her
tenure at Division: Nikita, the recruit she was never able to break.  


Nikita also left her mark on Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford, “Traveler,” “X-Men: The
Last Stand”), the nonconformist computer  genius who was caught hacking into the
Pentagon’s system from his college dorm room and was recruited into Division at the
same time as Nikita.  Birkhoff never admits to anyone that he misses his former
colleague, and he has managed to hold onto his own rebel spirit, his geek-speak and his
slacker dress code.  


This is the world of Division that Alex now finds herself facing everyday, and she
is just beginning to understand why the legendary Nikita has dedicated herself to taking
them down.  

“Nikita” is from Warner Bros.Television in association with Wonderland Sound
and Vision, with executive producers Craig Silverstein (“Bones,” “K-Ville”), David
Levinson (“The Commish”), Danny Cannon (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,”
“Chuck”), McG (“Supernatural,” “Chuck,” “The O.C.,” “Charlie’s Angels”), and Peter
Johnson (“Supernatural,” “Chuck”).