NBC‘s high profile midseason drama series Believe, co-created and executive produced by Gravity director/co-writer Alfonso Cuaron and exec produced by J.J. Abrams, is undergoing a behind the scenes change. Executive producer/showrunner Dave Erickson is expected to depart. He will be succeeded by co-executive producer/director Jonas Pate who has been named executive producer/showrunner, a rare case of a director, not a writer taking the reins of a scripted serie. He directed the important second episode of the series that follows the pilot helmed by Cuaron. Pate joins executive producers Cuaron, Abrams, Bryan Burk as well as Hans Tobeason who will now serve as on-set producer in New York where the series films. This marks the second showrunner change on Believe. Co-creator/executive producer and original showrunner Mark Friedman left the series in July. To accommodate the showrunner transition, Believe is going on a holiday hiatus a week earlier that the previously scheduled Dec. 20 start. The extra week will be used to work on scripts. The series will resume production on Jan. 6 as originally scheduled. NBC has not slated Believe yet but had been looking to launch it after the Winter Olympics, using the sports event to promote the series and benefiting from the strong awards attention Cuaron is enjoying with Gravity. NBC recently announced it would hold a Believe panel at the upcoming January press tour. Believe is a very high concept drama – it centers on a young girl with an extraordinary ability and a man sprung from prison who has been tasked with protecting her from the evil elements that hunt her power. (watch trailed below) As such, it has been a process after the pilot trying figure out what the series should be, which has proven a challange. Believe has completed five episodes of its 13-episode order.

Related: Showrunner Mark Friedman Exits NBC’s J.J. Abrams Drama ‘Believe’