Minka Kelly has been cast as the lead of the CW’s drama pilot Body Politic. She is joined by Jason Dohring, who also been cast in the pilot.

Body Politic, from producers at CBS Paramount, is a look inside Washington politics through the eyes of optimistic up-and-coming staffers.

Minka Kelly will play Hope, an all-American girl who leaves her life in Michigan after the death of her mother and heads to D.C., where her long-lost dad, U.S. Senator Webster, has just been appointed Attorney General, and takes a job on his staff.

Jason Dohring will play a reporter with the Washington Post.

For the Friday Night Lights fans whose hearts started racing, Kelly’s new role is not an sign that the football drama is not coming back - in fact, it likely will.

Kelly may merely be following the lead of her former Friday Night Lights co-stars Gaius Charles and Scott Porter in moving on along with their characters.

Negotiations between NBC and DirecTV are ongoing, and insiders are optimistic that Friday Night Lights will return for a fourth, and maybe fifth season.

Since Kelly’s character, Lyla Garrity, graduated from Dillon High School this season and is off to college (or the rodeo), she is no longer going to be a regular but may return for a multi-episode story arc if Friday Night Lights scores a fourth-season pickup.

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.