The USA network already has a number of hits on its hands, including "Royal Pains," "White Collar" and "Covert Affairs." And next week the cable channel hopes to introduce another winner to its line-up.

Starring Sarah Shahi, "Fairly Legal" takes a different viewpoint to the legal drama sub-genre, by focusing on a mediator instead of a prosecutor. As Kate Reed (Shahi) solves all of the professional problems that being a mediator sends her way, she still struggles with her personal life … including a "wicked" stepmother and a husband she is trying to divorce.

Originally the show was developed under the title "Facing Kate" and a 90-minute pilot episode was filmed in early 2010. An additional 11 episodes were quickly ordered to form a first season, however this was later reduced by two episodes due to "scheduling" conflicts.

So, up against numerous established shows and being compared to USA's more recognizable character-based programming, "Fairly Legal" may have to prove itself in the weeks to come. But according to series creator Michael Sardo, the only pressure he ever faced was in the actual production of the series. Now that shooting has ended, the pressure is off.

"The pressure for me is all during the season while we’re shooting. Now it’s sort of this other thing that exists," he recently told InsideBlip. "The network will have their own expectations for the show, their own metric on which they measure it against, and I actually don’t know what those are in terms of what makes them happy.

"My job is to make the best show that I can and the most interesting show, and if I think too much about those other things, who we’ll be against or who is watching it, it seeps into the show in a bad way. So I have to section myself off from that a little bit."

One thing that Sardo was keen to point out though is that television is a versatile marketplace where the attitudes and trends vary tremendously, meaning that a series can be topical one year but irrelevant the next.

"I don’t always know why people watch what they watch or if a show that they viewed to enormous success two years ago would have done the same thing this year or last year," he said. "You hope that people respond to that character at that point in time. But the pressure for me is off, because the things I’ve done are wrapped and done. So I’ll be sitting at home watching the show with everybody else."

And, part of making the show an enjoyable experience is in keeping the tone light, fun and different from week to week. As a mediator, Kate will encounter all kinds of personal and professional issues needing her attention, and thanks to the setting of San Francisco, the series will showcase people from all walks of life.

Not only that, the stories will be deeply personal, leading the audience to draw parallels with their own experiences … just as Sardo did during production.

"I tried to keep the tone of this show, again my own experience in life, he said. "Which is that moments of great drama and great comedy happen very close to each other and sometimes simultaneously, especially at moments when something personal is at stake.

"When I say personal stake, I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve never been abducted by aliens, I’ve never met a serial murderer, I’ve never been kidnapped; a lot of things that people have been through, but our show is about, I think you’ll see a lot of things, issues and stories, that are very relatable and yet very dramatic. So I think in terms of the relatability of our show for the characters, the people who are coming to Kate for help, there’s a big difference in terms of the type of storytelling and the reasons for the stories."

"Fairly Legal" premieres Jan. 20 on USA.