NBC is bolstering its pilot lineup with the addition of two comedies, both multi-camera productions. These new projects bring the network's total to eight for this season, surpassing the combined total of all broadcast networks ordered last year. The first project, an untitled show from the creator of "New Adventures of Old Christine," Kari Lizer, will star "Glee" and "Party Down" actress Jane Lynch and "8 Simple Rules" star Katey Sagal. The second, titled "Newlyweds," is from creator Gail Lerner ("Will & Grace," "Black-ish") and follows a couple who impulsively marries later in life.
NBC now counts three comedies among its pilot crop, with these two joining an untitled, single-camera show from "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" alumni Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici about an L.A. private eye. The network has also ordered five drama pilots, including a "Rockford Files" reboot, as it stages a mini-revival of the once frenetic network pilot season. (ABC and CBS have each ordered two pilots so far this development cycle, bringing the all-network total to 12.)
The pilot starring Lynch and Sagal is loosely inspired by the real-life friendship between therapists Pepper Schwartz and Janet Lever, who are consulting producers. The logline reads, "Ginger (Sagal) and Jill (Lynch) have always been a team as opposites that work best together. As they sort their past and look toward their future, they'll discover that in spite of it all, they wouldn't change a thing." The project comes from Paramount Television Studios, making it the first NBC pilot from an outside studio this year. Lizer is writing and executive producing alongside Lynch, Sagal, and Krista Vernoff, Andrew Stearn, and Alexandre Schmitt of Trip the Light Productions.
"Newlyweds" is a heartwarming tale of a free-spirited woman and a buttoned-up professor who impulsively marry after a whirlwind courtship. Universal Television is producing the show. Lerner wrote the pilot and will executive produce alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, Scott Schwartz, and Lionsgate Television.
