SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

TBS has ordered a new 22-episode season of Twentieth Century Fox Television's animated hit American Dad!, which is currently in the midst of its first season as a TBS original. Created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, American Dad! is executive-produced by MacFarlane, Weitzman and new showrunner Brian Boyle. The series airs Mondays at 9pm (ET/PT) on TBS, with encores presented by sister network Adult Swim. Since coming to TBS in mid-October, American Dad! has ranked as one of basic cable's Top 3 entertainment programs in the Monday 9pm timeslot with adults 18-34 and one of the Top 5 entertainment programs in its timeslot with adults 18-49. The current season is averaging 3.1 million viewers in combined audience for each week's premiere on TBS and encore on Adult Swim.

Hulu announced a straight-to-series pick-up of Difficult People from executive producers Amy Poehler (Parks & Recreation) and Dave Becky (Louie). The half-hour comedy series marks the first collaboration between Hulu and Universal Cable Productions and is set to start production early next year. Difficult People hails from Julie Klausner (Billy on the Street) who stars alongside Emmy(R)-nominated Billy on the Street host Billy Eichner. As best friends living in New York City, their typical, irreverent behavior lands them in some very awkward situations. Klausner wrote the pilot and will also serve as an executive producer for the series. In addition to the 7th (and final) season of Parks and Recreation, Poehler and recently announced new partner Brooke Posch's Paper Kite Productions produces the hit shows Broad City on Comedy Central and NBC's Welcome to Sweden. Difficult People joins Hulu's growing slate of original programming, including recent straight-to-series pick-up orders for Casual, a comedy series from Jason Reitman and 11/22/63, an original event series from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions, based on Stephen King's best-selling book.