SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

In advance of the Disney Advertising Sales Virtual Roadshow presentation, Freeform highlighted its commitment to bold and boundary-pushing young adult content with the pickups of both Everything's Gonna be Okay and Motherland: Fort Salem, as well as the recently announced scripted romantic-comedy series Love in the Time of Corona, which begins production this summer. Freeform has picked up critically acclaimed comedy Everything's Gonna Be Okay” for a second season. The series, which is created, executive produced and stars Josh Thomas, follows Nicholas, a neurotic twenty-something-year-old who is forced to raise his two teenage half-sisters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, after the untimely death of their father. The series stars Josh Thomas, Kayla Cromer, Adam Faison and Maeve Press.

Freeform's number one comedy series grown-ish, which had its midseason finale in March, will return to the network next year to finish up season three. Starring Yara Shahidi, Trevor Jackson, Francia Raisa, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, Luka Sabbat and Diggy Simmons, grown-ish is produced by ABC Signature Studios, a part of Disney Television Studios, and executive produced by Kenya Barris, Julie Bean, Jenifer Rice-Genzuk Henry, Craig Doyle, Anthony Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland and E. Brian Dobbins. From executive producers Bert V. Royal and Jessica Biel, Freeform's highly anticipated psychological thriller Cruel Summer will now debut in 2021. Olivia Holt (Marvel's Cloak & Dagger”) returns to the network to co-star in the series. The unconventional drama takes place over three summers in the '90s when a beautiful and popular teen goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town, eventually becoming the most despised person in America. Each episode is told from alternating POVs. The series stars Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee and Brooklyn Sudano.

Freeform's fan-favorite series Good Trouble, which had its season two finale in March, will return to the network next year for season three. Starring Maia Mitchell, Cierra Ramirez, Sherry Cola, Tommy Martinez, Zuri Adele, Emma Hunton, Josh Pence and Beau Mirchoff, the series follows residents of Downtown Los Angeles' The Coterie as they deal with the consequences of their personal and professional decisions and realize that sometimes standing up for what you believe in comes at a price. And Freeform's limited scripted series Love in the Time of Corona, from Good Trouble's Joanna Johnson, will go into production this summer and premiere in August. This four-part romantic comedy series is a funny and hopeful look at the search for love, sex and connection during this time of social distancing. Also this summer, fan-favorite series The Bold Type returns on Thursday, June 11, at 10:00 p.m. EDT/PDT, continuing its fourth season.

Fox has renewed family comedy Last Man Standing and medical drama The Resident for the 2020-2021 season. Last Man Standing, starring Tim Allen, will enter its third season on Fox, and ninth in total. The Resident will enter its fourth season. And in late breaking news, Fox has also picked-up current freshman drama Prodigal Son starring Tom Payne for a second season in the 2020-2021 season. All three series will air sometime in 2021 as they were not announced for the Fall 2020 schedule, as most scripted series cannot resume production yet. 

We have all of the major updates from the TCA Winter 2020 Press Tour where more cable networks presented Fri-Sun. We'll focus on comedy news, of course. Fresh off of last week's buzzed-about season premiere, grown-ish has been picked up for a fourth season on Freeform. Starring Yara Shahidi, Trevor Jackson, Francia Raisa, Emily Arlook, Jordan Buhat, Chloe Bailey, Halle Bailey, Luka Sabbat and Diggy Simmons, the series is a contemporary take on the issues that students face in the world of higher education. Freeform's new comedy Everything's Gonna Be Okay, which The New York Times called "a charming dramedy, with an oddball voice and a bittersweet undercurrent," will have a special airing of its pilot episode on sister network FX on Wednesday (Jan. 22) at 10 p.m. EST/PST.

National Geographic Global Television Networks President announced additional season pickups of hit franchise series Brain Games, Running Wild with Bear Grylls and Life Below Zero. It was also announced that the second season of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted will premiere on Sunday, May 10, at 10/9c on National Geographic. Family entertainment network BYUtv announced its new comedy competition series Wayne Brady's Comedy IQ, created and hosted by multiple Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated Wayne Brady and his producing partner, Mandie Taketa. The show, which counts Queen Latifah among its executive producers, will premiere on April 6, 2020. Meanwhile, Apple announced that Central Park, an animated musical comedy from Emmy Award winner Loren Bouchard (Bob's Burgers), executive producer Josh Gad (Frozen) and executive producer Nora Smith (Bob's Burgers), will premiere exclusively on Apple TV+ this summer. Central Park is an animated musical comedy about the Tillermans, a family that lives in Central Park. Owen, the park manager, and Paige, his journalist wife, raise their kids Molly and Cole in the world's most famous park, while fending off hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham and her long suffering assistant Helen, who would love nothing more than to turn the park into condos. The series voice cast includes Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr., Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs and Stanley Tucci.

Apple announced that Trying, its first original series from the UK to debut on Apple TV+, will premiere Friday, May 1 around the world. All Jason and Nikki want is a baby. But it's the one thing they just can't have. Starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith, Trying is a new comedy series about growing up, settling down and finding someone to love. BAFTA Award winner Imelda Staunton also stars. The series, featuring eight half-hour episodes, hails from BBC Studios and is written by Andy Wolton. The new series will premiere globally on Apple TV+, a new home for the world's most creative storytellers. Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch, Mac, select Samsung smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, as well as at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards® presented its coveted Actor® statuettes for the outstanding motion picture and television performances of 2019 at the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, held Sunday, Jan. 19 at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall. The television winners are below:

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series
SAM ROCKWELL / Bob Fosse – FOSSE/VERDON

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series
MICHELLE WILLIAMS / Gwen Verdon – FOSSE/VERDON

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister – GAME OF THRONES

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
JENNIFER ANISTON / Alex Levy – THE MORNING SHOW

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
TONY SHALHOUB / Abe Weissman – THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE / Fleabag – FLEABAG

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
THE CROWN

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series
GAME OF THRONES

Freeform will be changing up its schedule this January. Among the new additions are Family Guy, which will air Fridays from 8pm-11pm starting Friday, Jan. 3. In a quiet addition, Freeform has acquired current NBC comedy Superstore and will air it weekday mornings from 7am-9:30am starting Monday, Jan. 6. In a corporate synergy move, The Simpsons will now air regularly on Freeform Monday-Friday from 4pm-6pm starting Jan. 6 (and of course it will still remain on FXX). The only other sitcom on the schedule is The Middle, which will now air usually between 1pm-4pm.

January is also a big month for Freeform for original series. The new Party of Five has its series premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 8 with back to back episodes from 9pm-11pm. Drama Good Trouble has its season premiere the following week on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 10pm. In comedy news, grown-ish has its season premiere on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 8pm, followed by new comedy Everything's Gonna Be Okay with its series premiere on the same night (Thursday, Jan. 16) with back to back episodes from 8:30pm-9:30pm. And finally, returning drama The Bold Type has its season premiere the following week on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 9pm.

WarnerMedia and Xandr, both part of AT&T, announced the two companies will join together for the first time on the Upfront stage next May 13, 2020. This inaugural event will showcase the future of advertising capabilities. After more than a year of significant collaboration, launching new and enhanced products with dozens of successful advertising case studies, both will step out on stage together. WarnerMedia and Xandr will share the unparalleled opportunity to advertisers when assembling world-class brands, premium content and experiences, powerful advertising technology, distinct collections of audiences, personalized insights, 5G-enabled capabilities, and a future-look for ongoing innovation.

In 2019, both teams collaborated on go-to-market strategies but featured two separate, complementary Upfront events. Building on what both groups accomplished in the past year, this Upfront promises to not only highlight premium storytelling and content coming to the WarnerMedia brands, but also lean into tangible results through advertising solutions available now, with an eye toward future development, including the anticipated AVOD version of HBO Max, expected in 2021. The WarnerMedia and Xandr Upfront will take place the morning of Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Additional details will be available closer to the date of the event.

Freeform announces Josh Thomas' return to television with Everything's Gonna Be Okay, premiering Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. Critically acclaimed for his series Please Like Me, Thomas once again takes on a multifaceted role as creator, writer, executive producer and star of the 30-minute comedy, which introduces Nicholas (Josh Thomas), a neurotic twenty-something-year-old visiting his dad and teenage half-sisters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum. When Nicholas' trip is extended due to his father's untimely death, the siblings are left to cope with not only a devastating loss, but also the realization that Nicholas is the one who will have to rise to the occasion, move in, and hold it all together. A first-look clip wherein Nicholas proposes guardianship of his sisters, Matilda and Genevieve, is available here.

Navigating autism, budding sexuality, consent, parenthood, adolescence, family and grief, the heartfelt comedy will follow this imperfect family as they discover the importance of finding happiness in the middle of really difficult moments, one awkward conversation at a time. Neurodiverse actress and activist Kayla Cromer stars as Matilda, a high school senior who is driven to succeed and on the autism spectrum. She is Nicholas' bright and outgoing half-sister who is curious and contemplative; if she doesn't initially understand something, she'll put in the work to figure it out. 17-year-old stand-up comedienne Maeve Press stars as Genevieve, Nicholas' other half-sister who has a unique comedic sensibility; she is clever, dramatic and definitely a little weird. At school she's at odds with her authentic self, hanging around a group of girls who sharply contrast her kind-hearted family and struggling to find her place in the world. Newcomer Adam Faison rounds out the cast of series regulars as Alex, Nicholas' romantic interest introduced in the first episode.

HBO Max, the upcoming direct-to-consumer offering from WarnerMedia set to launch in the spring of 2020, has teamed up with Emmy(R) Award Winner Ellen DeGeneres, ordering three original shows straight to series: Ellen's Home Design Challenge, First Dates Hotel, and Little Ellen, as well as docu-series Finding Einstein in development. DeGeneres announced the pickups last week on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and didn't stop there. She also surprised her audience with a two-year HBO Max subscription in celebration of the news.

It's time for another edition of Fri-Yay! That means we will take a look back on some sitcom happenings in recent days or weeks or other fun sitcomy stuff. It's a sitcom lover's paradise! Happy Fri-Yay!

by Vincent

I know I've talked about The Good Place a lot on this column, but it's the most exciting sitcom - or actually, TV show in general - right now, so I often have a lot of thoughts about it. This column will contain spoilers for last week's Good Place, so if you aren't caught up you might want to stop reading.

Last week, The Good Place seemed to begin to process of doing what I've wanted it to do since the first season - question the ethics of the show's afterlife, where the criteria to get into The Good Place seems nearly impossible. The episode reveals that no one has made it into the good place in 500 years. Now, it's entirely possible the show will walk this back, but it seems to me that the show is finally posting the moral questions it's been hinting at for so long. And what better place to do that than the actual good place? Yep - the show is supposedly in the actual good place at the end of the most recent episode. It's been three years coming, but it seems to finally be happening.

This is a really exciting direction for the show, especially given that parts of this season have felt a little slow, at least by the show's standards. The show spent the large bulk of Season 3 on Earth, which allowed for some interesting character work, but lacked the inventive fun of the first two seasons. Now, though, we seem to be fully back in the afterlife, and the show is once again toying with format, plot, and experimentation the way it did in its first two seasons. As we come to the end of its third season, I can't wait to see where The Good Place goes next.

Freeform has picked up Everything's Gonna Be Okay to series with a 10-episode order. From Please Like Me creator, writer and comedian Josh Thomas, and produced by Avalon Television and Freeform, the half-hour comedy introduces Nicholas (Josh Thomas), a neurotic 25-year-old still living at home with his single dad and two teenage half-sisters, one of which has autism. He is not particularly helpful in raising his siblings, but when their dad becomes terminally ill, the girls have to cope with not only a devastating loss but also the realization that Nicholas is the one who will have to hold it all together.

Thomas created the concept, wrote and stars in the pilot and will serve as showrunner with David Martin, Jon Thoday, and Richard Allen-Turner serving as executive producers for Avalon Television. Stephanie Swedlove and Kevin Whyte also serve as executive producers. The series will star Josh Thomas, Kayla Cromer, Maeve Press and Adam Faison.