Nasim Pedrad’s ‘Chad’ Debuts as Top-Rated Cable Scripted Comedy of 2021

TBS series starring the “SNL” alum as a 14-year-old boy premiered to 1.9 million viewers

chad
Nasim Pedrad and Jake Ryan in "Chad" (Liane Hentscher/TBS)

Nasim Pedrad’s “Chad” had its formal premiere on Tuesday to nearly 700,000 total viewers, according to TBS.

The comedy, which stars the “Saturday Night Live” alum as a 14-year-old boy, currently stands as the year’s top-rated scripted comedy series on cable, thanks to a sneak peek after the Syracuse-Houston NCAA game last month.

In total, the premiere episode was watched by 1.9 million viewers across the two airings, with 765,000 in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

“From the moment Nasim came to the first table read as Chad, I knew this series was bound for success,” Brett Weitz, general manager for TBS, TNT and truTV, said. “Nasim is a four-hyphen-superstar; as creator-writer-EP-actor, she IS Chad, and her work and this series reinforces our commitment to always deliver a good time and laugh-out-loud scripted comedy.”

“There is a universal relatability to the awkwardness of being a teenager and Nasim embodies it so well that audiences have rallied behind it,” Sam Linsky and Adrienne O’Riain, co-heads of scripted programming, added. “We’re so grateful to the entire cast and crew for bringing this wonderfully diverse and hilarious story to life for TBS’ audience.”

“Chad” stars Pedrad as a 14-year-old pubescent Persian boy on a mission to become popular during his first year of high school. The long-gestating series was picked up at TBS in 2019 after previously having been developed at Fox. Pedrad is creator, writer, executive producer and showrunner, with Oly Obst, Robert Padnick, Rob Rosell and Rhys Thomas also executive producing.

TBS recently scored another win with the debut of its “Wipeout” reboot, which also leveraged an NCAA game lead-in to launch as the top-rated unscripted comedy on cable year-to-date.

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