NBC added two more pilots to its impressive haul of prospective projects for the 2026-27 pilot season, with some major star power behind the latest additions.
The first is a still untitled buddy comedy starring Katey Sagal and Jane Lynch from writer and executive producer Kari Lizer. A logline for the project 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. Loosely inspired by real life best friends and therapists Pepper Schwartz and Janet Lever.” The pilot comes from Paramount Television Studios with EPs also including Lynch, Sagal, Krista Vernoff, Andrew Streant and Alexandre Schmitt via Trip the Light Productions. Pepper Schwartz and Janet Lever also serve as consulting producers.
The second comedy is “Newlyweds,” which follows “a later-in-life love story about a free-spirited woman and a buttoned-up professor who marry impetuously after a whirlwind courtship,” per the logline. No cast is attached so far for the project from writer and executive producer Gail Lerner. Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis is among the team of executive producers, which also includes Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, Scott Schwartz and Lionsgate Television. The project hails from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
The new projects make a total of eight potential new series in consideration for the next TV season, three comedies and five dramas.
On the comedy side, NBC also commissioned a pilot from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-creator Dan Goor and executive producer Luke Del Tredici for a workplace comedy set to “continue the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show.” The project will be produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Notably, all five drama series in consideration are centered around the crime genre. These include a reboot of “The Rockford Files” from writer and EP Mike Daniels announced, law enforcement drama “Protection” from Joshua Safran, investigation drama “What the Dead Know” Beth Rinehart and executive producer Dick Wolf, a crime drama from “Quantum Leap” EP Dean Georgaris and Joey Falco’s “Puzzled,” based on the “Puzzle Master” books by Danielle Trussoni.
The eight orders signal NBC’s efforts to bring back pilot season, which used to be the industry standard to test the viability of a TV project before awarding it a full series order.
