Ellen DeGeneres and Lauren Graham are developing an NBC comedy about a late-night talkshow host. Why didn’t anyone think of doing this before?
Undoubtedly inspired by Lisa Kudrow’s The Comeback comeback, NBC has ordered a new scripted comedy series from Ellen DeGeneres’ production company A Very Good Production, which takes viewers behind the scenes of the entertainment industry.
The half-hour single-camera comedy Kate on Later will follow a female comedian who lands a late-night talkshow gig. It touches on the late-night talkshow takeover struggle networks face in real life, and the fact that the industry is still very male-dominated.
DeGeneres will serve as executive producer, with Lauren Graham (star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood) and Liz Tuccillo (who wrote He’s Just Not That Into You) as writers and co-execs.
NBC has only just sent the comedy into script development, which means the show isn’t yet guaranteed a pilot order. But if it heads into production, Lauren Graham is set to star as Kate.
This isn’t the first time Graham and DeGeneres have attempted to create a show together: in 2013, the pair sold a pilot to The CW titled Someday, Someday, Maybe, which was based on Graham’s debut novel.
However, the show failed to make it to air. Hopefully Kate on Later will have better luck, because it sounds promising! Ellen definitely has experience in that department, and can hopefully contribute some funny tropes and anecdotes.