CBS Orders Comedy Pilot ‘Unplanned in Akron’ From ‘Call Me Kat’s’ Schuyler Helford

Wilson Chapman editorJo Koy’s ABC comedy pilot “Josep” is filling out its cast with three new series regulars.Kimee Balmilero, Tess Paras and Jason Rogel have been added to the series, which stars Koy as Jo, a divorced Filipino American father navigating dating, his career as a nurse and his complicated relationship with his mother.Balmilero will play Geraldine, Koy’s married sister who runs a Filipino restaurant with her white husband. Paras plays Cheryl, Jo’s ex-wife and mother to his son Miles.

Hulu is proceeding with a pilot order to Bammas, a comedy written, executive produced by and starring Opeyemi “Opey” Olagbaju & Biniam Bizuneh.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterHulu has ordered the comedy pilot “Bammas” written by and starring Opeyemi Olagbaju and Biniam Bizuneh, Variety has learned.The show follows a pair of young Ethiopian- and Nigerian-American best friends as they struggle to overcome their loser reputations in a magical realist version of Washington DC.Olagbaju and Bizuneh serve as executive producers in addition to starring and writing. Danny Chun (“The Office” “The Simpsons”), who mentored the pair at the Sundance Lab in 2019, will serve as showrunner and executive producer.

IMDb TV, Amazon’s premium free streaming service, has given a formal pilot order to Western, a half-hour period comedy from Sony Pictures Television, Amazon Studios and Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Sony TV-based Lord Miller.

EXCLUSIVE: Modern Family star Ariel Winter has been tapped as the lead of NBC’s multi-camera comedy series Hungry. She succeeds Demi Lovato who had been attached to the project for almost a year but stepped down from acting duties Thursday for scheduling reasons just as the pilot was about to start production.

EXCLUSIVE: This is a surprise. Demi Lovato, who had been attached as star in NBC’s multi-camera comedy pilot Hungry for a year, has stepped down from acting duties in the project just as it was about to start production. Lovato, along with their manager Scooter Braun, remain executive producers.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMia Katigbak has been cast in the upcoming ABC comedy pilot “Josep.”Katigbak will appear opposite previously announced series lead Jo Koy and Rory O’Malley. The show follows a recently divorced Filipino American nurse (Koy) attempting to navigate dating, fatherhood and a very Filipino mother who loves to “help.”Katigbak will star as Lorna, Jo’s mom. She is described as a little Filipino force of nature.

EXCLUSIVE: Rory O’Malley is set as a lead opposite Jo Koy in Josep, ABC’s single-camera comedy pilot from 20th Television.

HBO has given a pilot green light to Computer School, a single-camera comedy written/executive produced by Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, creators of the cult Netflix sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. Robinson will co-star in the pilot, which is directed by Andrew Gaynord (Stath Lets Flats).

Joe Otterson TV ReporterTim Robinson and Zach Kanin have set up the comedy pilot “Computer School” at HBO Max, Variety has learned.In the pilot, a recent high school grad and his uncle attend the same computer class in suburban Michigan. Robinson will star as the uncle. Robinson and Kanin are writing and executive producing the pilot.

EXCLUSIVE: Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and Ryan McPartlin are set as series regulars in Hungry, NBC’s single-camera comedy pilot, starring and executive produced by Demi Lovato. Additionally, multi-Emmy-winning sitcom director James Burrows will direct the pilot, which comes from Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills, SB Projects and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

SEAL Team star Max Thieriot has closed a deal to headline CBS drama pilot Cal Fire, a project he co-wrote and executive produces.

CBS has given a pilot order to Unplanned in Akron, a multi-camera comedy from Schuyler Helford (Call Me Kat), Eric Feig’s Picturestart and CBS Studios.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterCBS has ordered comedy pilots from “Jane the Virgin” creator Jennie Snyder Urman and Lonely Island crew Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.The Urman-produced multi-cam project is called “Sober Companion” and follows Eliza, a hot-mess alcoholic who owns a bar with her uncle in New Orleans. She is forced to get her life together when the court appoints her an exhaustingly upbeat sober companion with whom she has to live 24/7.The potential series is based on a story by Urman, Gracie Glassmeyer and David Rosenthal.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max is not moving forward with half-hour family comedy pilot Camp Friends (working title).

Selome Hailu CBS has given a pilot order to “Rust Belt News,” a comedy written and executive produced by Matt Warburton.The single-camera series is set in a small Ohio town where the local newspaper goes out of business, leaving the ambitious, angsty reporters of the high school newspaper as the only people left to report on scandals, dig up corruption and generally polish the rust off their rust-belt community.Along with Warburton, executive producers include Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo on behalf of Alloy Entertainment. Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Yellowstone” prequel “1883” has been renewed for Season 2 at Paramount Plus, and the ViacomCBS-owned streaming service has ordered another Taylor Sheridan-created origin-story show following the Dutton Family called “1932.” Yes, you guessed it — the show will follow a new generation of Duttons “during the time of western expansion, Prohibition and the Great Depression.”“1883″ stars Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Billy Bob Thornton, Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett, Marc Rissmann, Audie Rick, Eric Nelsen and James Landry Hébert.The show follows the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. It is a stark retelling of western expansion and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land — Montana.