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NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock, is tapping its established comedy crew for three new series, while Amber Ruffin and Larry Wilmore will host back-to-back weekly late-night talkers, the company said Monday at the virtual Television Critics Association press tour.
Two Saturday Night Live vets—Tina Fey and Will Forte—will executive produce new series on the service. Forte is bringing back MacGruber, a spoof on classic TV’s MacGyver, after first debuting the character on Saturday Night Live and then turning the ongoing skit into a feature film in 2010. The eight-episode series will be directed by original director, Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, who also wrote the skit on SNL. Forte’s SNL castmate Kirsten Wiig is due to return as MacGruber’s love interest.
The above trailer cleverly cobbles together stock footage with socially-distanced takes of Forte in character on a rock by the beach at sunset. MacGruber is expected to premiere on Peacock in 2021. Forte serves as writer and executive producer alongside John Solomon and Taccone. Lorne Michaels, John Goldwyn, Andrew Singer and Erin David also serve as executive producers. MacGruber is from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Broadway Video.
Another famous SNL alum, Tina Fey, is again partnering with Robert Carlock (30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) on Girls5eva starring Sara Bareilles, who is just coming off of composing the soundtrack and producing Apple TV+’s Little Voice. Bareilles stars as a member of a 90s girl group that returns to fame when they get sampled by a famous rapper, but now they have middle-aged things to deal with like kids, mortgages and so forth. Meredith Scardino will executive produce and serve as showrunner.
Another highly successful NBC comedy producer, Michael Schnur (The Office, Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place) is behind Rutherford Falls, which he is co-creating and executive producing with Ed Helms and Sierra Teller Ornelas. Starring in the series about a small town in upstate New York and the Native American reservation it borders are Helms, Jana Schmieding, Michael Greyeyes, Jesse Leigh and Dustin Milligan.
Mike Falbo, David Miner and Morgan Sackett also serve as executive producers. Rutherford Falls is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Fremulon, 3 Arts Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company.
Peacock also is launching a weekly topical talk block with shows from Amber Ruffin, a writer and performer on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Larry Wilmore.
Nine half-hour episodes of The Amber Ruffin Show will debut in September. Ruffin, Jenny Hagel, Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker serve as executive producers. The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions.
The as-of-yet untitled Larry Wilmore Show also will debut in September with 11 half-hour episodes. Wilmore was a frequent guest commentator and senior Black correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He also is an executive producer on ABC’s Black-ish. Wilmore, who has an overall production deal with Universal TV, Jo Miller, Tony Hernandez, Brooke Posch, David Miner and Michael Rotenberg serve as executive producers. The series is produced by Jax Media and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Also making its premiere on Peacock is the off-NBC AP Bio, starring Glenn Howerton and Patton Oswalt:
A reboot of Saved by the Bell— featuring both the original and a new cast of characters, including Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkeley—also will debut soon on Peacock.
Tags: amber ruffin ed helms girls5eva larry wilmore macgruber michael schnur peacock robert carlock rutherford falls sara bareilles tina fey will forte