Today, USA Network announced that it has given series orders for its first original half-hour comedies, Sirens and Playing House. It has also picked up a new comedy pilot, Love Is Dead. USA Network says the series will debut in the first quarter of 2014, and the network looks for them to complement Modern Family, which will air on USA Network beginning Sept. 24.
According to Chris McCumber, co-president of USA Network, “This is the right time to be introducing half-hour original comedies to the USA audience. With Modern Family joining our lineup in the fall, we can leverage television’s most popular comedy to serve as a powerful launchpad for new originals in this genre.”
Playing House is a single-camera comedy about what happens when two best friends come back together just when they need each other most. The series is inspired by the friendship between stars, cowriters and executive producers Jessica St. Clair (left in photo) and Lennon Parham (right in photo). Parham plays mother-to-be Maggie, who asks her single and career-driven best friend Emma (St. Clair) to return home from her job overseas to attend her baby shower. But Maggie has no idea what is truly in store.
Sirens, from Denis Leary (Rescue Me) and Bob Fisher (Wedding Crashers), follows three of Chicago’s best EMTs, whose personalities make them unqualified for sustaining relationships, friendships and most occupations, but who are uniquely qualified for saving anyone who winds up in their ambulance. Michael Mosley, Kevin Daniels, Jessica McNamee and Kevin Bigley star in this series based on a U.K. format.
The pilot for Love Is Dead is based on an award-winning French short film of the same name, and is set at a company that specializes in breaking up romantic relationships on behalf of those who are willing to pay to not be around when it happens.
UPDATE 5/22/13: USA Network announced that it has also greenlit the half-hour comedy pilot Divide & Conquer, a family comedy about parents trying to raise their kids. The series comes from executive producer and writer Peter Ocko (Fairly Legal, The Office).
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Playing House: Evans Vestal Ward/USA Network
