‘The Paper’ to Get Broadcast Run This Fall on NBC, Which Will Also Debut New Cheerleader Comedy ‘Stumble’
Extra! Extra! “The Paper” is making its way to NBC this fall. “The Office” spinoff will become the first-ever Peacock series to get a full secondary run on its sister broadcast network, joining the Monday night lineup at 8:30 p.m. ET starting Monday, Nov. 10.
That means “The Paper” will be paired with returning comedy “St. Denis Medical” (which airs at 8 p.m. Mondays) to form an hour of laffers. NBC had previously announced that a second episode of “St. Denis Medical” would air at 8:30 p.m.; now it’s clear that was just a placeholder until NBCUniversal saw how “The Paper” did.
The answer is quite well, or at least good enough to for the option on a Season 2 was picked up (right before the show’s Sept. 4 launch), and “The Paper” landed in the Nielsen top ten. It’s also the second-highest comedy premiere ever for Peacock, behind just “Ted.” According to insiders, adding an NBC window on “The Paper” made sense given the long history of “The Office” and other workplace comedies on the network.
Also, folks in the know say an internal study showed that there is only around 4% duplication in viewership between NBC and Peacock audiences. Peacock viewers are also about a decade younger than those for NBC, and the network expects to skew more male this fall thanks to the NFL and NBA. As a result, the hope is this will expose “The Paper” to a very different demographic.
“Knowing how much ‘The Office’ was beloved by a broadcast audience when it aired on NBC, we wanted to give ‘The Paper’ a similar opportunity to connect,” said NBCU Entertainment president of scripted Lisa Katz. “One of the strengths of our company is meeting fans where they are by delivering shows across multiple platforms to maximize exposure and engagement.”
“The Paper” co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman have already opened the writers’ room for Season 2, with an eye toward bringing the show back around the same timeframe next year on Peacock. Whether that means it might also be back in the fall on NBC remains to be seen.
For the Season 1 broadcast run of “The Paper,” Daniels and Koman are overseeing the NBC edits (including cutting down the episodes to 22 minutes for primetime). This reps the first Peacock show to air in its entirety on NBC; previously, shows like “The Traitors,” “Bupkis” and “Mr. Throwback” have had special one-time showings on the network.
“St. Denis Medical” will still return for Season 2 a week earlier, on Oct. 3; the shows will continue to lead into “The Voice” at 9 p.m. ET and “Brilliant Minds” at 10 p.m. ET on Mondays.
Meanwhile, NBC has also finally added a new scripted series to its fall schedule: Comedy “Stumble,” which is set in the world of cheerleading, which will debut Friday, Nov. 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET. That will pair it with returning hit “Happy’s Place,” which runs at 8 p.m.
NBC also announced a double shot of “Happy’s Place” on Fridays, but with an eye toward eventually choosing one of its comedies in development at 8:30. It came down to “Stumble” or the Tracy Morgan laffer “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.” “Stumble” wound up ready to air five episodes this fall; “Reggie Dinkins” will premiere in midseason.
“Happy’s Place” and “Stumble” will be followed by “Dateline NBC” at 9 p.m. ET. When NBC originally announced its fall schedule, it did so without a single new scripted series. Now
“Stumble” is a single-camera comedy described as “a mockumentary about the ridiculously high stakes competitive world of junior college cheer.” Jenn Lyon, Taran Killam, Ryan Pinkston, Jarrett Austin Brown, Anissa Borrego, Arianna Davis, Taylor Dunbar and Georgie Murphy star, while Kristin Chenoweth is billed as a recurring player.
Among the executive producers is Monica Aldama, as seen in the Netflix docuseries “Cheer.” Also serving as exec producers/writers are comedy vets Jeff Astrof and Liz Astrof, while Dana Honor is an EP and Jeff Blitz is the EP/director for the pilot. The show comes from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Defining Eve Productions.
As for “The Paper,” which centers on a Toledo newspaper slowly being nursed back to health by a mostly clueless band of newbie journalists, the show stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key and Oscar Nuñez.
Greg Daniels (under Deedle-Dee Prods.) and Michael Koman are exec producers/writers, while other EPs include Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein, Ben Silverman and Banijay Americas (formerly Reveille). The show is from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Here is a look at photos from the new series “Stumble”:
That means “The Paper” will be paired with returning comedy “St. Denis Medical” (which airs at 8 p.m. Mondays) to form an hour of laffers. NBC had previously announced that a second episode of “St. Denis Medical” would air at 8:30 p.m.; now it’s clear that was just a placeholder until NBCUniversal saw how “The Paper” did.
The answer is quite well, or at least good enough to for the option on a Season 2 was picked up (right before the show’s Sept. 4 launch), and “The Paper” landed in the Nielsen top ten. It’s also the second-highest comedy premiere ever for Peacock, behind just “Ted.” According to insiders, adding an NBC window on “The Paper” made sense given the long history of “The Office” and other workplace comedies on the network.
Also, folks in the know say an internal study showed that there is only around 4% duplication in viewership between NBC and Peacock audiences. Peacock viewers are also about a decade younger than those for NBC, and the network expects to skew more male this fall thanks to the NFL and NBA. As a result, the hope is this will expose “The Paper” to a very different demographic.
“Knowing how much ‘The Office’ was beloved by a broadcast audience when it aired on NBC, we wanted to give ‘The Paper’ a similar opportunity to connect,” said NBCU Entertainment president of scripted Lisa Katz. “One of the strengths of our company is meeting fans where they are by delivering shows across multiple platforms to maximize exposure and engagement.”
“The Paper” co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman have already opened the writers’ room for Season 2, with an eye toward bringing the show back around the same timeframe next year on Peacock. Whether that means it might also be back in the fall on NBC remains to be seen.
For the Season 1 broadcast run of “The Paper,” Daniels and Koman are overseeing the NBC edits (including cutting down the episodes to 22 minutes for primetime). This reps the first Peacock show to air in its entirety on NBC; previously, shows like “The Traitors,” “Bupkis” and “Mr. Throwback” have had special one-time showings on the network.
“St. Denis Medical” will still return for Season 2 a week earlier, on Oct. 3; the shows will continue to lead into “The Voice” at 9 p.m. ET and “Brilliant Minds” at 10 p.m. ET on Mondays.
Meanwhile, NBC has also finally added a new scripted series to its fall schedule: Comedy “Stumble,” which is set in the world of cheerleading, which will debut Friday, Nov. 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET. That will pair it with returning hit “Happy’s Place,” which runs at 8 p.m.
NBC also announced a double shot of “Happy’s Place” on Fridays, but with an eye toward eventually choosing one of its comedies in development at 8:30. It came down to “Stumble” or the Tracy Morgan laffer “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins.” “Stumble” wound up ready to air five episodes this fall; “Reggie Dinkins” will premiere in midseason.
“Happy’s Place” and “Stumble” will be followed by “Dateline NBC” at 9 p.m. ET. When NBC originally announced its fall schedule, it did so without a single new scripted series. Now
“Stumble” is a single-camera comedy described as “a mockumentary about the ridiculously high stakes competitive world of junior college cheer.” Jenn Lyon, Taran Killam, Ryan Pinkston, Jarrett Austin Brown, Anissa Borrego, Arianna Davis, Taylor Dunbar and Georgie Murphy star, while Kristin Chenoweth is billed as a recurring player.
Among the executive producers is Monica Aldama, as seen in the Netflix docuseries “Cheer.” Also serving as exec producers/writers are comedy vets Jeff Astrof and Liz Astrof, while Dana Honor is an EP and Jeff Blitz is the EP/director for the pilot. The show comes from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, and Defining Eve Productions.
As for “The Paper,” which centers on a Toledo newspaper slowly being nursed back to health by a mostly clueless band of newbie journalists, the show stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key and Oscar Nuñez.
Greg Daniels (under Deedle-Dee Prods.) and Michael Koman are exec producers/writers, while other EPs include Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein, Ben Silverman and Banijay Americas (formerly Reveille). The show is from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
Here is a look at photos from the new series “Stumble”: