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NBC Switches Showrunners on New Comedy Series

Aug 21, 2012  •  Post A Comment

A new fall NBC comedy series is off to a bumpy start. First the show became the target of anger among viewers because of a couple of incidents during NBC’s coverage of the Olympics, and now the series will see its production delayed while it installs a new showrunner, Deadline.com reports.

"Animal Practice" showrunner Gail Lerner is leaving, with Marco Pennette coming in to take over the role, the story notes. The reason may be tied to Pennette’s development/overall deal at Universal TV, the story says.

"To accommodate the change and give Pennette time to get up to speed, I hear that the series’ planned hiatus has been pushed up by a week. ‘Animal Practice,’ which just wrapped Episode 3, was supposed to start Episode 4 right away and take a hiatus next week. It will take the week-long break now instead," the story reports.

"Pennette is a sought-after showrunner who is credited with helping get ABC’s ‘Ugly Betty’ off the ground and was a key writer-producer on ‘Desperate Housewives,’" Deadline adds.

As previously reported, some viewers of the London Olympics were angered by NBC’s decision to edit out parts of the closing ceremony to fit in a preview of "Animal Practice." The show was also involved in an incident earlier in the Olympics that bothered some viewers, in which a promo for the show — featuring a monkey doing gymnastics — was placed in an unfortunate spot in the women’s gymnastics competition, as we reported earlier.

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