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Fox Scraps Tina Fey Comedy

Aug 18, 2014  •  Post A Comment

A Tina Fey comedy that appeared to be a go at Fox is now dead. The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed reports that the network has scrapped plans for Fey’s “Cabot College.”

“The comedy set at a women’s college that begins admitting men for the first time was considered a frontrunner for a six-episode order under former Fox Chairman Kevin Reilly in May,” THR reports. “That all changed when Reilly stepped down and studio chiefs Dana Walden and Gary Newman were tapped to oversee the network, appointing Fox TV Studios’ David Madden as entertainment president and now passing on the comedy from Universal Television. Sources tell THR that Fox has declined to pick up the options on the cast and the project is now dead.”

The project was executive produced by Fey and fellow “30 Rock” veterans Matt Hubbard, Robert Carlock and David Miner, with a cast that included Margaret Cho, Bonnie Dennison and Fortune Feimster, the report notes.

“The multicamera project, written by Hubbard, landed at Fox following a multiple-network bidding war with a hefty series commitment attached in August and was subsequently picked up to pilot,” THR reports. “Comedies ‘Cabot College’ and Justin Long and Nick Frost starrer ‘Sober Companion’ were both considered frontrunners to earn series orders at Fox under Reilly. Fox went so far as to promote ‘Sober Companion,’ from CBS Television Studios, at its upfront presentation to Madison Avenue ad buyers in May. That project still remains in contention at the network as Walden and Newman continue to review their options, but the status of ‘Sober Companion’ remains unclear.”

Fey, Carlock and Miner still have “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” set up at NBC for a midseason rollout, the report notes. “That comedy, starring ‘The Office’ alum Ellie Kemper, received a straight-to-series order for fall and was subsequently left off NBC’s schedule and slotted for midseason,” the report notes.

THR adds: “For the upcoming 2014-15 broadcast season, Fox has only ‘The Last Man on Earth,’ ‘Mulaney’ and ‘Weird Loners’ (as well as animated entry ‘Bordertown’) on the schedule. Rather than greenlight any of its comedy pilots, Fox instead upped the order on ‘Mulaney’ from six to 16 episodes. ‘Weird Loners’ and ‘Last Man on Earth,’ like ‘Mulaney,’ were picked up straight to series under Reilly’s plan to abandon pilot season. Of the three, Fox will premiere only ‘Mulaney’ in the fall.”

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Tina Fey

2 Comments

  1. It is not a cheap reality show. So Kevin Reilly isn’t interested.

    • Seeing that Reilly is no longer with FOX, it doesn’t matter what he thinks.

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