CBS pilots Birbiglia’s “Secret Public Journal”

That’s the good news from the weekend. CBS ordered a scripted pilot of "Mike Birbiglia’s Secret Public Journal." I saw Birbiglia on Saturday night, when the news just broke, and his excitement was, as they say, palpable. "It’s so crazy!" he told me. Did CBS give you any indication as to the odds of actually ordering a 13-episode run for the fall? "They’re really excited about it," Birbiglia told me. In the wake of the writers strike, all of the networks also have cut back their orders this pilot season, which ups the odds for success this year.

So, what’s the bad news? "I’ll probably have to pull a bunch of my dates, though," he said. The pilot will film in April, right when Birbiglia’s supposed to be in the middle of his "What I Should Have Said Was Nothing" tour. Birbiglia told the crowd at Moonwork on Saturday night that he’s still doing his four different shows in four nights run at the end of this month at Carolines. After that? Not sure yet. Birbiglia’s showrunner, Andrew Secunda, was with him at Moonwork and then later at the Comedy Cellar, partly celebrating but mostly plotting out the pilot and brainstorming. "We’re already prepping for production," Birbiglia said.

UPDATED (3/19): Birbiglia has posted a new entry to his journal, in which he reports: "I’m going to have to postpone most of the upcoming tour,
including Boston, DC, Raleigh, Atlanta, Nashville, Indianapolis,
Cleveland, Detroit, Columbus, Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, and
Denver. I promise I will come to these cities. But right now we have to
shoot this pilot to have a chance to become a series in the fall.
Also, with slight scheduling changes, I will be definitely be appearing this weekend in Cincinnati, New York City, and hopefully Tempe, Los Angeles, and San Francisco at the end of April.
"

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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