What’s happening in the comedy world now…
- Craiggers?! Is Craig Kilborn really coming back to TV after all of these years? Kilborn, the original host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show (before Jon Stewart) and CBS’ Late Late Show (before Craig Ferguson) has shot a talk-show pilot for CNN.
- Jay Mohr wrote on his Twitter feed last night that he had “DREAM GIG.” Turns out that gig is sports-talk on the radio, middays, starting on Jan. 2, 2013, with FOX Sports Radio. Jay Mohr Sports will air live weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET. Mohr is managed by Barry Katz. No word on how this will impact his current podcasting schedule.
- ABC has announced the first celebrity guests for Jimmy Kimmel’s new episodes in the 11:35 p.m. time slot. First up: Jennifer Aniston and No Doubt. Jimmy Kimmel Live announced Jamie Foxx, Mark Wahlberg, Ryan Gosling, Sofia Vergara, Ellen DeGeneres, Rob Lowe, Amy Brenneman, Nicki Minaj, Mindy Kaling, Julie Bowen, Naomi Watts, and Kim and Kourtney Kardashian will show up in January.
- Natasha Lyonne has a script commitment from FOX for a potential half-hour sitcom starring her as a woman trying to sober up and doing so while moving in with her brother’s family. It’s a 3 Arts production.
- WE tv says Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best will return for its third season on Feb. 23, 2013 — guests appearing in the worlds of Joan Rivers and daughter Melissa will include Jane Lynch, Lily Tomlin, Ellie Kemper, Kelly Osbourne, Graham Norton, Kato Kaelin and Chris Harrison.
- Michael Ian Black is adapting his memoir, You’re Not Doing It Right, for ABC with a script commitment — Black is writing it with executive production from Ben Stiller and Red Hour.
- Tennis, anyone? The Office‘s Greg Daniels and his Deedle-Dee Productions have an untitled single-cam in the works with FOX about a tennis pro who goes back to college — or at least the town he went to college — for a second chance.
- In other ABC development news, it has given a script commitment to a single-cam based on Justin Bieber’s offstage life, and ordered another pilot with an abbreviated profanity in the title, single-cam’s How the F am I Normal. It’s set in the 1980s as a look at writer Adam F. Goldberg’s childhood.
- HBO, for its part, set People in New Jersey to pilot. It’s a half-hour about a brother and sister living in, obviously, New Jersey. Big names attached, with Bruce Eric Kaplan, co-executive producer on Girls, writing the script and EP’ing with Jason Reitman, who will direct. And Lorne Michaels also is on board with this one. Also to pilot: an untitled comedy about three gay people in San Francisco.