TCA16: Pop Orders Ali Wentworth Comedy Series

Keep up with all the happenings from the TCA 2016 Winter Tour at ourTCA16 news site.

Pasadena, Calif. -- Pop has ordered up its second scripted comedy series, Traci From Nightcap (working title), starring Ali Wentworth and co-produced with network co-owner (with CBS) Lionsgate. Wentworth (Starz's Head Case) stars as producer of a late-night comedy series, fictionally titled The Night Cap With Jimmy, and each half-hour episode will feature real-life celebrities and a mixed cast of improvisational actors, the network said.

Pop president Brad Schwartz told Multichannel News recently the network wanted a second comedy to help fill out a night with Schitt's Creek, the comedy starring Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara (among others) that returns this March, though Traci From Nightcap will launch midway through the second season of Schitt's Creek. Lionsgate Television also has a great track record with comedies, including Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Casual and Deadbeat, Schwartz noted. Production is slated to begin this month in New York City.

Pop ordered 10 episodes. Wentworth is an executive producer, along with a pair of EPs from Chelsea Lately, Tom Brunelle and Brad Wollack; and Troy Miller, Lydia Tenaglia, Chris Collins and Craig Shepherd. 

Pop also confirmed that a capella singing docuseries Sing It On will return for an eight-episode second season.

Read more of MCN's interview with Schwartz in the current edition of the magazine at this link (subscription required).

Kent Gibbons

Kent has been a journalist, writer and editor at Multichannel News since 1994 and with Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He is a good point of contact for anything editorial at the publications and for Nexttv.com. Before joining Multichannel News he had been a newspaper reporter with publications including The Washington Times, The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal and North County News.