ABC Orders Multi-Cam Comedy Pilot From Nate Bargatze, Jerrod Carmichael

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – ABC has formally ordered a pilot for the comedy series based on the life of comedian Nate Bargatze, Variety has learned.

The untitled multi-cam project was originally set up with a put pilot commitment at Fox before moving to last year. Bargatze will star in the series in addition to writing and executive producing. The project will be in contention for a potential midseason pickup.

The series follows Nate and his wife, who choose to move from California to Nate’s native Tennessee, where his parents still live, to raise their six-year-old daughter. They find the pursuit of a simple life to be much more complicated than they imagined.

Jerrod Carmichael will co-write and executive produce along with Bargatze. Ari Katcher and Dan Shaki will also write and co-executive produce. Danielle Sanchez-Witzel will executive produce and serve as showrunner. Tim Sarkes and Alex Murray of Brillstein Entertainment Partners will executive produce. 20th Century Fox Television will produce. Both Carmichael and Sanchez-Witzel are set up under overall deals at 20th TV.

Bargatze is a stand up comedian known for multiple appearances on shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Conan,” and “@midnight.” He released his first one-hour special “Nate Bargatze: Full Time Magic” in 2015 and appeared on “Comedy Central Presents” in 2011.

Carmichael, meanwhile, has been very active in the multi-cam space for some time now. He previously created and starred in the NBC multi-cam “The Carmichael Show” and executive produced the Fox multi-cam “Rel.” Carmichael is also an executive producer on the Hulu single-cam comedy “Ramy.”

Bargatze is repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Ginsburg Daniels. Shaki is repped by APA and Ginsburg Daniels. Carmichael is repped by UTA and APA for touring. Katcher is repped by UTA. Sanchez-Witzel is repped by UTA.

ABC picked up very few comedies for the 2019-2020 broadcast season. The only shows ordered were the “Black-ish” prequel “Mixed-ish” and the Sony-produced multi-cam “United We Fall.”

(Pictured: , left; Nate Bargatze, right)