Just hours after NBC announced it would not pursue a remake of “Murder She Wrote,” the network also announced that it had made a deal with Bill Cosby to star in a new sitcom.
Cosby, of course, revitalized the family comedy — and NBC — when he starred in “The Cosby Show” for eight years. In this new project, Cosby, 76, would play the patriarch of a multigenerational family, a network spokesperson confirms.
NBC has not yet ordered a pilot and there is no studio attached, but they are currently meeting with writers to develop the project. Tom Werner, who produced “The Cosby Show,” will also produce the new comedy, according to deadline.com, who first reported the news.
“The Cosby Show” premiered on NBC in 1984 and helped revive the sitcom genre, which was flagging at the time, and the network’s ratings by leading off its “Must-See TV” Thursday lineup. It was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive seasons.
The deal with Cosby comes as NBC’s “The Michael J. Fox Show,” a vehicle for another veteran sitcom star, recently hit a 0.6 rating in the “money” demo of adults 18-49 and just 2 million viewers for its most recent episode.