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According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Lesley Goldberg, James and his production company SpringHill Entertainment are developing a sports-themed comedy for CBS. Titled Thankless, the series will follow a group of assistants working at a sports agency based in Chicago.
James and his business partner Maverick Carter are executive producers on the project, which will be written (and presumably run) by Craig Gerard and Matt Zinman, who were the creative team behind sitcoms How I Met Your Mother and Grandfathered.
SpringHill Entertainment has been busy getting projects picked up during the television’s development period. As Goldberg points out, the company also has a family comedy in the works at NBC with Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Cougar Town). Also in development with NBC is a sports medicine drama, which boasts renowned orthopedist Dr. James Andrews as a consultant. (So this will be like a more serious version of Trainwreck, which James starred in with Bill Hader as a sports doctor.)
James’ company is already executive-producing the basketball-related comedy/drama Survivor’s Remorse for Starz. SpringHill also has a production role in Warner Brothers’ upcoming film Space Jam 2, in which James will star. (Thankless will also be produced through Warner Bros.)
Thankless is the latest sports-themed comedy or drama in development, joining Calais Campbell’s football-related sitcom at CBS, NBC’s youth baseball comedy All-Stars, and Michael Strahan’s football player-turned-cop drama with ABC. A synchronized swimming sitcom produced by Diablo Cody (Juno) and Simon Cowell is also being developed at Fox.
If picked up, those shows would join HBO’s Ballers, Fox’s Pitch and DirecTV’s Kingdom as sports-related series currently on television.
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About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.