ABC is eyeing its Emmy darling Modern Family for a spinoff.
Fresh off its fourth Emmy win for outstanding comedy series, producers met Friday to discuss what a potential Modern Family spinoff would look like, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
While it's early in the process and nothing is set in stone, co-creator/co-showrunner Steve Levitan and co-EPs Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh are overseeing the potential off-shoot and would write the script. Co-creator/co-showrunner Chris Lloyd will likely remain focused on the 20th Century Fox Television-produced flagship, which this week opened its fifth season with a "historic" gay marriage proposal.
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Among the ideas brandied about during the meeting would be to spin-off Rob Riggle's overconfident real estate agent Gil Thorpe -- who in two season four episodes was Phil's (Ty Burrell) nemesis and hit on Julie Bowen's Claire during her brief employment.
No deals are in place and the meeting was described as an exploratory discussion of potential concepts, with the Riggle premise among them. It's unclear if there will be a spinoff or its concept. ABC and studio 20th TV declined comment.
A Modern Family spinoff would make sense. In a September 2012 THR cover story, sources suggested the series is a $1 billion asset for 20th TV and ABC. A Modern Family off-shoot would join a rapidly growing roster of spinoffs in the works as networks look to established properties with built-in audiences to reduce the financial risk associated with launching a new show.
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This fall, ABC is launching a Wonderland-set spinoff of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,while The CW spunThe Originals from The Vampire Diaries. AMC has a Breaking Bad prequel spinoff in the works as well as a companion to monster hit The Walking Dead. This development season, CBS also announced that it is readying a New Orleans-set NCIS spinoff from showrunner Gary Glasberg and star Mark Harmon.
For its part, Modern Family returned for its fifth season Wednesday down 25 percent in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. Last season, the series also ceded its ranking as TV's top scripted comedy in the demo to CBS' The Big Bang Theory.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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