Carter Bays and Craig Thomas Getty Images
The untitled hybrid comedy has scored a hefty pilot-production commitment from their former network.
Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are returning to CBS.
The How I Met Your Mother creators have set up a family comedy based on the life of comedian Chris Distefano, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The untitled comedy, which has scored a hefty pilot-production commitment from the network, is inspired by the comedian's life and centers on Izzy and Chris, two 20-somethings raising their newborn daughter and merging their loud families — one Puerto Rican, one Italian.
Bays and Thomas will pen the script and executive produce the multicamera/hybrid comedy. Distefano will serve as an exec producer and co-write the story. Brian Bockrath will also exec produce the potential series. The comedy hails from Sony Pictures Television, where Bays and Thomas are under rich overall deals.
The Bays and Thomas sale brings the duo back to CBS after last season's comedy pilot My Time/Your Time did not move forward. The duo, who had a nine-season run on 20th TV favorite How I Met Your Mother for the network, also saw their female-driven spinoff get a pass at the network.
For his part, Distefano is currently on MTV's GuyCode as well as GirlCode, Failosiphy and Money From Strangers. He has performed at comedy clubs across New York. He was recently one of Comedy Central's "Comics to Watch" at the 2012 New York Comedy Festival where he was a finalist in New York's Funniest. (Watch a clip of his performance — in which he talks about his Puerto Rican girlfriend, below.)
The Bays/Thomas comedy comes after CBS president Glenn Geller admitted his network "had to do better" after facing repeated criticism for his network's lack of diversity, with seven of his eight new 2016-17 series toplined by white men.
Bays and Thomas are repped by UTA and 3 Arts; Distefano is with UTA, Converge Media Group and Cohen & Gardner.
TV Development How I Met Your Mother
