NBC is going two-for-two with its new comedy series. On the heels of an early renewal for the single-camera St. Denis Medical, the network also has given a Season 2 pickup to Happy’s Place, the multi-camera comedy starring Reba McEntire.
Both freshmen have done well in the ratings while being assigned anchor positions on the NBC schedule, opening the network’s Tuesday (St. Denis Medical) and Friday (Happy’s Place) lineups, with the latter improving the Friday 8 PM time slot by 54% in total viewers. They are NBC’s two best-performing comedy series, with the other two, Night Court and especially Lopez vs Lopez, considered on the bubble.
NBC in November gave both Happy’s Place and Lopez vs Lopez an order for additional scripts. Only Happy’s Place’s script commission was converted into a backup episodic pickup with a full-season order.
The pilot episode of Happy’s Place is now up to 17.6 million viewers across all platforms, +338% from its initial airing on Oct. 18. It is the #2 NBC comedy launch ever on Peacock, behind only St. Denis Medical. The two freshman comedies have reached nearly 45 million viewers across linear and digital platforms this season.
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In Happy’s Place, Bobbie (Reba McEntire) inherits her father’s tavern (Happy’s Place) and is surprised to discover that she has a new business partner, Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), a twentysomething half-sister she never knew she had.
Created by Kevin Abbott and Julie Abbott, the series also stars Melissa Peterman, Pablo Castelblanco, Tokala Black Elk and Rex Linn.
Kevin Abbott executive produces with McEntire, Michael Hanel, Mindy Schultheis, Matt Berry and Pamela Fryman. Happy’s Place is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.