NBC Picks Up Musical Dramedy ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’ Starring Jane Levy
NBC has added another show to its recent pickups, as it takes ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘ to series.
‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’ stars Jane Levy as Zoey Clarke, a whip-smart computer coder forging her way in San Francisco. After an unusual event, she starts to hear the innermost wants and desires of the people around her through songs. At first, she questions her own sanity but soon realises this unwanted curse may just be an incredibly wonderful gift (which also gives them an excuse for big musical numbers!)
You may know Levy from Stephen King drama ‘Castle Rock’, as Tessa in ‘Suburgatory’ or as Mandy Milkovich in the US version of ‘Shameless’. The cast also includes Skylar Astin (‘Pitch Perfect’), Peter Gallagher (‘The O.C.’), Alex Newell (‘Glee’), John Clarence Stewart (‘Luke Cage’), Carmen Cusack (‘Sorry for Your Loss’) and Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen (‘Last Man on Earth’).
The series comes from ‘Jake in Progress’ creator Austin Winsberg, whose other work includes ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘9JKL’. She is no stranger to musicals though, having written the book for Broadway musical First Date and also wrote NBC’s ‘The Sound of Music Live!’
The show is produced by Lionsgate in association with the Tannenbaum Company, FeigCo Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Winsberg exec produces the series with Paul Feig and Jessie Henderson (FeigCo Entertainment), alongside Kim and Eric Tannenbaum (The Tannenbaum Co), with David Blackman and Daniel Inkeles (Polygram).
This is the fourth show to be picked up by NBC, following the commissioning of legal drama ‘Bluff City Law‘ starring Jimmy Smits, immigrant comedy ‘Sunnyside‘ from Kal Penn and Michael Schur, and comedy ‘Council of Dads‘ about a father of four gets a cancer diagnosis, he calls on a few of his closest allies to step in as back-up dads. It is also the first series they have picked up this year which isn’t produced by internally NBCUniversal. That can sometimes cause problems later on when it comes to renewals, as NBC doesn’t make as much at the backend as they would if it was made internally. Historically, the “kookier” shows haven’t fared too well on NBC, but more recently, they have aired things such as ‘The Good Place’, so maybe that is changing.
Obviously, it’s too early for a UK pick up on ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘, but we’ll let you know if and when we hear something.
