Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Another sign that family comedy is the hottest half-hour genre this season: After a bidding war with ABC, CBS has landed an untitled family sitcom by writer-producer  Peter Knight with a big put pilot commitment. The multicamera project, from Sony Pictures TV and studio-based Happy Madison, centers on a suburban dad of a blended family who has strong opinions about the way of doing things.

In light of the success of ABC’s Modern Family, family comedies have been in high demand at the broadcast networks this development season, with the emphasis often on the dad’s point of view. In addition to CBS’ Peter Knight project, Peter Tolan’s The Council of Dads, about a dad dying of cancer who assembles a council of his closest male friends to help raise his daughters, also sparked a bidding war. It went to Fox in the biggest deal for a comedy so far this year, a $1.5 million pilot production commitment. And NBC, which has been focused mostly on workplace and relationship comedies, recently gave a script order to Man of the House, a Mr. Mom role reversal family show from feature writer Adam Sztykiel (Due Date) and ABC Studios. Knight, repped by CAA and Mosaic, previously created Krod Mandooon and the Flaming Sword of Fire and co-created Big Wolf on Campus.

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