Nellie Andreeva

20th Century Fox TV continues to lock in the senior writers of its CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother. The studio has signed a two-year overall deal with the show’s executive producer Stephen Lloyd. Under the pact, he will continue as executive producer on HIMYM, created, executive produced and ran by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. Additionally, he will also develop original projects for the studio. “Stephen has been a very important part of How I Met Your Mother,” 20th TV chairman Dana Walden said. “He has been critical to Carter and Craig; he has provided a lot of the heart of the stories, he is an excellent writer and a pleasure to work with.” Lloyd’s deal follows the overall pact another veteran How I Met Your Mother writer-producer, Kourtney Kang, recently signed with 20th TV. (Bays and Thomas are in the middle of a rich long-term overall deal.) “Part of the goal over this past summer was to make sure that the key part on the writing staff were given deals that will make them available to continue on the show while also developing,” Walden said. Is this strategy to shore up HIMYM so Bays and Thomas can focus on the development this season? “I think this will be the year,” Walden said of the duo’s return to development. But that will be “well down the road” this fall after Bays and Thomas finish mapping out the upcoming season in detail, Walden said. “We wouldn’t do do anything to undermine the writing process on Mother,” she said. Lloyd has long-standing relationship with 20th TV. He had an overall deal at the studio before joining HIMYM in 2005. UTA-repped Lloyd served as a co-executive producer on the studios’ series Stacked for Fox and Just Shoot Me for NBC and was a writer on Greg the Bunny.

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