Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: A dozen years after Jim Gaffigan landed his first sitcom starring role on CBS‘ Welcome To New York, the actor-comedian is back at CBS as the star of a single-camera comedy loosely based on his life. Gaffigan has partnered with Peter Tolan on the project, which garnered interest from multiple networks before landing at CBS with a put pilot commitment. Gaffigan and Tolan will co-write the story, and Tolan will write the script for the project, which centers on a guy who lives with his wife and five kids in a NY 2-bedroom apartment. Sony Pictures TV, where Tolan and Michael Wimer’s company Fedora Entertainment is based, is producing, with Gaffigan, Tolan and Wimer executive producing alongside Gaffigan’s manager, Brillstein Entertainment’s Alex Murray. The sale  comes on the heels of an announcement that Gaffigan is writing a family book for Crown Publishing due out June 2013. His series co-starring credits include CBS’ Ellen Show, Fox’s That ’70s Show and TBS’ My Boys. He is with CAA, which also reps Fedora. This is the latest high-profile single-camera comedy project in the works at CBS for next season, along with Rob Greenberg’s off-cycle pilot and scripts from Greg Garcia and Darlene Hunt.

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