Nellie Andreeva

Up All Night’s Will Arnett has been tapped as the lead in CBS‘ untitled Greg Garcia comedy pilot. The project, written and executive produced by Raising Hope and My Name Is Earl creator Garcia, centers on Jack (Arnett), a recently divorced guy whose life gets more complicated when his parents have marital problems of their own. CBS Studios is producing. For Arnett, the pilot is formally in second position to NBC’s Up All Night. After recently scrapping its planned transformation from a single- to a multi-camera comedy, I hear the sophomore comedy is not going forward but it has not been officially cancelled by the network and the cast, sans star Christina Applegate who left 10 days ago, has not been released. Since Applegate’s exit, which threw NBC’s plans for Up All Night in turmoil, Arnett had been courted for a slew of pilots. He fielded multiple offers until settling on CBS’ Greg Garcia project whose main character’s story dovetails with Arnett’s real-life experience of going through a divorce. His Up All Night co-star Maya Rudolph also has been approached for pilots, including NBC’s Sean Hayes comedy.

Related: Is NBC’s ‘Up All Night’ Experiment Over?

Arnett, repped by WME, Principato-Young and Neil Meyer, is also reprising his role as Gob Bluth in Netflix’s Arrested Development revival. His company Dumb Dumb, a partnership with Jason Bateman and Ben Silverman’s Electus, has been producing branded content for the digital world.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.