'Up All Night' Adds Episodes, Switches to Multicamera Format

11:41 AM PDT 10/29/2012 by Lesley Goldberg

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The modestly rated Thursday comedy will go on a three-month hiatus and convert its stage for a live audience format.

Colleen Hayes/NBC

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The modestly rated Thursday night comedy has received an order for three additional episodes and will switch from single to a multicamera format and film in front of a live studio audience.

The Christina Applegate, Maya Rudolph and Will Arnett starrer will take a three-month hiatus following the production of episode 11 (which wraps next week) and will shut down production to convert its stages into a multicamera format similar to CBS' The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.

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Production will resume in February for five multicamera episodes, bringing its total episode count from 13 to 16.

The move comes after Up All Night has posted a recent uptick on NBC's modestly performing Thursday night lineup and brings Applegate back to filming in front of a live studio audience in the vein of her former series, Married With Children.

The move comes shortly after Applegate hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live, earning rave reviews for her performance.

For his part, new showrunner Tucker Cawley and EP Emily Spivey both having experience in the multicam world, with credits including Everybody Loves Raymond and Saturday Night Live, respectively.

Up All Night will wrap its single-camera episodes by December and will return in April or May for the remainder of its sophomore season. The switch to multicam marks the latest change for the comedy, which in a move to focus more on its central family, dropped Rudolph's talk-show format during its season two premiere earlier this fall.

Meanwhile, there's been no word on if Community will take over Up All Night's time slot during the show's hiatus.

Up All Night airs Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit