NBC's 'Up All Night' Changes Showrunners as Multi-Camera Switch Nears

Linda Wallem, a co-creator of the hit Showtime series Nurse Jackie, has finalized a deal to become showrunner of the sophomore NBC sitcom Up All Night as it moves to a multicamera format this spring, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

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Wallem also is getting a rich two-year overall deal with the network's sister studio Universal Television, which produces the Christina Applegate-Will Arnett-Maya Rudolph comedy with Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video. Up All Night creator Emily Spivey will stay with the rebooted show, but current showrunner Tucker Cawley, a veteran of Everybody Loves Raymond, is departing to work as a consulting producer on Fox's The Mindy Project. He will continue to develop for Universal TV under his deal there.

NBC announced in October that Up All Night, a single-camera comedy that has struggled in the ratings despite its high-profile cast, would be re-conceived as a multicamera sitcom when the show returns from a winter hiatus in the spring. Five episodes are scheduled to air, bringing its total season order to 16. The move is a bid to cut costs and hopefully add a creative spark to the series, which features several actors with live performance experience. Sources say the actors were unhappy with the creative direction of the show.

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Wallem will be reunited with NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt, with whom she worked closely at Showtime when he ran that network. Wallem co-created Nurse Jackie with Liz Brixius but the duo left the show after its fourth season. Wallem has been doing some consulting for Whitney, another ratings-challenged NBC sitcom.

Wallem is repped by CAA and Jackoway Tyerman.

Email: Matthew.Belloni@thr.com; Twitter: @THRMattBelloni