LeBron James is continuing to mine the world of sports for television.
The NBA superstar and his SpringHill Entertainment banner have set up comedy Thankless at CBS, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The hybrid comedy, which is in development, centers on a group of ambitious assistants who pursue their dreams at a sports agency in Chicago.
Duo Craig Gerard and Matt Zinman (Grandfathered, How I Met Your Mother) will pen the script and executive produce. James and SpringHill topper Maverick Carter also will executive produce the comedy. Thankless hails from Warner Bros. Television, where SpringHill is under an overall deal.
This marks the third sale this development season for SpringHill. The company also is teaming with Bill Lawrence and NBC for a family comedy set in Cleveland. (James was born and raised in Ohio and plays for the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.) Additionally, SpringHill has a sports medicine drama in the works at NBC. Thankless gives James projects at two of the Big Four broadcast networks. The company also exec produces Starz’s basketball-themed drama Survivor’s Remorse. On the film side, SpringHill also has Space Jam 2, starring James, in the works.
Thankless comes as sports-themed projects continue to be in high demand this development season following the success of scripted series including HBO’s Ballers, Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse and Fox’s Pitch, the latter of which is being produced in partnership with Major League Baseball.
Other projects in the works this season include NBC baseball comedy All Stars; NFL defensive end Calais Campbell’s semi-autobiographical CBS family comedy; Simon Cowell, Ian Brennan and Diablo Cody’s synchronized-swimming comedy at Fox; and Michael Strahan’s ABC drama about a Heisman Trophy winner turned cop. Meanwhile, Michael B. Jordan’s first project under his new Skydance production deal is the hoops drama Apollo Park.
SpringHill is repped by WME and Ziffren Brittenham; Zinman and Gerard are with UTA and Hansen Jacobson.
