‘New Girl’ Star Jake Johnson Returning to Network TV

Jake Johnson is coming back to network television.

Variety reports that the New Girl star has been cast in a new comedy pilot at NBC.

From Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici, the private investigator single-camera comedy, “Continues the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show,” per the logline. Johnson will play Mickey, a private investigator “with a knack for solving cases.” He is smart, cynical, and heartbroken, “but trying to pretend he’s not.” Mickey was formerly an LAPD cop “until his life imploded three years ago.”

While Johnson has appeared on other shows in recent years, such as Minx on Starz, and Hoops and Lost Ollie on Netflix, if ordered to series, the new comedy will mark his first network television show since starring in the short-lived ABC crime drama Stumptown in 2019 and 2020. He is best known for his role as Nick Miller in all seven seasons of the Fox sitcom New Girl from 2011 to 2018.

Additional credits include Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Ride the Eagle, No Activity, Easy, Drunk History, Tag, BoJack Horseman, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, and Neighbors. Upcoming, he will be starring in Apple TV’s new series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.

Akiva Schaffer will direct and executive produce the pilot, which is being co-written by Goor and Del Tredici. They are also serving as EPs alongside Johnson. Universal Television is the studio. NBC picked up the pilot in January, and since it’s from Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator Goor and EP Del Tredici, it’s bound to go far.

That being said, NBC has a handful of pilots in contention. Also on the docket are a reboot of The Rockford Files starring David Boreanaz, an untitled crime drama starring Boreanaz’s Bones co-star Emily Deschanel, drama Protection starring Peter Krause, and an untitled multi-camera sitcom starring Katey Sagal, among many others.

As of now, it hasn’t been revealed who will be joining Johnson in the private investigator pilot, but it shouldn’t be long until additional information is shared. In the meantime, fans can prepare to welcome back Johnson to network television, if all goes well, with all seven seasons of New Girl streaming on Hulu. Pilot season is going to be a brutal one for NBC, and there is no telling what will go down and which show will be picked up.