EXCLUSIVE: Amazon is developing a single-camera comedy set behind the scenes of a struggling national sports show.
Sidelined comes from comedians Emily Heller and Megan Gailey and Two Shakes Entertainment, the production company founded by Damon Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow.
CBS Studios and Amazon Studios are producing.
The project centers around the show deciding to shake things up by pairing an unknown, passionate female sports fan with an irrelevant, former professional basketball “good guy” and what turns out to be their very complicated history.
Heller is a writer/producer on HBO’s Barry and has also worked on shows like Search Party and People of Earth. She is under an overall agreement with CBS Studios.
Gailey is a writer, actor and stand-up comic who has appeared on Conan, had a half-hour stand-up special on Comedy Central and appeared on The Tonight Show. She has written on shows such as HBO’s Pause with Sam Jay and co-hosts the Lifetime Network’s I Love A Lifetime Movie podcast.
Two Shakes is behind series such as Kim Cattrall and Miss Benny’s Glamorous for Netflix. The company recently renewed its first-look deal with CBS Studios through May 2024. Its focus is to take characters that are traditionally 4th, 5th, and 6th on a call sheet and turn them into 1st, 2nd, and 2nd. and 3.
Heller and Gailey will write and produce with Wayans Jr. and Tarlow, who also produces.
Heller and Gailey are repped by Mosaic, WME and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein. Two Shakes is repped by WME, Ziffren Brittenham and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole LLP.
