According to Deadline, NBC has added another new comedy series for the 2025-26 season, giving Jeff Astrof (Shining Vale, Trial & Error) and Liz Astrof’s (The Kings Of Queens, Coupling) single-camera cheerleading pilot Stumble a series order. The series is headlined by Jenn Lyon (Claws, Saint George), and this decision comes out days before the options on casting were about to expire at the end of this week.
So far in 2025, this is the second of three comedy pilots that NBC has ordered to a series pickup, joining The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, executive produced by Tina Fey (Mean Girls, 30 Rock), and starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter Series, The Lost City) and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock, Cop Out), which was ordered to series in May. No decision has come out yet on the third pilot, which is an untitled community center comedy from the Rutherford Falls trio Jackie Keliiaa (First Nations Comedy Experience, Untitled NBC Native American Community Center Comedy), Bobby Wilson (Echo, Reservation Dogs), and Sierra Teller Ornelas (Superstore, Splitting Up Together), Deadline adds.
Getting a good read on the community center pilot has been difficult, as it has been flying under the radar, unlike Stumble, which has sailed through the internal testings and screenings with high marks, resulting in a series pickup, Deadline notes.
NBC has not yet announced the scheduling for this new comedy series, and two half-hour holes remain on the fall schedule come November. One is behind Happy’s Place on Friday, and the other behind St. Denis Medical on Monday, Deadline reports.
Deadline states that Stumble’s mockumentary style would fit perfectly behind the similarly shot medical comedy St. Denis Medical; however, NBCUniversal has been considering a run on NBC Peacock’s The Paper. The Paper is a successor to the acclaimed mockumentary-style comedy The Office. Furthermore, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is also waiting in the wings.
Stumble, written by Liz and Jeff Astrof, centers on Lyon’s Courteney Potter, who is set on rallying her newly recruited junior college cheer squad to win her 15th record-breaking championship, as well as to improve the team’s lives as they go, Deadline mentions.
The main cast, in addition to Lyon, includes Ryan Pinkston (Full of It, Foreign Exchange), Anissa Borrego (Elio, Incoming), Taran Killam (Killing Gunther, Single Parents), Jarrett Austin Brown (Gazer, Premature), Georgie Murphy (Gen V, 56 Days and Accused), Arianna Davis (Today, Dancing With You), and Taylor Dunbar (Ravel, Fairytale). Kristin Chenoweth (Descendants, Tinker Bell) guest-starred in the pilot, and will be recurring, Deadline adds.
Jeff and Liz Astrof will executive produce alongside the cheerleading coach Monica Aldama (Cheer, Dancing with the Stars), and producer Dana Honor (A Million Little Things, Carol’s Second Act) through her Defining Eve Productions. Jeff Blitz (Spellbound, Table 19) executive produces and directs the pilot only. The studio is Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, Deadline finally states.