McCarthy and Falcone co-founded On the Day Productions, and have written and produced films like “Tammy,” “The Boss” and “Life of the Party” together with Falcone directing. Now, the creative partners lead “God’s Favorite Idiot,” which is part “Bruce Almighty” and part workplace comedy. Falcone stars as unassuming tech support employee Clark Thompson who pines after his co-worker Amily Luck (McCarthy). After being struck by lightning, Clark begins to glow — and not just because his crush is reciprocated. Turns out, Clark is now anointed, and must battle Satan (Leslie Bibb) with the help of Amily. The eight-episode series also stars Kevin Dunn, Usman Ally, Steve Mallory, Chris Sandiford, Ana Scotney, and Yanic Truesdale. “God’s Favorite Idiot” is Oscar nominee McCarthy’s follow-up TV role to Hulu’s critically-acclaimed David E. Kelley drama “Nine Perfect Strangers.”
The new Netflix series comes on the heels of Mike Myers’ comedy “The Pentaverate” and the first look at ’90s sitcoms “That ’90s Show” and “Blockbuster.” Netflix’s head of comedy Tracey Pakosta previously told Deadline that the streamer is focusing on “work family shows” similar to “Superstore,” “The Good Place,” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” all of which she helped develop while at NBCUniversal. Pakosta joined Netflix at the end of 2021. “It’s really hard to do multi-cam well. There are certain people that really know how to do it, and certain talent that really loves it and wants to do it. But it’s hard for everybody,” Pakosta said of sitcoms. “You’ll see that the goal is to just create a wide breadth of comedy offerings that are incredibly funny and give people choice.” Netflix revealed it had actually lost 200,000 global paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 and is expecting an additional loss of an estimated 2 million paid subscribers before the quarter is finished. The streaming platform axed Meghan Markle’s upcoming animated series, as well as cancelled “Raising Dion” and comedy “Space Force.” “God’s Favorite Idiot” premieres June 15 on Netflix. Check out the trailer below.
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