CBS Picks Up Bad Teacher Adaptation to Series

CBS has picked up one additional comedy for next season in Bad Teacher, its single-cam adaptation of the 2011 movie starring Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake. The pickup brings the total number of new CBS comedies next season to six, with Bad Teacher joining Friends with Better Lives on the midseason schedule. (Veteran Mike & Molly is the third member of the CBS comedy bench, though it has a full 22-episode order to get through.) CBS ended up picking up three multi-cams and three single-cams for next season, although they’ve been mixed together rather than segregated on the lineup.

The network is facing a 2014-2015 season that may not include both How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men, so they’ve went into overdrive trying to find their next generation of comedies. Single-cam ensemble We Are Men and Chuck Lorre’s Mom are surrounding 2 Broke Girls on Monday, while family comedy The Millers and Robin Williams vehicle The Crazy Ones will air on Thursdays, bookended by The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, respectively. Last season, CBS only ordered two comedy pilots to series, with one making it to air in Partners, which was yanked early in the season. With six comedies in contention, and a shorter leash on everything debuting in the fall, can the network find their next wave of hits? Or will they limp into 2014-2015 without much of a comedy presence to speak of?

Starring Ari Graynor, Bad Teacher follows an always inappropriate, fearless and unapologetic former trophy wife who masquerades as a teacher in order to find a new man after her wealthy husband leaves her penniless. The show also stars the likes of Sarah Gilbert, David Alan Grier, Kristin Davis, and Ryan Hansen.

You can check out CBS’ 2013-2014 schedule here, as well as behind the scenes featurettes of its fall shows here.

Will you be watching Bad Teacher this season? Where do you think CBS will schedule the show? Can it be a success?