Chuck Lorre’s freshman comedies B Positive and The United States of Al have both been renewed for second seasons.
B Positive, the Thomas Middleditch and Annaleigh Ashford-fronted show was the first new CBS show to debut as part of the 2020/21 broadcast season and was the second new show of the season, after ABC’s Big Sky, to receive a back order.
Both shows are airing as part of CBS’ Thursday comedy slate alongside Young Sheldon and Mom, and while neither show has been a breakout hit, comedy traditionally takes longer to find an audience.
Created by former Mom co-executive producer Marco Pennette inspired by personal experience, B Positive is about a therapist and newly divorced dad (Middleditch) who is faced with finding a kidney donor when he runs into a rough-around-the-edges woman from his past (Ashford) who volunteers her own. Together they form an unlikely bond and begin a journey that will change both of their lives. Izzy G, Sara Rue, Kether Donohue and Terrence Terrell co-star.
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Former Two and a Half Men executive producer/co-showrunner Jim Patterson returned to the Chuck Lorre fold to join the show as executive producer and co-showrunner alongside Pennette. The pair EP alongside Lorre and it is produced by Warner Bros Television in association with Chuck Lorre Productions.
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Meanwhile, The United States of Al starring Adhir Kalyan and Parker Young comes from Lorre, David Goetsch and Maria Ferrari.
Created and written by Goetsch and Ferrari, The United States Of Al is about the friendship between Riley (Young), a Marine combat veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life in Ohio, and Awalmir (Al) (Kalyan), the Interpreter who served with his unit in Afghanistan and has just arrived to start a new life in America.
Kelli Goss, Dean Norris and Elizabeth Alderfer also star.
Early on in its run, the series did face some criticism over what was characterized as stereotypical portrayals.
Goetsch & Ferrari, Lorre, Reza Aslan and Mahyad Tousi are executive producers for Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions.
Lorre’s other CBS series Young Sheldon and Bob Hearts Abishola have already been renewed and Mom is ending its run this season.
This was the first time in a number of years that Lorre, a key architect of CBS’s comedy slate, has done two pilots in the same cycle. B Positive was also the only 2020 broadcast pilot to be completed during the pandemic-shortened regular pilot season.