NBC has greenlight its fifth drama this cycle, Ordinary Joe, from House veterans Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner, The Batman writer/director Matt Reeves, his 6th & Idaho banner and 20th Century Fox TV.
Written by Friend and Lerner, Ordinary Joe explores the three parallel lives of the show’s main character after he makes a pivotal choice at a crossroads in his life. The series asks the question of how different life might look if you made your decision based on love, loyalty or passion.
Ordinary Joe, which draws parallels to NBC/20th TV”s hit drama This Is Us with its parallel storylines, was set up at NBC in November 2018, receiving a put pilot commitment. Because of the late timing of the sale, a script could bot be completed in time for the 2019 pilot season, and the project was rolled to the 2019-20 cycle.
The drama has been a passion project for Reeves who originally wrote a pilot script based on the idea more than a decade ago.
Friend and Lerner executive produce with 6th & Idaho’s Reeves, Adam Kassan and Rafi Crohn, and Howard Klein for 3 Arts Entertainment. 20th Century Fox TV is the studio.
Friend & Lerner and Reeves all have been under overall deals at 20th TV over the past decade. Felicity co-creator Reeves recently executive produced the studio’s Fox drama series The Passage.
Friend and Lerner have been writing partners since 1995 after attending USC’s film school together. They most recently served as co-executive producers on musical drama series Rise, which aired for one season on NBC. The duo joined Fox medical drama House in season 2 as co-executive producers, rising to executive producers from seasons 3 through 8. The also served more recently as executive producers on Altered Carbon and Battle Creek, and consulting producers on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Glee, among their other credits.
Ordinary Joe joins NBC drama pilots At That Age, Echo, Debris and La Brea.